Highly Important Print Policy Change

3-11-02 - In order to address the printing problems that we have been having in the labs recently, we have made a change in the policy on printing. From now on, if your print job is not done processing within 10 minutes, the job will be automatically canceled by the printer. I would like to give you a little background on how this situation developed.

Recently, I have noticed many prints that are processing far longer than they should be based on the content on the printed page. This can be caused by anything from super high-res photos to rotated EPS files in Quark. There are many causes, and I am working on a guide to help students prepare “printer-friendly” documents.

I have also noticed several problems with the Desktop Printer software installed on most Macs (not our lab machines) that can cause a problem job to get “stuck” rather than “error out” as it should. This means that the student may not know that there is a problem until an hour later, when they go to pick up a print that never made it out of the printer. This also means that the printer has been tied up for an hour, and no one else has been able to print. While it was not our policy in the past to cancel lengthy jobs, it is clear now that this has to change in order to keep the printers running.

If you think that your print has been cancelled due to hitting the time limit, you should see me right away so we can determine the cause, or check the guide to start troubleshooting your document if I am not here (contrary to popular opinion, I do not live in the building, and, in fact, do have an outside lifeJ). If you suspect that your Desktop Printers may be causing the problem, (if you are using your laptop to send this may well be the case) please see me in my office, 433 Design, weekdays before 4:30 pm. You can also disable the Desktop Printing extensions. I will post those instructions here as well.

Please rest assured that I am researching even more ways to help make your print experience more enjoyable and less frustrating. Several people suggest that cookies would help ;). We are all in this together! I have had to wait hours to get my prints too, so please know that I am trying very hard to get this resolved by the best possible means. Thank you!

-J

Jennifer Nieland is the lab coordinator for the College of the Design student computer labs. If she could think of something witty to say today...