Learning Commons:Chapman Learning Commons/Common Printing Problems

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Helping Patrons Print

Catagory Solution Image (optional)
How to Print (at printers) For help setting up pay for print see blog page: Pay for Print
  • Log in: swipe your card (or press the PaperCut icon on the home screen to access the login screen and use CWL to log in).
  • Press 'Print' for quick print, or 'Device Functions' to access full device functions including printing and copying.
    • When you press 'Device Functions' it will take you to the home screen.
    • Press PaperCut- the program for Pay-For-Print. From here you can access device functions such as copying/scanning, and printing.
  • Always make sure to log out before leaving! (See upper-right hand side of screen to log out).
PaperCut print release screen. Patrons can choose which of their jobs to print by selecting the jobs on the left-hand side.
Printing From a USB A USB reader is located on the left hand side of the printer screen. Has to be at least a USB 2.0. From here, you can print TIFF and PDF file formats only. Once inserted, make sure a patron is logged in with their PayForPrint account and select 'Device Functions'. Next, follow this sequence: 'Print/Scan (Memory Storage Device)' -> 'Print from Storage Device' -> 'USB' -> 'Select file' -> 'Start'. Note: the printer might prompt to insert a password for the PDF. If there is no password, don't enter anything and press 'Submit'.
11 x 17 Printing (FOR Patron) Web Print:
  • Document must be uploaded as a Word Document. PDF does not work.
  • The Word document page set-up must be set as Tabloid (Layout tab> Size tab> Tabloid). Save the document as 11x17’’ on Word.
  • Send using standard procedure to Pay for Print.
  • **Web Print can only be used for 11x17 at IKB.

Work Station:

  • 11x17’’ printing is available on the PCs and the MACs, however, if the file itself is saved as 11x17’’, web printing also works.
    • On PCs:
      • If using Word 2016, change the orientation to Landscape and the size to Tabloid. The Word document page set-up must be set as Tabloid (Layout tab> Size tab> Tabloid).
      • Click the print icon or press ctrl+P.
        • Select IKB colour.
        • Select grayscale (black and white) or color.
        • From page setup select Tabloid (11x17’’) under size menu.
      • Press OK and print.
    • On Macs:
      • Open PDF in Adobe, go into the print settings and choose "Colour_CLC_MAA."
        • Choose the colour settings (colour or grayscale), look to the bottom left corner for "Page Setup."
        • A pop-up message will show up, saying "The Page Setup dialog box is provided by the operating system..." Just click "Yes," and then select "Tabloid" for paper size, and the orientation (Landscape or Portrait) needed.
        • Click OK and print.

For USB Stick:

  • Once you’ve set up the “Print from USB” option in Device Functions as normal
  • Select paper tray 4 (the one that has the 11” x17” paper in it)
  • Click on the button that says “100%” which will let you choose instead “fit to paper size” (you should also see tray 4 selected here if you’ve done the previous step correctly)
  • Double check whether you want it grayscale or colour before printing.
11 x 17 Printing (FOR CLCA)
  • Ensure that the printer has adequate supply of 11x17 paper.
  • If the patron is still having trouble printing, try removing 11x17 paper from tray 2 to tray 4 (bypass tray). (This troubleshooting method has been successful with web print in the past)
    • Note: double check that the setting standards for the paper size has not reverted back to 8.5x11. This can sometimes be an issue that prevents printing on 11x17.
  • If a patron is having issues printing 11x17 on Macs, try PCs because there isn't an issue there.
  • As a last resort: Have them transfer the file onto a USB, then on the printer, select paper tray 4 manually. Then click the button that says "100%'" and select fit to paper size, and then if your color and single/double sided settings are all sorted out (if not click the appropriate buttons), you're good to go!

Common Printing Problems:

CATAGORY SOLUTION
A4 Paper Printing If a patron tries to print A4-sized paper, an error message will indicate this. There are two options:
  • Press ‘Tray 1’ (which will try to resize the print job to 8.5x11)
  • Cancel and resubmit their print job with the correct paper sizing.
Non-English Character Titles & Web Print Some documents with non-English character titles will not print from Web Print.
  • Rename the file with English characters and/or numbers to resolve this issue
Large Print Jobs
  • Jobs that are over 15MB may be rejected by webprint. Users should not be charged in this instance- money should automatically go back into the user's account.
  • If a student wants to print a job that is >15MB please direct them to either:
    • Print from a Library workstation, not Web Print
    • Break the job down into parts that are <15MB
Printing a Government Document (Fillable PDF)
  1. The patron must use a computer that has Adobe Acrobat Pro (which is able to read Fillable PDFs)
  2. Use the computers in the Learning Commons to save the doc.
  3. Do not print the document from the browser- save it as a PDF on the computer. These documents are encrypted not to be fillable online. Save it to the desktop and then try to print directly from the computer. ( If PDF doesn't work try OneNote on Macs. Print from One Note.
  4. If all else fails, have the patron screenshot the filled out form and then save it to a word doc to adjust the size and print that.
Copy/Printing on both sides of a paper See Video How to https://blogs.ubc.ca/commons/files/2022/09/Copy-Double-sided.mp4
Printing/Copying on a Specific Side of Paper Insert paragraph
  • If you ever need to print on a patron's own piece of paper (in my case, one that already had writing on one side), or help someone copy double sided, this is for you.
  • Say a piece of paper has side A, and side B. Once side A has printed content on it (or already has printed content on it), place it back into the applicable paper tray so that side A is visible to you from above, and side B is touching the rest of the paper in the tray.
  • This process is easiest if done on the 3rd floor at RC-1 or RC-2 (by the help desk) since they feed from an external paper tray.
Password Protected Documents
  • Password protected documents cannot be uploaded to webprint. Error will be "unable to start handler to render print job". User will receive an error when trying to print
  • Printing saving to the desktop and printing from a computer in the Learning Commons will work if you can sign into the document and change the settings to allow printing. Try https://smallpdf.com/unlock-pdf
  • If all else fails have the patron screenshot the doc and then save it to a word doc to adjust the size and print that.
Printing a Google Doc
  • Patrons must DOWNLOAD and save the Google Doc either as a PDF or Word .doc.
    • If converting a Google Doc to a PDF, make sure they "Print to PDF" instead of "Save as PDF," as the latter messes up the formatting sometimes. Always review before submitting to the printer!
  • If they try printing a Google Doc directly to the library printer, it will send it to the printer with the name "javascript" and it will print a blank page AND deduct from the patron's balance.
    • Patrons CANNOT get a refund for this if their account is charged.
Printing PDF with multiple slides per page Sometimes patrons want to print PowerPoints with multiple slides per page. If a PowerPoint has been converted to a downloaded PDF by the instructor, they can still print multiple slides per page:On a Mac (Preview App): Click "file > print." Once the print options come up you can choose layout from the dropdown menu (which opens automatically to "preview"). This will allow you to choose "pages per sheet" and then you will choose this option and in this case use the dropdown menu to choose 4 (therefore 4 pages per sheet). Depending on what orientation you want the page layout you can then help the patron select from layout direction. From here since they would not be able to actually print from their own device but rather have to upload to webprint, the bottom left corner has a drop down which says "pdf" from here you can change this to "save as pdf" and then it will save to the computer rather than print.

On a PC (Adobe PDF App): Click "file > print". From here you can choose "page size and handling" and select the header "multiple." Again there is a drop down option for "pages per sheet" or for customization if the patron really wants to get funky! If their Adobe does not have "page size and handling" option (as this may be a newer feature), you would simply select the "Properties" header at the top and then it will allow you to adjust page format and consequently "pages per sheet" which you can select from a drop down menu.

Printing a Google Doc
  • Patrons must DOWNLOAD and save the Google Doc either as a PDF or Word .doc.
    • If converting a Google Doc to a PDF, make sure they "Print to PDF" instead of "Save as PDF," as the latter messes up the formatting sometimes. Always review before submitting to the printer!
  • If they try printing a Google Doc directly to the library printer, it will send it to the printer with the name "javascript" and it will print a blank page AND deduct from the patron's balance.
    • Patrons CANNOT get a refund for this if their account is charged.
"Fast Print" Patrons are actually able to release their own print jobs, without swiping their card at a printer. This is not widely known, but it can result in issues if the printer that they selected is jammed, or otherwise out of order. Patrons should not print using this method, and we are not responsible for print jobs that get lost or are otherwise not printed properly.
Printing Landscape Patrons will occasionally want to print landscape.If the document is ALREADY in landscape: they can use the web pay for print and it works.

If the document is not in landscape: Print directly from one of our computers. In Word, choose landscape mode. When hitting print, make sure landscape mode is selected.

A small portion of the document is cut off near the margins Web print will automatically format PDFs to print their actual size - this means if the patron has print material close to the edges of the page it could get cut off because of printer margins. To fix this issue, the patron can print on one of our computers and in the PDF print selection box go to:Paper Size & Handling --> Size --> Size Options --> Fit
Printing Legal (8.5 x 14) Both the B&W and Colour printers have legal (8.5 x 14) paper trays. To print on legal paper size, patrons must submit their documents via one of our computers (Heritage Core, MAA, or Level 2) as legal paper size is not an option on Web Print.
Other Errors - "ERROR:limitcheck, OFFENDING COMMAND: gsave Stack: " - Error appears on printed page. Have student re save document as word document and then print- this will change the formatting but it will print!-Paper prints with large gray area on margin: chances are there is a tracked change or comment. Make sure all tracked changes and comments are removed for the gray area to disappear.

Additional info can be found here: https://services.library.ubc.ca/computers-technology/copy-print-scan/pay-for-print-students-faculty-staff/#fragment-40cc725beed3365bc0d67c9068f025b1-3