Print-Ready O&M Manuals: Less Paper, Same Compliance

One of the first questions we get on a new project is about printing. How many copies? How many volumes? What will it cost?

Our answer surprises some people. At Denaploy, our quotations never include any allowance for printing costs. We have been producing O&M manuals since 1989, and in that time we have come to question how much paper documentation a project actually needs.

Why we question printed volumes

Apart from a solitary Final Handover library copy, we question the need for producing vast volumes of paper documentation. Printed manuals are:

Expensive to produce. Large manuals run to a lot of pages, and every extra copy adds to the bill.
Demanding on storage. Shelves of lever-arch files need valuable space in a building that is already short of it.
Hard to keep current. Once a building is occupied and equipment changes, a paper copy is the first thing to fall out of date.

That is why every manual we produce is built to work digitally first, with hyperlinks to move around it quickly.

Why we can't quote for printing up front

It is also impossible to provide a realistic printing quotation at the start of a job. Until the manual is complete, nobody can accurately predict how many pages it will run to. Any figure given before then would be a guess, and we would rather not give our clients a number we cannot stand behind.

What "print-ready" means

If you do need paper copies, all our manuals can be produced print-ready. When the manual is complete, we carry out an exercise to convert all the hyperlinks in it to tab references, with the applicable appendices. A printed copy then works the way the digital one does: you can find the right section without clicking through.

Hyperlinks become tab references, so a printed manual can be navigated without a screen.
Appendices are included where they apply.
Printing is arranged by you with a printer of your choice, once the final page count is known. We do not print manuals ourselves.

That keeps the choice of printer, the number of copies and the price in your hands, and the quote is based on the finished manual rather than an estimate.

How printing works, step by step

Once the manual is complete, here is how a print order is handled:

1. The manual is completed. Printing is only considered once the final manual is finished, so the page count is known.
2. You decide it needs printing. If paper copies are needed, you let us know.
3. We convert the manual. All the hyperlinks are converted to tab references, with the applicable appendices.
4. We prepare printing instructions. We write a clear set of instructions for the printer covering how the manual is labelled, how it is split into volumes and the order everything goes in, so there is no guesswork.
5. You send the order to your printer. We hand over the print-ready manual and the printing instructions, and you place the order with the printer of your choice.
6. The printer processes and dispatches. The printer typically needs two working days to process the order, and it is then sent out.

Denaploy does not print manuals ourselves. Because the instructions are written before anything is printed, the volumes, labels and order are agreed in advance rather than fixed up afterwards, and the printer has everything it needs to get the order right.

Our commitment to sustainable practice

Cutting out unnecessary printing fits with how we work. Denaploy is certified to ISO 14001:2015, the international standard for environmental management systems, which sets out the requirements for an organisation to manage its environmental responsibilities in a structured way.

ISO 14001 is one part of a wider commitment to sustainable practice. We are also becoming more closely involved in sustainability schemes for the fit-out sector, including SKArating. Producing manuals that are digital first, and printing only what a project genuinely needs, is a simple way for us to put that commitment into practice on every job.

What this means for you

Ask for a print-ready manual if you want paper copies, and we will convert the manual once it is complete.
Choose your own printer, so you control the cost and the number of copies.
Allow for printing time. Printers typically need about two working days to process an order before it is sent, so build that into your handover plan.
Keep the digital manual as your working copy, searchable and easy to update.

If you would like to talk through how best to present the manual on your project, we are happy to help. We have never missed a handover date, and we will make sure the format suits you as well as the deadline.

Correct as of November 2026. Printing arrangements are agreed with each client at the start of the project.