Why not do like many of the IT manufacturers? Distribute the documentation
on a CD and make the printed manual an optional extra cost item as long as
the printed manual is not required to be onboard the aircraft at all times.
The CD distribution brings another advantage in that patches and updates
could be distributed as downloads, or new versions could be purchased and
shipped very efficiently and at low cost.

Taking this thought even further, why not integrate the CD or DVD player
video output with an MFD if available?

--
Jim Carter
Rogers, Arkansas

"RST Engineering" wrote in message
...
Printing costs have been on a steady exponential increase, following right
along with energy costs associated with creating paper from trees, soybean
prices for ink, and all the rest of the process involved with creating
paper manuals.

On the other hand, the price of optical media (DVD and CDROM) is
plummeting. Anybody that has bought any computer electronic device
recently soon discovers that other than the single sheet "quick start"
guide, all the rest of the owner's manual is on CDROM.

I guess the real question is whether a 10-20% bump in the cost of an
aviation electronic product to provide a printed black and white product
manual versus 0% increase for a CDROM that can be done in full living
color is worth it.

(BTW, we can do ALL our manuals on a single CDROM, so you get much more
information on the whole product line than with a single manual.)

Jim

--
"If you think you can, or think you can't, you're right."
--Henry Ford