According to Puneet Datta of Canon India, the idea of the event stemmed from ‘Future Book Forum’, the world’s largest gathering of book publishers and printers, exploring the best new ideas for innovation and growth, which Canon organises in Germany every year.

Datta said, like Future Book Forum, the Book Sabha has been envision as a regular meeting ground between publishers and technology manufacturers to curve out a roadmap in the ever-changing book publishing ecosystem.

Datta also highlighted Canon’s standing as a market leader in continuous mono toner-based system for 20 years and inkjet systems for the last eight years.

He also spoke about Varioprint i300, Canon’s new introduction in inkjet cutsheet domain. The i300 is the first B3 machine worldwide with inkjet technology and it is expected to bring a revolution in short-run book printing space.

Speaking on the occasion, Bruno Raab, head, regional production printing products PPP Centre, South & East Asia, and general manager, Canon Singapore, gave a detailed presentation on the rise of inkjet technology worldwide. He said while the technology is being used in every printing segment, direct mail and books are the two areas where it has really taken off. Currently, the share of inkjet in both the segments is the same. However, according to market projections, by 2020, the share of inkjet in book publishing will surpass direct mail by miles.

This is because, inkjet offers perfect alternative to both tonner-based digital printing and offset printing. It can print sharp images only possible in digital and it can print easy to read texts only possible in offset.

He also highlighted the capabilities of Océ VarioPrint i-series inkjet colour digital press.

Focusing on book printing, Raab said after reaching a peak in 2014, sales of eBooks have slowed. Meanwhile, hardback sales have surged. As a result, colour digital printing of books is expected to grow with the CAGR of 19%.

Subhasis Ganguli, independent publishing consultant, and Ramu Ramanathan, editor, PrintWeek India, also spoke on the occasion.