I think it’s a natural fit that Bookmobile, a digital short run book printing company, is printing books for MakerBot, the purveyor of 3D digital printers. Here at Bookmobile, we’ve often wondered if and how we could use a MakerBot. The 3D-printed slip case of Chang-Rae Lee’s On Such a Full Sea was certainly inspiring, but I don’t think we can currently work the fifteen-hour-per-slip case production time into our schedule.
I first heard from MakerBot last fall, through a referral from Soho Press (referrals are always appreciated!). The education division of MakerBot needed a print edition of their eBook, MakerBot in the Classroom: An Introduction to 3D Printing and Design. The book is full of ideas, activities, and projects for students so teachers can incorporate 3D design and printing into their lesson plans. We’ve now printed two runs of the title—a first run of 1,500 copies, then 6 months later, a reprint of 1,500 copies.
MakerBot in the Classroom has an 8-1/2″ x 11″ trim size and the interior printed 4-color on our 70-lb. coated matte white at 556 PPI. It was PUR bound with a 4-color cover on 12-pt. C1S cover stock with matte lay-flat film lamination, and each book was shrink wrapped.
Why Bookmobile for short run book printing?
Bookmobile’s books are archival quality—we work with museums and university presses who have very high archiving standards, and we meet them all. Our books will stand up to classroom use!
Bookmobile provides custom book manufacturing; no cookie-cutter templates or trim sizes to adhere to here. We produce everything in house, and we only produce books. So the collected know-how of our experienced staff goes into every book we produce. We provide paperback or hardcover binding, and black-and-white or color interiors (with the option to do a black-and-white interior with color inserts to save on cost). We can produce about any trim size up to 12″ square, landscape or portrait. We also provide many bells and whistles, such as French flaps, foil stamping, and embossing or debossing. Browse our Gallery for inspiration, and check out our full list of options too.
Interested in what Bookmobile can do for you? Contact me!