While many magazines and book publishing have
transformed from book printing to digital publishing, the coffee table book
printing market is still dominated by paper book printing.
Now is the era of digitization. As early as a
few years ago, many self-published writers and magazine publishers abandoned
printed book publishing, and gradually transformed to digital and issued their
e-books. This makes us have to think, is there no other way for book printing
except transform to e-books? No, in any case, there is at least one type of
printed book that cannot be replaced by e-books and digitized reading, and that
is the books that accompany you on the coffee table.
What are the coffee table books?
"A really well-made coffee table book is
like a piece of art. Through the use of color and color repetition and other
details, it can be coordinated with and integrated into the whole room, and it
makes the room very different." - Ellen Fisher in "Marketing
Operations."
The beginning of the printed coffee table
book
In the 1950s, Paul Steiner, the founder of
Chanticleer Press, created the earliest printed coffee table book “the
photography guide series�? This was the first time that coffee table book
printing appeared in the publishing industry. At that time, the printed coffee
table books with nature as the theme were very popular, so Chanticleer Press
has successively published other series: “Taylor's Guides to Gardening�?and
"The Stones of Florence".
In the 1960s, David Brower, president of
Sierra Club, proposed the idea of "modern coffee table books", hoping
that the printed coffee book could be presented to readers in a way similar to
a photography exhibition.