What Is Print on Demand?

Print on demand comes from English and means “printing on demand” or “printing on call”. This means that a particular product is only made once it is actually needed. This is the opposite of mass-producing your product, which you then sell yourself later on. PoD follows the well-known market model of supply and demand. When a product is ordered, it is produced accordingly and shipped to the person who ordered it. When there is no demand, no unnecessary resources are used for the production of products that have not been sold.

PoD has its origins in book printing. With the introduction of digital book printing using computer files, the landscape has changed dramatically. Books are needed everywhere and all the time, which is why appropriate mass production, but also a certain degree of prioritization, is necessary. This is where the Book-on-Demand (BoD) model came into play, otherwise also known as “Book in Time” or “Publishing on Demand”. Manuscripts for books were thus accessible at any time and could be retrieved and printed once an order was placed.