MILTON KEYNES, UK – Lightning Source Inc., the leading provider of demand-based book manufacturing and distribution solutions to the book industry, today announced it has launched enhanced printing capabilities in the manufacturing of single-copy on demand books.

Following the complete refit of all presses in all Lightning Source book manufacturing locations in 2007, Lightning Source commissioned its printing provider Oce’ with improving the print quality workflows associated with solid, halftone and graphic reproduction in monochrome books.

“Speed and quality are key drivers for Lightning Source,” said J. Kirby Best, President and CEO of Lightning Source Inc. “At Lightning, we take pride in our ability to refine and distill a myriad of highly sophisticated processes into a simple act: uniting a superior quality book with an eager reader, on time, every time, no matter what the location.”

The achievement of enhanced print quality is a direct result of Lightning’s recent installation of distinct software on its new fleet of presses that have been optimized for character and picture reproduction in Lightning’s proprietary workflows. Using the new workflow, individual pixels in grayscale images are printed in one of up to 16 different sizes. This process allows an increased line screen for images, without suffering a decrease in the number of dots per inch in the image. The image that results from this process appears to the human eye as a substantially enhanced halftone.

In addition to the recent upgrade in quality, Lightning Source has also increased the available trim sizes, page counts and bind types customers have for four color single copy books. Publishers have more choice than ever before.

“Books should never be out of print – it is simply not good business,” said David Taylor, Senior Vice President of Global Sales, Lightning Source Inc. and Managing Director of Lightning Source UK.

Lightning’s latest step up in print quality and product line expansion provides publishers the flexibility, freedom and confidence to move more books into a single copy or low volume reprint environment. Publishers are keeping books alive, bringing more books to market and earning revenue on current assets incorporating Lightning Source solutions into traditional supply chain models.

“At Lightning, we never settle,” Mr. Taylor added. “We will continue to maintain the leadership position we’ve earned in the print and distribution of books for the whole of the book publishing industry, by constantly reassessing our processes based on customer need and the latest digital production technologies.”