Flashback to 1995

Chat session from today, May 20, 2014, with my co-worker with confidential information removed.

me
did I hear right that we are going to print 5500 copies of the User Guide?
[snip]
Co-worker
Yes, 5500 print quantity

me
wow. 7.04 reams of paper
current user guide = 64 pages

Co-worker
Yep. They eliminated 2 [other] guides that they print every year so they can print [this other user guide]...

me
[snip]... at my first job as a tech writer (1995), we had to distribute print manuals
everything went in a 3 ring binder.
we had 12 binders of training manuals
the user guide was 3 binders
the database manual was 1
the data area manual was 1
the reports manual was 1
all of it had to be photocopied in-house

and when it was time to ship to a customer, we wrapped the printed manuals in the white paper you get when you go to a meat counter in the grocery store
[snip]
Co-worker
Wow, that's a lot of paper!
[snip]
we really did discourage printing the UG during our planning meeting...because of the concerns you and Sonia raised yesterday...but they wanted it [snip] ...