"About getting a PDF printed professionally..." Topic

Getting it printed in color could be pricey. Depending on the amount of color it could be over $1.00 USD a page. I just had some color plates printed on 11x17 high grade paper and they cost me $2.25 USD a piece. Then there is cost of binding depending on how you want to do it.

I do mine as regular paper, spiral bound with cardstock on the front and back covers, then with clear plastic over that. One thing to watch out for is the page numbers. If they have the page numbers on the edges you need to make sure that they will print on the outside edge and not toward the binding. I also insert blank pdf pages on after the front cover and to get the paging right if needed. You can use a free program called PDFill PDF Tools to do that.

Also make sure the rules are final, nothing worse than spending big bucks to print the rules only to find out they update it a month later.

Steve

What grade (and thickness) of paper should I look at?

Go for 80gsm paper.

I have used the Blurb magazine and book printing service a few times now to print one-off, full color copies of wargames rules I have in PDF. The results have always been of top quality. Their normal pricing is reasonable for custom work, but every few months they will send out a huge discount code. The last time it was a 40% discount. I was able to print the extremely colorful, 172 page rules for $25 USD (USA). So, even if you think you might only want to print a PDF once a year it is worth making an account to get the discount code.

blurb.com

-- Andrew

I get all my stuff done at Staples.

Go for Colour Laser, 98 Bright, 28-lb. It's a heavy, bright smooth stock and not at all expensive.

If your covers are in colour, I'd suggest getting them done on coated stock, rather than card stock. Colours are always much more vivid on coated than uncoated. I think they offer a 12pt C1S.

I prefer matt to reduce glare.