printing PDFs?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Printfu is a good online PDF-printing service.

Their site is down at the minute, alas.

If I had a PDF from a RPG company, would I be able to get them to print the PDF cover as the book cover, or will I end up with a generic blank cover? It's a minor issue, but I'm curious.

 

[Glyfair]

Really, if you have a ton of stuff, it's probably cheaper to get an inexpensive laser printer and print them out yourself. A decent black & white laser printer can be had for around $100, as I understand it. Color printers are more expensive, but so is the printing.

More than likely you'll break even and still have the laser printer for future PDFs.

 

[Deekin]

Really, if you have a ton of stuff, it's probably cheaper to get an inexpensive laser printer and print them out yourself. A decent black & white laser printer can be had for around $100, as I understand it. Color printers are more expensive, but so is the printing.

More than likely you'll break even and still have the laser printer for future PDFs.

I have a laser printer, any tips for binding a Book?

 

[3catcircus]

I have a ton of good stuff on PDF, like Bronze Gods and all the 2E Dark Sun books, that I'd much prefer to have physical copies of. Does anyone have much experience printing out PDFs like this and having them bound? Is my best option Kinko's? I'm wondering if there are good printing places that offer decent prices for printing in bulk.

Buy cardstock. Spend the money on a good color laser (or be prepared to shell out for inkjet cartridges). At Staples, color laserjets can be had for $400. Spend the money to get one that prints double-sided (or spend the time shuffling the paper).

Print the covers on cardstock. Print the pages. Bind using any preferred method (I like comb bound, but you gotta spend some bucks on the binding machine - $129.99 for a manual model that'll bind up to 300 sheets.)

 

[Glyfair]

I have a laser printer, any tips for binding a Book?

Never done it but....

1) Take the already printed pages to a store and have them bind it.

2) I've seen binding machines for sale at office supply stores (at least for spiral bound). Not sure they are worth it, but if bound is important...

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

If I had a PDF from a RPG company, would I be able to get [Printfu] to print the PDF cover as the book cover, or will I end up with a generic blank cover? It's a minor issue, but I'm curious.

The first page of your PDF is the cover, but it's in black-and-white. The front and back covers are stiffer stock than the normal pages. The back is a solid-color and blank. (This is for the sprial-bound documents -- I was pleased with them.)

 

[Aus_Snow]

Personally, I would recommend against buying a colour laser, for any significant amount of printing. Printing gets expensive, is the thing. This is based on what I've seen and read so far, but I'm more than willing (and happy) to be wrong here.

But with a mono laser, and a thermal binder, you can do a pretty good job at fairly low cost, IME.

I've had negative experiences with some printing shops, but others are fine. Best of luck, either way.

 

[defendi]

Lulu: It costs nothing, but if you want to do it right, you have to order a copy or two to check the output. Plus, you have to build your covers in wrap around. Plus, your customer support for the print is now being handled by a company that doesn't have the best customer support. That said, I like Lulu and I (Final Redoubt Press) and ramping up with them now for the products I did in PDF a year ago. My is more complex than others, though, because my product is written for four game systems and so if I want to do paperback and hardbound I have 8 versions of each book.

I have a color duplex Dell 5100cn. I'm happy with it. I can crank out a PDF double sided with little or no effort. The cost is fairly low. I take them to Kinkos and have them bound for under 5 bucks.

 

[jmucchiello]

Is there a big set-up fee for publishers? Because I can't figure out why companies that produce print-ready PDFs don't always do this. Quite a few of them say they have no interest in doing it, even when asked nicely.

The setup "fee" is the cost to deal with lulu.com to setup your PDF as well as ongoing support of lulu after the setup. POD requests are so rare (I've had none) that this is time better spent elsewhere unless demand will cover the time spent setting it up.

 

[defendi]

Yeah, it nine months for me to hit a cricital mass where my most solid customer based polle 50% on wanting print copies. I put it off until then.