Well, I quite like the price listed on that website.. But I'm guessing it's substantially more.

We have a digital Duplo folding machine, and I'd specifically recommend you not purchase it. It was about 4200 new 5-6 years ago. The nice part is that its automatic and sets everything up for you. The downside is that there is little control in the fine tuning and it can be difficult to get a perfectly square fold. If I were to do it again, I'd get a used professional folder with pneumatic feed. Friction rollers can't work with coated papers.

Matthew, are you printing these in house, too? St. Paul has one of these on contract (http://usa.kyoceradocumentsolutions.com/americas/jsp/Kyocera/productdetails.jsp?pid=22836) which is now about 3-4 years old. That said, it "does it all". We do a 2pp/8 folio order (about 425ct.) every week. You really just need someone to watch it and pitch the folder and stapled orders into a bin every 50-75 copies or so.

EDIT: Just noticed you said tri-fold. It will do that, but we do a bi-fold. Not sure how reliable it would be with tri-fold. Please tell me you at least have a bi-fold wallet...

Volunteers. Like churches used to.

Spend money on choir music instead.

Am I the only one who thinks that liturgy programs should resemble books and not flyers?

Nope, you're not.

A tri-fold makes sense as it allows the Ordinary to be printed in the program, rather than having the program list where to find the Ordinary in a Kyriale that you might be able to find in the pews (our Kyriales, an in-house printed booklet with Ordinaries from the Gregorian Kyriale notoriously get taken by people when they leave) while using the same amount of paper. It does make sense.

In order to get the same amount of music printed into a bi-fold booklet, one would need 2 pieces of legal paper, which would cost more (with the staples) than 1 piece of tabloid paper.

Also, you could just forgo printing programs altogether.

You play the organ and they just SIT THERE AND TAKE IT.

Where's the "Mildly Sarcastic Thanks" button? ;D That made me laugh, because I totally understand the impulse, although I recognize that a program is sometimes necessary. We do a "worship aid" of sorts in my parish that has the hymn numbers, translations of any non-English texts (e.g. Propers or Latin motets), and the Psalm text. It's printed two up on letter paper and then cut.

I like a trifold 11x17 program because it's not as unwieldy as a bifold, the reader's eye doesn't have to track as far to one side or the other, and it it usually easier to read. To me the bifolds feel more like a tabloid newspaper. We only do the 11x17 programs for big occasions like our Feast Day (especially important because the readings weren't in the hymnal/missal, or at least not all in one place) and Holy Week.

A folding machine is an excellent investment. I highly recommend it if you can persuade the money people to approve it. It would be extremely time-consuming to fold by hand the number of programs we would have to do.

A tri-fold makes sense as it allows the Ordinary to be printed in the program, rather than having the program list where to find the Ordinary in a Kyriale that you might be able to find in the pews (our Kyriales, an in-house printed booklet with Ordinaries from the Gregorian Kyriale notoriously get taken by people when they leave) while using the same amount of paper. It does make sense.

In order to get the same amount of music printed into a bi-fold booklet, one would need 2 pieces of legal paper, which would cost more (with the staples) than 1 piece of tabloid paper.

My concern would be more about the reliability of the machine whilst doing trifold, but I don't know anything about the mechanism.

I know what you're saying about the ordinary, but couldn't you just reformat the Ordinary with Gregorio and @chonak's excellent tool?

I think (from memory) that Jackson Schoos at the cathedral in Nashville does a really handsome trifold. I'll try to see if I can find one.

The church Murphy worked at here in AZ had a folder that seemed quite reliable. I would print my programs at my west-side church and then go to his place and use his folder while we chatted about sacred music.

I believe they only ever do the a processional hymn and a hymn after Communion (they appear to be doing a Recessional hymn now since during Lent they can't have an organ recessional). I've only been during the Summer (on the weekends before the Colloquium 2012/2013) and the Offertory was an organ piece and the Communion was a vernacular chant (I think Dr. P. Ford).