People Want Their Books Back: Can You Keep Up?
There’s been a cultural shift back to printed content — fueled by digital fatigue and rediscovery of print’s advantages. Students especially appreciate the tangibility of the content and ability to focus without distraction. Additionally, there have been pivotal changes in publishing technology through digital print — enabling nimble response to market needs, emerging trends and economic factors.
Key Segments Trending Up
While overall gains are exciting, publishing has made a big impact on educational markets. Ignited by a switch to hybrid learning, parents and educators turned to print to support learning and witnessed the positive impact. Despite a return to the classroom, early education, children’s books and juvenile literature have all continued to expand at a rapid pace.
Brains Prefer Books
Print delivers in ways that digital can’t. In fact, neuroscience research indicates that printed books and workbooks help our brains process and apply concepts better.7
Adding full color to printed material also plays a key role in how people process and retain information. After all, the human brain engages with printed color in a much different way than material viewed on a screen.
Color increases readers’ attention spans and recall by 82%8
Demand Is Straining Print Providers
The impact is being felt by educational content suppliers the most. Curriculum tracks like Common Core in the US require huge amounts of fresh content on-demand and at a faster pace — creating a lot of challenges for educational organizations:
Added cost, limited space, fast turnarounds and manageability make it hard for schools to keep up
Printed materials often need to be versioned for audiences: specific schools, grades, classes or even material specific to the individual
Older, low capacity, legacy equipment and mono-only devices stand in the way of educators printing more work in-house
The Tools Schools Need to Keep Up
As publishers push titles directly to primary and secondary schools rather than printing and shipping finished material, schools need the ability to:
Balance cost, quality and speed
Consolidate equipment, boost volume
Keep jobs in-house and insource work they normally wouldn’t
Complement current toner devices for time and cost savings
Print color and K-only on a single device
On-Demand Publishing — We Wrote the Book
We’re here to offer print providers the ultimate flexibility. Since books can take on many forms (workbooks, booklets, perfect bound books and more), printers need technology that has the flexibility to keep up and grow with future demand. They need a broad portfolio of offerings that can easily right-size book publishing, allowing them to:
Create a powerful color print solution that helps students thrive
Go Beyond CMYK to increase impact with metallic and neon inks, textured stock and other embellishments that help published content captivate growing minds
Improve workflow with personalization and the ability to manage versioning, production optimization, extensible inline and nearline finishing to marry blocks and covers
Xerox: Essential for educators With technology that offers vibrant color as well as sweet-spot economics, we help schools enhance learning while better controlling costs.
We Help Print and Digital Work Brilliantly
Xerox® digital presses adapt to how people work, think and communicate. Providing the flexibility to customize by school district, grade, class or even an individual all while maintaining emphasis on security, simplified workflows and overall efficiency with best-in-class total cost of ownership (TCO).
Automate your physical and digital workflow Optimize and automate physical and digital processes to be more efficient and productive.
Expand beyond commodity printing Take advantage of new growth opportunities and position yourself for the long term.
Invest with confidence Count on future-proof technology and support that lets you adapt to industry change while covering you every step of the way.
Ready For Your Next Chapter?
We’re here to help you with everything from solution consulting and maximizing ROI to scaling up smart and building new revenue centers. So, let’s get started.
Technology to help you succeed in book printing
Cut Sheet Inkjet
Transformative economics for book publishing with Xerox® Baltoro™ HF Inkjet Press
Beyond CMYK
Add high-value embellishments and more with class-leading technology thanks to Xerox® iGen® 5 Press, Xerox® Iridesse® Production Press and Xerox® Versant® 280 Press.
Automation
Automate engaging response-driven personalized book content with XMPie® Personalized Communications and Xerox® FreeFlow® Core.
Finishing
Bring it all together with a wide breadth of in-line, near-line and off-line finishing capabilities.
Can color broaden the spectrum of learning in the classroom?
Sources:
1. On demand printing and publishing roadmap 2021 – pdf
2. https://www.tonerbuzz.com/blog/paper-books-vs-ebooks-statistics/
3. Paper & Packaging, The Workplace Productivity Report 2020
4. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/k-12-education-market
5. https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-statistics/market-size/children%27s-book-publishing-united-states
6. https://www.prweb.com/releases/after_a_slow_start_u_s_print_book_sales_rose_8_2_percent_in_2020_the_npd_group_says/prweb17647915.htm
7. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2015/09/16/paper-vs-digital/?sh=1ea86b0d33c3
8. https://www.office.xerox.com/latest/COLFS-02U.PDF
9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3743993/
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