How much does it (really) cost to print & bind a single book athome?

[Martin C.]

How much does it cost to print & bind a PDF into a book?

In a related post to the electronic newsgroups, I found a bunch of
'ebooks' which are basically PDFs which can be printed, for free.

What's the trick to printing & binding them at home?
What is the cost normally associated by page for paper, ink, binding, and
equipment maintenance?

Here, by the way, are some of the desired documents:

* Op Amps For Everyone, Ron Mancini, 464 pages:
* www.ti.com/lit/an/slod006b/slod006b.pdf

* Designing Analog Chips, Hans Camenzind, 250 pages,
* www.designinganalogchips.com/_count/designinganalogchips.pdf

* Circuits I Have Known, Ronald Parker, 190 pages
* controlsignalconverter.com/docs/circuits_i_have_known.pdf

* A DESIGNER’S GUIDE TO INSTRUMENTATION AMPLIFIERS, Charles Kitchin, 130
pages
* www.analog.com/static/imported-files/
design_handbooks/5812756674312778737Complete_In_Amp.pdf

* HANDBOOK OF OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIER APPLICATIONS, Bruce Carter, 94 pages
* www.ti.com/lit/an/sboa092a/sboa092a.pdf

* CMOS Transistor Layout KungFu, by Lee Eng Han, et al, 40 pages
* www.eda-utilities.com/CMOS_Transistor_Layout_KungFu.pdf

etc.

What are the typical costs for printing & binding at home?

a) Paper is about 4 cents a sheet
b) B&W laser powder is (how much) a sheet?
c) Binding is (how much) a book?
d) etc.

 

[Elmo P. Shagnasty]

How much does it cost to print & bind a PDF into a book?

In a related post to the electronic newsgroups, I found a bunch of
'ebooks' which are basically PDFs which can be printed, for free.

What's the trick to printing & binding them at home?

You sound like someone who sees restaurants serving food, then stand
there and ask, "What's the trick of cooking at home?"

There's no "trick". You print, and then you bind--however you want.

It sure looks like you're shopping for an answer that you like, despite
your not having gotten an answer you like even after several tries.

You want it to be free. You don't want to pay a penny a page or
whatever to print, and you don't want to pay for binding materials
and/or mechanisms.

You see ebooks that YOU want hardcopy, and you want to sit there and
blather on until someone gives you, for free, the hardcopy that you want.

You're like a two year old sitting in the middle of the room crying for
a cookie.

 

[Martin C.]

You're like a two year old sitting in the middle of the room crying for
a cookie.

All I wanted was experienced estimates on printing costs.
From a printing group.
The world's best printing group on the net, in fact.

Here's my set of assumptions to compare the cost of printing.
A 100-page book costs about $3.50 to print & bind at home.
A 250-page book costs about $5.75.
A 500-page book costs about $9.50.
A 1,000-page book costs about $17.00 to print & bind at home.

Maybe if they're off (or on), someone who actually knows what he's doing
can let me know if my guess is way off base or not.

1. Paper is easy to estimate the cost per page.
Costco sells 8.5x11 92-bright 20# paper at about $40/5000 sheets, which
is 0.8 cents per sheet, which is about 0.4 cents per page. Let's assume a
half cent per page is a reasonable number (with wastage).

2. Toner is a bit harder to estimate cost per page.
I first need to estimate how many pages an HP laserjet 3200m cartridge
prints and then what the cost is for that cartridge.
Googling, I see "page yields" of about 2,500 and costs of less than $20
for refill kits (http://www.247inktoner.com/hp-laserjet-3200-toner-
cartridges).
But, books are heavy duty printing. So, I'll assume (for lack of real
data), about 2000 pages per $20 of toner, which is an estimate of one
cent per page.

So, the actual printing is about 1.5 cents per page.
But, you have to take wear and tear into effect; so I'll round that to a
true cost of 2 cents per page.

That makes the average 500-page book cost about $10 to print at home.
Is this a fair estimate to ask of the primary printing group on the net?

3. Binding is much harder to estimate the costs of.
I have no experience with book binding; so my googling is almost
certainly off base by more than too much. Still, without help, I move on.
(Admittedly, this is the world's best printing group - not a binding
group ... so I may be unfairly asking too much of you.)

Googling, I find there are many binding methods:
http://www.abcoffice.com/binding_guide.htm

So, choosing 1-inch thermal binding as the gold standard, I find a "T-30
Thermal Binding Machine" for about $90, so I'll assume that's a NRE of
about $100 (free shipping but adding tax).

The problem now is estimating the cost per book. If I assume I make, oh,
say 100 books in the lifetime of the machine, that makes each book an
additional dollar to amortize the cost of the binding machine.

I have no idea what binding materials cost.
Fifty 1x11 inch "thermal glue strips" seem to be about $50 (http://
www.mybinding.com/.sc/ms/dd/ee/529/Thermal-Binding-Glue-Strips-Create-
Your-Own-Covers)

So the glue alone adds another dollar to the cost of the book (I suspect
there are cheaper home-depot-like construction-material alternatives to
the glue strips - but asking that might admittedly be too much for the
printing group so I'll look over to alt.home.repair for the needed advice
as they are one of the best groups on the net for real-world information).

I'm not sure how to do the covers. I'm inclined to print a color first
page and then put clear plastic for the binding. I was unable to get a
cost for that, so, out of the air, I'll assume fifty cents per cover as
I'm not sure what materials will work for binding.

(Too bad there wasn't a book printing & binding group.)

Overall, that comes to the following estimates for printing a book:
Paper ~= 0.5 cents per printed page
Toner ~= 1 cent per printed page
Binding ~= $2 per bound book

So, a 100-page book costs about $3.50 to print & bind at home.
A 250-page book costs about $5.75.
A 500-page book costs about $9.50.
A 1,000-page book costs about $17.00 to print & bind at home.

Within a buck or three ... do these estimates seem like those that
professional printers would have come up with?

(e.g., I have no idea of professional printing prices that you might have
in your head.)

 

[Martin C.]

All I wanted was experienced estimates on printing costs.
From ... the world's best printing group on the net, in fact.

I realize binding isn't printing ... so I called Fedex Kinkos who tells
me they no longer do laminated binding.

They only supply "Zelo" binding (flat coils) for $3.50 per book (+ $1 if
it's thicker than one inch which they say is 200 sheets of paper).

The problem they say with Zelo is that it's not as friction free as a
book would need. So they recommended spiral coil binding, at $5.50 per
book (plus $1 if it's greater than one inch which is about 400 printed
pages).

Incidentally, they charge 11 cents per printed page, so, having 'them'
print would be an order of magnitude more expensive than printing at home.

I'll keep looking up how to get printing & binding costs down for a home-
printed book.

If you, on the printing group, have constructive ideas, I'd welcome them.

 

[Charlie+]

I realize binding isn't printing ... so I called Fedex Kinkos who tells
me they no longer do laminated binding.

They only supply "Zelo" binding (flat coils) for $3.50 per book (+ $1 if
it's thicker than one inch which they say is 200 sheets of paper).

The problem they say with Zelo is that it's not as friction free as a
book would need. So they recommended spiral coil binding, at $5.50 per
book (plus $1 if it's greater than one inch which is about 400 printed
pages).

Incidentally, they charge 11 cents per printed page, so, having 'them'
print would be an order of magnitude more expensive than printing at home.

I'll keep looking up how to get printing & binding costs down for a home-
printed book.

If you, on the printing group, have constructive ideas, I'd welcome them.

How many books are you talking about? Coil bound books for thick books
sounds impractical, fine for 19mm but flat coils sounds like difficult
to page turn.
Self binding you cd probably manage for one or two books as a labour of
love, they will look amateur, very soon you would need a serious power
knife whole depth guillotine to make the perfect edges required on three
sides, I would think.
Anything in colour wd be a major increase in cost.

 

[Martin C.]

How many books are you talking about?

I've got more than a dozen so far, all culled from the net.

The printing itself doesn't seem to be onerous at about a half cent for
the paper plus one cent for the toner for a result of about 1.5 cents per
printed page.

Self binding you could probably manage for one or two books

The binding seems to be where I need an elegant solution suggested from
someone who has thought about it already.

The books themselves don't have to look professional; they just need to
be bound so that they can be read like a book.

anything in colour would be a major increase in cost.

I think the only color printing would be the first page (under the clear
binding). Most of the ebooks I found are B&W to start with.

If anyone has ideas that will improve the suggested process, that would
be appreciated.

 

[Martin C.]

If anyone has ideas that will improve the suggested process,
that would be appreciated.

UPDATE:

alt.home.repair, as usual, came through with lots of great ideas.

Now, the printing & binding is down to the price of paper & toner plus
the cost of cheesecloth or string & rubbery adhesives commonly available
by the gallon at Home Depot.

These ideas bring the cost down to roughly about $5 per 500-page book!
Printing & binding should take about an hour (glue sets overnight).

Thanks everyone!

 

[Michael J Davis]

I've got more than a dozen so far, all culled from the net.

The printing itself doesn't seem to be onerous at about a half cent for
the paper plus one cent for the toner for a result of about 1.5 cents per
printed page.


The binding seems to be where I need an elegant solution suggested from
someone who has thought about it already.

The books themselves don't have to look professional; they just need to
be bound so that they can be read like a book.

So I assume you don't want 'perfect binding' - each sheet stuck into an
adhesive layer on the spine?

I used to do reports, up to 120 pages, like that - A4 (since I'm in the
UK) sized using cheap transparent front and coloured back ready made
covers, and a simple timed heater to melt the hot-melt adhesive.

If you doing a lot, a friend (also a consultant) used to bind his
reports - up to 500 pages each in a steel clamp spine, but that required
a tough lever device to cramp the steel to grip all the pages, that was
quite expensive.

I think the only color printing would be the first page (under the clear
binding). Most of the ebooks I found are B&W to start with.

If anyone has ideas that will improve the suggested process, that would
be appreciated.

Mike

 

[Martin C.]

do you want to download books by others about electronic chips
and print single copies for your own reference?

Yes.

I want to learn how to do analog IC simulation & layout using tools
freely available on the net.

The problem I'm seeing is that I like paper, and, these books are so
technical that I need to read them slowly, write in the margins, do a
calculation - perhaps a drawing or diagram - and then read them again. I
just can't do that with an ebook. Plus my little tiny laptop is small so
it's a royal pain to simple fit a page (too small) or fit wide (too much
scrolling).

I've downloaded all the books I need to understand theory (sometimes it
takes more than one explanation for me to get the point since this is all
about IC design and not about raising kids or something simple like
that) ...

The problem now is simply making them a paper reference for me to use
once or thrice while learning - and to refer to in the future, as needed.

Do you want to self-publish books to sell to others?

Nope. These aren't 'my' books. I don't know anything about CMOS analog IC
design anyway. I simply want them for my own reference.

You need paper with halfway-decent opacity.

I found out from one of the printing ebooks (Digital Desktop Publishing,
by Susan E. L. Laketitled" in the "planning your document" section that
the pound weight & bleed measurement & color description system is
absolutely whacky!

For example, something like 20# paper is equivalent to 56# paper (or
something like that) depending on the size of the paper itself. Plus the
colors of white are also whacky. The author of that ebook on desktop
publishing suggests, for example, to go to a printer to figure it all out.

It was so complicated, it made analog IC design look positively easy!

 

[Martin C.]

So I assume you don't want 'perfect binding' - each sheet stuck into an
adhesive layer on the spine?

Actually, that's what I prefer. It seems so neat & tidy. And, I've found
that the glue (gorilla glue or shoe goop) is inexpensive.

I think all I really need (now that I've worked on it and you guys gave
me great ideas) is:
1. Glue (gorilla glue or shoe goop)
2. Clamps (almost any kind seem to work)
3. Jig (a wood frame seems pretty standard in the "book press" searches)

Basically, I think I print four pages to a side of paper using software
like Windows 'Fineprint' or Linux 'fp/fprint'book to perform the digital
imposition.

The digital imposition can be booklet imposition; but that requires me to
have multiple 'folios', which is more professional, but much more effort.

So I think I'll opt for book imposition instead. That's where the first
sheet of paper contains the first page and the median page on the one
side, and on the other side it contains the second page plus the
postmedian page. When the 8.5x11 US "letter" size stack is cut in half
(Fedex will do a 1/2 inch thick cut for $1.50), I simply put the two
decks together and bind the edges.

Someone suggested using a belt sander to even up the outside edges when
done, which sounds like a good idea for the thicker books.

So far, the cost, at four book pages to a sheet of paper, seems to be
reasonable (about a half cent for the paper plus one cent for the toner
for a result of about 1.5 cents per printed page); and a 'perfect
binding' at home can be done for about the cost of Gorilla Glue or Shoe
Goop and a few clamps and pieces of wood.

 

[Charlie+]

Actually, that's what I prefer. It seems so neat & tidy. And, I've found
that the glue (gorilla glue or shoe goop) is inexpensive.

I think all I really need (now that I've worked on it and you guys gave
me great ideas) is:
1. Glue (gorilla glue or shoe goop)
2. Clamps (almost any kind seem to work)
3. Jig (a wood frame seems pretty standard in the "book press" searches)

Dont you need a small saw to make shallow slots in the stack before
glueing? Providing for more substantial key than just edge of page?
otherwise the spine will just let go when you open the book in the
middle surely...C+

 

[Elmo P. Shagnasty]

do you want to download books by others about electronic chips
and print single copies for your own reference?

Yes.

I want to learn how to do analog IC simulation & layout using tools
freely available on the net.

The problem I'm seeing is that I like paper,[/QUOTE]

no, the problem is that you won't just go out and buy the damn books.

Face it: you don't REALLY want to learn all of this, you simply want to
futz and fiddle and fart around with complaining about how hard it is
for you to make a book at home.

 

[Martin C.]

The business about paper weight numbers is simply the difference about
how the weights are stated fpr general office paper (one system) and in
the book printing industry (the other system). The numbers are different
enough so that I don't get them mixed up.

I see your point. In some cases, a 20# paper is essentially similar to
something like 56# ... so you have to know what's what to compare.

 

[Martin C.]

Dont you need a small saw to make shallow slots
in the stack before glueing?

The saw and the belt sander both seem like great suggestions!

 

[Martin C.]

We can save a lot of money by making our own paper. First, you buy a 25
pound bag of rice...

I wonder if that's actually true.

With paper costing only about 0.8 cents a sheet, could you possibly make
the paper for less than what you can buy it?

We've proven you can certainly print & bind a book for less than it costs
to buy it.

But, I don't know about starting from rice. Do you know how much rice it
takes to make, say, 100 sheets of paper?

 

[Andrew Smallshaw]

3. Binding is much harder to estimate the costs of.
I have no experience with book binding; so my googling is almost
certainly off base by more than too much. Still, without help, I move on.
(Admittedly, this is the world's best printing group - not a binding
group ... so I may be unfairly asking too much of you.)

I'm a bit late into this discussion I know, but my advice would be
to check with your local universities and colleges: they pretty
much all have reasonably comprehensive in-house print shops and
they're usually open to the public. Prices tend to be keener than
the high street.

I know my local university library here in the UK offers while-you-wait
spiral binding for £2 including plastic covers, irrespective of
the number of pages. I believe they offer other binding options
but I've never looked into them, preferring the robustness and
lie-flat-open property of spiral binding.

I do have a plastic comb-binding machine at home that I use for
urgent binding of shorter stuff, but if it's not urgent (or exceeds
what a plastic comb can handle) I'll take it there: it saves so
much messing around, partly because their punches can do perhaps
70-80 sheets at a time which is a lot quicker than the four or five
of a home machine.

As for cost a few months ago I printed and bound the entire POSIX
specification (all 3,800 pages). ISTR I worked out the all-in cost
at just over £30 which is an order of magnitude cheaper than a
print copy. That was based on toner at 0.3p/page, paper at half
a penny a sheet and binding into five or six volumes. You do need
to consider the costs on a case-by-case basis though: cheaper books
are cheaper simply to buy in printed form. Anything under £10 here
generally isn't worth it; anything over £20 usually is.

 

[Joel]

How much does it cost to print & bind a PDF into a book?

In a related post to the electronic newsgroups, I found a bunch of
'ebooks' which are basically PDFs which can be printed, for free.

What's the trick to printing & binding them at home?
What is the cost normally associated by page for paper, ink, binding, and
equipment maintenance?

Here, by the way, are some of the desired documents:

You should be able to figure it out yourself. If you can't do the math
then just print some to find out.

The cost may vary depedning on how you buy your TONER (for laser printer)
or Ink (for inkjet printer).

- Very expensive if you can't trust 3rd party

- Pretty juicy if you don't know how to refill your TONER or INK Cartridges

Other than that it won't be easy to give you the answer you want to hear.

 

[Joel]

All I wanted was experienced estimates on printing costs.
From a printing group.
The world's best printing group on the net, in fact.

Here's my set of assumptions to compare the cost of printing.
A 100-page book costs about $3.50 to print & bind at home.
A 250-page book costs about $5.75.
A 500-page book costs about $9.50.
A 1,000-page book costs about $17.00 to print & bind at home.

I don't know what type of book you try to print (book size and characters
etc.), but I did print some music sheets (laser printer) and it cost little
more than your figures above. And I went with 3rd party toner which was
much cheaper than OEM

 

[Joel]

Yes.

I want to learn how to do analog IC simulation & layout using tools
freely available on the net.

The problem I'm seeing is that I like paper, and, these books are so
technical that I need to read them slowly, write in the margins, do a
calculation - perhaps a drawing or diagram - and then read them again. I
just can't do that with an ebook. Plus my little tiny laptop is small so
it's a royal pain to simple fit a page (too small) or fit wide (too much
scrolling).

I've downloaded all the books I need to understand theory (sometimes it
takes more than one explanation for me to get the point since this is all
about IC design and not about raising kids or something simple like
that) ...

The problem now is simply making them a paper reference for me to use
once or thrice while learning - and to refer to in the future, as needed.

May be you need to do some research about what type of eBook and format
that works well with the eBook.

Kindle eBook Reader for example with its own format (AZW) it will auto FIT
THE WIDTH to any Font Size. Or if you use other format (like PDF) then you
sure will have to SCROLL Left/Right to read.

You can't create AZW extension *BUT* you sure can create its original
format (MOBI) like PRC, MOBI etc. And there are software (some are free) to
do the converting to PRC or MOBI (and many other formats).

Creating eBook format is much simpler than you may image. Here, I don't
have time to type thousands of pages *BUT* I do COPY and PASTE (from
internet or not even start with text file) and I do thousand(s) of pages in
10-20 mins (depending on how easy I can copy and paste the text).

 

[Jack32]

Cost of printing and binding is depends on what type of binding you want and its not identical for different places.