Employees, clients, and consumers have high expectations when it comes to information, and often, custom manuals meet those expectations. Whether training manuals, student manuals, product manuals, owner manuals, or something similar, at BambooInk, manuals are our business.
“Maybe you diligently read an instruction manual from cover to cover before you even turn on a new product. Or perhaps you ‘file’ the information in the kitchen drawer never to be found again – preferring to rely on instinct (and perhaps a degree of stubbornness) in assembling a new piece of furniture. Either way, and even if it’s only months after your purchase, there is almost always a time and a place when instruction manuals come in handy.”
– Helene Schumacher, author of “Inside the World of Instruction Manuals”
What types of custom manuals do we produce?
The short answer? We print, bind, produce, and package all kinds of custom manuals including:
- Booklets
- Electronic publication manuals
- Employee manuals
- Handbooks
- Instruction manuals
- Owner manuals
- Product manuals
- Reference manuals
- Sales manuals
- Service manuals
- Student manuals
- Technical manuals
- Technical specification manuals
- Training manuals
- User guides
- User manuals
- Workbooks
What type of printer is best for printing custom manuals?
We have myriad capabilities, can print pretty much anything, and our team is eager to answer any questions you may have about the printing and production of your manual.
Meet the BambooInk printing equipment.
BambooInk has a range of printing equipment to meet a variety of needs.
Komori
- Up to 5-color printing
- Ideal for large quantities and sizes
Heidelberg
- 1- or 2-color print projects
- Great for mid-size or large quantities
Ryobi
- 1- or 2-color print projects
- Ideal for small to large quantities
Canon Digital
- CMYK printing and no plates
- Ideal for smaller quantities and variable data printing
Interested in environmentally friendly “eco-printing”?
There are many factors to consider when printing custom manuals. One factor is the environment.
Here are three earth-friendly choices you can make when printing manuals:
Consider printing your manual on recycled paper.
There are many benefits to printing on recycled paper. To name but a few, printing your manual on recycled paper uses fewer virgin resources, reduces energy and water consumption, and decreases the amount of carbon dioxide produced (the greenhouse gas emission that contributes to climate change).
Did you know? The majority of the paper used at BambooInk contains recycled content. Not only that, we offer a large selection of 100% post-consumer recycled papers.
Marketing materials printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper offer a good-looking, eco-friendly alternative.
Explore tree-free paper options.
Not all papers are made from wood pulp. Tree-free papers can be made from sugarcane bagasse, straw, husks, cotton linters, hemp, kenaf, flax, and bamboo. Using tree-free paper for your manual printing needs is a great way to support the environment through green printing practices.
Want to learn more? We examine tree-free paper options and the benefits of bamboo in our “Bamboo Paper: Tree-free and Sustainable” blog post published April 27, 2018.
Use eco-friendly ink.
At BambooInk, we’re passionate about ink, love to talk about it, and offer a wide variety of environmentally friendly inks. Inks that are plant-based and made from soybean oil, linseed oil, canola or safflower oil. Inks that are VOC-free, offer high print contrast, outstanding gloss, water tolerance, and fast setting times.
What is the best method for binding a manual?
It depends on the project. Popular options include saddle stitching, perfect binding, coil or spiral binding, and Wire-O® binding.
Saddle stitching
What is saddle stitching? Saddle-stitched manuals are constructed by stapling through the centerfold of a set of folded, nested sheets of paper called “folios.” Because each folio is essentially a piece of paper folded to create four pages, the page count of saddle-stitched manuals will always be divisible by four and will typically not exceed 116 pages in length. For manuals longer than 116 pages, perfect binding is a great option.
Saddle stitch is popular for binding—not just manuals—but a variety of other printed products including books, booklets, catalogs, calendars, multi-page brochures, and the like. Watch saddle stitch binding in action in this BambooInk video of a CarMax coloring book.
Perfect binding
Manuals that are bound by the perfect binding method use adhesive to bind the edges of the paper to a hard or soft cover. In this method, the back folds of the folio are cut; creating a flat, or “perfect” edge that is then coated with adhesive and applied to the manual cover.
Coil binding
Worried about placing too much tension on the spine of your manual? Need your manual to open fully and still lie flat on your work surface? Need the pages of your manual to fold back on itself to conserve space on a desk or podium?
Coil binding, also known as spiral binding, is a simple, low-cost method for binding manuals such as sales reports, presentation materials, course workbooks, training manuals, and the like.
Coiling binding involves inserting a spring-like coil through small holes punched along the edge of the document. Once the coil is in place, the ends of the coil are crimped, securing the contents of the document while also allowing the pages of the document to move freely around the coil.
Wire-O® binding
Wire-O® binding, similar to coil binding, can accommodate pages of varying weight and thickness and is ideal for manuals that include heavy cardstock, dividers, or index tabs. This binding type is also known as Double-O, Duo-Wire, Double-Loop, and Twin Loop.
Let’s Connect.
Still have questions? We’re here to help. Contact the good folks at BambooInk for knowledgeable, friendly advice from a team of experts eager to assist.
Need an estimate? We can help with that, too.
We’re BambooInk.
Stewards of kindness, the environment, and exceptional printing.
Interested in monthly printing tips and quarterly discounts delivered to your inbox? Let us know below.