APO provides limited printing services to the community using our office's circa 1922 printing press. Press operators volunteer their time at no cost, and the printing is done at cost.

Printing costs vary with each job. Basically, there is a setup fee and a per-impression fee, in multiples of 100. The setup fee varies with the complexity of the job, and the per-impression fee depends on the type of paper used (you may either choose from our paper selection, or provide your own). We can also order specialty papers at cost, but this postpones job completion.

Our press can print anything from business cards to envelopes to invitations to letter-sized paper. Due to the large amount of time involved in laying out and locking up text, the press is not a good choice if you're looking for a low number of copies. The high level of setup required for each job also means turnaround time on a job is usually at least several weeks. Also, because each paper is hand-fed into the press, and ink levels vary over the course of a printing run, the press is not a good choice for a job that requires absolute uniformity across all printed sheets.

If your job is a good fit for our printing press (large number of prints, not much larger than letter-sized -- check with us if your job is slightly larger), contact us at apo-printshop _at_ mit _dot_ edu to work out details with us. Turnaround time can be over a month from finalization of text and layout, though (very rarely) as soon as a few days. The sooner you contact us, the sooner arrangements (and timeline) can be made.