Moscow Book Printer Turns To Digital Production

Nexprint, a 20-strong print firm based in Moscow, has strategically grown its business from a copy centre to an exclusive provider of digital print for books and artwork.

Nexprint, a 20-strong print firm based in Moscow, has strategically grown its business from a copy centre to an exclusive provider of digital print for books and artwork.

Since its acquisition of a Nexpress 2100 digital colour press, Nexprint has established itself as an expert in the production of high quality digital reproductions of rare art and history books.

Nexprint's books have won awards and gained the attention of clients and collectors alike, said Nexpress.

Careful planning and the right technology allowed Nexprint to capture a lead position in the high margin, profitable niche market.

Nexprint began in 1994 as a copy centre and four years later, was the first firm in Russia to install a two-colour RIP station.

Mikhail Vorobiev, the director of digital print at Nexprint, described the company's progression to digital printing: "After the Russian financial crisis in 1999, the prices on print machine services dropped and we had to find a new market.

That's when we decided to go digital." After extensively researching available digital systems, Nexprint bought the Nexpress 2100 press in 2002.

Nexprint quickly gained new digital work but Vorobiev acknowledged that the competition was tough.

The ambitious firm was hungry for a technical challenge that would set it apart and the answer was digital book printing.

"We possess a unique scanning technology for digitising rare books and have no competition in this market segment.

By the end of 2003, we were totally focused on scanning and digitally producing rare books and art images.

Short run, digitally printed books have become a major trend in the Russian publishing business.

It is fashionable to showcase expensive rare leather books at home or in the office, so our timing was perfect - with the right technology in place, we captured a leading position that has resulted in windfall of profits," explained Vorobiev.

Nexpress commented that the specialisation has generated spectacular results for Nexprint in the award-winning production quality of the books.

Nexprint's reproduction of the book 'Biographies of Italian Artists' by G Vazary received the prize for best design at the 2004 design and advertisement exhibition in Russia.

The company was also honoured with a special award for print quality excellence at the international book fair in Moscow.

According to Mikhail Vorobiev, the award-winning book was a challenging book that could not have been produced without Nexpress technology.

The speed and print quality of the 2100 press readily handled the demanding production criteria, he commented.

'Biographies of Italian Artists' had very difficult colours and graphics but it was an order by one of our key customers and we printed 150 books, each more than 600 pages, in just one week," said Vorobiev.

Nexprint said it may invest in a Nexpress 2100 press with a fifth imaging unit to create added value for its book-printing applications.

Vorobiev is especially interested in the Nexpress intelligent coating system to address its requirement for pure-black print quality.

"We print black with some additional colours and by adding a clear coat, it will become even more attractive.

Competing systems add colour to the black making it look a bit dull and are not able to offer an in-line service," he noted.

The latest book project at Nexprint is 'Discover Russia', an exclusive, high-priced series based on very rare Russian history books after a professional book collector opened his archive of old manuscripts unknown outside of Russia.

"We are addressing people who are interested in Russian arts and history and have started a special book club for clients," said Vorobiev.

The Nexpress machine has enabled Nexprint to produce interesting, high-level projects that offer pride of workmanship, as well as profits said the press supplier.

"We're focusing on book printing because it is a highly profitable market where we can collect high margins.

Compared to straight forward digital printing jobs, we have a profit margin that is 10 times greater," concluded Mikhail Vorobiev.

Back to top