Thesis printing and binding (or dissertation)

Morninglight

Hi

Does anyone know where online is cheapest for printing and binding a thesis? It’s getting to that time of year for many people so thought this may be a helpful thread for other people who are finishing dissertations and theses on here too.

I know that uni’s themselves aren’t always the cheapest or best, so am looking online as there are places who will print, bind and then send them, but recommendation is always good.

If anyone can help I’d be grateful.



Thanks and good luck to others who have viva’s and exams coming up.

agrinnall

I printed my dissertation myself and got it bound at Staples, I think they will print it though if you don't do it yourself.

Dogger69

My online experience with dissertation printing was shocking. I used Bardel Bookbinding, and they failed to deliver on time. I ended up taking them to small claims to get my money back. I think they've gone bust now (karma), but thought I'd mention in case they start up again with a variation of that name.

Laconic

It depends on what you need done.

Rule 1: Read the relevant department's guidelines as to formatting and FOLLOW IT TO THE LETTER. There is no point in doing something different; you're literally throwing money away and getting severely penalised into the bargain. People *have* been failed for not turning their dissertations in in the correct format.

If your department will accept soft-binding, then you're in luck. I find that asking round the local print shops and computer stores gets me an awesome deal. Best I got was £2.99 for the initial copy of my thesis.

If it's hard-binding, prices are often inflexible. Go for speed and quality of service instead. I paid £25 for the final corrected copy and I needed three copies (ouch!).

Printing is never fun. The real money-saving trick is not to have to do it twice. Proof-read, proof-read and get someone to proof-read it. Read the department guidelines *again*: are the margins correct? Is the style right? Consistent all the way through? Are the initial pages right (title, table of contents, table of figures, abstract, etc )? Is any referencing done consistent and in the correct format? Don't get these things wrong: at the best, you waste money printing again and at the worst, you fail to hand in an acceptably-formatted document on time.

If it's all correct, then shop round for the best printing deal, which may not be the same place as your binding deal. Read through one more time before handing the sheaf over to be bound: you're the only one who knows if the pages are in the right order, if there's anything missing, misprinted, skewed.


I don't know how much time you've allowed to print, bind and hand in. Double it; your sanity will thank you.

Morninglight

Thanks for the replies

I think I may be best printing it myself then and just getting it bound somewhere like you say agrinall.

Dogger69, that's helpful to know thanks. I'll make sure I avoid them if they spring up.

Laconi, thanks for the really helpful advice. I handed in my soft bound copies last week and did most of what you advise, I think! However, I will most probably need to do all that again after viva and amendments before I hand in the final copies, so it's a really useful reminder. I'm trying to be prepared in advance. Like you, I have 3 hard bound copies to print/bind and the prices for printing and binding really add up. I think £25 is the cheapest I've found so far for binding too.

If I find any decent cheaper sites for the binding, I'll post here in case anyone else is interested.

Many thanks and if anyone else has used any please do let me know