UK Printed Manuals - In Colour!

EDIT : NOW FOR SALE.........

If you're going to invest a great deal of time in this sim (and let's face it, time is the greatest investment ANY of us can make), then surely it's worth spending a few extra bob on having nice colour manuals and being able to sit down with a cuppa while you inwardly digest the incredible amount of information contained therein?

I simply uploaded my PDF manuals to http://www.fileprint.org/uk/index.php and specified the quality of print and the weight of the paper. Within a few short days, the manuals arrived on my doorstep SUPERBLY printed and presented!

I then took them down to my local Staples Store and they bound them with steel-wire spiral binders so that the books can be opened at any page and laid flat on a desk.

Because of the number of pages in the "realistic" manual, I split it into three books. Chapters 1 & 2, Chapter 3 and Chapters 4-9. Staples finished each one off with a tough plastic front cover and a heavy guage card back cover.

Don't ask me how much - just upload your files, choose the quality and the price will appear. It's not exactly cheap, but it is fantastic quality!

And no, I don't work for them :). In fact, there may be other companies who are much cheaper. Might be worth shopping around or simply contact your local printing company asking them for the cheapest way to print a colour document from a PDF file.

Tom

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Same company ... (United States) I used 600 as the page count. I couldn't remember the actual number. Color ... Not bound or anything fancy.

Your Estimate!

600 page Postcard (5.5 x 8.5) document on Heavy Silk, in Color and setup as 'Double Sided Loose Leaf'.

For 1 document: $105.60

More than! 2 copies $85.54 each

More than! 4 copies $80.26 each

More than! 7 copies $74.98 each

More than! 13 copies $70.75 each

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Wow - just for little pictures in colour and not more information as in a black and white version but for 400% of the price of a non coloured one.

Not really recommendable in my opinion.

Wow, that's an excellent solution. I can only hope the new manual coming out has a PDF file too. And since there are almost twice the number of pages, more than likely doing this for the new manual will cost at least $150. I have to think about that for a few...

very nice.

Well color me jealous but there's no way I would pay $100+ for a manual.

Damn, it sure looks really nice though.

Thanks for the tip it might just come in handy but a bit pricey for me at the moment, but I’m drooling over those colour pictures.

Hi guys,

Please don't get me wrong - I know that it is on the pricey side and not everyone can afford to spend a lump of money on this sort of stuff, especially during a recession.

The way I looked at it was that I wouldn't think twice if a piece of hardware came onto the market that would benefit my enjoyment of a sim over a period of years. In addition to the benefit of being able to sit down with a set of manuals, there's also a certain amount of "pride of ownership" I guess (not dissimilar to the Lockon Enhanced Manual).

And the only expensive bit is the difference between these and the cost of the black and white ones. Finally, you don't have to have it printed on heavy silk either (although it is nice) LOL! The HUGE (3-volume) manual cost me £49.

Perhaps if someone started a list then the price would come down to a reasonable amount?

That's a good idea Drummer. If a few dozen people commited to it, I bet the price could be whittled right down by verbal negotiation.

I wish to have color manual... but I must be happy with B&W which I will have soon. But... better BW than only PDF :D

Hi Guys,

I was definatly going to buy the extra manual but after reading some threads and finding out its only going to be black and white I dont think I will bother, i think I will just get it printed and bound like the chap did who started this thread.

thanks Mithandra

Hi Guys,

 

I was definatly going to buy the extra manual but after reading some threads and finding out its only going to be black and white I dont think I will bother, i think I will just get it printed and bound like the chap did who started this thread.

 

thanks Mithandra

Me too, am pm'ing author atm.

tb

The Black and White issue does bother me that much to really gripe,, but Russian labels in the new manual??? ,,, I only know English, so thats not of any help,,, and it jus frankly pisses me off (had to vent)

But it's a Russsian aircraft Fakum! As long as you understand the purpose of the instruments, it's just a case of learning the Russian name for each one.

Confused, my downloaded package has two .pdf files associated with the KA-50, the GUI manual and the main dcs flight manual.

It seems that MadDogMQ's 'UK' manual may be different to the standard 'English' manual as my dcs flight manual doesn't contain the page 'DCS Manual' with a KA-50 on a khaki-brown backdrop...

Has there been a change between the downloadable english manual and the 'UK retail manual?

I did ask MadDogMQ about this and he states that he had printed the 'flight manual' NOT the gui manual.

You can't add in that page either as they are different sizes, see my confusion...?

tb

TB, I gave you the reference for printing the "Realistic" manual but I did in fact have BOTH the manuals printed. It's the GUI manual which has the khaki background and has 162 pages.

The large "realistic" manual has the blue background and has 383 pages.

Sorry if I caused confusion.

Tom

MadDog, I understand your point, and I respect your position and those that prefer the authenticity and the fact that it indeed a Russian aircraft. If folks prefer that, I am happy that they have that option. I made a point before, that I would not have purchased the sim if I had to fly it using Russian instrumentation labels, that’s just my preference. I was able to obviously purchase it with English instrumentation, so I did so and am very pleased. I was just hoping that I could reference a manual with English cockpit text, just as I fly it. I have spent a lot of time training myself and I consider myself about 40% trained. To do that I had to print up the PDF’s, cross out the Russian text and write in the English description. Again,, that’s just me. I’m not going to fight anyone on this, just expressing my position on the topic, Im sure I am not alone. If your happy, Im happy for you. I just prefer to fly with English only, I have enough on my plate to train myself without adding to it with cross referencing. Happy Flying :thumbup:

MadDog,..... just expressing my position on the topic.....

As is your right mate. Sensible response. :thumbup:

Is there another link as to where i can download this PDF Manual?

I was interested in buying the new manual, but once I found out it was black and white and still showing a russian layout then I decided the pdf manual is good enough, imo the new manual isnt worth the cash but I REALLY like the op's work on making his colour manuals, I may do something like that myself as I think £50 is an ok figure to get both manuals printed and in colour, I would pay 50 quid for the proper colour manual if ED released a colour version, but sadly they arent so it looks as though i will have to go down the route of making my own and will seriously consider doing it with the same company the OP has went with.

For what it's worth FAKUM I completely agree with what you said. I'm disappointed that the DCS printed manual will still have the Russian labels since I fly with the english labels but I can deal with that I guess. Who knows, I might even start remembering some of the Russian I learned in College too.

Thanks for the link, I have the DVD version turning up some time this week and would like to get the manual, was binding expensive, £47 for the printing doesn't seem too bad but if they are going to charge me a fortune at Staples to bind it I think I'll find another option. Didn't see a link for an in store binding service though just options to buy them. Also thinking maybe having it done in A5 format like the deluxe manual provided by the late Nic Cole, if only I could find a nice binder like that!

I don't know if it's a legit site or not, but mimeo.com seems to offer a 50% discount for first time buyers. Premium white paper (estimated 600 pages) with spiral binding came out to be $90. Glossy white paper was $130.

update: After uploading the PDF, a color copy with premium white paper, spiral binding with holes punched for a binder, and a "frosted cover and black back," the total comes out to be $77.82. That's with the slowest turnaround time. If you want it quicker, it'll cost you closer to $112 or so. Make sure you apply the discount before you purchase it.

I just made BW copy with a binder and it costed me 6 EURs in total...