PaperCut FAQ’s

Otterbein University student accounts are allowed a maximum of 600 pages for academic use, to be printed free of charge in public labs each semester. Any additional pages will be billed at the end of the term at a cost of $0.06 per page. User balance is defined in the PaperCut client window shown below:

$Positive Balance

Each semester, user balance begins at $36.00 (600 pages @ $0.06 per page). This displayed amount will decrease in realtime as the page quota is used.

($Negative Balance)

When the 600 page quota has been exceeded, the amount displayed in parentheses will be added to the user’s bill at the end of the quarter.

Do I have to pay the amount shown in the box? Only if you have exceeded 600 pages since the beginning of the semester (150 pages in J-term), in which case the value will be displayed in parentheses. Otherwise, the dollar amount shown is the amount of printing remaining, represented as $0.06 per page.

Can’t I just close the window? No, sorry. Printing is still recorded even if the client is exited.

Can someone else use my credits? Yes! PaperCut is logged in automatically when you log on to a lab computer. You must BE SURE TO LOGOFF when leaving or another user can access your personal information and print using your credits.

I pay tuition- doesn’t that include paper? Yes, but this privilege is not unlimited. Recent evaluation has shown a drastic increase in non-academic printing and waste in campus labs. Without personal accountability, users who do not abuse the facilities in this way are forced to pay for those who do.

If I don’t print anything, will Otterbein reimburse my balance? No, your balance is not a sum that Otterbein owes you- it is an amount provided for academic use free of charge.

Do my credits roll over? No. The allotment is 600 pages per semester, not 1200 pages per year.

Why am I still charged after I canceled the document? The document only begins to print after it is completely processed by the print server. Cancelling the job will halt the printing, but the entire document has still been recorded as completed in the system. If you only need certain pages of a document, you must select to print only those pages before sending the document to the printer.

Who do I contact to refund something I didn’t mean to print? There are NO refunds for print jobs. As the user, it is your responsibility to make sure you are printing the correct document and only the pages you wish to print before sending the job to the printer. Once the job is processed no refund will given.

How will this affect me? It probably won’t. In fall 2011, less than 1.5% of students printed more than 600 pages. Those who did were printing mostly non-academic documents, and this is not acceptable in the first place. Complimentary printing is for course-related work only.

What if I need to print a large volume for a class? Large documents and mass copies can be printed at the Copy Center in the basement of Towers Hall, or at Kinkos.

What about Residence Halls? Users must provide their own paper, so there is no charge.

Will I still be charged if I bring my own paper? Yes, the system debits your account based on jobs sent to the printer.

Is this system campus-wide? Yes, but only public labs are currently charging for printing. Charging in departmental labs will be at the discretion of the department concerned.

Can I print double-sided pages to save credits? No, our current printer setup does not support duplex printing. Manual double-sided printing would require the page to be reinserted then printed on again, which will register as another printed page.

What can I do to reduce my printing? There are many ways:

*Only print the page(s) needed instead of an entire document, e-mail or webpage.

*For PowerPoint presentations, put as many slides on each page as possible.

*Use a smaller font and single spacing when printing documents.