the Cost of Custom Printing Services

The price included making 20 copies of a 50 page (both sides) report from a PDF file on a USB thumb drive, collating the pages, and binding each set in a simple cover. The documents were printed on heavy-weight paper. The discount cost for 1000 pages was $0.09 per page for the paper and printing, and the cover was $0.50 extra per report.

I took my USB thumb drive to the copy place, they showed me a variety of paper samples and up-sold me on a report cover. The girl who was helping me was a graphic design student at the local university and she whipped up some basic cover art from a couple of the graphics inside the report for no extra cost to me. Took her all of two minutes to do and it looked great.

The report was then sent to this 20 foot long industrial copier. The machine read the file, printed everything out, collated the pages and bound them with stitches and glue. Took around 20 minutes for everything to happen from when I was served to receiving my printed documents. I have no doubt the machine would be capable of printing a small run of books, should I ever need that service.

Just general things, since I don't have to do this often, I'd say look for professional and relaxed staff who understand their jobs. Be sure to listen to their suggestions about what might make your documents look better, but don't be afraid to say "no" if you want it how you want it.