Print Quotas

CSE Labs

Free printing versus Pay for printing

Each semester, each student in CSE Labs is given a $60 quota of free printing. This allows users to print, without charge, 750 black and white pages, or 375 color pages, or a combination of both (where one color page is equivalent to two black and white pages). In other words, each black and white page printed reduces your $60 quota by $0.08, each color page printed reduces your $60 quota by $0.16.

If you run out of print quota, you can still print at Walter 103 using your U-card. Follow the instructions for Printing in Walter 103.

Checking your CSE Labs print quota

You can check your print quota using PaperCut. You will need to login with your Windows password. Please note that you must be on a CSE Labs machine in order to access this page.

CS&E

Graduate Student Print Quotas

Graduate students are allowed to print 2000 pages per semester. One page is considered to be one side of one page. Duplex printing counts as 2 pages even though only one sheet is used. You will be charged 5 cents per page once you exceed your quota.

You can check your print quota using PaperCut. You will need to login with your CS username and Windows password. Please note that you must be on the CS network (this includes the CS VPN) in order to access this site.

Keep in mind:

• Check the format of the document before you print using lpr. Only text documents and .ps documents will print correctly. Pictures, pdfs, .doc and other application document files will print in code and waste pages of your quota.
• Make sure you know which printer you are printing to. In windows this is fairly straight forward. On your UNIX account, make sure you have a default printer assigned, and remember that the default printer is set to be the printer in the grad lab. If you print and nothing comes out, go check the grad lab before printing again, especially if the file is large. If you print a 100 page document 4 times to the wrong printer, it will be deducted from your print quota.
• Print out large documents with multiple pages on each sheet. Windows usually includes this option in the printer dialog box. On UNIX, use the "mpage" command instead of lpr. Also take advantage of Powerpoint's built-in capability to print between 2 and 12 slides on each page when printing presentations and class notes.

For TAs and RAs

During the semester you should keep a record of all TA and RA related printing. If you go over your 2000 page quota, you will receive an email stating the amount you owe for your excess printouts. At this point, you should contact the faculty member you work for and inform them of the number of pages charged to your quota that were a direct result of your research or teaching responsibilities. Research printing will need to paid for with a cufs number, and the department will pay for TA related printing. Your research advisor, or instructor, should send email to Jim MacDonald mac [at] cs [dot] umn [dot] edu with the number of pages that should be removed from your quota and charged to the department or to a research cufs account.

See UNIX Printing and Windows Printing for more information.