Why do we have to pay for printing?
Costs related to printing have escalated over the years as more electronic resources are becoming available through UAA Online, and the Consortium Libraries electronic resources. To bring balance back into the system by promoting responsible printing and to conserve resources by controlling abuse, waste, and rising costs Information Technology Services has implemented the user-friendly Managed Print system as a cost recovery system.
What is Managed Print?
Managed Print is a software-based printing cost recovery solution provided as a cost-effective solution to give students, and patrons high-quality, affordable printing in all participating computer labs, and the Consortium Library.
Are Students provided with Credit?
UAA Students attending classes at the Anchorage, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) campus' that have paid the UAA Technology Fee will start the semester with a credit of $15.00 in their Managed Print accounts. This is a non-accumulating credit.
How much will print jobs cost?
- Simplex Black & White Laser prints: $0.13 ea.
- Duplex (double-sided) Black & White Laser prints: $0.14 ea.
- Simplex 11"x17" Black & White Laser prints: $0.15 ea.
- Duplex 11"x17" Black & White Laser prints: $0.18 ea.
- Simplex 8.5"x11" Color Laser prints: $0.21 ea.
- Duplex 8.5"x11" Color Laser prints: $0.32 ea.
- Simplex 11"x17" Color Laser prints: $0.33 ea.
- Duplex 11"x17" Color Laser prints: $0.54 ea.
- Scan to USB: $0.01
How/Where can I add money to my Wolfcard?
Individuals may place additional funds onto their Wolfcard into the Wolfbucks account, for use with either Managed Print, or other campus services accepting payment via Wolfcard, via any of the following methods.
- Anchorage Campus
- Consortium Library (LIB) Circulation Desk: using credit/debit cards, or cash.
- Cashiering Office - Eugene Short Hall (ESH), room 102
- Value Transfer Station (VTS): Unattended value transfer stations are located in the Consortium Library Copy Room, Sally Monserud Hall (SMH), Health Sciences Building (HSB), and in the Housing Commons where funds can be added using credit/debit cards, or cash.
- Online
Refunds may be requested for funds on a person's Wolfbucks account; however, funds on the Print Allocation account are not eligible for refunds. See the UAA WolfCard page for additional details.
How does Managed Print work?
Printing will not occur if there is insufficient funds on your account. You can add money to your account, see "How/Where can I add money to my Managed Print Account?".
- Interactive: (Consortium Library & MobilePrint Only) When you click the print button or select the print command from an application (word processing program, a Web browser, etc), a popup dialog box will appear, asking you to enter a job owner name, and password.
Automated: When you click the print button, or select the print command from an application, the standard print dialog box will appear where you enter in your choices as normal (e.g. number of copies, page range, etc.) and the job is then submitted to the print queue.
- Once your job is submitted to the print queue proceed to the Print Release Station (PRS), log in to the workstation and then swipe your WOLFcard, or Library Copy Card. The PRS will let you know how much you have in your account and how much your print job will cost. You will be asked to verify that you wish to continue. Your job will be printed and your account debited for the cost of printing.
Who can print using Managed Print?
UAA students, staff and faculty who have current UA Account and Wolfcard on the UAA Campus Network. Non-UAA students and University Patrons will only be able to print from workstations that are available to the general public, such as the Consortium Library Information Terminals.
What facilities/locations is the Managed Print service deployed at?
How long is my account good for?
The account is good as long as you are a registered student, or current staff member at UAA. Any money you add to your WOLFbucks account will carry over each semester until you graduate. The Credit provided by UAA to students will not carry over; however, it will be reset each semester that you are actively enrolled in classes.
Can I get a refund from my Managed Print account?
No. Managed Print funds are "use it or lose it" funds.
Will credit be given for spoiled copies?
No; however, copies spoiled because of equipment malfunctions such as paper jams and toner streaks can be reprinted at no additional charge.
To have the job reprinted, take your spoiled copies in their entirety to the participating location's support/reference desk, or Lab Consultant within one (1) hour of the original print job.
Reprints will not be provided for printouts made by mistake, blank pages, or for materials such as web pages that, due to the layout or design, are difficult to read, don't contain the information you want, or have large areas of blank space.
When the paper jam is cleared will the printer automatically resend my print job?
Sometimes a printer will resend damaged jobs once the paper jam is cleared. In this case, you will NOT be charged a second time for the automatic resend.
Can a job sent to the printer be canceled or stopped from printing?
No. Once a job is selected and released for printing, it cannot be canceled. You are charged for the print job at the time print job is released.
How can I be sure that my copies will be good?
Use the Print Preview function to see what your printout will look like.
How can I be sure what a Web Browser will print?
Each Web Browser renders (displays/prints) web pages different. Even the same version of the software used on different Operating Systems will render the page different. Take UAA's home page, and a popular cross-platform web browser such as FireFox. On Windows the page may print as two pages, often one page of actual content, and a second page with no content. Where as on the Mac, or Unix platform the page will be printed as only a single page.
Unfortunately there is no way to guarantee exactly how any browser will render any given page, while “Print Preview” will provide some idea of how many pages will be printed it is not always 100% accurate when printing web pages. How a web page is printed is entirely dependent upon how the site's Author created the page.
Below are a few options that can be used to manage printing through Web Browsers:
- Use "Print Preview"
- Enter a "Page Range" in the print dialog box such as "1", "1-2", "1-4", etc.
- Copy and paste the content you want to a Word Document, text file, etc., and then format the information as you like before printing.
- Print to PDF if this option is available.
- Save the web page to a removable storage device (Floppy, Zip, CD-R, USB Storage device, etc.)
How can I save money on printing?
- Proofread your work before printing.
- Be sure to send your printing to the correct print station.
- Do 2-sided printing.
- Print PowerPoint presentations as handouts, selecting to print 6 slides per page.
- Save documents to removable media (e.g. USB thumb drive, CD-R(W), DVD-R(W), etc.), or to your OneDrive for Business, or Google drive.
- Email documents to yourself, such as online articles.
- Do not print directly from a web browser. Copy the information you want, paste it into a Word document, delete any unnecessary material, then print.
- Save web sites as PDF to save to disk or email for printing or viewing from home.
Is duplex (2-sided) printing available?
Duplex printing is available on all of the print devices supported by Managed Print. Duplex (or two-sided) printing is cheaper than regular printing in that you will be charged less than if you were to print the same multi-page file as one-sided. Duplex printing with your own paper inserted into the manual feed tray costs the same as when using paper supplied by the university.
Where available duplex printing is set as the default option, if you would like to print single-sided you can change this setting on a per case basis under the "print preferences." The actual steps may very depending upon the Operating System and software being utilized.
Why are print jobs sent to the Black & White printer being indicated as color at the release stations?
The printers on Windows workstations are configured to use HP's Universal Printer driver. These device drivers allow for a single driver to be used regardless of the printer model. Due to the nature of this device driver it processes all the information in the source document such as color attributes and passes the data along to the print queue. When using the Print Release Stations these jobs will report something to the effect of "X color sheet(s) at a cost of $x.yz", or "X sheets, Y in color at a cost of $x.yz". This does not mean that it is going to the color printer, just that the source document contained some color information. The print job should be charged correctly according to the which printer the patron selected (B&W vs. Color) and the cost will reflect this.
This is normal, although somewhat confusing, behavior.
I'm attempting to print a page range of a PDF file and the job doesn't appear at the Print Release Station?
When using Adobe Acrobat Pro X, or Adobe Reader X, to print a PDF document there is a known bug with printing specific pages, and/or page ranges. You can print the entire document without any problems; however, to print a page range, or a specific page please do the following:
This bug does not appear to affect older versions of the Adobe Acrobat/Reader applications, or the Preview.app on macOS.
- If viewing a PDF file in a web browser click the print icon within the PDF plug-in
- Select the page range you want to print (e.g. 25-30), and then click the Advanced button
- Select the "print as image" option and click Ok
- Click Ok to print
Can I bring in my own paper to save money?
You can use certain types of paper you have purchased yourself (inserted into the manual feed tray). There are many different types of paper, usually referred to as specialty paper, and while it is not possible to provide a 100% inclusive example list, below are some of the generalized types that are, or are not allowed:
Allowed Media Types
- Paper
- Bond
- Color
- Letterhead
- Plain
- Preprinted
- Prepunched
- Recycled
- Rough
- Light
- Envelopes
- Cardstock
Disallowed Media Types
- Transparencies
- Shelf edge labels
- Labels
- Paper specifically labeled as "inkjet"
- Paper with glitter, or other substances which may detach during the printing process
- Vellum
- Paper not sold as being for use with printers (e.g. a sheet of paper taken out of a spiral sketch pad)
Allowed Media Weights
If you're unsure if your specialty paper is compatible please speak with the facility's staff, submit a Managed Print support ticket, or Contact IT for assistance before attempting your print job.
A cautionary note if you elect to utilize specialty paper you purchased yourself. Be aware that if another patron prints to the printer before you do, you will lose your paper to that other person's print job. Also, as most locations have multiple printers connected to each print queue there is no guarantee of which printer the document will print to. UAA will not refund or replace any paper lost in this manner. Manual feed printing with your own paper is done at your own risk and costs the same as printing with paper supplied by the University.
Patrons needing to utilize specialty paper not supported by the Managed Print service for their print jobs should contact the General Support Services (GSS) Copy Center located beneath the Enrollment Services Center for further assistance.
Can I print on transparencies?
No, all transparencies are banned due to the potential of harm to the printer fuser unit. Transparency printing can be done at the General Support Services (GSS) Copy Center located beneath the Enrollment Services Center.
Can I print labels?
No, all label printing is banned due to the potential of harm to the printer fuser unit. Label printing can be done at the General Support Services (GSS) Copy Center located beneath the Enrollment Services Center.
What if the network goes down?
As with any networked printer, when the network goes down all print services stop until the network comes back online.
Can I transfer funds in my account to another person?
No, all funds in your Managed Print account are yours only and are non-transferable.
I noticed extra money in my Managed Print account, where did it come from?
Certain departments, programs and colleges have paid for additional funds to be placed into their student's Managed Print accounts. In most cases, these funds are use it or lose it, and are non-accumulating.
Can I print from a laptop?
Yes
Will Managed Print be expanded to other locations?
Yes, eventually. Managed Print is an opt-in service provided to Departments, Schools, and Collages across UAA. Further expansion will be in partnership with other departments around campus.
What printer model should my department purchase?
Departments interested in implementing the Managed Print service in their facility should submit a Setup or Change a Print location ticket. We will provided a custom recommendation that best suits the facility's needs. In most cases either the "Group B&W Laser Printer - Standard", or the "Group Color Laser Printer - Standard" model will be sufficient to accommodate the facility.