Taking a textbook from the digital world to the tactile world typically involves specific file preparations. It's often not as simple as clicking the print button! There are many considerations when printing a book. In this module, we'll discuss printing options and common terminology, and offer additional resources.

Printing a PDF

Nearly every textbook in the Open Textbook Library comes as a PDF (in addition to other portable file types). This is one popular way to offer a printing option. In terms of user experience, if someone has access to a printer, they can print a few pages or the entire document with the click of a button. However, this experience will be like reading a long, stapled document rather than a bound book. In addition, it's not always as affordable as it sounds.

Print-on-Demand

Some authors and publishers make their open textbooks available through a print-on-demand (POD) service. The benefit of POD is that a book is only printed when it's ordered, making it much easier to control costs. There are a variety of vendors that provide POD services. Your bookstore may offer POD. Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Lulu and Ingram Spark are additional options. You will likely need to assign an ISBN to the book if you're using POD.

An additional option is PrintMe1, which notes on its website that it is perfect for OER.

When uploading files to a POD service, you will typically need a cover file and a content (the rest of the book) file. Depending on what kind of cover is desired, you may want to work with a designer who can create a cover file. Working with a designer who is familiar both with the principles of design as well as the tools (like InDesign) has many advantages. For example, you can share examples of covers you like and don't like, discuss key student audiences, share your university's brand and style guide and enjoy the professional give-and-take of the creative process.

There are also advantages to using a template or toolkit to design a book cover. These include speed and affordability. Pressbooks offers a cover generator, for example.

Key Printing Terminology

When getting to know the printing world, the following terminology is useful.

CMYK. An abbreviation for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (black). A subtractive color model, often referred to as “process color” or “four color.” Printing projects use CMYK while the digital world uses RGB (Red, Green, Black).

crop mark. The marks on a typeset page indicating its final printed dimensions.

dpi. Dots (pixels) per inch. Also the amount of dots that fit on a one-inch line; this is used to define image resolution. The higher the dpi, the higher the resolution of the image. Printing projects require higher dpi (often 300 dpi at a minimum) than digital projects.

duotone. A color-separation printing scheme involving two colors.

pantone. A color matching system.

preflight. The process of confirming that the digital files required for the printing process are all present, valid, correctly formatted, and of the desired type.

recto. Right-hand page. Recto pages use odd numbers.

signature. A large sheet printed with four or a multiple of four pages (commonly 8, 16, or 32) that, when folded, becomes a section of a book. Paper is typically purchased by the signature, rather than the page, so best value is achieved when the page count is an exact signature size.

spread. A verso and recto page, side by side.

trim size. The dimensions of a full page (including the margins) in a printed publication.

verso. Left-hand page. Verso pages use even numbers.

Additional Resources

Open Education Network & Rebus Community Office Hours: More than a Button – Getting Open Textbooks into Print
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Print-on-Demand Guide by Lauri M. Aesoph