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On Donald E. Knuth's website, Knuth states that "new and updated printings of Volumes A, B, and C became available in April, 2012", but I cannot seem to find these anywhere. Knuth describes these "spiffy new printings" as "fresh versions that are essentially perfect", being "significantly better in hundreds of small ways" compared with the Millennium Boxed Set. The InformIT website does not seem to list any of them; in fact, InformIT does not seem to list any books in Computers & Typesetting series published more recently than 2000. Perhaps they are published by another publisher?

Where and how can I obtain the "spiffy new printings"?

N.B. questions similar to this have been asked but closed as off-topic; this is odd to me since there is a tag called {books}, "for questions which deal with books about TeX, LaTeX and other topics of this site". Therefore this would seem to be very on-topic to me, and is certainly pertinent to my sincere and pertinent interest in learning TeX. I reviewed What topics can I ask about here? and What types of questions should I avoid asking? and do not feel that my question is off-topic.

Community
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Bradly
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  • Welcome to TeX.SX! I'm not sure if this question is off-topic and more suited for our Meta.TeX.SX site –  Jan 08 '15 at 22:12
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    @ChristianHupfer I don't think it is off-topic, because it covers learning material for TeX and friends (also it's not meta, because it is no question about TeX.SX). – Henri Menke Jan 08 '15 at 22:14
  • Indeed; as I understand it, the off-topic questions are of the form "tell me which book/website/package I should choose", not "how can I get this book" (where the book has, or appears to have, substantial information on the topic of the site). – SamB Apr 30 '21 at 21:34

4 Answers4

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See update at end.

This is rather more complicated than it appears.

The new printings involve the hardcover editions of the Computers & Typesetting volumes. The situation as of October 2012 was described in my TUGboat column, and I won't go into all the details here.

These are new printings, not new editions, so most booksellers don't distinguish, and it's generally not clear whether what is being sold is the new printing or an old one. To quote from my column,

[...] if you order through the member link on the TUG bookstore page, and specify that you want only the new printing but receive the wrong printing in error, a message to the publisher's customer service should result in a prompt correction.

It's likely that the new printings are the ones in common circulation now, but it never hurts to be careful. Besides, TUG does get a small commission on books sold through this offer, and that goes to help support CTAN and other TeX-related endeavours.

update (as of 20 January 2021)

As long as someone has been nice enough to give this an upvote, I may as well provide the latest information.

2021 is a review year (all reports had to be turned in by 31 December 2020, and a lot of people worked very hard to find something that hadn't already been reported). Don Knuth has reviewed them, and accepted some of them (I don't know the details), so there will be updates to books. Discussions are going on with the publisher, and paper copies will be produced. (The details of that aren't final yet either.)

At the moment, the publisher's website has the C&T books shown as not currently available, at best back ordered. When more information is available, it will be posted on the TUG website, and it is expected that some special consideration will be made for TUG members, at least continuation of the current discount. Please stay tuned.

Update as of 22 September 2021

The new printings are now listed at https://www.informit.com/promotions/computers-typesetting-jubilee-editions-142316 (Thanks to Svend Tveskæg for the pointer.)

A 40% discount on the printed books or ebooks is available to TUG members until the end of 2021; see http://tug.org/books/#pearsonaffil for instructions.

barbara beeton
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  • Thank you very much for your answer, I will order through the TUG bookstore page as you recommend. Should I order "Computers & Typesetting, Volume A: The TeXbook" from InformIT's online store? I've associated the discount code with my InformIT account now, and I assume I must now add this product to my cart, checkout, then shoot them a quick customer service form to make it clear I want the April 2012 (nineteenth) printing? – Bradly Jan 11 '15 at 15:48
  • the suggestion i've given is basically what i know, which was (in late 2012) provided by don knuth himself. at that time, only the hardcover version was the new printing; i don't have current information on whether the softcover version has been upgraded, but at that time the reason for reprinting the hardcover was that stock of the earlier printing was nearly depleted. but it can't hurt to be explicit about which printing you want. since texbook.tex is included in tex live or on ctan, and so are the latest errata, you have the ability to check that what you get is the new printing. – barbara beeton Jan 11 '15 at 16:41
  • The new printings can now be acquired from https://www.informit.com/promotions/computers-typesetting-jubilee-editions-142316. – Svend Tveskæg Sep 22 '21 at 20:37
  • @SvendTveskæg -- Thanks for the ping. I've added an update to the answer. – barbara beeton Sep 22 '21 at 21:43
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Yes, they were published in 2012. WorldCat (www.worldcat.org) shows that only one library in the United States and only a few libraries in Germany own the set:

  • Northeastern State University (Oklahoma)
  • Universitätsbibliothek Regensburg (Germany)
  • Universitätsbibliothek Bayreuth (Germany)

enter image description here

(One might have thought Stanford would buy a copy, at least... It might just not be in the WorldCat database yet.)

musarithmia
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  • Hi @andrew-cashner and thank you very much for your helpful comment. I do know of WorldCat, but I hadn't thought to check there. I thought the "spiffy new printings" were published as volumes in Computers & Typesetting, but upon following your lead and searching for "ti:computers au:Knuth" I found only the entry in your screengrab. The entry you link shows Addison-Wesley as the publisher, but curiously I can't find this 2012 printing in InformIT's website nor by searches of Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, or Google Books. I am most confused by the lack of information on InformIT's website! – Bradly Jan 08 '15 at 22:54
  • O.K., thank you very much. I hope others have additional insight, as well. I will contact Pearson directly to enquire about this. I will also see whether or not TUG has any further information. – Bradly Jan 08 '15 at 23:25
  • Worldcat, despite its promises is in fact not a universal catalog. There have been books that Worldcat claimed to only be in a handful of libraries that when I requested from my local public library through ILL have been procured from libraries that Worldcat apparently knows nothing about. – Don Hosek Jan 18 '21 at 03:35
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Six years later (now in 2021), I can provide some new information.

“Newer” answer (applicable after January 21, 2021)

These “Spiffy New Printings” are now in the process of being replaced with the “Jubilee Edition”. In particular, The TeXbook (Volume A, 23rd printing) is currently in press (which means my recently received 22nd printing has just missed the 2020/2021 tuneup, sighhhhhh).

The publisher should have waited for the tuneup: The TeXbook was out of stock since November 2020, and the publisher put the 22nd printing in press before the newest corrections were incorporated (Dec 2020 or Jan 2021). The 22nd printing feels like a rushed product to fulfill so many backorders. I should have made my order a bit later, oh well…

“Older” answer (applicable between November 2020 and January 21, 2021)

I ordered all five volumes of Computers & Typesetting back in November 2020 using @barbarabeeton’s recommendation (i.e., ordering from InformIT.com with discount code available at TUG books page). At that time, Volumes A (The TeXbook) and C (The METAFONTbook) were out of stock so they were put on backorders. Last week I received Volume A, which was apparently printed in January 2021 (or late December 2020)!

Volume A

The four volumes I received so far were still labeled as the “2000 Millennium Edition”, but each one should be the newest printing (i.e., the “spiffy new printing”) available as of today (Jan 17, 2021):

  • Volume A (The TeXbook): 22nd printing, Janurary 2021;
  • Volume B: 10th printing, November 2017;
  • Volume C (The METAFONTbook): unknown, yet;
  • Volume D: 8th printing, November 2017;
  • Volume E: 8th printing, November 2017;

ABDE

Ruixi Zhang
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  • Incidentally, the copy of The TeXbook I borrowed from my local library dates back to the 2nd printing in October 1984. The typefaces used in this (really old) version were yet polished (the calligraphy math alphabet looked janky, and the 10-pt monospaced letters M, N and W looked way too light). – Ruixi Zhang Jan 18 '21 at 16:04
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    Did you get your Volume C yet? I just received mine, and it says "Eleventh Printing, July 2021", while the other must have come back in May, and are marked "February 2021". Wonder why it took so long to print Volume C ... – SamB Aug 22 '21 at 05:05
  • @SamB Thank you for asking! The answer is no, unfortunately :(. I paid for the shipping once. It had already took the publisher two times to send me the books (first B, D, E, I paid the shipping; second A, they covered the shipping). At the end, instead of sending me Vol. C, they simply cancelled it and cleared my backorder. I suspect they didn’t want to pay shipping a second time. I didn’t get charged on Vol. C though. BTW, isn’t the website for Vol. C in a constant state of “out of stock”? I’m surprised you got “July 2021”. – Ruixi Zhang Aug 23 '21 at 18:30
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Well, I tried to order A thru E after saw the previous message by @ruixi-zhang, but only B thru E are “available” to order. Please check the status of Vol A by visiting https://www.informit.com/store/computers-typesetting-volume-a-the-texbook-9780201134476?ranMID=24808 from time to time. When I tried to order Vol A few days back, I got also an e-mail from Pearson Customer Support by saying the following:

“ The following items from your order #WEB7xxxxxxxxx placed on 01/19/2021 03:33:21 PM GMT were placed on back order:

Computers & Typesetting, Volume A: The TeXbook, ISBN: 9780201134476, Quantity: 1

We strive to fill back orders within 30 days. If we are unable to ship your back ordered item(s) within that time frame, we will cancel the item(s) on back order and you will receive an email confirmation of the cancellation. At any time prior to shipment you may contact customer service to cancel the back order.

Your credit card will not be charged until the item(s) is shipped. Regardless of the number of shipments required to fulfill your order, you will only be charged the shipping and handling you were quoted during the checkout process.

To view this order online, please access your Order Receipt.

This document represents only those products on your order that were placed on back order. You will receive a separate email notification regarding the other items on your order.

If you have any questions or comments regarding your order please feel free to reply to this email.

Once again, thank you for your business.

Sincerely,

InformIT”

However, all B thru E ARE still available now (I received my order confirmation e-mail already).

Stephen E. Sun
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  • I think you are in luck, actually. Apparently, the 22nd printing of The TeXbook was sold out (either due to large amount of orders, or due to small amount of printed copies). Now the 23rd printing is in press… – Ruixi Zhang Jan 24 '21 at 19:54