SIC 2732
BOOK PRINTING

This category includes establishments primarily engaged in printing or in printing and binding books and pamphlets, but not engaged in publishing. Establishments primarily engaged in publishing or in both publishing and printing books and pamphlets are classified in SIC 2731: Books: Publishing, or Publishing and Printing. Establishments engaged in both printing and binding books but primarily binding books printed elsewhere are classified in SIC 2789: Bookbinding and Related Work.

NAICS Code(s)

323117 (Book Printing)

Industry Snapshot

The earliest printing techniques were developed in China in the second century A.D. The printing industry was inaugurated in the Western world when Johannes Gutenberg, Johann Fust, and Peter Schoffer invented movable type and the printing press around the middle of the fifteenth century, producing the first printed books in the Western world with this newly developed equipment. Printing came to the United States with some of the earliest English immigrants; the first book printed in the new world was the Bay Psalm Book, printed by Stephen Day in 1640. Since that time, design improvements and new inventions have made the process quicker and less costly. Almost from the beginning, printing and publishing were separate enterprises, and not much has changed since then: today, publishers decide what to print and how it will look, and printers put the words on the page to the publishers' specifications.

The continued movement toward automation, computerization, and other new technologies caused radical changes in the industry. Desktop typesetting and formatting at point of origin (the author), digitized color scanning and imaging, electronic publishing over the World Wide Web, and new media formats available for the conveyance of information constituted some of the driving forces of the industry.

Book printers generally are divided into two categories: long-run printers and short-run printers. For the largest book printers, such as R.R. Donnelley and Sons Co. and Quebecor World, Inc., book printing was just one of several types of printing services they offered. Donnelley, for example, served five end-markets including book publishers, magazine publishers, directories, financial services, and merchandise media. Short-run printers, on the other hand, tended to specialize in book printing. They typically offer publishers both hard and soft-cover printing on editions of 500 to 15,000 copies.

Organization and Structure

An overview of the major segments of the printing industry, including commercial printing, is provided through the various affiliates and sections of the Printing Industries of America: Electronic Prepress, Graphic Arts Marketing and Information Service, Graphic Communications Association, International Thermographers, Label Printing Industries of America Printing Industry Financial Executives, Sales & Marketing Executives, the Web Offset Association, and the Non-Heatset Web Section. In addition, the Printing History Association and Research and Engineering Council of the Graphic Arts Industry help preserve the heritage of printing and coordinate production techniques and new technologies.

Historically, books are separated into many different categories, such as trade; mass market paperbacks; textbooks; and scientific, technical, reference, and professional books. These have been marketed through traditional bookstores, super-or mega-bookstores, book clubs, and via direct-mail order and the World Wide Web.

The book printing industry is influenced by several factors: the publishing industry in general with its mass and specialized book marketing, the economy at large, and technological innovations, particularly those relating to increased quality or production.

The publication of books in the United States is...

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