9   Printing, Binding, and Distributing Manuals

Preparing the Camera-Ready Master

If you’re going to photocopy or offset print your manuals, you must prepare a camera-ready copy of the manual to give to the printer. This will be the master copy from which all copies will be reproduced.

Print the camera-ready copy of the manual onto laser paper for best results. Laser paper is rolled to an extremely flat finish. While it’s more expensive than regular paper, the increase in print quality is noticeable.

If the manual is to be photocopied, insert a blank page at the end of each section that has an odd number of pages—otherwise the printer may photocopy the first page of the next section onto the back of the previous section. New sections should always start on a right-hand page so they can be replaced easily.