Homeschool Printing

One PDF, print-ready — the file you already own, exactly as you want it printed. We read the page count out of it, so you never have to count it yourself, and the price you are quoted is for that count. Up to 2,000 pages and 500 copies through the form.

8½ × 11 only. We print onto pre-cut letter stock, so that is the finished size of every page.

Pages smaller than letter are fine — a half-letter workbook prints centered on a letter sheet. Landscape pages are fine too; they print on a sheet turned 90°, so a chapter of wide tables needs nothing from you.

No, and we would rather say so than shrink it. A4 is about 0.7" taller than letter and a little narrower, so it only fits by scaling it down about 6% — which changes the length of handwriting rules and the scale on any ruler or graph printed in the book. Re-export it at letter and we will print it.

Files that miss letter by a rounding error — 612.00001 × 792.03 out of a word processor — are printed as-is. We allow 3 points either way.

No. Bleed means printing past the finished edge and trimming it off, and we do not trim: we print onto paper that is already 8½ × 11. There is nothing to cut away, so ink cannot reach the edge — every page carries a small unprinted margin.

If your file has a colored background running to the edge, it will print with a white border rather than be refused. Design for a margin and it will look the way you intended.

It stays with the design in your account, so reordering next term takes one click and a reprint needs nothing from you. Nothing is shared, and nothing is printed except the job you pay for.

It stays until you remove it. Replace the PDF on a design and the old one goes; delete the design and the file goes with it. An upload that never finishes is cleared out on its own.

Yes, and the form asks you to say which right you hold rather than tick a box: i wrote it, or it's my own work; i bought it and the license allows printing; my school or co-op holds a license that covers this; it's public domain or openly licensed. Most homeschool curriculum is licensed for exactly this — printing the copy you bought, for your own family or co-op — but the license is the publisher's, so it is worth a look before you upload.

Either. Two-sided is the default and usually the cheaper one, because it halves the paper. It is not a rule, though — a long single-sided run buys more paper and can cross a volume break the two-sided version never reaches, so the designer prices your actual book both ways rather than assuming.

Two-sided pages are flipped on the long edge, which is what makes a portrait book read the right way up when you turn the page, exactly like a paperback. It is the setting virtually every curriculum PDF expects.

Short-edge flip turns the back of the sheet upside down relative to the front — right for a calendar or a flip pad you turn upwards, wrong for a book. If your file needs it, email us before you order and we will set the press that way.

Either, but it applies to the whole document — we do not print some pages in color and others in black. A color page costs the same whether it carries one colored word or a full photograph.

There is one exception, because it is cheap and people ask for it constantly: on a black-and-white book you can have the first and last page of your own PDF printed in color. It is not a cover we add — it is your title page and your back page, in color.

• 20 lb bond — standard copy paper — the cheapest, and what most curriculum prints on (our house paper, always in the tray, and the cheapest)
• 24 lb bond — a little heavier — less show-through when printed two-sided
• 110 lb card stock — card stock — flash cards, game boards, manipulatives

Most of what a heavier paper costs is the sheet itself — card stock is several times the price of copy paper, on every sheet, however long the run. On top of that, anything but the house paper means pulling the tray and re-profiling the press, and that part is a one-off: it dominates a single copy and nearly disappears across a long run.

On 20 lb bond a heavily inked page shows through a little — it is ordinary copy paper. If the book is dense with dark diagrams, 24 lb bond is the usual answer and the cheapest step up.

Neither. One copy is a real order. The largest job we run in one go is 5,000 sheets across every copy — past that the form says so and we schedule it by email rather than quoting a number we cannot keep.

• Loose — jogged and shrink wrapped, ready for your own binder
• Corner stapled — one staple, top left — the cheapest way to keep a packet together
• Side stapled — two staples down the left edge, for a packet that gets handled
• 3-hole punched — standard us 3-ring spacing, drilled here
• Spiral coil — black plastic coil, clear front and board back — lies flat
• Wire-O bound — twin-loop wire, clear front and board back — lies flat and turns full circle
• Laminated — film both sides, every sheet, trimmed flush to 8½ × 11

No — you pick one, and that is a physical limit rather than a policy. Laminated sheets are too thick and too brittle for the punch, so they cannot be coiled or drilled; and a coil book has no binder holes to drill.

Not with a coil or a wire. Our punch takes paper up to 200 gsm and the card stock is past it, so a card-stock book is offered loose, 3-hole punched or laminated instead. It cannot be stapled either — the finisher stops at the same weight.

That is what card stock is FOR here: flash cards, game boards and manipulatives, which are loose pieces rather than a book. A book that wants a coil wants 24 lb bond.

Both lie completely flat, which is the point of either for a book someone writes in. Coil is black plastic, takes the thickest blocks, and survives being dropped — it springs back. Wire-O is twin-loop wire: it looks sharper, and the pages turn a full 360° so the book can be folded right back on itself.

Both come with a clear front cover and a board back, included.

Coil closes a block up to 1.76" thick; Wire-O up to 1.125". The block is your printed sheets plus both covers, so the designer measures it from your real page count and paper and tells you on the option itself if the book is too thick.

There is a floor too: under 8 sheets a coil has nothing to grip and the book flops open, and a wire rattles under 8. Thin packets want staples or a punch.

Wire comes in two hole spacings — 3:1 up to 9/16", then 2:1 from 5/8" up — and changing between them is a die change on the punch. You do not choose it; we pick the wire your book needs from its measured thickness.

Up to 93 sheets of 20 lb — the press staples inline, which is why it is the cheapest finishing we offer. Heavier paper staples in smaller counts, and the heaviest cannot be stapled at all: the finisher is rated to 200 gsm and card stock is past it.

50 sheets of 24 lb and no staple on 110 lb. The designer works it out from your own book.

Film on both sides of every sheet, then trimmed flush to 8½ × 11 — this is the one thing we do trim. It is for flash cards, game boards and anything that will be handled wet or often, not for a book you write in.

Up to 600 sheets in a job, which is one roll of film.

7-12 business days in the shop, then carrier transit on top. The clock starts when the order is placed, not when a proof comes back — there is no proof to wait on, because what you upload is what prints.

The United States only, including APO/FPO addresses. Shipping is quoted at checkout from the real weight of your finished book and your own address — no flat rate, and nothing is added afterwards.

Not at the moment. Everything ships, even though we are printing it a few miles from you in Concord.

Put everything in one order and it ships together. Two separate orders are two separate jobs and two parcels, and we cannot merge them once they are placed — so if you are still adding books, add them before you check out.

No, and that is deliberate: we print your file exactly as supplied, so the proof is the PDF already on your screen. Nothing is re-imposed, re-scaled or re-typeset on the way to the press. If the file is right, the book is right.

Tell us and we reprint it. If the error is ours — a misfeed, a bad staple, a page we printed on the wrong stock — the reprint is ours too. info@patsflashcards.com.