University of Malta UNIVERSITY OF MALTA 
IT SERVICES 
Printing
 
Introduction
Location of Printing Facilities
Printing Costs
Printing Credits & Printing Statements
Black & White Printing (A4/A3 Paper)
Duplex Printing (A4 Paper)
Colour Printing (A4/A3 Paper)
Colour Printing (Transparencies)
Wi-Fi (Wireless) Printing
Wide Format Printing
Managing Coloured Documents
Printing Tips
Troubleshooting
Introduction

The IT Services offers the following high quality laser printing facilities for members of staff and university students having a IT Services Account:

    • Monochrome (black & white) printing
    • Colour printing
    • Wide format printing

Printing can be done on A4/A3 paper and transparencies. A charge is levied for all printing services.


Location of Printing Facilities

The laser printers are located at:

All A4/A3 paper printing is done on a self-service basis during the opening hours of the locations (see above) where the printing facilities are available.

Printing on transparencies is run by IT Services Support Staff during as indicated here:

  Winter Hours 16:00-16:30
  Summer Hours 12:00-12:30


Printing Costs

A4 & A3 printing
  Paper Size   Printing Cost per side
  A4 paper Black & White   €0.05 (2c)**
  A4 paper (duplex printing*) Black & White €0.02 (1c)
  A3 paper# Black & White €0.09 (4c)
  A4 transparency Black & White €0.58 (25c)
  A4 paper Colour €0.47 (20c)
  A3 paper# Colour €0.93 (40c)
  A4 transparency Colour €1.40 (60c)

*Duplex printing is printing on both sides of the sheet of paper. Duplex printing is not available for A3 and colour printing.

#A3 printing is available only at the IT Services Main Site Lab B and at the Architecture & Civil Engineering Lab 1.

Wide format printing (Architecture printing room only)
  Paper   Size/Type Glossy
Colour and B&W
Coated
Colour B&W
  Arch D €19.15
(Lm 8.22)**		 €6.38
(Lm 2.74)		 €1.05
(Lm 0.45)
  Arch C €9.64
(Lm 4.14)		 €3.21
(Lm 1.38)		 €0.54
(Lm 0.23)
  A1 €17.68
(Lm 7.59 )		 €5.89
(Lm 2.53)		 €0.98
(Lm 0.42)
  A2 €8.81
(Lm 3.78)		 €2.94
(Lm 1.26)		 €0.49
(Lm 0.21)
  Custom €0.21/cm length
(9cents/cm length)		 €0.07/cm length
(3cents/cm length)		 €0.01/cm length
(0.5cents/cm
length)

**Prices shown in Maltese Lira are for information purposes only and have been converted using the central parity rate.


Printing Credits & Printing Statements

IT Services uses a system of printing credits for self-service printing. This system involves the purchase of printing credits from the IT Services Reception before using the printing facilities in any computer lab.

You can purchase printing credits by completing the printing credit application form available from the IT Services Reception. The form must be handed in together with the amount of money to be deposited. The minimum amount of money deposited for printing is €2.33 (Lm1.00)*.

Payment for printing credits can also be made by SMGB (Stipends) card, subject to a minimum payment of €4.66 (Lm2.00)*.

To check how many printing credits you have left from any IT Services workstation:

  1. Double-click Quota Printing Client icon on your desktop.

    2. A dialog box, showing your IT Services User Id and name will be displayed. The amount of money you have left in your printing account is shown in Lm under the heading Current balance.

  2. Click Close button.

Printing statements are records of print jobs that you have performed. These statements enable you to monitor the use of your printing credits. You can generate your printing statement here.

*Prices shown in Maltese Lira are for information purposes only and have been converted using the central parity rate.


Black & White Printing (A4/A3 Paper)

By default, all IT Services workstations are set to print on the nearest black & white laser printer. Therefore, all your printing requests will automatically go to the nearest printer.

Note that A3 printing is available only at the IT Services Main Site Lab B and at the Architecture & Civil Engineering Lab 1. A3 printing over Wi-Fi on these printers is also possible. Instructions for Wi-Fi users to enable A3 printing are available here.


Duplex Printing (A4 Paper)

Duplex printing is printing on both sides of the paper. Double-sided printing conserves paper and is cheaper compared to single-sided printing.

Duplex printing is suitable for printing multi-page documents. By default, all IT Services workstations are set to single-sided printing. Follow these instructions to print on both sides of an A4 page*:

  1. Click File menu.
  2. Click Print... The Print dialog box will be displayed. By default, the dialog box will show the name of the nearest black & white printer.
  3. Click the Properties... button. The Printer Document Properties dialog box will be displayed.
  4. In the section Print on Both Sides, tick the appropriate option i.e. Flip on Long Edge or Flip on Short Edge.
  5. Click OK button to close the Printer Document Properties dialog box.
  6. Click OK button to close the Print dialog box and print the document.

*Duplex printing is not available for A3 and colour printing.

Duplex printing over Wi-Fi is also possible. Instructions for Wi-Fi users to enable duplex printing are available here.

Note that you can also print multiple pages on a single side of an A4 page. Refer to the Printing tips (tip 6) section for information about multiple page printing.


Colour Printing (A4/A3 Paper)

To print on the colour laser printer from Windows-based programs (MS Office, SPSS for Windows etc.):

  1. Click File menu.
  2. Click Print... The Print dialog box will be displayed. By default, the dialog box will show the name of the nearest monochrome printer.
  3. In the Print dialog box select the name of the printer to use e.g. if you are in one of the labs at the IT Services Main Site select: Colour IT Services Lab B on Birgu
  4. Click OK button to close the Print dialog box and print the document.

Note that:
  • The colour laser printer may take some time to output your printouts. It is important to set the printer back to a monochrome printer if you intend to print in black & white during the same session.
  • A3 printing is available only at the IT Services Main Site Lab B and at the Architecture & Civil Engineering Lab 1. A3 printing over Wi-Fi on these printers is also possible. Instructions for Wi-Fi users to enable A3 printing are available here.


Colour Printing (Transparencies)

This colour printing service is run by IT Services Support Staff during the times indicated above. To make use of this printing service contact IT Services Reception. Payment for this service should be made at IT Services Reception.


Wi-Fi (Wireless) Printing

All printers at the IT Services Main Site, the Main Library & STATOR Lab (Maths & Physics Bldg - top floor) can be used for Wi-Fi (wireless) printing. Printing over the wireless network involves the installation of the appropriate printer drivers on the laptop. Instructions to install such drivers and other information about the IT Services Wireless Hotspots are available here. Users will need to purchase printing credits from IT Services Reception to be able to print over the wireless networks.


Wide Format Printing

Wide format printing is available only at the Architecture & Civil Enginieering Building (Architecture Studio) during the following hours. Users are requested to contact Mr. Carmelo Galea at the Architecture lab about wide format printing requirements. Users will need to purchase printing credits from IT Services Reception to make use of this service.


Managing Coloured Documents

Coloured documents occupy more space in terms of memory compared to black and white documents. Sometimes a coloured document may not fit on a single 1.44Mb disk. This can make it difficult to transfer coloured documents to IT Services computers for printing.

If your home system is equipped with CD-Writing facilities you can transfer the coloured document to a CD-R disk. If your system has a USB port, you can transfer the coloured document to a USB memory device. You can also use a compression utility to reduce the file size of your coloured document and then try and transfer this to a 1.44Mb disk. You can download a file compression utility from IT Services downloads page.


Printing Tips

Since all printing must be paid for, you will want to ensure that no print job is wasted. Here are some tips to help you with this.

  1. Check your work carefully before printing. Note that documents produced on one printer may appear slightly different when an alternative printer is chosen. This means that documents prepared on your home computer might be displayed differently on IT Services computers.

  2. Note that the quality of printed coloured images may be slightly different from what is displayed on the computer screen. This is because a printer is unable to produce as many pure colours as a monitor.  Print only one page and check whether the colours are to your satisfaction or not.

  3. Print only those pages, which you really need. If you are revising a file, print the amended pages only, not the whole file or document. All programs allow you to specify which pages to print. If you don't know how, look up printing in the program help system.

  4. Check your print settings carefully before you send a print job. For example, if you have previously changed a setting to print 3 copies of a document instead of 1, make sure you change the print setting back to 1 before you print again.

  5. Make sure that you know which printer your job will be printed on. This is especially so if you will be using different printers during the same session. Remember that printing on the colour laser is significantly more expensive than standard black and white laser printing.

  6. Consider printing multiple pages on a single side of an A4 page. This is particularly suitable for multi-page documents specifically printed for reading purposes. This conserves paper and is cheaper compared to the standard printing. Follow these instructions to print multiple pages:

    1. Click File menu.
    2. Click Print...
    3. Click the Properties... button. The Printer Document Properties dialog box will be displayed.
    4. Click the drop down arrow next to Pages Per Sheet and set the number of pages to print on a single side of an A4 paper.
    5. Click OK button to close the Printer Document Properties dialog box.
    6. Click OK button to close the Print dialog box and print the document.

  7. Please collect your printouts promptly. If you find other users' output in the printer, please keep it together and leave it in the output tray. Uncollected output is placed in a box and disposed off at the end of the day.


Troubleshooting

If your print job does not immediately appear to have been printed by the laser printers please do not send the job again until you have checked that:

  • Output is still being produced for other users on your chosen printer.
  • The printer has not run out of paper.
  • Your credits have not gone down.

If in doubt, please contact IT Services Support Staff.

Last updated: 13-Feb-08
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