Printing Dissertation - suggestions needed

[dullard]

I'll be printing my dissertation in a couple of weeks and I'm looking for quality prints at as low of a price as possible (after 9 years of school, money is tight). I need 5 copies of the disseration at ~310 pages each (~30 pages with half text and half color figures are scattered throughout). Printing it in all black/white is not an option. Using a copier is not an option as subtle grayscale and color images need to be reproduced with an accuracy which copiers do not possess.

Here are things I've been thinking about.
1) I considered printing it all with an ink jet, but that'll cost ~$250 for the ink alone at typical ink prices. Plus the ink jets I personally have available are not very high quality.
2) I've considered printing it myself with black and white laser for most pages and switching to color inkjet for the rest. Unfortunately the text changes from the different types of printers really looks unprofessional.
3) I've considered going to a computer lab on campus and using a color laser to print everything (~$150). However I have never used a color laser, and I've seen some pretty shoddy color laser prints of pictures.
4) There is the Kinko's option (or equivalent). What is the going rate for printing, and do they have any method of charging different amounts for color and black/white when they are scattered throughout?

Do you have any better suggestions? Are any of the online printing places any good?

 

[Fiveohhh]

I suggest Kinkos, than ya just bring it there and if its not right(something they did wrong) no worries, they'll redo it just make sure you bring it there and tell them exactly how you want it.

 

[Orsorum]

I second the Kinkos recommendation, maybe talk with them and get a quote, and look up some other print shops in the area, compare prices. Unfortunately it may be the only way to get it done the way you want.

What is your dissertation regarding?

 

[Ogg]

Youre gonna print them and then have them bound?

Its your dissertation, you shouldnt be worried about spending money on it. In fact you want to drop coin on it as its the culmunation of your whole educational life!!!
Get it done right, spare no cost.:beer:

 

[vi edit]

You are going to get drilled at Kinkos for color. A full page in color costs the same as a page with one word in color. You are probably looking at around $.12 a page for color while black and white would be around $.02.

This is probably one of the most important papers you will ever do in you life. I don't think it's a place to be cheap on it.

 

[HokieESM]

Congrats, dullard on being ready to defend. I hope to be there myself in a few months *crosses fingers*.

When I printed my masters thesis, I used the b&w laser/color inkjet option for the copies given to the professors. I hope your committee (especially if your PhD is in a technical field) won't care about any "discrepancy" between those pages--you'll be lucky if some of them do more than skim it <grin>. I did, however, take the time to use the same part of the same ream of paper for the color pages (as the corresponding b&w pages)--I was stunned at how "different" parts of the same ream can be. Also, if you up the quality on the color pages to "best" or "photo", it helped significantly in comparison to the sharp text of the laser. Also, using a 600 dpi PDF file helped me (my thesis was in LaTeX) with consistency.

Kinkos is horribly expensive, sadly. It would cost you FAR more than $250 to print five copies.

I did, however, pay the Copy Center at the university to print two "final" copies and bind them--one for my advisor and one for me--once the final revisions were made post-defense. NCSU (and VT) both have ETD.... so no one is actually going to "check out" a paper copy of my dissertation (or my already completed thesis). But I wanted one for my sake (after you write 300+ pages, you want something to show for it!).

Again, congrats and good luck!

 

[DaveSimmons]

A little tricky and you'd want to test it first, but you could use (2) printing ALL pages with the B&W laser but with empty spaces for the charts, then feed those pages into the inkjet for printing only the charts.

 

[vi edit]

I'm sure there are some small printing companies in your area that would be pretty competitive to get business over Kinkos. You could give them a shot.

Also - I know that Omaha (are you there or in Lincoln?) has a large Ikon facility. Ikon has very reasonable rates. Probably half what Kinko's would charge.

 

[dullard]

I realize that I don't want to go cheap (ie the no copier route). However, these will be sitting on several shelves unused for decades. I'm a realist. Binding must be done separately - and the university charges about half of what places like Kinkos charges for binding. Add in the special paper + printing + binding + required library fees + copyright and this whole thing is likely to run me $500+. This is not including the other fun "graduation" fees that all come at once.

Dissertation title is short, simple, and subdued: "Analysis of Rapid Thermocyclers for the Polymerase Chain Reaction".

 

[Viper GTS]

Can you pull the color pages out & print them separately?

Print all the monochrome pages on a high volume monochrome laser, & the colors on a color copier or color laser printer.

And yes I do mean print on the copier, not photocopy.

Viper GTS

 

[HokieESM]

Originally posted by: dullard
I realize that I don't want to go cheap (ie the no copier route). However, these will be sitting on several shelves unused for decades. I'm a realist. Binding must be done separately - and the university charges about half of what places like Kinkos charges for binding. Add in the special paper + printing + binding + required library fees + copyright and this whole thing is likely to run me $500+. This is not including the other fun "graduation" fees that all come at once.

Dissertation title is short, simple, and subdued: "Analysis of Rapid Thermocyclers for the Polymerase Chain Reaction".

Ah, these are your final copies! Truly congrats! When's your defense? You might want to check into the university's copy center--they gave me a "special rate" for the "required" copies (although it did come out to $52 a piece--including binding). My copy cost nearly $100. So yeah, you're probably right in terms of the $500.

I feel your pain. I have to drop back to standard TA salary next semester to wrap things up.... and its a pain. A lot of people don't realize that the traditional doctoral gown/hood/tam is nearly $500 too. (Plus VT charges you to graduate! What is that?!?!?!).

Again, congrats!

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: HokieESM
Congrats, dullard on being ready to defend. I hope to be there myself in a few months *crosses fingers*.

When I printed my masters thesis, I used the b&w laser/color inkjet option for the copies given to the professors. I hope your committee (especially if your PhD is in a technical field) won't care about any "discrepancy" between those pages--you'll be lucky if some of them do more than skim it <grin>. I did, however, take the time to use the same part of the same ream of paper for the color pages (as the corresponding b&w pages)--I was stunned at how "different" parts of the same ream can be. Also, if you up the quality on the color pages to "best" or "photo", it helped significantly in comparison to the sharp text of the laser. Also, using a 600 dpi PDF file helped me (my thesis was in LaTeX) with consistency.

Kinkos is horribly expensive, sadly. It would cost you FAR more than $250 to print five copies.

I did, however, pay the Copy Center at the university to print two "final" copies and bind them--one for my advisor and one for me--once the final revisions were made post-defense. NCSU (and VT) both have ETD.... so no one is actually going to "check out" a paper copy of my dissertation (or my already completed thesis). But I wanted one for my sake (after you write 300+ pages, you want something to show for it!).

Again, congrats and good luck!

Good luck to you as well. I had no time to use LaTeX or an equivalent. Nope, 310 pages of Word fun. Saved me a couple of months of LaTeX frustrations. I thought about buying a PDF writer and bringing that to Kinkos to avoid possible transition problems - think it would be worth it? No the committee won't care about the discrepancy, but I will - my master's thesis was printed with the discrepancy and it still haunts me. Electronic deposition is an additional option if I want (and microfiliming is free and always done at the University of Nebraska) but I'm still require to have 2 physical copies in the library + my copy + adviser copy + boss copy.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

You might want to check with your department and or library. Here at UW, dissertations have to be bound in a particular way for the library. I will do whats easiest... a couple of hundred extra won't mean anything a year from now.

EDIT: is this prior to rewrites?

what i did for my proposal (80 pages) was single sided, black and white. Bound with a light weight cardboard stock. I imagine I will do somethign similar for my defense. Then bound in hardcover 3 x's after my rewrites (1 for me, 1 for my Advisor, and 1 for the UW Library).

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
I'm sure there are some small printing companies in your area that would be pretty competitive to get business over Kinkos. You could give them a shot.

Also - I know that Omaha (are you there or in Lincoln?) has a large Ikon facility. Ikon has very reasonable rates. Probably half what Kinko's would charge.

In Lincoln. I've never had experience with small printing companies, do you like the quality and service?

Can you pull the color pages out & print them separately?

That is always an option, but don't you hate reading a book and having to flip through dozens of pages to find the picture they were referring to? Then you have to keep flipping back and forth to fully understand the details of both the text and the figure. I really like the picture on the same page that describes it, and that is how I've set up the document.

 

[vi edit]

Good luck to you as well. I had no time to use LaTeX or an equivalent. Nope, 310 pages of Word fun. Saved me a couple of months of LaTeX frustrations. I thought about buying a PDF writer and bringing that to Kinkos to avoid possible transition problems - think it would be worth it? No the committee won't care about the discrepancy, but I will - my master's thesis was printed with the discrepancy and it still haunts me. Electronic deposition is an additional option if I want (and microfiliming is free and always done at the University of Nebraska) but I'm still require to have 2 physical copies in the library + my copy + adviser copy + boss copy.

30 day acrobat trial

Download it, use it, delete it.

 

[HokieESM]

Originally posted by: dullard
Good luck to you as well. I had no time to use LaTeX or an equivalent. Nope, 310 pages of Word fun. Saved me a couple of months of LaTeX frustrations. I thought about buying a PDF writer and bringing that to Kinkos to avoid possible transition problems - think it would be worth it? No the committee won't care about the discrepancy, but I will - my master's thesis was printed with the discrepancy and it still haunts me. Electronic deposition is an additional option if I want (and microfiliming is free and always done at the University of Nebraska) but I'm still require to have 2 physical copies in the library + my copy + adviser copy + boss copy.

Oh fun... Word. :-/ PDF writer might help.... you could check out PDF995... or see if someone on campus has Adobe Distiller (its still the best, but frighteningly expensive). Oh, and for a full 600 dpi PDF, expect it to be large. LaTeX is a beast, but its the only way my advisor will accept it. Actually, some of the translators are very good, and if someone gives you a class file, its not too bad.

As far as the committee, I was referring to the pre-defense copies (that they tend to bleed all over). Your final copies should be nice and pretty. Now, depending on the copy center, some will let you "ear mark" the color pages and charge you the "color price" for only those pages (and b&w prices for the rest, despite being on the same printer). See if that might apply. Also, using THAT much paper, check into a wholesaler. The acid-free cotton paper is never cheap, but its a LOT cheaper in bulk than trying to buy it at OMax. See if you can find someone who wants to split a case with you.

Its amazing how expensive "finishing up" your PhD is. I'm starting to save money now, despite it being four months away!

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
30 day acrobat trial
Download it, use it, delete it.

Thanks, didn't know adobe did that. I'll certainly use it. During my master's thesis work, I wrote the thesis on one computer and printed from another. All the figure numbers got scrambled (but everything else was perfect). I had to manually redo all the figure numbers and it took hours. I missed one too , goes from Figure 16 to 27 and back to 18. That is the sole advantage of LaTex (well as far as I'm concerned).

 

[LordSnailz]

I say bite the bullet, pay the extra money for kinkos to do it. Less stress ..

 

[Vincent]

Congratulations! You can download a free pdf converter from:

http://www.acrosoftware.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

It might be too late, but I would avoid having subtle grayscale images in your dissertation if possible. Your dissertation will be scanned and made available by UMI/ProQuest. So copies people get from there might be less usable if significant portions depend on subtle distinctions of shades of black.

Good luck finishing up!