Today, Wednesday 5^th March 2025, marks the 20^th anniversary of Easypress Technologies.

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Yes, Easypress is 20 years old!

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The business existed before I purchased it from Highbury House Communications PLC, which was run by the former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie, in March 2005.

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Easypress was Highbury House Communications’ publishing software division, having itself been purchased from its founders during the “Dotcom Boom” in 2000.

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After a chance meeting at the Institute of Directors with an old friend, the late Mike Evans of Oracle Fame, who was running Easypress in early 2005, Mike showed me the potential power of Atomik software. The software, based on a rules engine, could be configured to recognise and reconstitute publishing formats –originally designed for magazines and books – into any web-based digital format.

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We then began a 20-year mission to replicate how books and magazines could be recognised, managed, and transformed from paper layouts into their digital equivalents, such as eBooks and HTML web pages.

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Of course, being the first to recognise that the application of smart software technology to improve the book publishing process for both print and digital books is less of a technical challenge and more about convincing publishers beyond a “so what” moment.

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Much of Easypress’ journey has been about evangelising the idea that technology can be applied to the book publishing process to work smarter, reduce production costs and deliver better outcomes for the hundreds of thousands of professional publishers around the world whose job it is to bring the best book content to their readers – in whichever format their readers wish.

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To achieve that, Easypress has had to evolve, not just by understanding how publishers think and work, but also by recognising how the adoption of smart technology can simplify their everyday tasks, making them less labour-intensive, while still delivering the quality demanded by world-class publishers.

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Publishing, in many respects, has changed markedly over the past 20 years.

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What has not changed is the sector-wide commitment to producing high-quality content for readers across every book genre.

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The sheer diversity and innovation in content is truly remarkable. That continued commitment to quality places significant demands on publishing service suppliers such as Easypress.

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Nor do the challenges stop for publishers and their suppliers.

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2025 is the year when Accessibility in digital book content really comes to prominence. For suppliers like Easypress, who first developed and demonstrated digital eBook production from book layouts in 2010, the technical challenges of automating accessible content are both complex and considerable. Easypress is invested in solving those challenges, one by one!

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Is 20 years a milestone in our journey? Perhaps it's more of a recognition of how far we have come.

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I believe Easypress has always been about its people. Today, we have a fabulous team of smart, dedicated and truly fun people to work with. However, our current team capabilities has been built on the quality and contributions of those who have come before us.

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Can I just take a moment to send my sincere thank our current team at Easypress as well as all those who have gone before, you know who you are.

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Lastly, I would like to thank our clients for their faith in Easypress, and at times their patience. Every journey has a few bumps along the way, but every business is built upon creating partnerships with clients, and their needs are at the centre of the Easypress relationship.

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Thank you for the first 20 years. Easypress is looking forward to embracing the challenges and opportunities of the years ahead.

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Happy Birthday, Easypress!

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‍Easypress is a publishing production software and services company based in the UK, delivering award-winning technology globally for two decades. ‍

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‍If you would like to learn more about the production services and publishing software Easypress provides for clients, please contact us.

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