Uni Printers - a rant

Phantom · 24 Apr 2006 at 14:00

Clarkey said:
yes, printing is expensive at my uni, the main uni network is 5p per page I think, and those printers also print out an info sheet before your job with your username and printing balance on it, everybody throws them away, they even put a wheely bin next to most of the printers for the purpose of throwing them out.

recycled so not totally a waste

Clarkey · 24 Apr 2006 at 14:12

recycled or not, its a total waste. It uses extra paper, extra toner, extra electricity. And after that it is put on a truck which is guzzling diesel and polluting like nothing else, and taken to a recycling plant where vast amounts of energy is used in the process of recycling it.

Phantom · 24 Apr 2006 at 14:52

Clarkey said:
recycled or not, its a total waste. It uses extra paper, extra toner, extra electricity. And after that it is put on a truck which is guzzling diesel and polluting like nothing else, and taken to a recycling plant where vast amounts of energy is used in the process of recycling it.

yup, totally agree but its the only way they can separate student printouts easily and at the same time display their balance in the process so it does have a use.

manic_man · 24 Apr 2006 at 14:56

just printed off two copies of my dissertation.... 589 pages in total (both copies) 64 in colour... 4p per B&W, 25P per colour... you do the maths

Still satisfying to hand in a nice big wad of paper all nicely bound

My mates cousin printed out his recently and his uni wanted 59p per colour page. 10p is fully justified imo, i reckon around 12p is fine, 25p is too high, still.

Seft · 24 Apr 2006 at 14:59

At UCL it's 5p per print, but we get several hundred (400 I think) for free. They get around the 'how much this will cost' by having a workstation by the printer that you have to authorize the print from (also stopping accidental print-runs).

The paper isn't great, but I've got some 100gsm paper that I keep in my room if I need a better paper quality.

matthew_o50 · 24 Apr 2006 at 16:08

In my school it's 20p per page and the paper could be used for tracing it's that crap. The worst thing about it is that you get traces of the blue toner on the back of your page and due to the paper you can see it on the other side. Last year it was only 10p per page and even at that it was expensive.

philio16 · 24 Apr 2006 at 16:37

Salford uni is 5p per A4 b+w, 20p per A4 colour, £1 for A3 colour......thats all I've ever printed on

As design students we do get free use of an old printer, but the day before deadline day you can be expecting to wait upwards of an hour for 1 print out. The printer is quite a few years old and pretty much useless at handling network data

The shiney new one has it out in less than a minute.....but costs

PeterNem · 24 Apr 2006 at 18:15

I rarely use the Uni printers. A modest deskjet is so cheap these days and even on normal quality on regular 90 or 100gsm paper most will produce pretty good looking documents.

I'm actually sat here right now printing 3 copies (at 120 pages per go) of my final year project.

If I were to use the printers in the labs it'd be 5p per sheet for A4 B+W. I think I still have 40p credit from when I last topped up with a 5er a couple of years ago.

There are machines around campus that let you top up with £5 or £10 notes.

Not sure on the cost of colour printing or larger sizes.

We get an info sheet at the beginning too, thankfully it comes form a different paper tray usually stocked with yellow paper so it's pretty obvious where different people's work starts and ends.

edit: I'm at Loughborough

jamoor · 24 Apr 2006 at 18:18

afraser2k said:
The 10p also counts towards maintenance kits and purchasing of a new printer if required. Cover sheets are for administrative purposes when the kids decide to print porn as a joke, for example, or when you are on the last day of term and have 10+ jobs in a queue from different people.

our printers at work are on a contract, we pay a low fixed amount each month (cant remmeber exactly how much) + 0.5p per page fully inclusive of everything.

MarcLister · 24 Apr 2006 at 18:20

PeterNem said:
We get an info sheet at the beginning too, thankfully it comes form a different paper tray usually stocked with yellow paper so it's pretty obvious where different people's work starts and ends.

edit: I'm at Loughborough

Nice idea. A different colour paper would really help to mark out people's work.

jamoor · 24 Apr 2006 at 18:21

PeterNem said:
I rarely use the Uni printers. A modest deskjet is so cheap these days and even on normal quality on regular 90 or 100gsm paper most will produce pretty good looking documents.

I'm actually sat here right now printing 3 copies (at 120 pages per go) of my final year project.

If I were to use the printers in the labs it'd be 5p per sheet for A4 B+W. I think I still have 40p credit from when I last topped up with a 5er a couple of years ago.

There are machines around campus that let you top up with £5 or £10 notes.

Not sure on the cost of colour printing or larger sizes.

We get an info sheet at the beginning too, thankfully it comes form a different paper tray usually stocked with yellow paper so it's pretty obvious where different people's work starts and ends.

edit: I'm at Loughborough

yeah get a cheapo 30 quid canon printer or epson printer, black cart is £1 a pop and your laughing.