Aussie finishing distributor FBM has invented PhotosLive DuoBind, a new low-cost hardcover photobook binding system, which it plans to export all around the world.
Targeting digital printers, photo shops and corporates, the Photoslive system enables runs of one and more photobooks to be hard covered instantly. There is a choice of cover options; either plain, foiled, custom pictured, or embossed.
The DuoBind Pro and DuoStitch Pro will sell for around $6,000, with an option of image collation software for a further $4,000, which itself is a fraction of the cost normally charged with no ongoing click rate.
Ron Coombe, owner of FMB says, “We have been developing this solution for the past four years. We wanted a system that would enable hard covering of photobooks, whether in a run of one or 101. Photobooks is a booming market, both for the retail side, and the corporate, and it offers printers a new revenue stream. If they have a digital printer then they can have a photobook business, and with the Photoslive system not one that takes days to turnaround, but one that takes less than five minutes.”
The Photoslive system works with a highly aggressive adhesive developed by the company, and a precise frame for placing the book block into the cover. Photoslive manufactures and supplies the hardcover, which is prescored on the spine. It can either work with standard paper or lay-flat paper. Coombe says, “We have deskilled the binding operation, resulting in non-skilled staff being able to instantly create a classic hardcover book, and for a very low cost.”
FMB is initially selling the PhotosLive binding system itself, but is about to sign up master distributors for Australia and New Zealand, so it can concentrate on developing the export market, which will start on the US and UK.
The customised cover option requires the printer to have a celloglazer, the foil option requires a foiling system, while the raised logo printing means the cover needs to be sent to Photoslive. Coombe says, “This option is ideal for digital printers to make short run quality hard cover books for their corporate customers.”
