Computer and Information Science and Engineering

CISE Help & Resources

Printing

How do I print a file?

The general format for printing a file is:

lpr -Pprinter filename

Where printer is the name of the printer where you wish the file to print. So if you wanted to print foo.c to ps114, you would run:

lpr -Pps114 foo.c

With one exception, all printers in the department are PostScript laser printers (see the following section for more information). Before you print to any printer, make sure you are printing the right type of file. If you try to print something other than text or PostScript, the printer will reject it.

To find out what the type of file you are going to print is use the command:

file filename

This will tell you if the file is a PostScript document, an executable, a text file, etc.

The ONLY types of file that can be sent to a PostScript printer are text or PostScript. Never send a file of type binary, data, JPEG, GIF, or any other format to the printer. It will likely result in hundreds of wasted pages (which you will be responsible for any charges), or will be rejected by the printer.

In the past, you could leave off the -Pprinter on all commands and the printer would default to ps114. This has been removed to prevent accidental printing to that printer now that printing is charged for. You must explicitely tell what printer you are using on the print command. A list of printers available to you, and their classifications is given below.

If you want to specify a default printer without always having to use a -Pprinter option, you can create an environment variable PRINTER which contains the name of a printer. From then on, that printer will be used as the default printer. For example, to make ps114 your default printer, add the following line to your .cshrc file:

setenv PRINTER ps114

The next time you log in, that will be your default printer

What types of printers are available?

The following types of printers are available at CISE:

Postscript Printers

The Postscript printers should ONLY be used for printing Postscript documents. To use this printer use the following command:

lpr -Pprinter filename

where printer is the name of the printer. Most printers are named something like ps114 which means that it is a PostScript printer located in room 114.

Color Postscript Printers

There are two printers in the department that can be used for printing color pictures. These printers are extremely expensive to buy and maintain, so they should only be used for printing color, and students will be charged for the printouts.

Are there restrictions on what may be printed?

In general, there are no rules on what content may be printed. There are restrictions on the amount however, designed to make it so that no one user can monopolize a printer.

• During normal lab hours, there are some restrictions placed on the use of ps114 as it is very heavily used. Jobs which exceed these resetrictions may be removed by the consultants on duty without prior notice, and you will be responsible for any charges from partially printed jobs.

  There is a total limit of 200KB for jobs in the queue simultaneously for a single user. In other words, you can have one job of 200K or more than one totaling 200K. The consultants are empowered to enforce this limit at their discretion, usually based on printer use and job duration. If you need to print a file that is larger than this limit, please do so when the lab is not busy or outside of lab hours.

• There are no set limits on other printers, but any user who is monopolizing a printer for extended periods of time is subject to having jobs removed.
• Printing multiple copies of a job is not allowed. Print it out once and make photocpies instead.

Printer resources cost the department a great deal of money. Your printer privileges are just that, privileges. Please be conscientious about your printer use.

How do I convert a file to PostScript?

The following table may help:

Man pages exist for each of the commands above: enscript, pdf2ps, convert.

How do I print single-sided on ps114?

First: please do not print single sided when double sided will work. We'd like to conserve paper, and printing double sided is a very good way to do so.

To print single sided, you must start with a PostScript file. If you have something else (text, PDF, etc.), it must first be turned into PostScript. See the previous question for more information.

Once you have a PostScript file, use the following command to print:

lpr -Pps114 -o sides=one-sided FILE.ps

Any other attempt at printing single sided may result in pages being double counted.

How do I display a Postscript file?

If you have a Postscript file we recommend you view it first before printing as printing a large Postscript file takes time, paper, and printer toner. To view a Postscript file you need to be logged in to a workstation (at a graphics screen, not from home or an ascii terminal) running the X windowing system. Once you are logged in and running X, you can display a Postscript file using the command:

gv file.ps

For more information on the Ghostview (gv) command, read the man page.

How do I print multiple pages per page of paper?

You can print PostScript documents as multiple pages per sheet of paper (i.e. 2 pages side by side, or 4 page per sheet of paper, etc.).

To print 2 pages side-by-side, use the command:

psnup -num infile outfile

where num is the number of pages per sheet of papert (typically 2 or 4), infile is the name of a PostScript file, and outfile is the name of a second PostScript file which contains multiple pages per sheet of paper.

More details on the psnup command are avilable here.

I printed a job through Windows, but it keeps getting stuck in the NT queue.

This is a bug with NT, files that have spaces or ampersands (&) in them hang; printing from web browsers (the filename is usually the URL http://foo.com/bar?x=5&blah=4) often causes this.

The only solution in this case is to print the webpage to a file, and then print the file.

Caveat: The file format that Windows will save the above as is prn, it is broken postscript. Read the next question for information on how to fix it.

Why does my Postscript file sometimes print out as garbled text?

Your file contains bad Postscript. Microsoft applications often do this. To check, edit your Postscript file with a text editor, and make sure that the first lines of the file looks like this:

%!PS-Adobe-3.0

and the last line should look like this:

%%EOF

If there are lines before or after these, use a text editor to delete them.

It would probably also be helpful rename the file from foo.prn to foo.ps.

How do I tell the status of my print job?

To check to see the status of your print job, use the following command:

lpq -Pprinter

where printer is the name of the printer.

For more details, read the lpq man page.

How do I remove a print job from the queue?

To remove a print job from the queue use the following command on the same machine you sent the print job from:

lpq -Pprinter

where printer is the printer where the job was printed. This will return something that looks similar to:

ps114 is ready and printing
Rank    Owner   Job     File(s)                         Total Size
active  foo     101170  Microsoft Word - Document1      565248 bytes
1st     bar     101171  StateDependent.pdf              185344 bytes

Look for the job that is owned by you that you want to kill. The third column is the job number. Run the command:

lprm -Pprinter jobnumber

where printer is the name of the printer and jobnumber is the job number returned by lpq. If you want to remove all of your jobs, you can use:

lprm -Pprinter username

For more details, read the lprm man page.

Why were my print jobs removed from the queue?

Print jobs are removed usually for one of the following reasons:

Wrong Printer

You can only print to public printers (such as ps114 or lp1) or private printers that you are authorized to use.

Incorrect File Type

If you are using a Postscript printer (ps114, et. al.), send only Postscript files.

Large Files

If you try to print too large a file on a busy printer, it may be removed.

Too Many Jobs

Users are not allowed to monopolize public printers with a large file or a large number of files. This prevent other people from using it.

If your print job was removed by a member of the systems staff, you should receive mail notifying you that this was the case. Please email if you feel there was a mistake.

Why am I being charged for printing?

There are two reasons that we have implemented charging for printing.

The first is obvious: cost recovery. Printing used to be free to students at CISE. What this has meant is that the department was footing the bill for everyone's printing. Because finances in the department have been growing tighter over the past several years, the department is no longer able to provide this service for free.

The second reason is less obvious. Printer abuse has become a very serious problem, and we need a method of curbing it. Although the vast majority of users are printing less than 100 pages a month, others are printing 500 pages a month (and a small percentage have printed upwards of 2000 pages a month!). This means that public printers are tied up for extended periods of time printing non-class related material (classes simply do not require that much printing). Other printer exist for printing research related materials, and personal printing should not be paid for by the department. By charging for printing, the severe abuse of the printers will cease for purely monetary reasons (very few people will be willing to pay for having a printed document which can be read for free online).

The second reason is arguably the most important reason. The department needs to provide printers to the students, and when the printer is tied up for hours printing one or two large jobs, students can't print out required materials. If, as a result of the charging, no one prints out more than their free quota, the department still comes out ahead in that the service we provide to students is more reliable.

What printers are affected?

Private printers are those which belong to a specific staff or faculty member and are in their office. No one is allowed to print to these printers without the permission of the owner. Any abuse will result in the suspension of printing privilegess. Accounting information is kept for these printers (so abuse will be obvious), but no charging is done.

All other printers are divided into three categories: color (comprising the two color printers in the department), public, and restricted (printers in semi-public areas for use by faculty and grad students for research and TA purposes).

Which printers are in each category?

The printers in each category are:

color:        ps301c, ps313c
public:       ps114
restricted:   ps301, ps309, ps314, ps329, ps331, ps333, ps355,
              ps403, ps429, ps445, ps457, ps457c, ps467 

How much does printing cost?

Everyone is allowed to print to both public and restricted printers, but they will be given an allotment of free pages on each, and beyond that, they will be required to pay.

Everyone is allowed to print to the public printers... but everyone in the department (including grad students, TAs, faculty, etc.) will be charged beyond a certain number of pages. Research printing should be done on restricted printers.

Everyone is currently allowed to print to the restricted printers as well. Faculty are not charged for printing to these printers. Others have an allotment of free pages and are charged for additional printing. Restricted printers should be used for research printing, printing of teaching materials (for TAs), etc.

Color printers are free to the faculty. Everyone else will be charged for all pages printed. All pages are charged for, even if they are entirely black and white.

The allotment of free pages per month goes from the first day of the calendar month to the last day.

The numbers of free pages are subject to change. Current values are given in the following table:

NOTE: the costs per page refer to the number of pages printed, NOT the number of sheets of paper. Several printers are capable of printing double-sided, and these pages are counted for two pages instead of one.

User	Public		Restricted		Color
	Free	Cost	Free	Cost	Free	Cost
Faculty	100	$0.25	Unlimited	$0.00	Unlimited	$0.00
Grad Student	100	$0.25	150	$0.25	0	$0.75
TA	100	$0.25	200	$0.25	0	$0.75
Other	100	$0.25	0	$0.25	0	$0.75

Why are you charging so much per page?

The only approved method open to us to recover our actual cost was to base the amount on current market prices. We looked at computer printing services available in Gainesville and chose the cheapest price available. This led to the amounts in the above table. The department will periodically reevaluate the market prices which may lead to changes in the above numbers.

The reasons for this are solely bureaucratic. CIRCA is able to charge less for printing because of it's source of funding (largely self generated or from the student government). As a result, it is able to charge on a cost recovery basis. Because the department's funding is coming directly from the government, we are not able to charge on a cost recovery basis (basically, we are not able to charge the government AND you for the cost of the printers, supplies, etc.). The only option available to us is to charge for a service, and this must be done at a competitive market cost.

How can I find out what my quota and usage are?

The command "pquota" will show you your current usage, quota, and the amount which you owe. All charges will be billed at the end of the month. If you just type "pquota" at the command line prompt (on any Sun computer), it will list your current quota and usage. Read the man page for more details and other options.

One important note is that the database of accounting information is updated once per day, so print jobs submitted during the previous 24 hours may not be included.

It is planned that email notices will also be sent out as you approach or exceed your quota notifying you. **NOTE** This is not yet in place, so you should use the pquota command to keep track of your usage.

Interpreting the pquota command is fairly simple. For each queue, it returns 4 numbers: quota, cost, usage, cutoff. The quota is the number of pages you are allowed to print for free. Anything beyond this is charged based on the cost per page. Usage is the number of pages actually printed. Cutoff is currently unused. A value of -1 in the quota means unlimited free pages.

The accounting on each queue is completely independant of the other queues. If you print fewer pages than your quota in one queue, but exceed your quota in another queue, you will be charged for those pages irregardless of the number of free pages available to you in another queue.

If I go over one month, can I take it out of the next month's quota? If I don't use all my free pages this month, can I transfer the remainder to next month?

No, unused pages may not be transferred to the next month.

Can I transfer my quota from one type of printer to another?

One of the primary purposes for implementing charging is to make printing available to all users in a more reliable way. The public printers are heavily used, so transferring quota to them will NOT be permitted under any circumstances. We will allow public quota to be transferred to a restricted printer. There is no transfer to or from color printers or private printer.

For example, a TA has a quota allowing 100 free pages on a public printer and 200 pages on restricted printers. If the TA prints 150 pages on a public printer and 150 pages on restricted printers, they WILL be charged for 50 pages printed on the public printer. However, if they print 50 pages on a public printer and 250 pages on a restricted printer, they will not be charged.

What if I have special printing needs this month?

Note: A thesis does NOT qualify as a special need. According to university policy, the student, NOT the department, should pay for all costs associated with the thesis. We make no attempt to determine if that is what is being printed (so part, or even all, of the thesis, may be printed as free pages) but printing a large thesis will not be accepted as an excuse to increase your quota. Printing a thesis on a private printer to avoid being charged is also an abuse.

If you DO have a special printing need one month, please see an administrator and we will consider these requests on an individual basis.

What if I don't agree with the number of pages printed, or there are jobs I don't think I should have to pay for?

If you disagree with the number of pages that pquota reports, or if a job fails to print correctly, you must report the problem to the admin in room E314e or to a consultant on duty. We will examine the logs to determine if there is an error. Email to consult or admin is NOT sufficient to get a charge reversed. Please do this as soon as possible after the error occurs so that we can investigate the problem. You must bring the failed print job with you when you report the problem.

Print jobs fail to print correctly for several reasons. There may be a problem with the printer (out of toner or some mechanical problem). Problems such as these (beyond the control of the user) are always refunded.

We are not responsible for users printing the wrong document, or printing it incorrectly. These pages will usually not be refunded.

Note: You must report this BEFORE it is billed. Once the charge is sent to the registrar (you will be emailed a total charge before this occurs), reversing the charge will only be done in very special cases. Also, the pquota command does NOT reflect any refunded pages (it will continue to show the full number of pages printed). Refunded pages will only appear on the final accounting report which will be sent to users at the end of each accounting period.

How am I be billed?

You will be billed in a method similar to the one the library uses for billing for late books. At the end of the month, the total for all of the months will be sent to the registrar. All billing will be done by the registrar.

I'm a TA. Will I be charged for printing class material for the class I'm TA'ing?

TAs will be granted an increased quota as described above. Other than that, TAs will be treated the same as grad students. There is no need for TAs to do anything to request this increased quota. Once a semester, we will get the information from the secretaries.

Other instances of printer abuse?

Although not intended to, this policy may make some people actually print more pages. There are two reasons why this might be.

Some people may adopt the attitude that "I have 100 free pages and if I don't use them, I'll lose them, so I'm going to print 100 pages whether I need to or not". If this ever becomes a problem, we may be forced to reduce the allotment of free pages, but hopefully, most students will realize that the policy is there to help us provide better, more consistent, print service and will voluntarily choose to be good "netizens".

The second reason will be that people who are now printing 500-1000 pages a month may ask their friends (who don't print as much) to do some of the printing for them.

If caught, these users (all users involved) may be subject to a suspension of free printing privileges, or may be restricted from printing at all.

I printed a job, but my usage didn't change in the pquota command.

There may be a problem with the program that collects printer accounting information -- please send mail to consult@cise.ufl.edu.

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This page was last updated May. 14, 2008.