Why Xeikon

Yeah, why Xeikon?

 

irregular sizes

The main thing that comes to my mind is the ability to run irregular larger sizes with ease.

I probably will never own a xeikon myself because I don't have enough call for this, but recently I've been thinking of doing a 9 x 12 oblong coffee table book that I'd like to do as a "short" short run first to gauge the reaction. I've been thinking of 500 books to start and found a company that will bind these hard cover for me even in short run like this. The dust jackets, depending on flap design, will be 9" x 36". At this point I'll probably have the jackets press printed by someone with a larger press and will end up with 1000 (2-up) sheets and plenty to spare. If there were a nearby Xeikon that is the only digital device that I know of that could handle this job with ease.

And for the book itself, I'm still not sure if it will be digital short run, full color, or whether it will be press printed and just go for it. If I did the whole thing digital, the Xeikon is the only digital printer I know of that can do the interior pages as signatures (24" + bleeds) without any hassle. (can a nexpress or igen print longer than 20" without hassle??)

(Of course I could print 1-up and bind that way since the books probably won't get such heavy use that the pages are in any danger of falling out from not being bound as signatures)

 

Why Xeikon?

Ive had a printshop and we had 2 xeikons and we were extremely impresses, roll fed paper supplies can be annoying but theres so many areas that you can offer way more printing services than someone running an indigo, think of things like large folders, personalised wall pappers...

 

Just a mention on not going the signature route, don't do it, we did some books that way and even fairly light use had the sheets parting easily with the binding, signatures are the only way to go.

 

I didn't catch this post from May of this year, but it's quite interesting to see this topic again. When I posted my first reply in 2007 I know I was actually thinking about the very book that I only now in 2011 finally got back to and got printed. I also wanted to do a smythe sewn book with signatures requiring a minimum size of 24.25" so that it would open very flat and smoothly. The book had several panaroma images spanning pages so a PUR binding would not do. I ended up running 2500 copies offset as the first run, and am quite happy. But... if I had had a xeikon I would have been able to short-run 250 or 500 copies to test the market in 2007 and probably would have done the project much sooner

 

I see now there is also the Meteor digital press (http://www.mgi-fr.com/) which can accommodate a print size of up to 13x26" standard and with the option of 13"x40".