Student Printing

Introduction

Lab printers, color and black/white, are available for student use.  Once you print a jobpharos-logo in a lab you will need to go to the print station next to the printer and slide your card to release the prints. Keep in mind that charges that you incur in a lab are charged to your student account once your use up your semester free printing balance (see section below for more details).

You have two options when it comes to printing to a lab printer.  You can print the job from a lab computer after you login or you can use your personal device to send the print job via the Mobileprint system.

About Pharos MobilePrint

Pharos MobilePrint allows students to print from their laptops on campus to standard Black and White or Color laser printers located in multiple places (this includes any lab printer with a Pharos release station attached to it). By using Pharos MobilePrint, you can send documents directly to the print station by emailing the documents directly to the printer.

How do I print to a lab printer from a personal device?

Step 1: Attach the Document to An Email

Attach a document to an email and send it to one of the following addresses (this must come from your TCU email address).  Keep in mind that the email system will have a 30 MB file size limit for attachments.

-Black and White Prints Jobs – printbw@tcu.edu

-Color Prints Jobs – printcolor@tcu.edu

Step 2: Print the Job From a Release Station

Once your job is ready to print you will receive an email from our system and then can go release the job from one of our print stations. This will normally take about 5 minutes to complete.  These print jobs will only be stored in the system for 1 hour so you have limited time to make it to a release station. Once at a release station just slide your ID Card and select the document that you want to print.

Supported File Types:

Microsoft Word   (.doc, .docx, .dot)
Microsoft Excel    (.xls, .xlt, .xlsx, .xltx, .xlsm)
Microsoft® PowerPoint    (.ppt, .pptx, .pptm, .pot, .pps, .potx, .ppsx)
Microsoft® Visio    (.vsd, .vss, .vst, .vdx, .vsx, .vtx, .vdw)
Microsoft® Outlook    (.msg, .eml)
Microsoft® Publisher    (.pub)
OpenDocument    (.odt, .ods, .ott, .odp, .odg, .odf, .odp)
Comma Separated Values    ( .csv)
Adobe PDF    (.pdf)
Rich Text Format    ( .rtf)
Text files    (.txt)
Image formats    (.jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .png, .bmp,.tif, and .tiff)
Other formats    (.cfg and .ini)

What if I want to do special formatting to the document before it prints?

Using MobilePrint to send documents to the printer will not give you the ability to modify the default print settings on the document (i.e. printing powerpoint files as an outline instead of full page sheets). We recommend that you log into a lab machine to take advantage of those features if they are needed.

What kind of printing balance do I get each semester as a student?

Students will receive $30 worth of free prints (NOT copies) each semester that can be used for lab printing.  This equates to 300 free black/white prints (10 cents per page) each semester.  We will wipe all balances at the beginning of each Fall, Spring, and Summer semester and apply the new $30 free printing balance.

  • Your free print balance does NOT carry over to the next semester.
  • This free printing balance is part of the services that you receive and you cannot request to have the balance moved over to your TCU financial account.
  • If you are charged for a print job that jammed or was low on toner, you can ask that those pages be credited to your printing balance by coming by the IT Support HelpDesk with the print outs and the details of what occurred.
  • Keep in mind that the free prints only go towards the printers that you use in the labs and do NOT cover copies.

What if I decide to bring a personal local printer to campus?

Students may bring printers to their residence halls.  Please, note that printers must be connected with a cable instead of a wireless connection.  The eduroam network does NOT support wireless printing and routers are not allowed in resident halls. You can also print from a lab machine or use MobilePrint to send a print job from a personal device to a TCU Pharos printer.

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