BOOKS - Textbooks Lead the Way

"On-demand allows a publisher to keep a title in print forever," Tobin adds. "If a publisher can digitize a title and keep it in an archive, even if they only need to sell 50 copies a year, if it's an important title to them, they can keep that alive indefinitely."

Though the outlook for book printing is rosy, there are still challenges for printers. Among them are maintaining a hold in a shrinking market and finding enough skilled workers to maintain around-the-clock production in an economy with some of the lowest unemployment levels in years.