Gearing up for vacation - Printing manuals

So yeah, I’m back into sims again. Just had a week off but I’m back at work for two weeks before I get 3 glorious weeks of vacation. Since my SO is working all Summer I’ll be fishing with my son and flight simming for three straight weeks! So preparations are under way and I just sent the A-10A flight manual off to the local printing shop as a test run. Ring bound A5 format, and if it comes out good I’ll do the whole FC3 manual and then the A-10C manual once I get that module (another todo before vacation kicks off).

What are your experiences with printing the DCS manuals? Bindings, sizes etc?

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The only manual I ever professionally printed by Kinkos was for Falcon 4.0. Now I have Kindle and cell phones that can view those manuals without much hassle. Even actual airplane manuals are now on some electronic medium to save space and paper.

True, I do read a lot on my iPad and phone. But I just love having a physicall book, especially when doing game tutorials etc. I did dig out my original Falcon 4 manual last week. It really is something special. :smile:

I print my own, of course I work in a print shop so that might be cheating. I generally edit the PDFs some, add bleed to the full colour pages, etc. I print the front cover (and blank back) on a heavy cover stock, and the insides just on an uncoated text paper and then spiral bind… I use the PDFs for quick peeks, but I love having a physical book to read from time to time as well.

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Indeed - I’m a fan of the physical books. I still have my Nic Cole printed LOMAC guide here. And my Dangerous Waters manual is always by my desk, even though I never get to play it. That said, I have been using my iPad more and more. I wish I could find the link to the ED forums for the guy that was formatting the individual aircraft module’s docs to fit the iPad - I can’t seem to locate it now.

I’ve gone to printing manuals in sections, binding them (staple-hack job), and keeping them organized in file folders near my desk. When I pull up whatever sim I’m into at the moment, I open the drawer and pull out whatever materials I need.

My most commonly used hardcopy materials are checklists, maps, and airfield directories, which checklists by far. I have some RWR reference materials but when I need them I’m usually in the heat of battle! I have a ship recognition poster from Silent Hunter IV pinned to my wall. If (read: when) I get back into WWII combat, I’ll probably replace it with WWII aircraft recognition materials!

Like others mentioned on this thread, I’ve grown to use my mobile device (Nexus 7 tablet) for viewing hefty manuals and other reference guides. Actually it’s easier for me to read them on the handheld tablet than the PC screen, although I don’t get to write notes to myself in the margins!

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Well, the nice thing about reading on the tablet, of course, is that you can usually go to the index, put your finger on the hot-linked item and it takes you right there…or you can use a search tool to look for a word. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve searched the MiG-21 manual now for information these past few months… My index finger is a quarter inch shorter I think…

BeachAV8R

Mig-21 manual is a pain.

I printed all my manual at the local printing company. That was several thousands pages. It’s a good reading when you are in your bed. I don’t like reading on tablet, it lack the paper feeling.