Digital Printing on Demand

Today's New York Times features an article on a new service from Hewlett-Packard called MagCloud. This is a very exciting development. For those of us that really like photo magazines, it is now possible to publish a magazine and not worry about print run sizes at all. HP makes presses that don't use plates, so the set-up cost is virtually nil - the printer just loads your electronic magazine into the press computer, sets the number of copies and out comes your magazine printed on 80lb. paper, saddle-stitched.

The cost at 20 cents a page is quite reasonable too. You get to establish your selling price (and hence profit margin) and HP markets the magazine for you as well.

Here are some photographic magazines that are being sold on the MagCloud site. They range from International Photographer Issue #1, a serious attempt to launch on ongoing periodical, to Brian Patterson Digital Photography, a magazine featuring a selection of one artist's work.

Anything goes, anything is possible. You're limited only by your imagination!

Recently, some of my images were selected to illustrate Rails Magazine, a new magazine about the Ruby on Rails programming environment. The editor of Rails Magazine is using the MagCloud printing service to distribute paper editions of the magazine. you can see the magazine with my illustrations here. I thought I'd like a copy of the magazine, so I placed an order using Paypal. The magazine cost $8.00 with another $3.00 shipping for Canada and the magazine was going to be printed (quantity 1) and shipped so it would arrive within 7 days. Pretty impressive!