another pdf printing thread

[GlassJaw]

I know there have been a lot of threads in the past about the best way to go about printing pdfs.

I was surprised to discover that visiting my local Staples and Fedex today that the price to print a 100-200 page pdf (B&W, double-sided, spiral bound) was about $20, give or take. That just seemed high to me. *shrugs*

The bulk of the cost was the printing itself; the binding was itself was only a couple of bucks.

So is the going rate to print 100 pages around $20?

 

[gamerprinter]

That's standard

Most copy shops charge between 15 to 20 cents per double-sided b/w print, so yeah, a hundred pages is between $15 to $20 that's pretty standard price. You're lucky you didn't ask for full color prints, which is anywhere from 25 to 50 cents a side, or 50 cents to $1 per page - which is standard pricing too. Print on Demand might be a tad better, but not much.

If you were a small publisher needed printing in quantity, such as 100 books of 100 pages, then you'd get a discount, but one book of 100 pages, you pay standard price for that.

Which also gives you a clue, about big publishers and hardback books, how is it that the price per page is much less with color and hardcover too, that's because they are printing 10,000 to 100,000 books at a time - volume pricing exists (plus lots of books are printed in China, where its cheaper to print.)

A single person ordering a single book is much more expensive to create, thus standard prices for such services.

GP

 

[mach1.9pants]

Thus the reason I brought my eReader, even though it is overpriced and it is b+w (e-ink). That is still cheaper in just 15 months of printing the dungeon and dragon e-mags... and that doesn't take into account the tons of other free and paid for PDFs I get.

I have 'paid off' that eReader already, come Sept or so I'll be investing in a better pixel Qi dual mode screen reader of some sort.

EDIT: BTW how is your project going? The Gift is great, I want MOAR!

 

[gamerprinter]

Slight threadjack, sorry.

EDIT: BTW how is your project going? The Gift is great, I want MOAR!

The Gift: Part 1 and 2 is currently being rewritten by Jonathon McNaulty of Kobold Quarterly, a rerelease of Part 1 will occur in July, and Part 2 - Dim Spirit will hopefully be ready by Gencon - Kaidan will be an imprint under Rite Publishing, there is also talk of it becoming a Patronage Project under Rite Publishing - so big things happening, but a bit more patience is required, sorry for the delay (problems with the previous publisher - all settled now, I am sole owner of Kaidan once again.) Part 3 should be ready by September, and then hopefully the main setting handbook later in the fall. That's the current schedule.

If you've already purchased The Gift: Part 1, let me know and I will verify with RPGNow and get you a free copy once it is rewritten.

End - threadjack...

GP

 

[nedjer]

I'm always a bit puzzled about PDF printing of whole books. One of the advantages of pdf or html, for me, is selecting what to print. That gives a sheaf of maybe 50 pages of what's actually needed to run a game most of the the time. So 95% of what's needed is immediately on hand and manageable compared to digging through a couple of hundred pages every time I want the most commonly used material.

Trying to recreate a full copy of a rule book seems expensive and more work than either printing selections or searching in the full files on screen. So, are there any benefits to $20 plus print outs that I'm missing?

 

[GlassJaw]

Trying to recreate a full copy of a rule book seems expensive and more work than either printing selections or searching in the full files on screen. So, are there any benefits to $20 plus print outs that I'm missing?

In general I agree with you but I like having modules in both hard-copy and pdf. Makes running it at the table easier (for me at least).

Plus, having the hardcopy means I can take it with me and read it when I'm not at my computer.

 

[nedjer]

In general I agree with you but I like having modules in both hard-copy and pdf. Makes running it at the table easier (for me at least).

Plus, having the hardcopy means I can take it with me and read it when I'm not at my computer.

I can certainly appreciate the lure of a crisp hardcover rule set but I'd need some kind of binding machine to make pdfs into something to compare to a hardcopy.

Would moan about pdf printing and cutting down loads of trees, but much of the obsession with eco schemes about personal printing or not recycling comes across as a distraction to avoid looking at the massive waste by companies and governments.

 

[gamerprinter]

You can just hate me, but...

You guys can just hate me, but I run a graphics design/digital printshop - I am Gamer Printshop, afterall. I am POD printer of large format RPG maps, and though I don't advertise, as I don't have the best system for it, I also have laser printers color and b/w, so I print hard copies of all my PDFs, then bind them and put clear acrylic covers on them.

I think your point about hard copies is right on, especially since my group doesn't want me to bring my laptop to games, so I print hard copies and take them there. The other gamers grab the hard copies and flip through them looking for stuff like new feats, magic items, etc for their characters.

If you don't have a laptop, or electronic book reader, having a hard copy makes the PDF available to everyone at the table. (But I'd still charge you $15 a book to print it, plus $1.25 to bind it and $.75 for clear covers - so it would still cost you $17 if I printed them for you + shipping.)

So while printing them costs the company - I'm the company so I can afford to print out all my own PDFs at very little cost.

GP

 

[nedjer]

You guys can just hate me, but I run a graphics design/digital printshop - I am Gamer Printshop, afterall. I am POD printer of large format RPG maps, and though I don't advertise, as I don't have the best system for it, I also have laser printers color and b/w, so I print hard copies of all my PDFs, then bind them and put clear acrylic covers on them.

I think your point about hard copies is right on, especially since my group doesn't want me to bring my laptop to games, so I print hard copies and take them there. The other gamers grab the hard copies and flip through them looking for stuff like new feats, magic items, etc for their characters.

If you don't have a laptop, or electronic book reader, having a hard copy makes the PDF available to everyone at the table. (But I'd still charge you $15 a book to print it, plus $1.25 to bind it and $.75 for clear covers - so it would still cost you $17 if I printed them for you + shipping.)

So while printing them costs the company - I'm the company so I can afford to print out all my own PDFs at very little cost.

GP

Have you no concern for those poor little saplings as you tear their tender roots from the earth

 

[mach1.9pants]

I'm always a bit puzzled about PDF printing of whole books. One of the advantages of pdf or html, for me, is selecting what to print. That gives a sheaf of maybe 50 pages of what's actually needed to run a game most of the the time. So 95% of what's needed is immediately on hand and manageable compared to digging through a couple of hundred pages every time I want the most commonly used material.

Trying to recreate a full copy of a rule book seems expensive and more work than either printing selections or searching in the full files on screen. So, are there any benefits to $20 plus print outs that I'm missing?

Many of us like to just sit down and read the games books. Admittedly not 4E but I read tons of RPG books I am never going to use. So using a PC or printing just a section doesn't cut it.

As for trees, NZ's biggest industry is forestry. We cut down more trees per head of pop than most countries to make timber and paper and stuff. Oh noes! We are destroyers of the world. Nope, totally wrong because those trees are then replanted and growing trees consume more CO2 than adult trees.

Now if it wasn't for all the cows and sheep farting, we'd be carbon neutral!

So while printing them costs the company - I'm the company so I can afford to print out all my own PDFs at very little cost.

GP

Yeah and it goes under 'business expenses' too, I bet