Help:Books/Printed books



Wikipedia offers users a service to order individually printed books based on collections created with the Book Tool. The service is offered in cooperation with PediaPress which is the official print on demand partner of the Wikimedia Foundation. 

How to order a printed version
First create your personal collections of articles as described on the Book-Tool help page.

Then simply click on "Preview with PediaPress" on the 'Show book' page. This uploads your book to the PediaPress website. After choosing the destination country, an approximate number of pages and the price are shown. Title, subtitle and editor can be set or changed here. Further users can customize the cover by selecting an image from within the book to appear on the front of the book, as well as setting a background color.

There is a preview which shows what your selected articles (only the first N pages) will look like in a printed book. (Note: The typesetting and layout of printed books differs from downloadable PDFs, since the page size is half letter, not letter and it includes additional features like an index, references as footnotes, etc.)

At this point, your book can be ordered by adding it to the cart and checking out. Available payment methods are MasterCard, Visa and PayPal. Softcover books are printed within 2–3 business days, hardcover or color books are printed within 15 business days, and shipping takes another 2–20 days.

How are books manufactured?
PediaPress uses the TeX typesetting system to generate a digital prepress repro. Books produced by this technique look just like conventional paperback books.

Book specification:
 * Content
 * Table of contents
 * The selected articles
 * Endnotes
 * Licensing information
 * Index
 * Paper size: 8.5 inch × 5.5 inch (216 mm x 140 mm)
 * Images are printed using the highest available resolution
 * Books can contain 50 to 800 pages, larger collections are automatically evenly split up into multiple volumes

There is an example book (PDF), which shows how printed books are typeset.

How much do printed books cost?
Pricing for printed books is calculated when you order from the PediaPress web site. The price depends on the number of included pages, binding format and whether you want colour or black-and-white. Shipping costs depend on the destination country. To get a detailed quote, simply upload your book to PediaPress and select your country and currency.

The Wikimedia Foundation receives 10% of the gross total for each book sold.

Which shipping options are available?
For the US and most European destinations express shipping options are available. For most other countries in the world a standard shipping option is the default. Delivery time varies from 2 to 20 business days depending on the destination.

What is PediaPress?
PediaPress is an online service which offers customized printed books from wiki content. The web-to-print service works on any MediaWiki which has deployed the open source Collection Extension. The company actively supports the MediaWiki community and established a long-term partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation. The company was founded in 2007 and is located in Mainz, Germany. For more information see.