The World Health Organization estimates that at least 2.2 billion people globally have near or distance vision impairment. That is already nearly 30% of the world’s population, with rates expected to surge to 3.36 billion by 2030. Such an increase in visual impairments means that the demand for accessible reading materials is only going to grow over the coming years. And it’s not just readers with visual impairments who want accessible books—many people simply prefer larger fonts for better focus and less eye strain, especially after using a digital screen at work all day. So, what does this mean for publishers?

It means that there is a growing and captive audience for more accessible books of all kinds, including audio, e-books, and large print. According to the Accessible Books Consortium, in 2018, “less than 10% of all publications produced every year are available in accessible formats.” Though this statistic includes all formats, audiobooks and e-books have already become an ingrained part of the publishing process, and their sales continue to grow. But there remains a significant gap in the market for large print editions of the same books.

With the number of visually impaired people growing so rapidly around the world, it is important for publishers to begin incorporating large print production into the early stages of their publishing. As Ingram Content Group has developed its own large print program over the last few years, we realized that producing large print files in tandem with all other formats is paramount for successful large print publishing. First, because readers who need large print should not have to wait months after a book’s original publication date to be able to read it. And second, because it is much easier for publishers to produce all files and metadata at the same time than it is to go back to a project later and manipulate files to create a new large print edition.

One publisher who exemplifies this multiformat approach is Boldwood Books. Publishing in all formats simultaneously, including large print, allows Boldwood to maximize its marketing and social media investments by reaching all potential readers with one major launch campaign. Many readers are partial to a particular format, be it physical or digital, and if it is not available when the campaign reaches them, that’s a lost sale. Boldwood believes that formats are not substitutional, with every new format adding more readers and more sales. 

Perhaps most importantly, Boldwood leverages the power of print-on-demand (POD) coupled with Ingram’s global distribution network to sell its large print titles to a global audience without ever having to touch a single book. While POD costs per unit average higher than traditional offset print runs, the savings made by not warehousing hundreds of books and only printing when and where the book is ordered makes large print editions a natural fit for POD distribution. By their nature, they have less demand than traditional print books, so why fill precious warehouse space with hundreds of copies when there are companies like Ingram that can sell, print, and distribute orders as they occasionally come in? And with increasing POD access to a global network of retailers and readers, it no longer makes sense to sell world large print rights and give away potential future sales.

Keeping simultaneous multiformat publishing in mind, it is important to understand best practices for developing your large print files. It is not a matter of simply making the font larger, though that is a good start. Ingram has developed a set of standards for file setup in conjunction with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), UK Association for Accessible Formats (UKAAF), and DAISY Consortium to help publishers create the most accessible large print books.

Mandatory requirements include:

• Font size must not be below 14 point
• Set in easy-to-read Sans Serif font (e.g., Arial, Helvetica, Luciole)
• No italics, bold, underlining, or large blocks of capital letters
• No information is conveyed solely through color, images, or diagrams

Once your files are set up to large print specifications, you need to make sure readers and retailers can find them. Good metadata is always important for title discoverability, but it is doubly so for large print titles. As the audience searching for these books often have accessibility needs, making it very clear in your metadata that they are large print editions is imperative. It should be apparent from a quick glance on a shelf or screen read from a product page that these are accessible versions.

Here are some of the quickest wins to update your large print metadata for better discoverability:

• Reference “large print” in the edition description—this is recognized in ONIX.
• Include the book block font and font size used in the description.
• Add a large print badge to your cover and spine.

Increasing accessibility is one of publishing’s most pressing issues, and Ingram is proud to help publishers make their books easily available to even more people around the world with the power of POD and our global distribution networks. For further expert recommendations, please read this guidance on file setup and metadata: tinyurl.com/Ingram-Large-Print-Guidance.

If you are interested in finding out how Ingram can help you expand your large print title offering, please fill out this form (tinyurl.com/Large-Print-With-Ingram) and Laura Dolan, key account manager and global lead for Ingram’s award-winning large print program, will be in touch.

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