I need to pirate this book thats over 1000 pages. I already have the pdf but I really want a physical copy and the book costs too much for me. Even if I have to buy a bunch of ink (the book has no pictures) and even if I wear out the printhead before the job is done, it’s still going to be cheaper to do this. My printer has been blocked from the internet since before the pandemic so I can install all the 3rd party ink and replacement parts I want. I’m not worried about my printer situation.
It seems the biggest challenge I need to overcome is the paper. Cheap printer paper is going to otherwise work it’s just that it’s too thick. The same amount of cheap printer paper it takes to make the book is going to be more than twice as thick as the book I’m trying to “pirate”.
The 8.5x11in size just happens to be the exact size I need for this. Whats the cheapest paper I can get that’s still thinner than cheapo office printer paper?
Thanks for the write up.
After weighing my options, I think I’m going to just go with normal printer paper. When I said using normal printer paper would be more than twice as thick, I wasn’t accounting for the fact that I’d be using both sides. So a 500 page ream should equal 1000 double sided pages. So that means the final size using normal printer paper would only be a little thicker instead of more than twice as thick.
I found some newsprint paper on Amazon that might work but I have an ink jet and I’m thinking it’s not going to be worth the hassle considering normal paper isn’t as bad of a choice as previously thought.
I’m going to do a few trial runs before deciding how I’ll actually bind them together and not print all 1000+ pages before learning somethings not going to work. I want to avoid 3 ring binder. Splitting it into sections sounds like the way to go. I’ll experiment with spiral bound. Regular hard cover looks enticing but I’d say that route has a high likelihood of not working out especially with the paper size and quantity I’m dealing with. Maybe I’ll dissect a college textbook and see what’s inside the spine.
Yeah newsprint would be a pain in an inkjet depending on exactly what it’s like. It might not even be much thinner, it’s often a little “fluffy” so it can be printed fast.
If you take it in somewhere and get it spiral / coil bound that’s probably your best bet if you don’t want to do a binder. You can do it yourself but you basically need a little desktop machine to do the punching which is annoying unless you’re doing it regularly.
Traditional hardcover probably won’t work for you. That involves printing a bunch of booklets called signatures then sewing them together and it’s a whole thing. Basically there’s a reason well made hardcover books are expensive.
You could do perfect or tape binding pretty easy though. Essentially you glue all the edges to a backing and then wrap a cover around it. It works ok for low usage, but if you want it to lay flat or hold up to abuse you’ll have problems. You can kind of mitigate that by using a gpod spine backing but it’s not a perfect solution. If the copy you have isn’t already laid out for printing it may be worth it to edit it a bit so the contents are farther from the spine if you do that, but it makes printing a bit more complicated.