Digital Book Production: The Demands of On Demand

Kent Larson, BNB's Vice President of Print On Demand, described the company's odyssey into digital print—made problematic by its relationship to other printing companies. "Early on, we realized that the traditional print model was in decline," he said. "We knew that press runs were getting much smaller—going as low as a single copy. Digital print was clearly the way to go, but our IT infrastructure had to be prepared for a new way of processing orders." The company had already implemented electronic data interchange (EDI) techniques in its ordering system, and developed its own process for bridging electronic content creation and ultimate physical production. (At the same time, BNB continued to offer its custom binding services for libraries and publishers.)