Printing RecommendationsDoing Your Own Printing
I'm providing information on printers, paper, and other equipment that that will provide very nice printed books from the Sound City Reading PDF files, in case you are interested. The items listed below are what I have used to make reading materials for my students for many years. I'm sharing them because it has taken me considerable time and effort to find the best materials to use when printing Sound City Reading books. I hope these recommendations will help you find what you need, either the items that I use or something similar.
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I am not employed by any of the companies listed below and do not receive compensation from them. You may be able to find other printers and paper that also work very well. IMPORTANT - Always check your printer manual to make sure that the paper and cover stock that you are printing is compatible with the printer!
Copyright Information - The Sound City Reading materials are copyrighted, but I give permission to parents, teachers, and tutors to download, save, and print them for their own students or children. School wide and system wide use is permitted. All other uses are prohibited.
Choosing A Printer
If you want to print your own materials, you will need to decide if you want to print and use the Sound City Reading books that have all black print or if you want to use the books with color-coded print. Any good quality printer that will print on both sides will work for printing books that have all black print. If you want to print books with color-coded print you may want to consider a Ricoh color laser printer, since those are the ones I've used to set up and print the color-coded books. Using Ricoh printers should ensure that the vowel colors print fairly accurately. Ricoh color laser printers are available that will print on letter and legal sized paper, and they have larger printers available that will also print on ledger sized paper. The toner for these printers is costly but it lasts a long time. The printers are fast and, for the most part, have been trouble free for me for many years. I have found them to be worth the investment. Unfortunately, it appears that the Ricoh printers I have used are no longer available from online retailers other than Ricoh. I've updated the link below to connect to their site.
Other brands of printers won't necessarily print the same exact vowel colors form the PDF files. If you are thinking about buying another type of color printer, I would recommend printing a few pages with color-coded text to see if the various vowel colors can be clearly distinguished before ordering one.
If you are a school or school system and will be printing large numbers of books, docucopies.com prints the color-coded books with very accurate colors. The minimum order is two of each book. The cost is high when ordering smaller amounts, but it is very reasonable when ordering larger amounts.
Other brands of printers won't necessarily print the same exact vowel colors form the PDF files. If you are thinking about buying another type of color printer, I would recommend printing a few pages with color-coded text to see if the various vowel colors can be clearly distinguished before ordering one.
If you are a school or school system and will be printing large numbers of books, docucopies.com prints the color-coded books with very accurate colors. The minimum order is two of each book. The cost is high when ordering smaller amounts, but it is very reasonable when ordering larger amounts.
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Click the green bar to see the printer that I am currently using. It is a Ricoh SP C840 DN. It is a color laser printer and it will print on both sides of the page. I ordered it from printershowcase.com, but it is no longer available at that site. I have searched for other suppliers online and could only find it on the Ricoh site. I have not been able to get this printer to print using a USB cord. I connect it with an ethernet cord and that works well.
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Choosing Paper
Be sure to choose heavy weight paper that is as opaque as possible. The print in the Sound City Reading books is large, and there are many pictures. If you use regular weight copy paper the print and pictures on the back of the page will show through. This would be a considerable distraction for beginning readers.
The paper that I have found that works the best for me is Staples Premium Bright White Inkjet & Laser Paper. The specifications are 98 Bright, 28 LB., 106 g/m2. The paper is opaque enough without being too thick and bulky.
The paper that I have found that works the best for me is Staples Premium Bright White Inkjet & Laser Paper. The specifications are 98 Bright, 28 LB., 106 g/m2. The paper is opaque enough without being too thick and bulky.
Choosing Cover Stock
For years I printed the front and back covers of the reading books on the same paper used for the rest of the book, and added clear plastic covers to protect them. Now I print the covers on Mohawk Color Copy 98 card stock and omit the clear plastic covers. It is 100 lb cover, 270 gsm. It is a heavy white cover stock with a smooth finish. To me, these covers look nicer than the clear plastic cover sheets. I previously recommended a glossy 100 lb cover called Mohawk Color Copy Gloss. I switched away from the glossy cover stock because of concerns about its compatibility with different types of printers.
Binding The Books
Binding the books can be as simple as punching the pages with a heavy duty three-hole punch and placing them in a three-ring binder. The reading pages can be used while still in the binder and they open flat, which is very helpful when working with younger students. They don't have to constantly hold the book to keep it open. Workbook pages can be removed from the binder to be completed.
For years I used plastic combs to bind the books for the students in my classroom, and these worked well. The books open flat and are relatively secure. I eventually switched to spiral coil binding, and I like this finish even better. The binding is secure and not only do the books open flat, they can also be folded all the way around so that students see just one page at a time, if desired. One drawback with spiral binding is that the bent tips of the coils will sometimes catch each other when the books are stacked up. I did not find this to be a deal breaker for me. I have had good luck and excellent service ordering binding equipment and coils from MyBinding.com.
For years I used plastic combs to bind the books for the students in my classroom, and these worked well. The books open flat and are relatively secure. I eventually switched to spiral coil binding, and I like this finish even better. The binding is secure and not only do the books open flat, they can also be folded all the way around so that students see just one page at a time, if desired. One drawback with spiral binding is that the bent tips of the coils will sometimes catch each other when the books are stacked up. I did not find this to be a deal breaker for me. I have had good luck and excellent service ordering binding equipment and coils from MyBinding.com.
