Large format printing

Media Services offers a large format printing service for students, staff, and organizations on campus. Past projects have included digital photography prints, event signs, scientific posters, and various banners.

Before you begin

Please keep in mind, Media Services must follow these guidelines in order to help make sure all requests are handled in a timely manner. We ask that you pay attention to these details as they can directly impact the cost and result of your print request.

Request processing time

Beginning November 15th, 2007, Media Services will be strictly enforcing the long standing policy of three business days to process all requests.

To ensure Media Services can handle all print requests efficiently and effectively, we require three business days to process all requests. This due to the lengthy process that is needed to complete the prints, and largely due to the fact that these requests are handled by the student employees of Media Services. In order to meet your request we must:

• Collect all information necessary for printing and enter it into our request tracking system.
• Notify and arrange for qualified student workers to come in and process the request.
• Queue up files in our printer software, as well as perform necessary preflight operations such as resizing images.
• Allow for the RIP software to process the file for printing. Depending on the size and file format, is can take upwards of 12 hours for the computer to process the data.
• Print your request - average printing time for most prints is 20-30 minutes.
• Perform post-printing tasks, such as trimming and lamination or dry mounting (if requested.)
• Process all billing information and create necessary invoices.
  • All students must sign the invoice or pay by cash/check before their prints will be released to them.
• Update ticket information in our system, double-check accuracy of billing information, and notify you of the completion of your print, so that you may come and pick it up.

The following table shows the earliest time at which any print can be picked up, given the submission time. Please note: any request submitted after 5 PM on a weekday is considered as submitted at 8 AM on the following business day.

Submitted Day	Submitted Time	Earliest Pickup Time
Monday	Morning	Thursday morning
	Afternoon	Thursday afternoon
Tuesday	Morning	Friday morning
	Afternoon	Friday afternoon
Wednesday	Morning	Monday morning
	Afternoon	Monday afternoon
Thursday	Morning	Tuesday morning
	Afternoon	Tuesday afternoon
Friday	Morning	Wednesday morning
	Afternoon	Wednesday afternoon
Saturday	Anytime	Thursday morning
Sunday	Anytime	Thursday morning

There are absolutely no exceptions to this rule. We kindly ask you to plan ahead. Thank you for your cooperation.

Preflight fees

Some files that are submitted are able to be printed from directly. Others require processing by our staff to ensure that they are prepared and modified to meet the specifications of your request. There is a $10 preflight fee for each file which requires custom resizing, cropping, or color correction. A simple resize (such as scaling an image to a specified percentage change- "print at 200%") will not result in a preflight fee being charged.

Additionally, there is a $30 per hour fee for files that require manipulation or other editing to have print correctly. Our system is unable to support native Microsoft file formats (Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, etc.) and should be converted to a postscript or image format. If we are required to manipulate the files or convert them into a PDF format, Media Services is unable to verify that the output is consistent with your original layout unless you provide us with a hard proof to compare to. We will try our best to make it look as it should, but it may not appear how it was originally designed. (This is especially true with Microsoft Publisher and PowerPoint files - avoid them at all costs!)

Submitting PDF or TIFF files at size is the easiest and recommended way to avoid these above costs.

Square footage rounding

The cost of a print job is determined by the rounded square footage for the print multiplied by the number of copies requested. In order to cover the cost of waste paper and ink, we must round the final size of each printed piece.

For example: you request 4 copies of a 11" by 17" print, on a printer costing $2.00 per square foot (including the cost of ink and paper.) The actual square footage of a single print is 1.29, however, this will be rounded up to 2 square feet. Your final cost will be 2 sq ft x 4 copies x $2 per square foot = $16.00 (plus applicable taxes and surcharges.)

Note: we round down if the square footage is less than 1/10th beyond a whole number (ie 1.023 is considered 1).

Printing options

The following section provides information on the printing possibilities we offer for all print requests. The final cost of the print request is the sum of: all paper costs, ink costs, additional services/supplies provided, and any applicable fees or taxes. We charge based on the square footage of your print request.

Printers and ink

Shown below are several combinations of printing size, resolution, and ink types which Media Services can provide.

• Encad 750
  • Uses a four ink system, known as CMYK, and prints at 600 dots per inch. This is our lower-quality printer which is used for most temporary prints.
  • Uses solvent-based ink which will fade as it is exposed to UV light and is water soluble. (Approximately 1 month before fade is noticeable.)
    • Not recommended for prints which will be used outdoors or archival prints.
    • Best for temporary indoor signs.
  • All prints are restricted to 60" (paper width) on one dimension; the other dimension is limited to 100 feet.
• Epson 9800
  • Uses an eight-ink pigment system which will not fade over time and is high quality.
  • Best for high-quality prints (720, 1440, or 2800 DPI) or prints which will be reused or displayed for a long period of time, rated up to 100 years.
  • Suitable for short use in outdoor conditions.
  • All prints are restricted to 44" (paper width) on one dimension; the other dimension is limited to 100 feet.

Ink prices

All prices are per square foot and are rounded accordingly.

Printer	Ink	Price	Comment
Encad Novajet 750	GS+ ink	$1/sq ft	most commonly used for event advertisement etc.
	GO+ ink	$2/sq ft	only available in special situations
Epson StylusPro 9800	720 dpi	$2/sq ft	for long-lasting prints, most class related requests use this option
	1440 dpi	$4/sq ft	higher quality, for Art displays etc.
	2800 dpi	$8/sq ft	Not recommended, as there is no visible improvement over the 1440 resolution.

Paper and other materials

The following materials are stocked and can be printed on-demand:

• Medium-weight stock luster paper that works well with most poster needs. $1 per square foot.
• Lightweight polyester banner fabric which we call FAB-6. Cost is $1 per square foot. There is a $25 dollar surcharge for this fabric since we need to "hot knife" the fabric edges to prevent unraveling. The lightweight paper is limited to 50" wide on the Encad printer and 36" on the Epson (based on available roll sizes.)
• Contact Media Services if you would like to request some other printing material.

Other options

Provided here are some of the additional services we can provide you. If you have any further questions, please contact Media Services.

Foam Core mounting

We are also starting to offer mounting of prints on Foam Core, for use on easels, etc. The cost is $15 per mounted piece up to 20"x30" in size; contact us if you need something bigger and we can discuss options and pricing.

Lamination

We are able to laminate prints with one dimension that is less than 26", and the cost is $0.50 per linear foot.

Calculating final price

The cost of your request is determined by calculating the total square footage of the request and factoring in the cost of materials, processing fees, and finishing fees. The most basic request will be charged for the total square footage multiplied by the combined cost of the media and ink. Other more complicated requests may include preflight fees, trimming or mounting fees and possibly lamination fees.

For assistance in determining the estimated cost of your project, feel free to email the details of your project to Media Services: mediaservices@gustavus.edu, and we will respond as quickly as possible

Submitting the print request

Please bring your request to Media Services and an employee can assist you.

In the near future, we will have an online print submission form in our online suite VirtualOffice.