How it works
Upload your dissertation
One PDF, appendices included: colour pages are detected automatically.
Adjust, see the price
Binding, cover, colour or black and white: the estimate updates with every setting.
Collection or delivery
An email tells you when it's ready: free collection in Tournai, or home delivery.
Free pickup in Tournai
Or delivery to your address or a pickup point: Belgium, France and 20 other EU countries.
Frequently asked questions
Which binding should I choose for a dissertation or a TFE?
Perfect binding, set by default, gives the look of a book. For a thick dissertation, count the sheets: double-sided, 600 pages make only 300 sheets and can still be perfect bound. Beyond that, plastic rings go up to 400 sheets, whereas metal rings stop at 120. The configurator only offers the bindings possible for your number of sheets. If your institution requires a particular binding, follow its instructions.
How much does it cost to print a dissertation?
With the default settings, a 200-page A4 dissertation printed double-sided, 12 pages of which are in colour, comes to €16.50 per copy, VAT included: €13.00 for printing and €3.50 for perfect binding. The cover is extra, at €0.10 per sheet in 120 gsm satin, so €0.20 for the front and back cover set by default. The same dissertation all in black comes to €13.50 before the cover, and entirely in colour to €48.50.
Do I need to put the colour pages in a separate file?
No, upload the dissertation as it is, appendices included. A photo appendix or a few figures tucked between a hundred pages of text do not need to be separated: the sorting is done within the document itself, up to 600 pages per file. When the colour on a page is too faint to be certain, or the measurement could not read it, that page is charged as black. The count of your colour pages is shown before you add it to the cart.
Double-sided or single-sided for a bound dissertation?
Double-sided, the default setting, makes the dissertation about half as thick, and that matters for the binding, which is calculated on sheets. A 200-page dissertation is 100 sheets double-sided, so €3.50 with perfect binding, against 200 sheets and €4.00 single-sided. If your institution requires single-sided printing, choose Single-sided in the configurator: the binding is then recalculated on the new number of sheets.
How many copies should I order for the examining board?
The number of copies depends on your university college or university: check it, then enter it in the configurator, without forgetting the one you keep. Three copies of a 200-page dissertation with 12 pages in colour, perfect bound, come to €43.86 before the cover, that is €14.62 per copy instead of €16.50, because their 564 black sides drop to €0.04. Binding and cover are charged per copy.
How do I put my title page on the cover?
With a cover, the Printed setting, offered by default, places page 1 of your file on the outside of the front cover, and the inside pages start at page 2. The Printed double-sided setting puts pages 1 and 2 on it, and the inside pages start at page 3. The Blank setting prints nothing on it. The back cover stays blank in every case.
What file format should I send my dissertation in?
As a PDF. From Word, save the document as a PDF; with LaTeX, send the compiled PDF rather than the source files. Your equations, tables and page numbering then stay in place, which the preview lets you check before the cart. A thesis full of photos can exceed 120 MB, the limit per file: in that case, reduce the image resolution when you export.
Where can I collect my dissertation before submission?
At the store, Rue de l'Yser 11 in Tournai, with no pickup charge: an email lets you know as soon as your copies are ready, and you then take them to the faculty office or the examining board yourself. Otherwise, a carrier delivers them to your home or to a pickup point, in 22 European Union countries including Belgium and France. Delivery costs depend on your postcode and are shown in the cart: allow for delivery time in your schedule.
The complete guide: Print and bind your dissertation, TFE or thesis in Tournai
On this page, you order the printing and binding of your dissertation, final-year project (TFE) or doctoral thesis online from Xtra Copy, Rue de l'Yser 11, Tournai. Upload your file, set the printing, binding and cover, then leaf through the result on screen before adding it to your cart. The configurator opens already set up for a final-year project: A4, double-sided, perfect binding (glued square spine) with a clear cover, and front and back covers in 120 gsm satin. Everything can still be changed.
A dissertation often mixes a few charts or photos with dozens of pages of text, and the price takes this into account. The configurator detects the pages in your file that contain a colour chart, diagram or photo, and those are the pages charged at the colour rate. Pages of black text, which means most of your chapters and your bibliography, stay at the black and white rate. You then choose whether to keep your figures in colour or print everything in black. In the second case, they come out in grey and the whole document is charged at the black rate.
An example calculated with the October 2026 price list, VAT included: a 200-page A4 dissertation with 12 pages in colour costs €13.00 to print per copy, that is 12 sides at €0.30 and 188 sides at €0.05. If all 200 pages were in colour, printing would cost €45.00; all in black, €10.00. The price per side drops with volume, counted separately for black and for colour: in black and white, it falls to €0.04 from 500 black sides on the order, for example three copies of this dissertation. An estimate appears as soon as your file has been analysed, and the exact total, with any delivery costs, appears in the cart before payment.
Three bindings are offered, all in A4, each with or without a clear cover on the front, at the same price. Perfect binding gives the look of a book and costs from €2.50 for 1 to 40 sheets up to €4.50 for 251 to 300 sheets. Plastic rings range from €1.50 to €3.50, up to 400 sheets, and metal rings from €2.00 to €3.00, up to 120 sheets. Binding is charged per copy, based on the number of sheets in one copy: the dissertation in the example, 200 pages double-sided, is 100 sheets, so €3.50 with perfect binding. Above 400 sheets, no binding is offered.
The cover is chosen separately: 120 gsm satin by default, 200 gsm or 250 gsm satin, 115 gsm gloss or laminated, front only or front and back. The front cover can carry your title page or stay blank; the back cover is always left blank. The inside pages are printed on 80 gsm paper at no extra cost, or on 115 to 250 gsm paper charged extra per sheet.
A few tips before you send your file. If possible, put the whole dissertation, appendices included, into a single file in its final order, and leave a wide enough inner margin on the binding side. At one page per sheet, the default setting, a landscape page, such as a large table, is rotated to fit on the sheet. The preview shows it to you that way: cover included, each page is displayed exactly as it will come out of the machine, which allows one last proofread before the cart.
To decide when to order, work back from the date you hand it in to the faculty office or the examining board. If you study in Tournai or elsewhere in Picardy Wallonia, in-store pickup costs nothing and lets you leaf through your bound copies before you hand them in. If you are writing your work in Mons, Mouscron, Ath, Lille or further afield, have your copies sent to your home or to a pickup point instead, allowing for delivery time. For architectural plans in A2, A1 or A0 to include with your work, use the Plan printing page; for everyday copies, with no binding or cover set by default, use the Black and white copies and Colour copies pages.