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Printing (Big) Manuals?
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."
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.
I can understand that ggv has some possibly tricky dependencies, but xpdf is pretty easy to compile on any Unix. I've compiled it on a number of oddball unices without problem.
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
Sounds like PrintFu is what you're after.
there's more than one way to do me.
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.
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/help/learn_book.a spx 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.
This sig intentionally left justified.
I was just looking at a very similar problem:
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.
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 is not having tables and images cut in two (and many other formatting issues)...
Second, if you need to read any sort of electronic document, why not read it electronically?
Because for many people, searching and cross referencing data are much more efficiant with hard copy. Many people like having a manual open next to them when they work, and do not like having to flip back and forth to some electronic document.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
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.
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.
Don't be so radical.
(print even pages)
psbook -s16 file.ps |psnup -n 2 |psselect -e |lpr -P printer
(re-feed your pages, print odd pages)
psbook -s16 file.ps |psnup -n 2 |psselect -o |lpr -P printer
Will print a nice manual, in several 16 pages booklets, that you can bind with your own stapler in the middle (hint: open the stapler all the way, plus the side of your desk is your friend).
If you used a nice laser printer (a cheap one will do) then you have a nice, book sized manual, as easy to read as a common book.
That would be for A4, but if you would like bigger sizes, you can do some tricks to print on legal size, and chop the top and bottom margins, acheiving book-grade font sizes, but you are on your own (hint: man psbook).
Of course, only use A4.
I needed a manual printed (perfect bound - like a paperback novel) last year and went with CafePress. 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. 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?