FuturePrint Podcast
FuturePrint is dedicated to and passionate about the power of print technology to enable new opportunities and create new value. This pod features deep-dive discussions with the people behind the tech as well as market analysis, trends, marketing and storytelling!
FuturePrint Podcast
#232 The New Chapter in Book Printing: How CHROMOEDGE is Redefining the Market
Matti Technology, a Swiss firm, is transforming the world of book printing with its ground-breaking CHROMOEDGE printer. Traditionally, book edges have been an afterthought, but this innovative technology turns them into a vibrant canvas for creative expression and commercial opportunity. Unlike the more labour-intensive traditional printing —which could only process around 400 books per hour—CHROMOEDGE automates the process, printing high-quality, colourful designs on all three edges of a book at an astonishing rate of 4,000 books per hour.
This revolutionary approach not only enhances the aesthetic appeal of physical books in an increasingly digital age but also offers a powerful tool for differentiation in a crowded market. By integrating high-viscosity inks and seamlessly fitting into existing production lines, CHROMOEDGE significantly cuts operational costs while opening new revenue streams for publishers. From special editions and luxury publications to personalised print runs and creative branding opportunities, the technology is set to redefine book production and presentation. The book, it seems, has found an exciting new edge!
Listen on:
Apple Podcast
Google Podcast
Spotify
What is FuturePrint?
FuturePrint is a digital and in person platform and community dedicated to future print technology. Over 15,000 people per month read our articles, listen to our podcasts, view our TV features, click on our e-newsletters and attend our in-person and virtual events.
We hope to see you at one of our future in-person events:
FuturePrint TECH: Industrial Print: 21-22 January '26, Munich, Germany
Welcome to the Future Print Podcast, celebrating print technology and the people behind it.
Speaker 2:Thanks to all our listeners for tuning in. Today We've got a podcast here with Matti Technology. Matti are based in Zulgen in Switzerland and Matti manufacture high quality digital printing and finishing systems. And Matti manufacture high quality digital printing and finishing systems for customers, I believe, worldwide, and you don't only manufacture them, but they also research, design and then service the machines, I believe. And today is the day before World Book Day in the UK, so we're here to talk to Martin Letzner he's a CSO at Matti and we're here to talk about the ChromoEdge printer, and I believe this is an incredibly interesting printer. It's the first industrial printer that's designed to specifically print on the three edges of the book. So let's find out a little bit more. Welcome, martin. How are you today?
Speaker 3:Very good. Thank you, Elena, for having me.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. It's a pleasure, as always. So I'm just going to dive straight in and find out what inspired the development of the ChromaEdge, and what gap in the market are you looking to fill with this printer?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have been looking at this market for a while and thought this would be an interesting niche product. In more and more bookstores you can see ChromoEdged, as we like to put it out books. Chromoedged is, by the way, the name of our book edge printing system. Then, by coincidence, a first customer, a large and well-known book printer in Europe, was looking for a solution that would meet the large demand and orders for books with printed on edges. Yeah, and until then, the market could only offer solutions in book edge printing with systems that printed a maximum of around 400 books per hour on the edges, with very high personal costs, expensive inks and bad lightfastness due to the use of dye inks. That was, for the moment, the benchmark, and our approach was to develop and build a fully automated industrial system that can be integrated into the customer's production process, with high viscosity ink and a minimum of personal input, which prints up to 4 000 books per hour on all three book edges. We are talking about 10 times more in a no touch process. You can see that's amazing.
Speaker 2:I mean that's that's incredible. So yeah, so you've obviously already touched on what makes Chroma Edge different from existing book edge printing solutions on the market, but what makes it so special? Can you sort of give us a bit more insight into what highlights the unique offering, the features, maybe more about the color, efficiency and how people would integrate that into inkjet?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I tried to explain this Okay, thank you.
Speaker 3:We were looking for a way towards a green button solution that what the customers like, and a printing system on single pass with the latest high quality, industrial and efficient printer technology which allows us to use our ink design for the application on a high viscosity basis for a high workload of book edge printing jobs. In that edition, with the same amount of ink, a much more color-intense print image is produced on the book edges, and this at the printing speed required in this industry. We're talking about 4,000 books an hour, and various technical features make it possible to process different book formats and hides in different designs.
Speaker 2:Okay, that sounds amazing, so it's a really flexible solution by the sounds of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. It's flexible and yeah, we'll cover that what the customers need.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you've obviously already got some early adopters of this technology. What kinds of businesses are standing to benefit from this?
Speaker 3:Yeah, the response and feedback to our ChromoEdge system was overwhelming. I will say I bet, I bet yeah it's worth mentioning that we are still at the beginning of what will probably be a long-lasting wave of book decorations. This opportunity is a wonderful way to stand out and is a great good business for book printers, publishers and authors who create books alike.
Speaker 2:And I think it's probably quite topical at the moment, when people are sort of maybe not reaching for a book. They're sort of listening to their audio books or reading on a tablet or something. So it's actually quite a good way of trying to bring the book alive again and for people to reach out and buy books when they go to the shops and bookshops.
Speaker 3:I agree, totally agree yeah.
Speaker 2:So do you see the edge printing of books becoming a new standard in the industry? Do you think it'll become the norm so that all books will now have that or obviously you're hoping to in the future, but do you think that that's going to happen?
Speaker 3:yeah, until now.
Speaker 3:I will say that the three edges of the books, uh, were boringly white and unused yes moment and decorating these with colors, images, images, messages, et cetera not only makes it possible to draw attention to your product as an eye catcher. What's about school books or photo books, product catalogs in various areas? There's a huge opportunity to have such a system or have printed on the book edges. The possibilities are practically limitless and in addition to the content that is worth reading, a book also becomes a decorative item and a pretty home accessory.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. I guess you could just have them sort of as a you know, as decoration even in the home.
Speaker 3:My wife has this also as a decoration decoration, but she can read all the books yeah, yeah, perfect.
Speaker 2:No, it's fantastic because I guess you, you can just within a, within a space, within a book, you know a bookshop, you could bring a whole centerpiece to life with all these, you know book edges have have been printed in high, vibrant colors.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can beautify it and yeah, this is a great opportunity.
Speaker 2:Fantastic, it's great. So what's next for Matti and ChromoEdge? Are there any future developments, any enhancements to the existing machine? What's in the pipeline?
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course we want to make the first generation of ChromoEdge, which we have just developed, widely known and make it available to companies that are looking for an efficient and industrial book edge printing solution. And also our creative team has, of course, ideas and plans for possibilities and options for the future. Ideas and plan further possibilities and options for the future. Yeah, when and whether this can be implemented and with a system upgrade or a ChromoEdge 2.0 system, remains to be seen. But the current system can expand it with various options depending on your needs and budget additional colors or drying system, etc. What the customer needs. We can make it tailor-made for this application. But book of one is a big topic. We have foreseen this possibility in the design and of the first machine and that is for sure a direction to pursue okay, that sounds great.
Speaker 2:So um sort of asking if I'm a printer and I want a book-edge printer, how would I go about that? Do I pick up the phone to Matti and say this is what I need, or what's the process?
Speaker 3:We are reachable. You can send us an email. Send us an email contact via LinkedIn or by chat or website. Call us or give us smoking signs. We will answer. You're looking out the window, yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, fantastic and just sort of looking forward. We have an event, so Futureprint have an event in valencia coming up on the first of and the sort of beginning, not the first, is second and third of april. Yeah, and you will be talking at that event. So, um, tell us a bit about what you're going to talk about yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3:I will a little bit more point out our project. We are really excited to have such a system and develop with our team. I think it's a good opportunity to talk about such a system. What is possible with high viscosity ink, with the new generation of printheads, what is possible with speed, with color intensity and print on objects will be my. What is possible with speed, with color intensity and, yeah, it will be a print on objects will be my thematic object.
Speaker 2:Yeah, interesting. Will you be able to bring some samples along for us to have a look?
Speaker 3:at. I hope I will have some in my bag, yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's fantastic. I can't wait to see it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, I will bring you a book.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. Thank you, I look forward to it. So, yes, is there anything else you'd like to share today, or is everything covered For the moment? I think yeah.
Speaker 3:I think this is a very good opportunity to talk today about this book edge printing solution, because tomorrow you mentioned it it is the world's book day. Yes, in uk an exciting time?
Speaker 2:absolutely it's an exciting time and I think um, it's a better time, yeah absolutely, it couldn't be better timing and, um, I just think that you know this transforming the edges of the book is just going to get people excited about a book before they've even opened it, which is absolutely fantastic. So, you know, it'll boost book sales it'll. It'll just create, you know, imagination. It'll, it'll be great. So thank you very much, and I want to say thank you for everyone who tuned in to listen to this podcast today, um, and I look forward to speaking to you soon.
Speaker 3:Thank you, elena, and thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:It was a pleasure. Bye-bye.
Speaker 3:Bye-bye.
Speaker 2:Bye-bye, bye.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, you can subscribe now for more great audio content. Coming up and visit futureprinttech for the latest news, partner interviews, in-depth industry research and to catch up on content from Futureprint events. We'll see you next time on the Futureprint Podcast.
