Printing

Printers

Question 3.1   What printers are available, and which should I use?

There are small printers on every floor, named after the room that they are in. These should be used for small, quick jobs. Documents longer than a few pages should be sent to one of the heavy-duty printers, which can print on both sides of the page. You will have a default printer defined when your account is setup. This will usually be one of small printers. Please pick up the pages from these printers quickly.

Question 3.2   How can I tell which is my default printer?

Just type ``echo $PRINTER'' and hit return.

Question 3.3   How can I change my default printer?

There is a command to do this. Just decide what printer you want, and type:

useprinter printername.

Question 3.4   How can I print to a different printer?

You need to tell the application you are using which printer you wish to use. Each printer has a name, and multi-function printers have names for each function. For example, the heavy duty printer in room 438 is called mx and for double-sided 8.5 by 11 paper it is mxd. For most applications your just add the printer name, prefixed by -P to the command. Assuming you want mxd, the following examples will do it.

For Netscape, acroread (for .pdf files), and others where pressing the print button gives a window with the print command lpr just add -Pmxd, so the window shows lpr -Pmxd.

For printing dvi files created by TEXor L^ATEX, dvips -Pmxd filename.

There are several methods for printing text files, the best is enscript -G -Pmxd filename which gives nice headers. If you don't want the headers, leave out the -G.

PrinterNames

Question 3.5   What are the printer names?

Here are the names. You can print double sided by adding a d to the printer name. Or you should be able to.

m327( m327d)

Clearly the printer in room 327.

m203( m203d)

Also known as ljet, this is the printer in the MacLab. Temporarily you need to use ljetd for double sided printing.

uff

Also known as puff or Puff or 108, the printer in the main office on the first floor. The short name is so that one can use -Puff. This is the same printer as rainbow, described below

There are color printers on the first floor and in room 438 (the computer lab on the fourth floor).

The printer in room 438 is called mx, (possibly soon to be changed to prism, has different suffixes for different functions.

mx

Ordinary single sided printing, letter size paper.

mxd

Double sided printing, letter size paper.

mxl

Long Paper, single sided

mxld

Long Paper, double Sided

mxs

Setup to print transparencies. Requires special media.

The first floor printer, rainbow has corresponding functions.

rainbow

Ordinary single sided printing, letter size paper.

rainbowd

Double sided printing, letter size paper.

rainbowl

Long Paper, single sided

rainbowld

Long Paper, double Sided

rainbows

Setup to print transparencies. Requires special media.

It is also possible it print on the mainframe's postscript printer, and the printed documents will appear, with some delay, in a box appropriate to your name in the computer centers I/O room in the basement. This is a very good way to print documents that you do not need immediately.

The name of the printer is mfps (Main Frame PostScript), and it has several variants for different functions:

mfps

Form Feed Paper: low resolution, but it is almost bound like a book.

mfpsn

High Quality single sheet, single sided. The n means no holes.

mfpsnd

High Quality single sheet, double sided.

Unfortunately these print queues are not working at this time. If you have an account on the sp machine, you can still print.