Automation comes to the printing and publishing industry Production and distribution of magazines, periodicals, and books

Existing information retrieval systems, hardware and software for automated publication, and newly developed press and bindery equipment* are the precursors of ever more dramatic and sophisticated systems now in the R&D stages. For example, a fully automated web offset press could be in commercial production within the next few years. At the same time, there is a quiet revolution in bookbinding, based upon plastics technology, that is rendering obsolete conventional binding methods. The day is not far distant when almost completely automatic satellite plants will be operated for producing and distributing periodicals, indexes, catalogs, and books.