Printing and binding a ~300 page PDF

Organichu · August 2017

Hi,

I have a textbook (free to all, provided by my school- not copyrighted) that I need to print. It's math so it has some diagrams but it's all black and white. I imagine I'd want either spiral binding (so I can lay it flat, fold it back on itself etc) or something three-hole-punched to put in a binder and re-order the pages as needed.

What is the most cost effective way (with decent quality) to do this?

ArbitraryDescriptor · August 2017

Organichu wrote: »

Hi,

I have a textbook (free to all, provided by my school- not copyrighted) that I need to print. It's math so it has some diagrams but it's all black and white. I imagine I'd want either spiral binding (so I can lay it flat, fold it back on itself etc) or something three-hole-punched to put in a binder and re-order the pages as needed.

What is the most cost effective way (with decent quality) to do this?

Not fucking Kinkos*, I can tell.you that. They wanted like $100 to print and bind a print and play manual, which was like 50 sheets (color though)

I'd go binder for 300 pages. You can get combs to support that, but it will probably costs more as it is definitely more obnoxious to do youself, and I find them a bit obnoxious after a while. Proper spiral would be better, but I expect even more irritating/costly.

So if you're talking 3 ring, that's something you can do yourself, and I'll assume just printing those out at home/work is not a thing you can do?

I which case, there may well be some mom and pop print shops lurking around your town. Hit the yellow pages / google and get some quotes. They're way less than the big names from what I hear.

*You might be able to do the hole punching for free at Kinkos? I think ours has some paper cutters and stuff up front. But I can't imagine it would cost much per page wherever you get it done, relative to the ink.

Blarghy · August 2017

Does your school have a student print shop? If they do, they handle stuff like this all the time and usually give a decent discount to enrolled students to boot.

Grobian · August 2017

All universities here have a copy/print shop near the library. Also the library itself usually has a copier and printer. I would compare the prices, here you would expect below 10€ for the printing (with student discount) and then whatever for the binding, spiral shouldn't be more than 10€ again, probably less.

Enc · August 2017

Black and white, two sided, for print should be about 5-10c a page retail (Kinkos, campus print shops, etc.). Binding and color printing is where it gets pricey.

I'd find a copier available to students and probably pay for it that way, then use a 3-hole-punch and a 1inch binder. Should run you ~$5-15 for printing plus $2 for the binder.

Spirals are fucking expensive.

Grislo · August 2017

I'd check out your uni/library sources too, before spending anything elsewhere.

Otherwise, it'll come down to price checking local options.

Tofystedeth · August 2017

I have a friend that works for a blueprint company and one of his friends left his D&D player's handbook in the car in the summer so the binding all melted or something. So he took it to work and for like $10-15 they cut the end off and bound the whole thing with a spiral.

So maybe see if there's a blueprint company nearby is the gist of my anecdote.

LostNinja · August 2017

I'd go 3-ring as that'd be easier to flip through. I also agree with everyone above that said look for your university's student copy/print shop. The one at my school was really reasonably priced and I seem to remember them even hole punching them for me at not much additional cost.

mts · August 2017

a 3 ring will also allow you to split it apart so you don't have to lug around 500 pages of book with you

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Printing and binding a ~300 page PDF

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