Understanding Print on Demand with Digital Printing

Ever wished you could have a printout whenever you want it and only when you want it? This is one of the main advantages of digital printing. You get to order only what you require when you require it. This is a common practice with publishers which provides better ways to manage costs as opposed to mass production of the publications.

With reduced circulation of print products, as an author or even a company, it becomes harder to predict the demand for the book. If you are an organisation, for example, you could order for say 50 annual report books as opposed to printing 500. As an author, such smaller batches enable you to plan within budget and reorder in smaller batches.

Cumulatively, however, the costs of print on demand (POD) get to surpass those of mass production especially when the quantities go beyond a certain point. But with mass production, you are limited to printing large quantities to gain lower cost benefits. In short, one must choose between reduced costs per print of mass production (but larger budget) or increased costs per print for on-demand production (but reduced overall budget for a smaller batch). The other benefit of on-demand printing is its efficiency and faster turnaround times.

Print whenever you want it; that’s the essence of print on demand.

The benefits of mass production (printing in large quantities) are getting limited due to dynamic demand patterns. With bulk printing, you’d begin by estimating demand and print according to the estimates. The chance of wastage with this method is high.

With print-on-demand, these disadvantages are eliminated. For publishers, for example, ordering with Print.ke ensures smaller batches of say 50 pieces are placed straight away on the digital printing queue.

This way, you could launch your book with less risk, determine demand patterns and keep ordering efficient batches to fulfil your orders. The advantage of this is you get to print only what you’ve sold thus eliminating chance of wastage and increasing your profitability.

The same can be replicated for marketing materials. The need for printing mass marketing material is becoming unnecessary. This can be managed by printing exactly what is required. Printing 10,000 brochures could prove unnecessary and costly as you will be forced to distribute them to non-target customers. Targeted marketing saves you the costs of having to print in mass instead, you print whenever the material is demanded. With variable data printing, the marketing material could be printed in smaller batches with different messages as desired without incurring extra costs as would be observed in offset printing.

Talk to us today about printing in smaller batches and on demand. With our quick turnaround times, we’ve got you covered with our quality prints.