Where to print and bind a 500 page PDF in Toronto?
September 7, 2012 6:55 AM   Subscribe

Toronto-filter: Some professors at my school are giving their textbooks to us students, free, via a printable PDF. So, I'd like to get it printed as cheaply as possible and then bound. Where's the best place to do this? Our textbook are on average ~500 pages. Proximity to Bloor and Spadina is a big plus.
posted by demagogue to Grab Bag (11 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
What's the Canadian equivalent of Kinko's? Or Staples/Office Depot/OfficeMax? If by "bound" you mean "stitched and glued together like a textbook," that's going to be a problem. But any document shop is going to be able to put something together for you. Coil binding, comb binding, or just a binder. Heck, your university may have its own document shop that can do this kind of stuff for you.

This could easily cost you $30-50, including the cost of printing it out. But if you can print for free from your university, you can probably get it bound for less than that.
posted by valkyryn at 7:14 AM on September 7, 2012


The first print is the more expensive one (try Kinkos/FedEx over on University?), but after that you should band together with your fellow students and make a bunch of photocopies from the original printout. In my experience you'll get better printing rates from the school, but better photocopying rates from a Kinkos.

19-ring binding (this style) is relatively cheap, durable, and allows you the option of taking it apart for more photocopying. 500 pages might be pushing it, but in that case just divide it by chapters into a two or three volume set.
posted by ceribus peribus at 7:22 AM on September 7, 2012


Best answer: I cannot vouch for prices currently (it has been nine years since I left Toronto), but in my Annex-living, printout-binding experience, I did okay with the print place upstairs at Bloor and Spadina (entrance between Noah's and the Second Cup). And there is a FedEx/Kinko's closer than University and Edward: one at Bloor and Major, two blocks west of Spadina.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:46 AM on September 7, 2012


Best answer: Go where the engineers go. Image Xpress on College (next to Molly Bloom's) or Alico's
Image xpress is sketchier (and thus better) They probably already have the text you want printed out and bound (that's how they roll). If you ask nicely they also have lots of other interesting things already bound.
posted by captaincrouton at 7:48 AM on September 7, 2012 [2 favorites]


Do you have any friends at school involved with:
- newspaper
- academic journals
- library system (less so)
- student government

You can often get them to turn a blind eye to you printing from their "office" printers, at the cost of bringing your own paper and a bit of cash for the toner you're using. It's not quite proper, but I would count it as still ethical.

In Kingston, the math computer lab had pay-for printing with accessible paper, and the physics lab (restricted-access) had free printing with bring-your-own paper. That was over the line on ethicality but free printing to those in the know.
posted by Lemurrhea at 7:50 AM on September 7, 2012


if you want a "proper" bound book, look for print-on-demand website. This one (not an endorsement, just a high-ranking Google Result) will print a bound softcover copy of a 500-page 8.5" x 11" book for USD 14.95.
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:11 AM on September 7, 2012 [2 favorites]


Buy a ream of bond paper you like, and find someone with a LaserJet 4200 and a duplexer, or a workgroup printer/copier (like a Ricoh or Xerox). Print it out, with a gutter for the binding. Then take it to a copy shop and let them velobind/spiral bind it for you.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:55 AM on September 7, 2012


Have you considered buying a Kindle DX?
posted by gregr at 9:02 AM on September 7, 2012 [1 favorite]


Can you highlight or write margin notes on a Kindle?
posted by small_ruminant at 9:44 AM on September 7, 2012


Lulu.com is a great way to get this sort of thing done. 500 pages of letter paper on their "standard" paper (which is quite nice) is ~$18, on "publisher grade" paper (less nice, but probably fine) is ~$14.
posted by high5ths at 10:40 AM on September 7, 2012


NOT KINKOS!! -- they are insanely expensive. I think the cheapest approach is to print it yourself, on a laser printer, and then get it bound.

Local places that used to print & bind were/are:

Alicos, on College at the foot of St. George, which is still there.

The place upstairs from Noahs.

The place sandwiched between the Bata Shoe Museum and the Regal Beagle, on the Southwest corner of Bloor and St. George. May not be there any more, but they used to do the best and cheapest job of course readers...
posted by jrochest at 8:59 PM on September 7, 2012


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