Supporting writers and publishers in their book printing endeavours, Canon Emirates tied up with Kuttab Publishing House, to support them in promoting Arabic book publishing with a focus on the concept of self-publishing.

Kuttab Publishing is a UAE-based publishing house that started operations in 2010 to support Emirati writers. The publishing house expanded their operations and opened the first, one-of-a-kind culture cafe called Kuttab Cafe where visitors could come and publish their books in a short amount of time.

Using the expertise of Canon, Kuttab now uses Océ VarioPrint 6160 Ultra+ and the Canon imagePRESS C700 production printers enabling writers and publishers to self-publish books through an online channel where they can upload the books on line and have it printed with less quantity.

“Initially when we started out, we used to print books using the traditional offset- style. It was required to have a minimum quantity of copies to go ahead with printing which wasn’t preferred by publishers who did not want to have a large number of copies. Also, the turnaround time was not supporting the growth that Kuttab has envisioned to achieve,” said Jamal Al Shehhi, the founder of Kuttab Publishing. “Also the self-publishing concept through an online channel where the publisher can upload their books online and have lesser number of copies printed was something Canon offered to us,” said Shehhi. 

Kuttab has been working with Canon since 2010 and has been impressed by the technology, the expertise and the timely technical support. “We are seeing an increasing number of writers self-publishing their books; there is less wastage of resources, and saving of paper.”

Canon carried out a demonstration of two production printers - Océ VarioPrint 6160 Ultra+ and imagePRESS C700 showing the capabilities and performance of the machines. “Kuttab realised that they could achieve similar results like offset using the machines, that too with lesser printing and paper costs and high quality of prints, in a short amount of time,” said Shadi Bakhour, General Manager, Canon Emirates.

The publishing industry in the UAE is still in its infancy. Recent years have seen diverse publishers trying to meet the local demand, while at the same time aiming to match the standards of the international industry. 

“Most of the new publishers are concentrated in the fields of education, cultural heritage, travel and tourism, and children’s books. We are happy to have this long-standing partnership with Kuttab which runs a café that promotes book reading, publishing and resonates the rich Arabic culture of spreading information,” said Bakhour.

The Océ VarioPrint 6160 Ultra+ production printers are a member of the VarioPrint 6000+ series, the most productive digital monochrome presses in their class. Based on Océ Gemini Instant Duplex technology, the duplex printer series takes monochrome print speed to new heights, ensuring ultra-fast speed and benchmark reliability. The Canon imagePRESS C700 is a powerful colour light production device that incorporates a range of innovative technologies within a small footprint, to reliably deliver outstanding quality, excellent end-to end productivity, smart flexibility and versatile media handling.