B&T prints mighty Oxford dictionary.(Butler and Tanner)(Oxford University Press)(Brief Article)

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (DNB), Butler and Tanner's (B&T) biggest ever job, was launched last week with an initial print run of 5,000 per volume.

Each volume consists of 1,000pp and weighs around two kilograms. The project cost Oxford University Press pounds 30m to compile.

B&T produced the single-colour title on a KBA 162 2x2 perfector. Finishing work was done on equipment including a Kolbus Compact 2000.

'One of the biggest challenges was to keep the 60 volumes separate and the 2x2 proved to be useful for the production process,' said B&T marketing director Tim Taylor.

The DNB contains more than 50,000 biographies of …