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Printing (Big) Manuals? 196

Posted by timothy from the well-stop-doing-that dept.
Detritus writes "Many companies have stopped providing hardcopy manuals with their products, electing instead to deliver the manuals in the form of PDF files. This becomes a problem when you have an 800 page reference manual and you need a usable hardcopy that is double-side printed and bound. What is the most cost-effective way of turning a PDF file into a bound document? Cheap ink-jet printers are not designed to do this task at a reasonable speed and cost."
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Printing (Big) Manuals? More

Printing (Big) Manuals?

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  • Work? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jhon ( 241832 ) * on Sunday May 08, 2005 @01:30PM (#12469114) Homepage Journal
    If you are lucky and have access to a decent laser printer at work (like a Canon Imagerunner), take there and print it out. Usually employers are reasonable about such requests. Particularly if you provide your own paper. If they'll let you print at all, they will certainly eat the toner cost for you as well.

    We have several students working at our lab and the frequently print out materials for school. Then again, maybe our employer is just 'cool' about such things.

    About your only other 'cheap' option is to just focus on the sections you need and print THOSE out.

    Outside of that, take it to a printer (kinko's or something) and pay the cost to have it printed and bound (or at least hole-punched). If you NEED it enough, you'll PAY for it if you have no other alternative. Otherwise, your need just isn't that great.

    • Evil Hard Copy (Score:5, Interesting)

      by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Sunday May 08, 2005 @02:24PM (#12469523) Homepage Journal
      The Imagerunner is a pretty fancy printer, judging from its web site [imagerunner.com]. I 've never used it, but if its like other color laser printers, it'll cost 10 to 15 cents a page just for expendables. And a lot of companies don't buy their high-end printers, they lease them with a by-the-page charge of 25 to 30 cents. Better ask yourself whether you want to spend $200 plus binding costs just to have the manual in hard copy.

      It's probably a good option to print the manual on a monochrome printer. The kind of graphics you see in most software manuals don't really suffer from being reduced to grayscale. Still pretty expensive, though.

      It's very sad that programmers still feel the need to have hardcopy manuals, even as producing them becomes less and less practical. (Not just cost -- there's the difficulty of publishing and distributing physical documentation for rapidly-changing products.) For that, I have to apologize on behalf of my profession, Technical Writing, which has done a really lousing job of keeping up with the state of the art. We're still not good at creating the kind of well-structured electronic documents that make hard copy unnecessary. Even though most of our work never sees hardcopy, we're still horribly bound to desktop publishing models. We should delivering easy-to-use web sites and help files; instead we deliver stupid PDF files that are just huge page dumps. We don't even exploit the PDF format as much as we should -- it's a horribly obsolete format, but it does support some basic hypertext concepts that would be very helpful, if more people bothered to use them.

      Then again, it's not all our fault. As I said, most techwriters are way behind the times in content management technology. But they only get away with it because documentation isn't a big priority. People in the software industry underestimate its importance and are unwilling to spend a lot of money on it. The don't grasp the skill it takes to do the job right, or the technical difficulties involved in creating and maintaining huge masses of documentation. Hint: it's not a lot easier than maintaining equivalent amounts of source code.

      When I say "people in the software industry" I guess I mostly mean "developers". Whose perception drive a lot of decision making. Mangement often is dominated by former developers, and even when it isn't their decisions are colored by the code-hacker's view of reality. So maybe it is your guys' fault after all.

      • Re:Evil Hard Copy (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Kymermosst ( 33885 ) on Sunday May 08, 2005 @02:53PM (#12469724) Journal
        It's very sad that programmers still feel the need to have hardcopy manuals, even as producing them becomes less and less practical. (Not just cost -- there's the difficulty of publishing and distributing physical documentation for rapidly-changing products.)

        I hate online/on-screen documentation. It's a pain in the ass. Especially when you've only got *one* machine to both work with the program and read the documentation.

        Or, perhaps the documentation you need is the service manual for your only (broken) machine that can read the documentation.

        Dead trees are just flat out easier to use. For example, when I am working at a computer, say fixing someone else's code, and I need API documentation.

        If I'm using online documentation, I have to dink around with the mouse (on-screen documentation is just about worthless to use with a keyboard... the one exception: Unix man). So, I take the mouse, click the button that brings up the documentation, then I have to scroll through and find what I'm looking for. Then I click again, and scroll. Click and scroll... blah. Then, once I have what I am looking for, I click back to the code and start to do what I need to do. Now, I can't memorize the specifics of a complex API call that fast, so I have to click back to the documentation... then back to the code, work... back to the documentation... back to the code, work. Then, if I think I need this again, I save it as a "bookmark"... accessing this bookmark takes longer than my tape flags on a real book.

        The same situation using a real book? I use the index. This is fast. I see all the applicable pages at one time, and can make an easy guess at the correct one if the pages are numbered by chapter-page. I turn to this page in the book. I return to my code and read the documentation as needed, maybe turning a page on the book. The code stays on the screen the entire time, and for complicated stuff, I can do a side-by-side comparison without having to juggle windows around. If I might need it again, it gets a color-coded tape flag with a note on what code it applies to written on it.

        We should delivering easy-to-use web sites and help files; instead we deliver stupid PDF files that are just huge page dumps.

        Web site based documentation... seems like a good idea until you are working somewhere that doesn't have internet access. Like, say, the documentation you need is for the router that's going nuts.

        "Help files" and "easy to use" rarely appear in a sentence where "are never" isn't what's in between.

        • Re:Evil Hard Copy (Score:4, Insightful)

          by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Sunday May 08, 2005 @03:38PM (#12470022) Homepage Journal
          I don't deny that online copy is hard to use. My point was simply that it doesn't have to be as hard as it is.

          You mention the difficulty of browsing online manuals when you've only got one monitor. True -- but look back at the costs I estimated in my previous post. A single 800-page manual can cost you enough money to upgrade to a dual-head display!

          • A single 800-page manual

            Perhaps the real issue isn't whether or not we want hardcopy documentation. The real issue seems to be incompetent writing skills.

            For tens of thousands of years one of the most important skills was saying what needs to be said in a concise and direct manner. Apparently the world has been overrun by people who feel better about themselves by doing just the opposite.

            Call me radical, but anything that weighs less than a thousand pounds but requires 800 pages of documentation

            • For tens of thousands of years one of the most important skills was saying what needs to be said in a concise and direct manner. Apparently the world has been overrun by people who feel better about themselves by doing just the opposite.

              "Thousands of years"? Have you read any Victorian writers? Simple. precise prose is a pretty recent invention.

              It's true that a lot of tech manuals are badly written, and a lot tech writers place too much emphasis on creativity. But I think you'll find that most 800-pag

              • You're comparing literary writing, which is an exercise in storytelling, which is supposed to pass time, with technical writing.

                If there is a need to describe "lots of little things" then I reiterate: It's a horribly designed product. I wouldn't be using a computer to play music/send email/print docs if I had to code machine language from the BIOS on up for every task. They make 4-button CD players and 12-button telephones.

                800-page documentation manuals are a direct result of featureware. Featureware
            • the bible?

              Thank you, I'll be here til Tuesday,

              Try the veal!
              • The Bible is mostly storytelling which is supposed to pass time.

                Summarizing the Bible's easy: Nothing really matters but be polite and considerate anyway.

                It's really too bad that the people with the biggest mouths about doing the "right thing" have absolutely no concept of being considerate. Bankers, politicians, CEOs... most of them feel all good about themselves because they go to church but yet they feel absolutely no problem rewarding themselves with multimillion dollar bonuses while laying off thou

                • Re:so like, (Score:3, Funny)

                  by MarkGriz ( 520778 )
                  Summarizing the Bible's easy: Nothing really matters but be polite and considerate anyway.

                  Or, in other words:

                  "Be excellent to each other, and, PARTY ON, DUDES!"
        • The code stays on the screen the entire time, and for complicated stuff, I can do a side-by-side comparison without having to juggle windows around.

          Sounds like somebody needs a second monitor. I've got a 21" Nokia CRT for my main display that I picked up really cheap second hand, and a cheap LCD display for viewing documentation. A browser with tabs on a second head is MUCH more convenient than page flipping, and colour coded stickies. The cost is about the same as a few decent text books. Its damn
      • "For that, I have to apologize on behalf of my profession, Technical Writing, which has done a really lousing job ...

        Gee, ya think?

    • Cheap ink-jet printers are not designed to do this task at a reasonable speed and cost.

      Right, just as cheap IDE drives aren't designed to serve the Enterprise. It sounds like you need a RAIJ (Redundant Array of Ink Jets), and then you can complete your printout in minutes instead of hours.

      Of course, you'll have to assemble the pages, but if your RAIJ has, say, 10 print nodes, and you're printing 800 pages, just send 80 sequential pages to each print node.

      This is mostly tongue-in-cheek (the pl

      • Re:Work? (Score:3, Funny)

        by dougmc ( 70836 )

        Right, just as cheap IDE drives aren't designed to serve the Enterprise.

        Cheap IDE drives serve the `Enterprise' (I assume we're talking about a business, not a naval ship, space shuttle or star ship, even though you've capitialized it like it's a proper name) far better than cheap ink jets do. When you work out the per-page cost, low-end ink jets are *expensive*, mostly due to the ink which costs thousands of dollars per ounce when you do the math.

        Even the cheap modern IDE drives are pretty good.

  • Send them the file and they'll return a bound manual.
    • Last time I called Kinkos for something like this, they qouted me 70 cents a page. It was a 550 page document, so we're talking close to $400.

      • It was a 550 page document, so we're talking close to $400.

        Indeed! I have nine 3" 3-ring binders of UNIX documentation that I printed out back around '99. Most of it is vintage tldp.org and a hardcopy of a LFS 3.2 book. At the time I had a Canon BJC-4200 printer and I think I went through about 5 ink cartridges over the course of two or three months. That amounted to about $150 in ink and paper is cheap.

        The BJC-4200 still works but, as of about 2 years ago, it is impossible to find a good ink ca

    • Kinko's has gone way downhill since they got taken over by FedEx. When I needed to print a copy of the nearly 600-page Inform Designer's Manual [inform-fiction.org], Kinkos said it would be an overnight job and cost ten cents a page. So I went to the print shop at Office Depot. They did the job while I waited, at 5.5 cents per page.
      • Depends on what you use them for.

        Kinko's isn't the cheapest or best option for the simple stuff, but they've got two advantages:

        • A huge number of offices; and
        • The ability to do consistently do complex documents.

        I do a lot of public-sector proposals that have to be delivered to the (potential) client by a very specific date and time, often with strange formatting requirements that boil down to "well, you have to use numbered tabs in a certain color scheme, or we won't consider you for this $500k piece of w

  • laserprinters are way cheap now (Score:3, Informative)

    by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) on Sunday May 08, 2005 @01:33PM (#12469135)
    Samsung makes a very nice 1200dpi printer with PostScript, ethernet, and duplex printing, that's available online for around $500. Many people are opting for Samsung laserprinters these days over HP and Brother. We have one at work, and it's really nice, plus the Linux support is appreciated.
    • If you have good eyesight, you can also try 2-up printing to reduce the number of pages in half.

      Even a cheap laser without duplexing can still do two-sided printing. You just have to flip the stack over manually and print even / odd pages.

      From the OP: " Cheap ink-jet printers are not designed to do this task at a reasonable speed and cost." No shit sherlock. Just figure that out yesterday? Why would anyone even CONSIDER using an inkjet for a 400 page manual????? The only time I use an inkjet is when I rea

    • I have an hp LaserJet 1320 and it's quite a nice printer. It's aimed at the home/small-office market, so I don't know if it will be able to handle the capacity you want, but I've printed documents a few hundred pages long and it's worked fine. I believe it supports both PostScript and PCL, and it can duplex. It does 22ppm non-duplexed, but gets quite a bit slower when duplexing (turning a page around takes more time than feeding a new page). You can get versions with Ethernet networking (1320n), Etherne

      • You can find the printer here [hp.com] at hp's website. (The link goes to the small business section.)

        The models they have are:

        • 1320 (no net, one tray, $400)
        • 1320t (no net, two trays, $500)
        • 1320n (Ethernet, one tray, $500)
        • 1320nt (Ethernet, two trays, $600)
        • 1320nw (802.11b/g, one tray, $550)

        Each of the one or two paper trays holds 250 sheets, so you have to load them separately. All of them have a manual feed above the paper tray. All of them have USB 2.0, and the ones without networking (the 1320 and 1320t)

        • Re:laserprinters are way cheap now (Score:5, Informative)

          by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Sunday May 08, 2005 @03:07PM (#12469801) Homepage Journal
          A better option is to buy a refurbished laserjet 2100. I got one with a refilled toner cart and a 90 day warranty for $162.50 shipped. I then spent a further $85 or so getting a 10/100MBPS EIO card (J3113A) for it. The printer will do some kind of fancy print mode at 600 dpi where it varies the size of toner dots, and will print 300 or 1200 dpi as well. It is designed to print 20,000 pages a month.

          For still more money, you can get duplex, a second tray, et cetera. I intend to purchase the postscript simm (about $30) which doubles the memory to only 8MB (sufficient for manuals, though) and provides PS level 2 emulation, to augment the PCL 5 that the printer normally speaks.

          The laserjet 2100 is one of HP's finest black and white laser printers, and you can trivially find one with ethernet, or buy one and an ethernet EIO print server, for less than $300. They are not the fastest printers around but my 2100 will probably still be working when the last 1320 has failed :P

          • I'll one up your Laserjet 2100 (we have one at home) and say a better option is to grab a used Laserjet II or III. They were designed to replace the parts, rather than be thrown away when something dies on it, so they'll last forever. You can pick them up on ebay for about $25. That's cheap enough to buy two extras as parts machines, and still be less than half the price you spent on your 2100 :) . They only print at 300dpi though. I garuntee my two decade old LJII will still be working when the last 2100 a
            • I sorta did this. I purchased a formerly top of the line HP LaserJet 4M+ on Ebay, added the big memory module, and its working just dandy. That thing is a real workhorse.
            • They are also dog slow and have barely any memory, and cannot be upgraded to have larger amounts of memory. Speaking from experience, it is entirely possible to create a document that will not print on a LJ II or III, but will print on a later printer. If I were going to buy one of the classic laserjets, it would have to be a 4.

              The 2100 was also designed with repair in mind. I personally have replaced a paper feed/fuser kit on one of these printers, and it is cake.

              Laserjet II and III were fantastic bac

      • Nice printer, but I still would not print a 800 page pdf on it. Would take WAYYY too much time.
    • A $500 dolalr printer is COMPLETELY inadequate to the task. First, how many PPM does it do? Not likely anywhere near as high as a 75 or 92 or even a 135 ppm production printer with a sticher. Go to Kinkos or do it at work if you have access to high speed machines like I do. You will save time, sanity and toner...if your employer allows you.

  • notebook/tablet (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SanityInAnarchy ( 655584 ) <ninja@slaphack.com> on Sunday May 08, 2005 @01:35PM (#12469151) Journal
    First of all, someone needs to call these companies and scream at them until they stop using PDF. If they never intended to print it, there's no point to PDF for a manual. HTML is just fine, and most browsers (including Mozilla) are more lightweight than the official Acrobat Reader.

    Second, if you need to read any sort of electronic document, why not read it electronically? I mean, paper is nice because you can use it even when your computer breaks. Any other reason you want paper? Because you can probably get a decent notebook/tablet pc for less the cost of the equipment to print an 800-page book cheaply, and that way, the text is searchable -- no more thumbing through indexes.
    • I mean, paper is nice because you can use it even when your computer breaks. Any other reason you want paper?

      Yes, yes there is. For library reference documents (ie programming libs) then yes a laptop or second screen makes sense - heck, if you have a browser open anyway on a second monitor like I do just open it in a tab.

      If you're looking at something that doesn't have a natural hierarchy though, like generic documentation or specs or stuff, being able to flip several dozen pages in under a second is

      • That's why you force them to not use PDF, and try to convert it to something else, if that's possible.

        And flipping several dozen pages in under a second? Isn't that like typing "300g" in less?

        Or better: have the relevant stuff open in tabs, so that flipping through everythnig is done with ctrl+tab, not flipping through several dozen pages looking for something familiar.
        • It's a psychology issue. Maybe in another generation or so this won't be as much of a problem but human beings are trained to index things, in their minds, in book form. That book form has a TOC, an index, chapters, and pages which are physically turned.

          Let's assume you've read a particular book more than three times (I've read LotR and the first six DragonLance novels better than a dozen times). If I had an electronic copy and the paper copy side by side, I bet dollars to donuts that I can find a parti
          • "It's a psychology issue. Maybe in another generation or so this won't be as much of a problem but human beings are trained to index things, in their minds, in book form. That book form has a TOC, an index, chapters, and pages which are physically turned."

            I used to love hard bound books. Now, I can't stand paper in just about any form. If paper forms of written texts were about as practical as electronic forms, I would likely prefer paper. They aren't except in very narrow cases. For example;

            • Dicti
    • First of all, someone needs to call these companies and scream at them until they stop using PDF. If they never intended to print it, there's no point to PDF for a manual. HTML is just fine, and most browsers (including Mozilla) are more lightweight than the official Acrobat Reader.

      Perhaps they never intend on printing it, but they know many end users will want to, and honestly, HTML is not "just fine" to many people (like me) who appreciate the formatting of the PDF documentation, not the least of which i

      • That's the point of the tablet. You have the tablet next to you as you work.

        Many people use computers in the first place because, with an 800 page manual, it's just more practical to do things the Google Way.
    • Because you can probably get a decent notebook/tablet pc for less the cost of the equipment to print an 800-page book cheaply, and that way, the text is searchable -- no more thumbing through indexes.

      Unless you have a source for equipment that has recently "fallen off of the back of a truck" it's going to be cheaper to go to Kinkos.

      LK

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • HTML isn't just fine at all. HTML formatting is horrible compared to the output from a professional typesetting package converted to PDF.

      Secondly, printed documents are far easier to read. This is no mere luddism - I have thoroughly embraced ebooks. But most ebooks are read sequentially. Technical documentation isn't. Paper documents let you easily flick back and forth between the current page and the appendix at the back that explains what's going on, or rapidly flick through pages. And most importantly

      • ebooks are sequential? Sure. But nonlinear stuff is better in text? Are you joking?

        I can rapidly flick around like you wouldn't believe. Ctrl+tab and ctrl+shift+tab in Firefox + ctrl+alt+left/right in GNOME means I gain very little by having a manual in hardcopy.
    • Even if we assume that "If they never intended to print it, there's no point to PDF for a manual." is true, you have to allow the converse, "If anyone ever intends to print it, then HTML is a bad idea".

      Making HTML printable involves even worse kludges than making PDF viewable on-screen.

      Cheapest new tablet PC I can find via Froogle (no idea if it is decent or not, just the cheapest) is $750 - I think you can find someone to do a 800 page book for less than a dollar a page can't you?

  • PrintFu (Score:5, Informative)

    by rebug ( 520669 ) on Sunday May 08, 2005 @01:46PM (#12469258)
    Sounds like PrintFu [printfu.org] is what you're after.

    • CafePress / Lulu (Score:4, Informative)

      by bradediger ( 718475 ) on Monday May 09, 2005 @11:46PM (#12484866)

      I needed a manual printed (perfect bound - like a paperback novel) last year and went with CafePress [cafepress.com]. They have reasonable prices--I think I spent $15 on a 200-page book, one copy. Decent quality, but the pages were a little yellow.

      Then I found Lulu [lulu.com]. Same kind of thing, with a base price of $4.53 per book and $0.02 per page. They do have a page limit of 700 pgs, which would translate into a whopping $18.53. Anyone have any experience with them?

  • If you can find a think-pad(or any slightly older laptop with a good quality screen , i would recomend a powerbook /ibook(OS x and its native PDF functionality are great for this) or thinkpad) from 2000 or so (may need a new battery unless you can live with being attached to a wall socket) it will make a grand glorified library . This will in the long run save you alot of a cash on print outs . I use an old laptop for the same thing.
    Just an alternate idea . having a browse around ebay some older laptops ar
  • Go to Kinko's [fedexkinos.com] web site. They will find a Kinkos near you, which in general will only be a few miles away. You can either upload the document, or if it's reasonably small, you can email it to the place you want it printed. You can get it printed for about $5 + 8 cents a page with a plastic comb binding or wire coil binding and covers. I like to get a clear plastic front cover and a black plastic back cover; if it's reasonably small --- say 150 pages or less --- you can get tape binding, which I think is

    • Re:One word: Kinko's (Score:5, Interesting)

      by FidelCatsro ( 861135 ) <.fidelcatsro. .at. .gmail.com.> on Sunday May 08, 2005 @03:08PM (#12469811) Journal
      Of course if your talking a large manual which can run into the hundreds of pages (i have seen them at 800 or more) you could be talking about as much as 5.00+( 0.08*800.00)=69 USD (chuckle). I also assume that this would not be a one off so over the course of a year you could be talking several hundread Cold green.
      Even for a slim 150 page manual your talking 17 USD . For those types of prices you cant get some nice reference books.

      My soloution (which i use myself and which i stated in an earlyer post) was to get an older laptop with a nice screen to use as a glorified book reader.
      I paid 200 for a P3-600mhz with 256MB ram(a really good price at the time, so perhaps it will cost you a little more. Though a 600mhz p3 is overkill for just a pdf reader, but i use it for other things aswell) with a nice 15" screen . It has served me well and works great as a glorified book reader.

      • Re:One word: Kinko's (Score:3, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        You seem pretty familar with the capitalist calculations of price and volume, Castro . Didn't you really mean to say "The state saw fit to provide me for my needs a P3-600mhz with 256 ram" ? How would you know the price ?

        You aren't the REAL Fidel Castro at all. I call you out as an impostor.

        • Im fidel Catsro ,im his feline contemprary Mewhahhahahaah.I dictate the small nation state of cbua Our plan to dominate the world via shrewed bussines acumin is in full effect.
      • When dealing with more than a hundred pages, you'd probably print on both sides of the paper. Great if your printer is duplex capable, slightly annoying if it's not - but still manageable once you figure it out, and easily worth it considering the savings in paper and, crucially, in weight. Also, most people seem to manage reading smaller text, so by printing two pages on one side by side you end up with a quarter of the pages. Still a lot of dead trees, though.
      • Work out what it costs per page to print it on your own printer, Fidel. My HP Laserjet costs me about $80 a cartridge and I believe I get 7000-8000 pages from it --- call it 8000, make it simple --- plus 8000 pages of paper for around $8 per thousand, and the printing cost alone is around 2 cents a page. Add in the laser printer, a device to bind the copies, and the covers, and you're probably in the neighborhood of 6 cents a page.

        So yeah, you're paying another couple cents a page to get someone else to
        • ;) Im a slightly younger old fart i guess heh, I Actualy prefer to read on the screen as i can zoom and filter colours with the but the typing of a command, Add to that the space argument as i have enough books laying around as it is , so for me a digital soloution works

          Though i can totaly understand an aversion to reading on the screem ,I know a few people who just can't do it for a sustained length or time(/Head-aches or eye-strain)

          As for the "Another box to keep runing" thing , Well ...I am a bti of a
  • Most printers (and Acrobat, I believe) offer the ability to print multiple pages to one sheet of paper. Unless you need the hardcopy for constant reference, printing 4 pages per side per sheet of paper can be quite readable. It cuts down on wasted paper and cuts down on printing time.

  • Multi-up (Score:4, Informative)

    by redelm ( 54142 ) on Sunday May 08, 2005 @01:55PM (#12469320) Homepage
    Usually when I have this task, it's for work and I have access to a double sided laser printer. Then I use the printer driver features to print two or four pages per side of 8.5x11" floppy.

    Most large doc are laid-out for printing on smaller paper and are actually oversized on A4/8.5x11. This is only good if you have reduced visual acuity. I don't, and usually go for the 4x to save paper and page flipping.


  • ah reminds me of those good old days when I had a matrix printer. sure they made a lot of noise, but it was pretty quick with printing out hunderds of pages with huge source code listings. and you didn't have to worry that much about running out of paper.

  • until you find a company that works with printers. Sneak in, act like an employee, and tell them you're "testing" the printers... then print what you need and get out of there quickly!

  • Cafe Press? (Score:5, Informative)

    by cei ( 107343 ) on Sunday May 08, 2005 @02:04PM (#12469382) Homepage Journal
    http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/help/learn_book.a spx [cafepress.com] does mass printing of PDF files, double-sized, bound. Sure, it costs a little bit, but probably less than trying to pull it off yourself.
    • I was going to suggest that, too - the cost is actually not that bad - but then I realized that they probably won't let you use work copyrighted by someone else. Since it's not really supposed to be a service for one person to get one copy of a book, but for you to put your book online for others to buy copies of.

  • "Fineprint" for windows (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ru-486 ( 73117 ) on Sunday May 08, 2005 @02:07PM (#12469402)
    An excellent program if you're into printing manuals yourself is http://www.fineprint.com/products/fineprint/index. html [fineprint.com] It is a virtual printer that allows some cool options. My favorite being the ability to fit multiple pages onto a sheet thereby saving time, ink and paper. Here's a list of the feature from the website: Print Preview: Universal print preview with editing capability. Easily add blank pages, delete pages, and re-sequence jobs. Ink Saver: Provides options to convert colored text to black and skip graphics. Multiple Pages on a single sheet: Print 2, 4 or 8 pages on a single sheet of paper. Watermarks Headers and Footers: Watermark, header and footer option allows documents to be marked with the date, time, system variables or custom text. Forms and Letterheads: Allows the simplified creation of electronic forms and letterhead. The preview feature shows how output will appear before you print it to ensure correct alignment. Combine Print Jobs: Allows multiple documents to be combined together as a single print job. This is useful for creating booklets based on web pages, etc. File saving: Save pages and jobs to TIFF, JPEG, BMP, text and FP formats. Clipboard Support: Any printed output can be copied to the clipboard in text, bitmap or Double Sided Printing Support: Booklet making and double sided printing are supported with all documents and printers. Booklets create a professional touch to all documents and are easy to read and carry. Double sided printing cuts paper use in half and reduces travel weight. Paper Scaling: Allows large pages to be scaled to that they fit on standard paper sizes such as letter or A4. Adjustable Margins: Margin adjustment allows for increased text sizes for better readability, by using more of the printable area on the page. Gutter Support: Gutter capability provides space for binding documents. Multiple FinePrinters: Multiple FinePrinters can be created. This allows the creation of "virtual printers" that have different pre-defined settings. For example, you could have a "booklet printer" that automatically prints a booklet or a "letterhead printer" that prints on your letterhead without the FinePrint dialog box appearing. Easy server deployment: Install on a server as a shared printer for easy group or enterprise deployment.
  • Uhh....a cheap laser printer. They're pretty much the same price these days (say $25~$50 for something reasonable) but have a tiny proportion of the running cost.

    Also, use a long plastic thing that keeps the pages together (or a stapler--more fiddly) for binding. Else, you could get a binding machine that makes holes that you put the prongs of one of those cylindrical plastic binding thingies through--that will last forever.

    The really easy option for binding is to just print booklet style (using your p

  • Outscource the job to Kinko's (Score:5, Informative)

    by mysticgoat ( 582871 ) on Sunday May 08, 2005 @02:14PM (#12469451) Homepage Journal

    I was just looking at a very similar problem:

    • Manual of about 300 pages in .pdf format
    • want double sided
    • want binding that can be used effectively (stay open at desired page)
    • want some durability-- I figure about a year before updates or errata make this obsolete

    The Kinko's in SE Portland quotes me about $25 for a single copy, double side printing, comb bound with vinyl cover. Add $1 to do spiral bound. There would be a discount for multiple copies-- and at this price doing a copy for each of us, and a couple of spares for the Jolt spills, might be a good idea.

    No way I could do this "in house" for such a low cost.

  • Geek-friendly 3 ring binders! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Saeed al-Sahaf ( 665390 ) on Sunday May 08, 2005 @02:16PM (#12469462) Homepage
    Since printing them out is the question here, there are two possible solutions: Send the print job to your high-speed/high-capacity copier, or go to Kinko's and do the same. Results in nifty geek-friendly 3 ring binders! Most of my home library of docs where made in this way!

    I know, all the anti "dead tree" folks are going to come out of the woodwork, but MANY people still prefer to have a tech manual open next to them when they work, rather than flipping back and forth to some electronic document, searching for some information. For many people, the mind can often search, cross-reference, and make sense of data in hard copy MUCH faster than cumbersome electronic documentation.

    • "For many people, the mind can often search, cross-reference, and make sense of data in hard copy MUCH faster than cumbersome electronic documentation."

      I used to be that way. It's a trained habit. You get over it. Electronic only suffers if you want to read it in your bathtub or when on the couch...not an issue for technical docs.

  • I usually use the "print multiple pages" filter on kprinter just to get 2 pages on each face of the sheet, so I get 4 pages printed with each sheet, this way is much easier to carry.

    The size letter is normally enough to read it without problems, my Kyocera (damm cheap, 40€, if you buy a used one) does a good work even with small typefaces.

    When the number of pages are less than 80, I use the pamphlet filter, I still get the 4 pages for sheet but you can fold it by half, put a pair of staples and yo
  • You need a heavy-duty laser printer for this if you want it printed in a reasonable time. You could ask permission to print it at work (or ask a local business), they'll probably let you do it for virtually nothing more than the cost of the paper itself, possibly toner. At the university I go to they'd let me print it for free, no questions asked. It's fairly common for us students to need to print out large documents such as technical manuals from PDF.

    Printing would still just get you loose sheets, howe

  • Before you take a pdf to Kinkos... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by horati0 ( 249977 ) on Sunday May 08, 2005 @02:41PM (#12469646) Journal
    Most commercial software manuals, pdf or otherwise, specify in the copyright section that reproduction of the manual requires the company's consent before doing so. Not thinking this was actually enforced, I took a CD with a 1000+ page pdf manual for Steinberg Cubase to be printed, only to be told that they couldn't print it due to the copyright restriction.

    The solution was simple enough, I emailed Steinberg asking permission to print it for personal use only, yadda yadda, and they replied (rather quickly, surprisingly) and said it was ok. Took a printout of the email to Kinkos and they happily printed the manual for me.

    I realize I could have easily forged the email from Steinberg, but I considered the possibility, however unlikely, that Mr Steinberg would find out and make an example out of me via a hearty copyright lawsuit, thus ending my home recording career even before it started.

    Not that I have anything against Germans.
    • The IDIOT at Kinkos should have known better in the first place. I would think Kinkos should rework the policy like this:

      1. If you have a PDF for some software that you want printed, they will let you copy it ONE time. This would qualify as fair use.

      2. If you have a PDF AND it's on the original CD (Stienberg Cubase as an example), print it.

      3. If the PDF file doesn't allow you to print it (POSSIBLE if sticking to Adobe Software), then they can't but if their's no restriction, print away.

      My point is if
  • you can usually find them really cheap, many can still print thousands of pages, as well, most printshops can print pdfs cheaply and easily

    however, of course, the least expensive solution is to buy an old impact printer

    could we raise the bar here a little /.
  • Fortunately, if your office has any digital copiers, (in my case, a Ricoh 1045), they are the ultimate solution to this problem. Plug the copier into your ethernet, configure your computer to send it PS or PCL over TCP/IP, and bingo - you have an very high-speed monochrome printer that also duplexes and (optionally) hole punches. I printed the entire Adobe PostScript manual (around 1000 pages) in about 45 minutes, duplexed and hole-punched, and plopped into a 4 or 5 inch binder. Job complete.

  • Simple (Score:2, Informative)

    by iamweezman ( 648494 )
    Staples...or pretty much any office store will always run coupons and specials. Call them, find out what they are, what days they are for, and if they can beat out the competitor. Even if they are the lowest price, they go to insane measures to cut the competitor if they are threatened with it because their profit margin is so high and they figure that they will create return business if they get you the first time.

  • Ask Slashdot: What is the best method of wiping? (Score:4, Funny)

    by bergeron76 ( 176351 ) * on Sunday May 08, 2005 @05:32PM (#12470803) Homepage
    User writes: Recently, while sitting on the commode, it occurred to me that I may not be wiping my bottom properly. So, I ask you fellow slashdot readers, what is the best way to wipe? Do you fold the squares and wipe folded, or is it more efficient to ball up the paper? Also, after how many wipes should I look down at the paper? I know that the first wipe will be dirty, so I try not to look at it. How many wipes until you look at the paper to make sure you're clean?

  • Huh? (Score:2)

    by op00to ( 219949 )
    Why do you need all 800 pages? Why not just print out the sections you use most frequently, and reference the others via the pdf when you need them?

    Or, take the PDF to Kinkos and say PRINT.

    Wow, that was hard.
  • and you can JFGI [justfuckinggoogleit.com]
    also, Don Lancaster has been writing about it [tinaja.com] for over a decade
  • = printed manual at a reasonable price.

    OT I know, but it really bugs me that my local elementary school is full of inkjets and screaming for supplies because their budget is overstretched. They could cut operating costs by giving all the teachers laser printers, and having only a couple of color printers for the rare things that need it.

  • I work at a printing company. (Score:3, Informative)

    by zeath ( 624023 ) on Sunday May 08, 2005 @11:31PM (#12473420) Homepage
    I work at a printing company. My work involves printing about 40,000 pages of paper a week. I'm lucky that I can print, copy, and bind anything that looks ITish and make it look like work related. I have spiral-bound copies of a boatload of XServe reference pdfs just because I got annoyed at looking at the pdf on the screen, even though I've only used them the day they were printed and they've been tucked away in a drawer since.

    Now, for something useful to answer the question at hand: Find a local, small printing company. They're all over, you just have to look. Call up and ask to speak to their IT dept. I've done small printjobs like manuals, they're insanely easy and fast to do, and a single copy of a 800 page manual (assuming that means 800 planes, 400 double-sided pieces of paper), 3 hole punched in a binder, would cost us roughly $50 to do. This is not a price quote, just an FYI. Reasonably we'd probably ask about $70 to $100, cheaper if it's for an existing/prospective client or a personal favor.

    If you need lots (hundred or more) of copies, you can go really cheap with the "tissue paper" that prints off of a web press and get them for as little as $5 a copy, depending on how you bind them. Unfortunately, we don't do that where I work but we subcontract work that we get that does need it.
  • I think that's their name now! :D I believe that they can take a PDF file and print it double sided for you and they can even bind it for you.

    At work, I try to keep it electronic when possible, but then print out the parts I need. I always have a machine that can read it around and it's not terribly bad to be using the PDF on one machine or window and doing the operation on the other. I DO print some manuals and for that, I use a Xerox x432 ST Document Center or a Xerox Docuprint 75 or a Xerox Docuprint
  • Have you considered contacting the company to see if they sell printed hardcopies? Even though most software packages ship with electronic documentation, some companies still have dead tree versions available for sale. It's just cheaper for them not to include one with every single copy they sell.

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