Looking for a place for cheap printing. 9k pages!!

steve_

Hi guys im looking for a place to print the 3ds max 2011 manual for me. I use it in college and i wanted to get a copy for myself to have as a reference.

Anyone know of a place that would print this manual (9000 pages) without costing an arm and a leg. Doesnt need to be color

flanree

I assume you have a PDF version? There's no need to have a hard copy print out of something like that. You can keep the PDF on a memory stick and search it on a computer etc. There is no cheap option to print it. You could reduce it to fit more pages on each sheet but it would still be too many sheets to be worthwhile printing. In reality, the cheapest way is to buy a few black cartridges for a desktop printer and a bunch of tesco paper and print it yourself.

Danbo!

Which manual is 9000 pages? Are you talking about printing all the help files?! You'd be much better off financially looking at a couple of decent books from third party authors. Yes, they might not cover every single detail and function but they'll do enough. Anything further can be found online through tutorials or forums.

Choosing a book depends on what you're modelling be it architectural, character, gaming assets, etc. most people concentrate on just one or two so no need for a 9000 page manual covering intricate details of each category.

qpd

In reality, the cheapest way is to buy a few black cartridges for a desktop printer and a bunch of tesco paper and print it yourself.

In reality you would be much better off getting a commercial printer to run it for you, it won't be cheap but neither will all those cartridges (don't... don't... try doing this on an inkjet - you will bankrupt yourself financially and mentally). Cheap copier paper from the likes of tesco is dogdirt compared to the stock that a commercial printer uses.

Only a production laser printer could handle this efficiently and you'll want to print duplex so a cheap home laser printer would take forever... commercial print is the only sensible option if you place any value on your time at all.

I've checked the file out - it's 9,528 pages (lettersize: Shorter and wider than A4 so you're scaling each page as you print... that's quite processor intensive). Essentially you would be tying up your pc, your printer and yourself for a long time instead of just collecting it from a commercial printing company. Go to any commercial printer worth their salt and they'll give you perfectly printed unscaled documents, without all the hassle.
We do this all the time, trust me!

off.the.walls

Go to the repographics center in your college? Or ask a mate whos in college to go to a repo graphics center for you?

steve_

I think im going to go through the manual and pick what i want out of it. Leaving out sections i wouldnt use. Hopefully that would bring the cost down quite a bit

off.the.walls

I think the graphics center in tallaght charges 5cent a sheet.

mountain

steve_ wrote: »

Hi guys im looking for a place to print the 3ds max 2011 manual for me. I use it in college and i wanted to get a copy for myself to have as a reference.

Anyone know of a place that would print this manual (9000 pages) without costing an arm and a leg. Doesnt need to be color

Do you have any idea of how thick 9000 pages is??
Or how heavy?

a document that size would be totally unusable, as someone else said,
keep in on a memory stick and search it from that.

qpd

Ah it's only 9 or 10 lever arch files... we give a free bookshelf with jobs like this!

steve_

Doh, i forgot all about my kindle!! Dropped the PDF on there and works fine ha. Well at least i know how much printing will roughly for future reference.