A few additional thoughts on pursuing print as a strategy and the risks of the inherent variability of Print-on-Demand
@baldur 30 year veteran of the printing technology industry here. Print variability is highly dependent on the type of book. Also, commercial printers are terrible at communicating the advantages of their technology in laymen's terms. Digital can match offset... but you have to know the capabilities and limitations of specific technological subtypes. All digital is not the same.
@baldur In the next five to ten years, digital printing wil be dominated by high speed inkjet. The quality is approaching offset quality. But, commercial printers will have to learn how to match substrate to specific process to achieve higher quality. It's a slow evolution.
@paulcraig901 I know that. I spent a few years working in publishing. The distinction in the post between digital and PoD is deliberate. IME the major PoD services have higher variability than digital print runs.
@baldur Gotcha. I see your point now! PoD one-off or ultra-short runs have higher variability than a single, longer digital print run. 100% agree with you! That was one of the biggest issues in my former career... how do we reduce/eliminate variability when the machines will be in completely different maintenance states? It was maddening. I do not miss it.