Book Printing Co., Ltd. is a comprehensive printing company that considers everything from planning and production of textbooks and dictionaries, periodicals, general books, pamphlets, posters, etc. to printing and binding with a system. Publication printing, which prints textbooks and magazines, and commercial printing, which prints corporate catalogs, leaflets, and Advertisement are two pillars. Sales have continued to rise in the harsh business environment of the printing industry due to a slump in the publishing market and a decrease in catalogs and leaflets due to reduced Advertisement costs. Against the backdrop of new technology and new system, we have established a production system capable of responding to the diverse needs of our customers, such as responding to high-mix low-volume production and shortening delivery times, and are actively developing activities. We are also actively working to receive orders for digital media such as the operation of DVDs and e-book contents.

This time, we interviewed Mr. Takahiro Kutomi, Manager, CATS Group, and Mr. Ryota Ishikawa, CATS Group, about LETS as seen from the printing company.

OpenType font was the reason for introducing LETS

What are the points you decided on LETS rather than Packaging?

Until now, struggling with different font versions

I think the biggest difficulty I've had so far is the font version. Not only FW but other companies have similar problems. I'm still dragging it, but if the customer or client is a LETS user, I'll be able to provide thorough Support help. (Mr. Hisatomi)

I wish I could know the font version from the submitted data, but I don't know. So, when I check with the designer, I find it difficult to find out why the company asks such details. Not many designers are aware of font versions. I am trying to output it without any trouble, but it seems that it does not understand. Then, sometimes I've been asked "I was refused at the output center, but how about this?" In the case of Mr. Output Center, there are many cases where it ends with "This does not come out" "It looks like this", but it seems that it can not be helped by bringing the refused data There are some who will be involved. (Mr. Ishikawa)

In such cases, I will do my best, but on a case-by-case basis. What is important is that you talk about how you want to do it and consult while making it. (Mr. Hisatomi)

Reassuring Support with LETS proposals to customers

Recently, I get quite a lot of consultation from customers saying, "I want to switch to OS X." We do not only print, but also Support the DTP environment of our customers, so we receive such consultation via sales or directly. At that time, I will give advice on not only the OS but also the latest App. In some cases, we also recommend that you get them all from your machine. At that time, the biggest catch is the font. I often hear the voice, "What should I do?" In particular, individual designers can't afford that much, so I propose LETS at such times. Customers who do not know LETS are very pleased, is there something that is easy to introduce? By proposing from here and unifying the font environment, we can Support our customers with confidence. (Mr. Ishikawa)

From now on with OpenType font main

Since LETS was introduced by basically supporting OpenType, OpenType is the main one used. I don't use CID and OCF. This is because, if you have to insert printer fonts into each printer at the four factories, it is honestly difficult in terms of money. So, thinking about the future, I would like to continue to focus on OpenType. However, I think that the LETS option is definitely better when purchasing a new printer. (Mr. Ishikawa)

It may be possible to feel various other merits if the OpenType fonts are submitted a little more frequently, but I am looking forward to the future popularization activities of FW. (Mr. Hisatomi)

Support for Adobe Japan 1-5

I would like Adobe Japan 1-5 to be supported. When we were using CID for medical journals, we had to create new characters every month, and the number of non-standard characters gradually increased. When OpenType came out, we looked into it and found that Adobe Japan 1-5 covered everything, but Adobe Japan 1-4 did not include some characters. So we explained the situation to the customer and decided to switch to OpenType. (Ishikawa)

It would be better if FW could be improved at least for Mincho and Gothic fonts for Text as soon as possible. I think that this will be an opportunity for clients and designers in the market to switch to OS X or InDesign because they want to use OpenType. In the past, it was normal for printing companies to create external characters, but in this DTP era, I think it is better for the data creator to create external characters. However, in reality, many people cannot create external characters. When it becomes OpenType and most characters are available without having to create external characters, I think it will finally be possible to operate normally. As a publisher, I hope that if the characters that have been used as JIS characters because there is no other way can be produced as proper characters with a little manipulation, publishing will become a little more reasonable. But I wonder if about 80% of the DTP industry does not care about external characters. It is really a problem for only a small number of books. The other thing is how much the editors at the publishing company are trying to do the right thing. It is the good sense of the publisher, such as following the printing font of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, that kind of good sense. If font makers could quickly get together and do things properly like Adobe Japan 1-5, it would be easier for users to use. I think it would be good if all font makers could decide on a way to do things this way. I wish they would get along a little better so that each one doesn't rush ahead.

I think FW will release new formats and Character Sets in the future, but since it's LETS, that's reassuring. On the other hand, manufacturers who release a lot of fonts need to do the same thing as LETS to make them popular. You can't buy all of them every time they come out. After all, a font is meaningless if it's not used, so the more it's exposed and used, the more it will be used. I think there are fonts that people see and think are good fonts or that they want to use, so I guess it's about capturing that target. TsukuMin is particularly good, it's really good to look at. I think it would be interesting if it could somehow become more popular... I'd like to see beautiful publications like the ones in the Sha-Ken days. (Hisatomi)

<Editor's Note>
I was a little surprised to learn that they not only build their own systems to deal with the dramatic changes in the DTP environment caused by the introduction of Mac OS X, but also provide a wide range of Support, such as advice and suggestions for consultations with clients and design companies that they do business with. We at LETS will continue to provide better services so that we can be of use in such activities.

Company Info

Company name	Book Printing Co., Ltd.
Head office location	5-12-1 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Head office	1-13-13 Takanawa, Minato-ku, Tokyo
TEL	03-3473-7300
URL	http://www.tosho.co.jp/
Founding	March 1911 (Meiji 44)
Establishment	March 17, 1948
number of employees	1,232 (as of March 31, 2004)
Business description	Manufacturing of textbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, weekly magazines, monthly magazines, art books, general books, pamphlets, catalogs, posters, calendars, securities (planning, plate making, printing, bookbinding) Newspaper printing, video / electronic publications Planning / production and digital business planning / suggestion