Print on Demand Technology and Instabook Maker

         Born in Mexico City, Mexico in July, 1957, Victor Celorio realized at a young age that reading played a fundamental role in a person's success and well being.  Enjoying a love affair with the printed word beginning in his early childhood, Celorio knew he wanted to be a writer from the time he was 10 years old and published his first short story at the age of 14 in a magazine called Al Sur del Sur. But growing up in Mexico, a country which is famous for its lack of bookstores, Celorio suffered a permanent hunger for books. Growing into adulthood, Celorio became fascinated with the idea of making books readily available and more affordable by reducing the costs traditionally associated with publishing.  The problem with publishing as Celorio saw it was actually found in the distribution system. Typically, a book retailer orders the number of books it thinks it can sell. But should the title prove to be popular, the store may not be able to order more if the publisher's inventory is depleted. Alternately, small stores can't afford to keep slow moving titles in stock.  With these thoughts in mind, the idea for Print on Demand technology was born.

     "The first time I saw a laser printer, I thought about making books with it," says Celorio. A keen entrepreneur, Celorio foresaw the advent of what is now known as the Internet and recognized early on that the Internet could prove a revolutionary tool for the publishing industry.  Starting from the ground up, Celorio went into the printing business to learn about the industry, opening a chain of electronic printing stores in Mexico City in 1988. Utilizing computers, Celorio's customers could transmit electronic files via modem for printing. In 1989, Celorio developed the patented concept of Print on Demand technology, studying engineering and later computer programming in order to develop the patented Instabook Maker. 
    The Instabook Maker is the approximate size of an office copier and comes equipped with a computer. Digital text files are input on disk or over a network. Customer's can search an online catalog of available titles at home or at the store where the device is located. A user can also search for key words in the text of books, which raises the possibility of printing custom books from chapters of multiple titles. Once a selection is made, the encrypted text downloads to the Instabook Maker for printing. Transactions are then tracked electronically to bill the bookstore for the published material.
    The Instabook Maker can paginate, print, fold and bind a soft cover, perfect bound, 200-page book in less than five minutes. It prints black-and-white line art and photographs and accepts preprinted cover stock. Celorio's company estimates the cost per book at 75 cents, making this product an affordable option for both book dealers and their customers. 
    Today, Celorio resides in Florida and continues to develop new product ideas and publish books  In fact, his repertoire includes one of the first books published entirely through the Internet, Proyecto Mexico.  Interestingly enough, mass production as a technology came to be understood fully thanks to the production of books. Celorio believes the same thing is happening though the manufacture on goods on demand, with Print on Demand technology one small aspect of this revolutionary means of production.