Printing in the Math Department
There are two color printers located on the 2nd floor, 2 color printers on the 3rd floor, and 1 color printer on the 4th floor. If a printer is jammed, out of toner, or having other problems, please send an email to help@math.mit.edu.
- How do I add a printer to my Mac computer?
- How do I add a printer to my Windows computer?
- What kind of printers do you have?
- How do I print postcript, dvi, pdf and text files?
- How do I see what jobs are ahead of me in the print queue?
- How do I delete one of my jobs from the print queue?
- How do set my default printer?
- How do I print to the color printer?
- How do I print to the transparency tray of the color printer?
- How do I avoid printing the header page?
- How do I print multiple pages of a document on one sheet of paper?
- How do I print a few pages from a large document?
- How do I select only even or odd pages?
- How do I print A4 sized PostScript documents on letter sized paper?
- My PDF file is not printing, any suggestions?
- When I print, the printer momentarily says Processing job, but no paper comes out.
- The printer is turned on, but no jobs are coming out. What's wrong?
What kinds of printers do you have?
We currently have 9 printers and 3 copiers available for public use throughout the department.
| Printer | Room | Model | Capability |
|---|---|---|---|
| rainbow | 2-090a | HP Color LaserJet M254dw | color single sided |
| baird | 2-252 | HP Color Laserjet M553 | color single sided |
| procyon (retired) | 2-252 | HP LaserJet P4015dn | b&w double sided |
| updike | 2-252 | HP LaserJet 4250N | b&w single sided |
| scalzi | 2-252 | Konica Minolta Bizhub C284 | color, copy, scan, double sided |
| pot-of-gold | 2-350 | HP Color Laserjet CP2025n | color single sided |
| thurber | 2-350 | Brother HL-6180DW | b&w double sided |
| vaughan | 2-350 | Konica Minolta Bizhub C284 | color, copy, scan, double sided |
| cummings | 2-390 | HP LaserJet 600/M602 | b&w double sided |
| pratchett | 2-430 | Konica Minolta bizhub C368 | color, copy, scan, double sided |
| tiptree | 2-490 | HP LaserJet P4015dn | b&w double sided |
How do I add a printer to my Mac computer?
To add a department printer to your mac computer, first ensure that you are connected to the internet on the "MIT" or "MIT SECURE" network ("MIT GUEST" will not work).
Open System Preferences / Printers and Scanners
Click the "+" symbol to add a printer.
Under "IP", enter "hopper.mit.edu" in the address box, and "printers/printer-name" in the Queue box. Example: Address: hopper.mit.edu | Queue: printers/procyon
Under "Protocol", choose "Internet Printing Protocol - IPP"
Click "Add" and the printer will be installed
How do I add a printer to my Windows computer?
To add a department printer to your Windows computer, first ensure that you are connected to the internet on the "MIT" or "MIT SECURE" network ("MIT GUEST" will not work).
Open Control Panel / Devices and Printers
Click "Add Printer" and select "The printer I want wasn't listed"
Select "Select a shared printer by name"
In the address box, type "http://hopper.mit.edu:631/printers/printer-name". Example: http://hopper.mit.edu:631/printers/procyon
Click "next" and select the driver that matches the model of printer you are trying to connect to.
How do I print PostScript, dvi, PDF and text files?
To print PostScript, PDF, and plaintext files,:
lpr -P printername filename.ps
To print dvi (dvi file is the result of LaTeX-ing a document):
dvips filename.dvi
If you wish to turn a dvi file into a PostScript file without printing:
dvips filename.dvi -o filename.ps
To print directly to a destination other than your default printer:
dvips filename.dvi -f | lpr -P printername
How do I see what jobs are ahead of me in the print queue?
Use the lpq command to see what jobs are ahead of yours.
lpq -Pprintername
You should receive information much like the following:
<matt@lagrange> [$] lpq –Ppoe
poe is ready and printing
| Rank | Owner | Job | File(s) | Total | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| active | matt | 18 | ps1.ps | 35840 | bytes |
| 1st | matt | 19 | ps2.ps | 35840 | bytes |
| 2nd | matt | 20 | ps3.ps | 35840 | bytes |
How do I delete one of my jobs from the print queue?
In order to remove the job from the print queue, you must first determine the job number of your printout. Using the command from the previous question, find your job in the list and then use its job id to build your lprm commmand.
For example, to remove the second job from the list above, use the following command:
lprm -Ppoe 19
How do I set my default printer so I can just type lpr filename instead of lpr -Pprintername filename?
Issue the following command from the command line of one of the Linux machines:
lpoptions -d printername
How do I print to the color printer?
Use the printer name pot-of-gold (2-168) or rainbow (2-366) as your destination printer.
lpr -P rainbow filename.ps
How do I print to the transparencies tray of the color printer?
Use the printer name pot-of-gold-slides or rainbow-slides as your destination printer.
lpr -P rainbow-slides filename.ps
How do I avoid printing the header page?
Due to popular request, we have disabled header pages. If this becomes a problem we will re-enable them and post information here on how to disable them on a per-job basis.
How do I print multiple pages of a PostScript document on one sheet of paper?
The -o number-up=value option selects N-Up printing. N-Up printing places multiple document pages on a single printed page. CUPS supports 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, and 16-Up formats; the default format is 1-Up:
lpr -o number-up=1 -Pprintername filename ENTER lpr -o number-up=2 -Pprintername filename ENTER lpr -o number-up=4 -Pprintername filename ENTER lpr -o number-up=16 -Pprintername filename ENTER
How do I print a few pages from a large PostScript document?
The -o page-ranges=pages option selects a range of pages for printing.
lpr -o page-ranges=1 -Pprintername filename ENTER
lpr -o page-ranges=1-4 -Pprintername filename ENTER
lpr -o page-ranges=1-4,7,9-12 -Pprintername filename ENTER
lpr -o page-ranges=1-4,7,9-12 -Pprintername filename ENTER
How do I select only even or odd pages?
Use the -o page-set=set option to select the even or odd pages.
lpr -o page-set=odd -Pprintername filename ENTER lpr -o page-set=even -Pprintername filename ENTER lpr -o page-set=even -Pprintername filename ENTER
How do I print A4 sized PostScript documents on letter sized paper?
The -o media=xyz option sets the media size, type, and/or source.
lpr -o media=Letter filename ENTER
My PDF file is not printing, any suggestions?
- One possibility is that you PDF document is in A4 format. In Acrobat Reader, do the following:
Click on the File menu in the upper left hand corner and select Print Setup. If under Paper it lists A4 as the size, change it to Letter. - You can also try printing it on one of the duplex printers.
- Some PDF files are only compatible with the program they were created in. Try both the Adobe Acrobat Reader (acroread under linux) and the Open-Source document reader xpdf. One of the programs should be able to properly print the document.
When I print, the printer momentarily says Processing job, but no paper comes out.
First, make sure no jobs are in the queue. If no jobs are in the queue, power cycle the printer and try sending the job again. If you still have problems, ask for help.
The printer is turned on, but no jobs are coming out. What's wrong?
Make sure the printer is online. Some printers have a Go button to toggle whether the printer is online or offline.
Check whether there are any jobs in the queue. To check all queues, use the command:
lpstat -o
If the job is in the queue, the printer is online, and nothing is happening, check the queue status with the command:
lpc
To check the queue status, at the lpc> prompt, type status [printer] where [printer] is the name of the printer you would like to know about.