What is the difference between “regular” and “POD” (Print-on-Demand/Digital Press) printing?
Regular book printing (offset printing) is done either by a sheet-fed press or a web press. Sheet-fed presses use a stack of large sheets of paper that will later be folded and trimmed to make a “signature.” Signatures are groups of pages that books are made of. Each signature has a certain number of pages, always divisible by 8. The number of pages in a signature depends on the size of the book. Smaller books may be printed in signatures of 32 pages, larger books as few as 8 pages. Sheet-fed presses use printing plates and ink, and are best suited to medium-sized press runs, 500 to 7,500 copies.
