Having made a name in the digital printing business over the last decade and a half, Mumbai’s Manifold Graphics has now diversified into audio books, eBooks, online publishing and printing of eBooks. To capitalize on the growing popularity of digital media, it has recently launched a web portal, pustaksagar.com, which brings authors and readers together. An Android application has been launched and an IOS application is being developed for the portal. Pustaksagar.com will mainly focus on all Indian regional languages and presently sells eBooks in Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati.
“We are offering a secured eBook reader, which not many Indian entities are offering currently. Regional language books are not readily available in electronic format. We believe there is huge demand for these books in India as well as overseas, and that is why we are focusing on this segment,” says Ashok Shah, director, pustaksagar.com.
Not only will this venture sell regional language literature online, Shah shares it will also encourage aspiring writers and poets to publish their work as pustaksagar.com also offers publishing services. “We are very competitively priced compared to other players in the market. Not only are we selling eBooks but we will also offer print-on-demand services if anyone wants to print an eBook. This is where our state-of-the-art digital print infrastructure will come in handy. Also, we will publish books for writers who cannot afford to get their work published,” Shah says.
Pustaksagar.com was in the development phase for the last one-and-a-half years before it was launched earlier this year and Maniford Graphics has invested almost Rs. 60 lakh in the venture.
Manifold Graphics began its digital printing operations in 2002 from its current location in Shah and Nahar Industrial Estate in Mumbai’s business district of Lower Parel. The two galas where it operates from are spread over 1,000 sq. ft and 400 sq. ft, respectively. The print house started off with the installation of Xerox DC 12. Currently, Manifold Graphics boasts of a prepress bureau and has a CtCP by BasysPrint, which was supplied by Monotech Systems. It has a color management software from Oris. Manifold’s printing division has a Xerox iGen4, Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C6000, Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS 1052 black and white press and late last year, it went for a high-speed production press, the Ricoh Pro C9110.
Pustaksagar.com was in the development phase for the last one-and-ahalf years before it was launched earlier this year and Maniford Graphics has invested almost Rs. 60 lakh in the venture.
The new Ricoh C9110
Being located in the business district of Mumbai, Manifold deals in large volumes of almost five lakh print every month. So, naturally speed is an important factor in the business. The Ricoh C9110 offers speeds that are ideal for Manifold, says Dhwanil Shah, son of Ashok Shah, and someone who actively looks after the digital printing business of Manifold Graphics. The C9110 is a dry toner digital printer with a maximum speed of 130 A4 ppm. It has maximum resolution of 1,200 x 4,800 dpi and can print onto uncoated, textured and coated media from 52 gsm to 400 gsm. The C9110 supports advanced external EFI Fiery servers.
“Being situated in the heart of Mumbai’s business district of Lower Parel, we have a lot of corporate customers coming in and we cannot afford to make customers wait. We needed a fast production machine and C9110 fit the bill. We recently did a job where the C9110 was running non-stop for 72 hours. So, we are very happy with the machine,” Dhwanil says.
Since the installation of C9110 in November last year, the press is printing about two lakh impressions every month.
