Short run printing of letter size "book"

[target2019]

I'm looking for recent experience anyone might have with a short run (say 10-25) printing of a letter-size book of recipes or similar items. There are 120 pages.

Staples cost is around $35 per copy for b/w printing. That is bound too.

Has anyone hard-printed anything recently?

The distribution is to people you know, so it doesn't require any high-end features. It doesn't need an editor, or a cover designer. The PDF is already made.

 

[Meadbh]

The last time I hard printed anything was my thesis in 1988. At Kinko's. And I don't remember what it cost. Sorry.

 

[target2019]

The last time I hard printed anything was my thesis in 1988. At Kinko's. And I don't remember what it cost. Sorry.

Thanks. I just checked Kinkos and they are about $30 per book in the year 2015.

About .125 cents per finished impression. That is fancy talk for one side of the paper. Or .25 cents for one page, printed both sides.

The world has changed so much with regard to printing, copiers, computers, and what can be done.

 

[Spudd]

Try lulu.com, they will be much cheaper than Staples/Kinkos.

 

[W2R]

The last time I hard printed anything was my thesis in 1988. At Kinko's. And I don't remember what it cost. Sorry.

I got mine bound at a (local, not chain) copy center across the street from Texas A&M, that did this kind of binding all the time. This was many years ago, but the price was dirt cheap and did not seem exorbitant even to students.

I'd suggest asking around at a local university, to see where grad students are getting their theses and dissertations printed and bound. Surely that would be the lowest price around. Most grad students are not high rollers, or at least that was the case back in the day.

 

[Walt34]

I had a few photo books done at Blurb.com and they were pretty reasonable. Slow delivery (2-3 weeks) but I thought the quality was fine for my purposes and they have a plugin for Lightroom so that makes the layout easier. They target photography, not text users though so a site targeting text only might be cheaper.

 

[AnIntentionalRoad]

Google "self publishing websites" or "print on demand book publishing". Tons of options if you have a word or odd formatted file.

Sent from my SM-T237P using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[target2019]

Google "self publishing websites" or "print on demand book publishing". Tons of options if you have a word or odd formatted file.

Sent from my SM-T237P using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

Yep. Done that.
I'm looking for opinions if you've done that. Trying to find comments about your experience.
Thanks.

 

[target2019]

Try lulu.com, they will be much cheaper than Staples/Kinkos.

Hmmm. Price quote is for $3.00 each (don't see a min. quantity), perfect bound. That seems incredibly low for 120 page book. Maybe it is on tissue paper. LOL.

In any event, it is about $5.00 per book to ship. There is a provision to get a proof copy sent, too.

They are pretty strict on the PDF also. You need to conform to a list of items, like embed all your fonts, and so on.

I'll have to read more to see what the delivery is like. You lose about a week on ground shipping, and the printing could take a couple of weeks I guess.

Thanks for that tip about lulu.com.

 

[Sunset]

You don't want to simply email out the PDF of recipes ? or make them into an e-book?

Sorry I don't have any experience with this, other than reading recipe books from Church groups done 40 years ago.

 

[target2019]

You don't want to simply email out the PDF of recipes ? or make them into an e-book?

Sorry I don't have any experience with this, other than reading recipe books from Church groups done 40 years ago.

Actually, I'm asking on behalf of someone. It's a situation where a father wants to give the book of poems to his four children.

I'm thinking something else might be included with the book.

I made quick estimate of using a duplexing laser printer. For five books it wouldn't consume an entire black toner cartridge, so the cost with a home printer would be manageable.

 

[Totoro]

About .125 cents per finished impression

For the pure printing part in black & white current costs at corporate level are around 5 - 6 cents per impression in black & white.

These are prices in Europe (converted to USD), and excludes binding, postage and most notably paper.

Paper is typically around 1 cent per impression for standard office paper. Paper prices depends strongly on quality but you can check on-line.

So 12.5 cents isn't strange to me for a low volume application. Big runs work differently obviously. Handling is a big portion of cost.

If you have a somewhat decent printer at home or at friends it's probably cheaper to print it yourself.

 

[target2019]

For the pure printing part in black & white current costs at corporate level are around 5 - 6 cents per impression in black & white.

These are prices in Europe (converted to USD), and excludes binding, postage and most notably paper.

Paper is typically around 1 cent per impression for standard office paper. Paper prices depends strongly on quality but you can check on-line.

So 12.5 cents isn't strange to me for a low volume application. Big runs work differently obviously. Handling is a big portion of cost.

If you have a somewhat decent printer at home or at friends it's probably cheaper to print it yourself.

Excellent summary. I remember corp in-house cost for a hi-speed copier was about .05 cent per impression. Wish I still worked there...

We have a few duplex laser printers in the family, so will probably go in that direction. I have a color laser, and can do a cover if he wants.

I just looked at a toner cartridge, and it is $65, and will do 1500 pages. Even if it does only 1200 pages, the cost is about .06 cents per page. We end up with corporate printing costs. Sounds like we're going in that direction.

 

[Sarah in SC]

I used Blurb for a little hardcover book I did and it was really nice. Not inexpensive, but they have good specials and I really enjoyed the process of putting it together. Very user friendly.