Editing Encyclopedia:Size comparisons (section)

== The cost of a printed Wikipedia ==

The Print Wikipedia project published all of the English Wikipedia text, without photos, as of 2015 in 7473 volumes with 700 pages each (5.2 million pages in total).  [[Lulu (company)|Lulu]] is willing to sell each volume for US$80, and the whole set for US$500,000.<ref>[http://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/06/19/meet-print-wikipedia/ 7,473 volumes at 700 pages each: meet Print Wikipedia « Wikimedia blog]</ref>

{{As of|2015|07}}, there were approximately 23 billion characters.  Assuming 5,000 characters per page that would yield 4.6 million pages. If you then add 25% for extra space for photos, tables, and diagrams, that would yield 5.75 million pages. This would produce 14,375 volumes of 400 pages each. As an example, allowing US$0.05 per page would yield a cost of US$287,500 without binding.