Does anyone have any suggestions for printing large color manuals cheaply?

These would be printed in color on two-sided, 3-hole paper. They're about 1000 pages each.

If I buy a CMYK laserjet printer, I probably can't print them for less than about 3¢ each.

How many manuals are you printing? I assume the finished size is 8.5X11 inches? Is it 1000 pieces of paper or 500 printed two sides? What kind of paper? Glossy, coated, or a text?

I'll start with one manual. Plain (recycled) paper, 2 sides on 500 sheets. 3-holes, 92 bright. 8.5" x 11".

It takes awhile to "digest" computer manuals. The next one be a few months in the future.

Chuck,

It really depends on the quality you are looking to achieve. Is this duplicating a manual? Is it original artwork? How much coverage on a page? Extensive use of photos?
The paper should be heavier when you are doing two sided printing, especially with photos or heavy coverage. Maybe you could get away with 24# paper. How important is readability?

If you buy a new printer those costs must be considered. How much will you use it other than for this job? You could go into a shop and use high-end equipment for little more than it would cost you to do yourself and probably less.

Is this a manual for study purposes for your own use that you, maybe, have only in pdf format? If so, have you considered taking it somewhere like Kinkos to have it printed? Maybe their price per page for a large number of pages would be cost effective for you. Or is this some manual you have developed and are considering printing for distribution to others? In which case maybe you want a print house.

Why don't you consider Sanders Printing. He does excellent work. I've used him for years on large projects and small. Plus he's a "Mac" guy.
Email him: terry@sandersprinting.com

The manuals are User Guides and References for programming languages (like OS X, or Cocoa). They're typically PDF or HTML files. They're for my personal use. I'm exploring options.

I was kinda hoping somebody might be able to recommend a CTP or DTP book publishing house somewhere.

I will call Terry Sanders.

The Kinkos near my house wants 69¢/page < 1000 pages. Or 49¢/page at 1500 two-sided color pages on 3-hole paper. The total cost at Kinkos would be $350 for the first 1000 pages.

If I buy a $399 HP CP2025dn LaserJet printer, and two reams of Staples paper @ $6.59/ream, and throw in a hundredth of cent per page for electricity,
the first 1000 (2-sided) pages would cost me about 42¢/page. That's less than Kinkos cost per page. By the 2nd printing job, I will pay for the total cost of the printer and a replacement cartridge. [ HP toner cartridges are $100 each and good for 1000 pages. The HP CP2025dn printer "burns out" after 40,000 pages. ]

Why don't you just buy a good text book on those languages you want to learn? See what they are using at local colleges in the computer science curricula.

These are highly technical reference books published by the software manufacturers. Unlike "textbooks," they're up-to-date, and written specifically for a given language or tool. These are the books that used to come with compilers in the 1980's and 1990's. They're a little easier on the eyes than webpages.

If you haven't programmed, you probably don't understand.

I have programmed--actually for big mainframes. However, I guess no one does hard copy these days. Just pdf's and read it on your computer. Too bad.I did just do a query with google for "textbook on cocoa proggramming language" and there are two listed on Amazon both mentioning OS X. That might be cost effective. Then the one in pdf form could be used as an online searchable reference. Actually sometimes text books have a CD with them so you can search the text also in addition to having hard copy. I taught computer science at my local CC until 4 years ago. The book publishers usually keep the online link info quite up to date. I personally like to have a hard copy myself, so I understand where Chuck M is coming from. I'm just suggesting that it is not impossible to buy a hard copy covering the subject. It is unlikely that the basic concepts of the Cocoa programming language change drastically from day to day.

Here's another thought. Do you absolutely NEED color? These are programming languages, not comics. Perhaps you might want to print out a chapter at a time, and use markers to put in color where you might really need it. Mark it up as you wish as you study and learn. Digest one chapter at a time. That way, if you have a laser printer it would only cost you about 3 cents per page or less if you double sided it.

I may not absolutely need color, but it looks like it would be very beneficial in this first case. The colors are too subtle to be printed in B&W.

Book hard copies are not complete and up-to-date like the software publishers' PDF documentation. Books are sometimes not good for searching. The two mediums have different purposes.

Chuck, I can only tell you what I do with reference material. I scan/read on screen and only print out pages that I need to keep in front of me. On a 100 page PDF, there may only be a handful of pages that I want to actually work with or make notes on. I hate wasting paper, which is why I only print selected pages. Printer ink and plain paper are cheaper than having a printer print, collate and assemble.

Maybe you're right, Phyl.

I visited Office Max today, and their printing prices are similar to Kinko's sometimes, and sometimes cheaper. Single sided is cheaper than double sided. Office Max has color printing 1-side discounted from 49¢ to 29¢/page until tomorrow.