“Print books will continue to hold their place”

Printers play a crucial role in the creation of books, acting as the bridge between the publisher, author’s words and the final printed product. While the author creates the story, and designers work on the book’s visual presentation, it is the printer who brings the physical form of the book to life, turning ideas into tangible products that can be held, read, and cherished. Here, Sunil Jain of Graphic Print shares how printers and publishers work together to bring a masterpiece every time.

Sunil has 35 years of experience in print world. He joined his father’s printing business in 1989 while studying for his graduation. “We have two distinct divisions – Graphic Print and Aditya Offset Press — one caters to small print runs using Konica Minolta and Ricoh for monochrome and Canon digital printer for colour printing. The other division is for long runs using Heidelberg 2-colour and 8-colour machines. Both the units have complete binding setup while the post print embellishment work is outsourced,” shares Sunil.

On publishing clients…

“We work for both small and big-sized publishers, offering both offset as well as digital printing. Most of the publishers today have either reduced their print runs or they are coming up with new books which are for a niche segment, here we suggest them to shift to POD,” shares Sunil.

On asking about what should be the minimum print run for POD, Sunil shares, “Even though publisher can get even 1 copy printed by POD but we advise them to print around 50-100 copies.”

So till what print run is POD effective? To which Sunil replies, “Generally, we don’t advise publishers to go beyond 200-300 copies by POD. If the quantity is above 300, we advise them to go for offset printing.”

Talking about his visit to Frankfurt Book Fair, Sunil shares, “I went to a collective stand of 10-12 different authors. One of these authors had 5 different books, printed by POD – 100 hard-bound and 100 paperback for all the books. This is a segment where India will play a better role as compared to West and China as we can give a better price in smaller quantity.”

Giving the perfect solution…

Sunil does not limits himself to printing, they also offer pre-press facilities. “Depending on the subject of the book, we suggest a font and layout for the same. We also suggest them the perfect size for the book. One of my publisher was bringing out a biography of a retired High Court Judge. They had designed it in a penguin novel size format. I suggested that they should have designed it in a bigger size of 6”x9” format, as the existing size was more appropriate for a novel, rather than a biography. They understood my point and instead of getting 500 copies printed, they just went for few copies for the launch ceremony and later got the book printed in a bigger size,” he shares.

On paperback vs. hard-bound…

“When publishers are pricing their books at a slightly higher rate,they understand that it should be a hardbound edition, as it gives value addition to the book and we can even do embellishments on the cover to make it more attractive, so that readers can grab a book by the cover. If the book has to be priced at a relatively economical rate, then they go for paperback,” he shares.

On sustainability…

“All writing and book printing paper that’s being manufactured in India is 100% recycled because, any paper that you get here is not made by cutting trees but by recycling the waste papers and fresh scrap cuttings. Even if you’re not going for the imported FSC certified products,still our product is much more recycled than those products. Besides, the printing process has also become more environment-friendly and green. The inks, which were mostly made using the crude petroleum and other oils earlier are being made using vegetable oils.”

“Things have improved, but the mindset of government has not changed. They still club printing in the polluting category, equating inks with paints, even though all the ingredients have changed a lot towards the greener side,” he shares as a matter of fact.

Published project you cherish…

On asking about a project he is proud of, Sunil shares, “Last year, we printed a three-volume 1900 pages commentary on Valmiki Ramayan. We did a complete new layouting of the book after three rounds of editing of the manuscript by professional editors in Hindi , English and Sanskrit language. The complete job took 4 years of paintaking effort by the authors’ grandson as well as the publisher. The final product was three hard bound volumes, packed in a rigid box with a painting on the top. All the three covers had a different painting done by a renowned illustrator to depict the scenes from specific Kanda’s. The whole set weighed around four and a half kgs and was printed on Indian natural shade paper. The book got the First Prize in General Reference Book Category at the last year’s FIP awards for Book Production. This is probably one of the prestigious jobs close to my heart.”

On future of print books…

“Print books will continue to hold their place despite the digital revolution. Holding a book in hand is a different experience. A printed book can be shared and passed on to generations,” concludes Sunil.