PDF Book Printing/Binding

Calico_Jack73 · Dec 2, 2008

There are a couple of PDF books that I'd love to get printed and bound since I am not one to read a full book while sitting at my computer (I'm always too tempted to boot up a game). What is the best way to get PDF books printed? Please consider the following:

Quality
Price
Service
Convenience

My ideal would be a web service that I could upload the PDFs to and have them ship me perfect bound copies of each at a reasonable price.

theskyfullofdust · Dec 2, 2008

You could do a lot worse than use Lulu.com. I've used them for my self-published work, personal projects, and they've always be great. And since you're in the US, the postage should be cheaper too.

Calico_Jack73 · Dec 2, 2008

theskyfullofdust said:
You could do a lot worse than use Lulu.com. I've used them for my self-published work, personal projects, and they've always be great. And since you're in the US, the postage should be cheaper too.

I checked them out. When using the cost estimator do you use the total number of pages in the PDF or the number of physical pages that will be in the book? For example... if I have a PDF that is 402 pages do I use that value or 201 for double sided?

Even at 201 pages the cost was a little steep.

Vascant · Dec 2, 2008

The solution I found to this problem was actually pretty simple. I purchased an old workhorse laser printer at an auction (The one I have gets 15k pages per toner cart) and I print them myself and then have like Staples or Kinkos do the binding.

Aus_Snow · Dec 2, 2008

I'd go with using a b&w laser printer, then taking the document to a print shop (I've used the local Xerox a few times, f'rex) to bind for cheap. . . or just take the file in to them and get them to print and bind it, still for cheap, most likely. Cheaper than anything that includes postage costs, I suspect. Faster too.

PeelSeel2 · Dec 2, 2008

I print them off on a B&W laser or my color laser, depending on what I want. I buy the self refills, which brings my cost per page to practically nothing. I bought a BIG stapler that does up to 1 inch thick ($40.00). Bought some thick covers that my printers can handle and, Voila! Handled.

PapersAndPaychecks · Dec 3, 2008

Calico_Jack73 said:
I checked them out. When using the cost estimator do you use the total number of pages in the PDF or the number of physical pages that will be in the book? For example... if I have a PDF that is 402 pages do I use that value or 201 for double sided?

Even at 201 pages the cost was a little steep.

If you're talking about the OSRIC .pdf, which is 402 pages, then 2 of the pages are the cover, and each "page" is a side of paper. So you'd need to figure it out based on 400 pages.

However, you won't be able to do it with the .pdf because it doesn't match Lulu's formatting requirements (the cover needs to be uploaded as a separate image). Also, I propose to use a much sharper image resolution for the Lulu version which will look a lot better in print.

Expect the economy version to cost about $8.50 plus postage.

CleverNickName · Dec 3, 2008

I've tried to use Kinko's for printing and binding, but they wouldn't do it. They said it was against company policy to make copies of copyrighted material. Has anyone else run into this problem? How did you get around it?

Darrin Drader · Dec 3, 2008

CleverNickName said:
I've tried to use Kinko's for printing and binding, but they wouldn't do it. They said it was against company policy to make copies of copyrighted material. Has anyone else run into this problem? How did you get around it?

Use their online service. I was expecting a problem but ended up not having one. - https://printonline.fedexkinkos.com/

EP · Dec 3, 2008

Calico_Jack73 said:
My ideal would be a web service that I could upload the PDFs to and have them ship me perfect bound copies of each at a reasonable price.

Perfect bound requires a full spread file of the front + back covers with the side, bleed, and stuff that would be available from the actual publisher. If you're looking to use a web service and go perfect bound, you'll need to do some Photoshopping. Then there's the interior pages themselves - they have to be re-ganged and if you don't know how that needs to be set up, you'll need the print shop to do it for you. If you upload it to a web service, these are the same conditions they'll need to, but I'm not sure they'll do it for you - they expect it done already.

If you have it spiral bound instead, you can just have the pages printed as if you did it at home and the spiral on decent paper will last a long time with proper care.

Personally speaking, you're better off going to a print shop for this. They can take the PDF and print it out as they need (though they will charge you for any work on the file to make it printable). Try a college or university print shop if you have one nearby - they are generally cheaper than regular print shops and love printing out anything that isn't a text book.

BTW, if you bought something in PDF form only, you are legally entitled to one print copy for your own purpose (but I'm not a lawyer and print shops have the right to refuse printing if they have copyright concerns).

Hope some of this helps.