Digital Printing Boosts Books Capacity By 250%

Meeting the demand of publishing half a million poetry books a year prompted Forward Press, claimed to be the world's largest publisher of new poetry, to install an Oce Varioprint 6250 digital press.

The workload now being handled by the Varioprint 6250 also includes 250,000 poems from school children and budding writers.

The investment by Forward Press is part of a GBP1 million programe to instal new technology during the last 18 months.

It has increased the company's printing capacity by 250 per cent and could quadruple turnover, if operating at full capacity.

Ian Walton, Forward Press's managing director, said: "We've been printing digitally for 15 years and the Oce Varioprint 6250 is the first machine that lives up to my expectations as a true book printer.

Its speed and quality are phenomenal and will give us sufficient capacity to print books for some of the other smaller publishers as well as our own products." He explained: "Other printing systems I've seen usually curl pages, which made books difficult to bind and caused frequent paper jams.

Because the Varioprint 6250 uses a duplex print engine, paper passes through the machine more easily, causing fewer jams.

In addition, because print jobs do not need to be interrupted to load and unload paper, we estimate it is three times more productive than our previous system." Walton said that Forward Press's customers have already provided positive feedback on the books produced on the Varioprint 6250, and the company was confident other customers would rely on it to meet all their requirements once they see the quality and quantity the Varioprint machine provides.

Forward Press said that it offers a unique product.

The average person with an interest in writing poetry in the UK would find it difficult to have their work published, as bigger publishing firms often focus on a small number of established poets, or academics.

Forward Press added that it will consider publishing poetry from any writer, giving them the opportunity to have their work published in ISBN registered books.

By printing digitally, an appropriate number of copies - which could be as few as one - can be printed in the initial batch, with additional copies printed on demand.

The company has also developed a scheme called Young Writers, which involves sending packs out to 30,000 primary and secondary school teachers.

The National Curriculum compliant packs not only help teachers prepare for lessons but give children the chance to have their poems published and win a prize for them and their schools.

One teacher from a school in King's Lynn said: "Young Writers provided inspiration and ideas to engage children in poetry and gave them a real purpose for writing." Meanwhile a teacher from a school in Bromley said: "The book looks brilliant and a lot of teachers have commented on how professional it looks." Mark Wilson, Oce UK's Varioprint 6250 product manager, said: "The unique product offered by Forward Press deserves a unique printing system.

The Varioprint 6250 will provide the high quality, digitally printed books the company and its customers expect and offer ample capacity for other small publishers to benefit from Forward Press's cutting-edge book production.".

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