HPQ: Amazon.com (AMZN) Selects HP to Print Books on Demand

HP today announced that Amazon.com has selected HP Indigo presses to provide digital color printing for Amazon’s expanding books-on-demand business.

Leveraging the power of digital technology to print books in real time, HP will become Amazon’s preferred provider for color print-on-demand services.

Multiple HP Indigo digital presses have been installed at Amazon fulfillment centers and are now producing full-color books on demand as well as color covers for black and white books.

“The ability to produce books on demand is another result of the transformation from analog to digital printing, and with our line of HP Indigo presses, we are at the forefront of this trend,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. “Now, through this collaboration, consumers will benefit from the integration of HP’s digital print technology and Amazon’s unmatched ability to offer the broadest selection of books possible.”

The books-on-demand market is expected to grow from approximately 20 billion book pages in 2006 to approximately 38 billion book pages by 2009.(1) This is due chiefly to the increasing demand for small-volume, rare and self-published books.

“Amazon is completely focused on the customer experience,” said Greg Greeley, vice president of books at Amazon.com. “This collaboration with HP will enable us to significantly increase the number of available titles our customers can purchase while offering publishers the highest quality color printing options.”

In addition to installing HP Indigo presses, Amazon’s facilities will be among the first in the United States to install the new HP Indigo Production Manager digital front-end controller, which combines HP IT and graphic arts technologies for rapid file processing in complex digital publishing scenarios.

HP provides the industry’s only high-end digital presses that use liquid ink for high-quality images that rival the offset print technology traditionally used in the book publishing world. Other print-on-demand applications produced on HP Indigo presses include everything from personalized marketing collateral to high-quality photo books.