It depends (Score 1)

First to expand on Cliff's note... I think people would rather have a manual handy to leaf through and bookmark. It seems like an "old" way to do things, but how many books have you read on your computer screen lately? So, it seems to me that if there's a substantial amount of reading to be done before the user should be capable of using the product, then print it. If it's just a quickie lookup manual, then give them a quick-start brochure with pointers to docs on CD and web, and burn the rest on a CD. Half the time, users wind up printing parts off of the CD manual, but it just doesn't seem that big of a deal. Also, when the software is distributed free with a service you provide, it seems that a lot less printed documentation comes with it. Another idea comes to mind. I ordered a Motorola DSP evaluation circuit board. It came with about a 40-page printed manual and no docs on the DSP architecture or programming interface. They had those on a CD that came with the board. There's no way I would use those PDFs unless totally cornered, so I had to order the printed manuals from Motorola. They were free. Motorola saves money by doing this because a department using their product might have a shelf of their manuals as opposed to every employee having one that came with the board. Just my $.02