Print on Demand (POD PDF)

Modern Print on Demand reproduction equipment has achieved standards of excellence comparable with traditional volume printing. The quality of a finished Print on Demand reproduction is now dependent on the quality of the prepared digital source files - not the printing process.

The Suntec's hi-fidelity scanning services ensure that your Print on Demand source file is the best possible reproduction of the original book, and is fully optimised for POD printing machinery. The handcrafted Suntec process makes it possible for a publisher to commit to a real Print on Demand strategy - with cost effectiveness and quality assured. There are no add-in costs and hidden charges, and there are no quality failures.

How Print on Demand works for the Publisher

The Publisher supplies Suntec with a good quality copy of the original book. We scan the book and make it ready for digital Print on Demand at our standard POD charges, and to our extreme quality standards. At this stage the Publisher can take the files and use them as they see fit with their current print supply chain, (for example, one of the many short run Print on Demand vendors). The files are the full and complete property of the Publisher. 

Suntec provides a complete product and service solution for true Print on Demand - right from digitisation to delivering the printed book to the consumer. Drop shipment services are also available on request.

The Suntec POD Scanning Process

The quality of a finished Print on Demand product is defined by the quality of the digitisation process, not the printing technology. Suntec POD services ensure that the digital scans are of the highest possible fidelity, and allow the creation of a new book that is transparent in quality to the original. 

Our Print on Demand page scanning production is carried out to the highest possible standard. All images are hand-scanned page by page to ensure that any skew in the original printed material is compensated at the scanning time. We have found this is the only approach. Casual scans or ADF scans that subsequently need software rotation, result in a change in the bitmap image dimensions and introduce rotation algorithm disturbances in the text. Our craftsman approach eliminates size and disturbance distortions. 

Covers are scanned at 300dpi in 24 bit, colour corrected using colour matching to standard off-set printed swatches on gloss art paper, blemish removed, retouched, sharpened and resized to the standard client trim size requirement with extended bleeds. The spine is resized and adjusted in width to match the requirements of the paper thickness used in the POD printing process. 

The final output is a composite PDF containing the foundation bi-tonal scan with imposed grey-scale and colour images, and distilled to a standard ready for printing. The cover is a separate file.