Default settings and common issues

Using less paper is an environmentally responsible and thrifty way of ensuring you can support the Environmental Policies of Goldsmiths College and the Student Union, and save yourself some money at the same time.

• You should print on both sides of the paper — this is the default setting for all printers in the Rutherford Building. Only ever print on one side of the page if your department has deemed it necessary (eg. final submission essays, dissertations and theses)

• Print two or more pages of your document on one side of paper — useful for printing multiple slides on a PowerPoint presentation or creating a draft

• If you need to make minor corrections to a printed document, don’t reprint the entire document again. Just select the Page Range option in Microsoft Word’s Print dialog to reprint only the pages you have changed

• Printing an email message is almost always unnecessary

• Printing entire webpages is difficult and rarely looks good. It’s often best to copy sections of text or images into a Word Document, and print from there. Or even better if the web page can be downloaded or exported as PDF

• Reduce page margins to allow more printing space on the page, and always delete unnecessary white space in a document

Considerations

• Printing will rarely preserve the actual layout of the web page as viewed in your web browser
• Web pages often have light text on coloured backgrounds – printing onto white paper may print the text completely blank
• Paragraphs and formatting are often completely different
• Large images and graphics, though entirely visible on the web browser, may be wider than the margins of your printed page
• Fields in online forms do not always print

Tips

• Always use the Print Preview option to see how many sheets will be required to print a web page
• Use the Scale option in the Print Preview to reduce the number of sheets needed to print the page and to ensure that everything on the page will be printed
• Use the Page Range option in the Print dialog if you do not need the whole page
• If a web page offers a Print this page option or is available as an Adobe Acrobat file (PDF), use that version for printing

Workarounds

• Printing a paper copy is not always the right choice. If you need a copy for your records but you don't actually need a hard copy, you can save the web page locally
• In some cases, the webpage will be heavily text-based or have a simple layout. If so, try copying and pasting a selection from the web page into a word processor document

It is your responsibility to ensure that a web page is printed correctly, and using the steps above, it should be. IT Services will not refund printing charges if a web page has failed to print satisfactorily

Word documents containing images or other files can become very large. A Word document larger than 1-2MB may be difficult to send via email, or take a long time to print from the print queue. Reducing the size of the Word document can avoid these problems.

Inevitably, with size reduction comes a loss in quality, so it’s definitely worth experimenting with file sizes to see which one best suits your needs. If quality is of utmost importance, you could save the Word document as a PDF or split the print job into smaller jobs of a few page ranges each.

1. First, make a copy of the file with a different name using File > Save as… This is especially important as file quality reduction is irreversible. Now complete the rest of this guide using your new file copy
2. For this first method, ensure that your copy of the document is saved as a .docx file
   1. Click File > Reduce File Size
   2. Select the Picture Quality you’d like. It’s worth experimenting with different sizes to suit your quality/size needs. Always remember to save the document as a copy of the master
3. You can convert the Word document to PDF. Select File > Print. At the bottom left of the print window, select Save as Adobe PDF from the drop-down menu

Word documents containing images or other files can become very large. A Word document larger than 1-2MB may be difficult to send via email, or take a long time to print from the print queue. Reducing the size of the Word document can avoid these problems.

Inevitably, with size reduction comes a loss in quality, so it’s definitely worth experimenting with file sizes to see which one best suits your needs. If quality is of utmost importance, you could save the Word document as a PDF or split the print job into smaller jobs of a few page ranges each.

1. First, make a copy of the file with a different name using File > Save as… This is especially important as file quality reduction is irreversible. Now complete the rest of this guide using your new file copy
2. Use Word’s advanced options. With the new copy of your file, go to File > Options. Click on the Advanced tab
   1. From the Set default target output to… dropdown, try selecting the lowest quality resolution first, 96 ppi (pixels per inch)
   2. Now you can save your copy of the document, and perhaps print one page in black and white to preview whether the quality is to your preference. If it is not, open the original document, make a new copy, and try a different resolution
3. Click the Save as… window. Click File > Save as…
4. Click Tools, then select Compress Pictures. Choose your preferred quality. Click OK
5. Save the document as a PDF. Click File > Save as… then select PDF from the drop-down menu. Then select Standard (normal) or Minimum (smaller) to change the file size

The two most common printer errors are paper jams and the Load Paper error. 

• To clear paper jams, follow the instructions on the touchscreen which will show you where the paper jam is. If you are having trouble or don't feel confident on clearing a paper jam, please visit us at the Service Desk so we can assist you
• A lot of times you will see the printers showing the Load Paper error. You can open the drawers at the bottom of the printers and replenish paper if needed. Paper is always located nearby the printers. If there is an error even though the drawers all have paper, simply press OK on the printer touchscreen and the error will disappear