The Ingram Content Group subsidiary is producing its colour inkjet offering on Océ ColorStream 3500 presses and plans to invest in ColorStream 3700 machines further down the line.

The company said that developments in colour inkjet had enabled it to offer an economical, high-speed solution at a competitive price and added that savings from its new standard colour option would be passed from Ingram to the publisher.

Lightning Source is the latest book printer to venture into digital colour after CPI UK launched its Quantum book line, which combines HP’s T350 inkjet web press with Magnum’s Flexbook finishing solution, and MPG Books announced it had invested in the HP Indigo 10000 press, which prints up to seven colours.

The company has beta-tested its new colour inkjet on-demand service with US publisher O’Reilly Media.

O’Reilly Media president Laura Baldwin added: "In a changing market, Ingram’s new colour POD gives us another option to bring more colour books to more readers worldwide while simultaneously lowering our costs."

Phil Ollila, chief content officer of Lightning Source parent company Ingram Content Media, said: "High-speed colour inkjet printing is poised to be a real opportunity for publishers looking for more efficiency in book manufacturing and the print supply chain overall.

"Through our new inkjet colour option, publishers can use POD for a whole new range of titles."

Lightning Source was unavailable for further comment at the time of writing.