Sustainable printing practices

Implementing these best practices will help ensure a smooth and successful printing experience. 

• Avoid printing documents directly from your web browser, as this can often transmit a large amount of unnecessary data which may cause jobs to become stuck in the print queue. 
  • This happens most frequently when printing a PDF document from a browser. To print a PDF from the web, we strongly recommend downloading the document first and opening it in Adobe Reader. You can usually do this by right-clicking the link to the document (Control-click on Macs) and choosing "Save Link As" or "Save Target As." 
  • If you do need to print an actual webpage itself, try to avoid simply pressing Ctrl+P (Command+P on Macs) or using the Print option from your browser's top menu bar. Instead, look for an link to a "printer-friendly" version somewhere on the page.  This usually will be some kind of "Print" link in the document or webpage itself that will open a new tab, previewing a simplified version of the content you wish to print. 

• If printing a large document (many pages or images), you may want to watch your print queue to ensure that the job "spools" (i.e. renders correctly) completely and is successfully sent to the printer.  These documents can take a few minutes to finish spooling, so watching your queue while a large job is being sent can save yourself some headache should any errors occur.   

If something you print does not finish spooling or won't print, please email the IT Service Desk  or call 508-565-1111 as soon as possible so your issue does not impact others trying to print to the same printer.