In my previous post I declared that all six volumes of Hindi Film Geet Kosh have been digitized and they are now available as a database. Soon after that a friend said, "A superhuman task. Are printed editions now useless ?" To which I replied, "Not really, Many people like to have printed books in their hands and browse, for example, me. That's a different feeling. For another example think of Kindle e-books. They are flourishing but so is the book publishing industry It has not slowed down."

Later as a lark, I asked Gemini AI about the world figures for ebooks versus printed books. here is the response

Printed books continue to heavily dominate the global publishing market over digital formats. The global book market size is estimated at approximately $138 to $145 billion across all formats, with physical books consistently outselling e-books by a commanding ratio of roughly 4 to 1 in major markets.

Metric Printed Books E-Books
Projected Market Size $70.75 Billion by 2029 (Physical trade book market only) $15.65 Billion to $18.85 Billion in 2026
Global Reader Base Projected 1.9 Billion readers by 2029 Estimated 1.0 to 1.2 Billion users by 2026/2027
Market Share Status Accounts for 75% to 85% of trade publishing revenue depending on the region. Generally accounts for 10% to 14% of a traditional publisher's trade revenue.