Capabilities of College of Design WolfPrint Printers

Before going further, please read the information about printing at the College of Design.

Many of the problems users run into are from attempting to print things which are beyond the capabilities of the printers we have here. We have highly capable digital printing resources in the college, probably the best on campus. But we do not have the capabilities of a commercial press operation, so the pieces produced here are more like proofs and prototypes than finished commercial work. There are limitations in what can be produced here. Consider these capabilities when developing project ideas.

There are over 20 public printers in the College of Design Information Technology Labs and Clusters. These printers use the WolfPrint system. This page provides information about each printer’s options and capabilities. You can use this information to decide what printer you need to use. There is a chart below which outlines each printer’s capabilities.

Summary (Detailed Information below)

Laser Printers

Limit sizes to 11.7″ x 17.7″ or less
Standard paper is 20 lb. recycled bond
Only use laser printer compatible paper or transparency material
Color reproduction and two-sided registration may not be precise

Large-format Inkjet Printers (Plotters)

Limit shorter dimension to 44″ or less.
Use standard sizes (such as ARCH D, etc.) rather than custom sizes when possible
Avoid special paper when possible
No two-sided plots
Standard paper is 24 lb. coated bond
Color reproduction may not be precise
Gang-up or rotate files when possible
Use PDFs for large files

Special Printers Available

Film printer
Large-format archival photo printer
Plastic and plaster 3D printers
Fabric-only printers for Art+Design

Consultation Available

Please check with IT staff when developing project ideas
We’ll be glad to meet with your class
Consider projecting rather than printing
Let us know if you have any questions

Detailed Information

Laser Printers

We have over 20 black & white and color laser printers in our buildings. All of these can print up to 11.7″ x 17.7″, allowing full-bleed 11″ x 17″ prints. Black & white laser prints up to 8.5″ x 14″ are 10 cents per page. Larger sizes up to 11.7″ x 17.7″ are 20 cents per page. Color laser prints up to 8.5″ x 14″ are 25 cents per page. Larger sizes up to 11.7″ x 17.7″ are 50 cents per page. The standard paper supplied for these printers is 20 lb text weight, recycled bond.

Many of these printers can produce duplex (two-sided) prints. This is great for saving paper. However, precise registration on duplex prints is not always possible. We can calibrate printers and still have problems with registration on the very next job. Again, we do not have the precise capabilities of a commercial press operation.

Color calibration is also an issue. Because of the large number of monitors and printers we have and the physics involved, calibrating precise color reproduction between what is seen on the monitor and what prints on paper is difficult.

We provide regular bond paper in all of our printers. Use of special paper is up to the user to provide. Any special paper needs to be laser printer compatible and not cause damage to the printers. Some special paper doesn’t work well with laser printers because of its texture or tooth. Laser printers use a dry toner process that doesn’t stick well to all papers. Transparency material must be laser printer compatible, so it does not melt in the printers. Melted transparencies can cause hundreds of dollars in damage to printers. We have a film printer (see below) that can print black on film transparencies.

Large-format Inkjet Printers (Plotters)

We have two models of large-format printers in our buildings, HP DesignJet T1300s and Z5600s. Both models will print up to 44″ wide. The cost is $1.60 per square foot for color prints and $1.20 per square foot for grayscale prints.

We provide coated bond paper for these printers. The printers each have a 36″ wide roll and a 44″ wide roll. We recommend using the roll paper because of the added complexity of using special paper and custom page sizes on the large-format printers. The standard roll paper supplied for these printers is 24 lb. coated bond.

Please consider whether the use of special paper adds significantly to the project when developing project ideas. Special sheet-fed paper, such as Arches brand watercolor paper, adds a lot of complexity and cost for users. The deckle edges on Arches paper cause trouble when trying to load the sheets into the printer. The different model large-format printers each must be configured differently to use sheet-fed paper. Anytime custom page sizes are used additional configuration is needed. When users don’t configure things correctly, they waste a lot of time and material because the prints don’t come out correctly. This can be very frustrating and wasteful.

Two-sided prints on the large-format printers are not recommended. Precise registration of two-sided large-format prints should not be expected. We do not allow printing on the back of the regular roll paper. The curl of the paper causes rips and jams and can damage the printers. The back side of the roll paper is not treated to accept ink. The ink will wick severely, blurring any details. Ink from the first side can also smear inside the printers and cause damage to later print jobs. Printing on the back of sheet-fed paper must be done with careful configuration as mentioned above. Ink on the first side must be completely dry and the paper must not cause jams, rips, etc.

Each of our large-format printers have a rotation function which will save roll paper. These printers normally print a file’s shorter dimension along the width of the roll. If a file’s longer dimension can fit within the width of the paper (36″ or 44″, depending on the roll selected), then users can configure the printer to rotate their file. We’ll be glad to show users how to do this. Another consideration to save paper is to gang-up files if multiple files will fit onto the 36″ or 44″ wide paper. This can be done using InDesign, Illustrator and other applications.

We recommend creating PDFs of large files (over 30-40 MBs) and printing from Acrobat in order to print more efficiently. PDFs generally have smaller file sizes and allow the printers to process faster. More information on using PDFs is available in our Printing 101 handout.

Special Printers

We also have several specialized printers available.

There is a film-only thermal printer available in the Bayley IT Lab in Brooks 203. This printer produces black on film prints up to 17″ wide for silk-screen and offset plates. This printer costs $3.00 per linear foot. Other inkjet-compatible film may be used if provided by the user.

We have multiple 3D printers available in the Bayley IT Lab in Brooks 203. Jobs on these printers take several hours or longer to complete. IT staff members must send jobs to these printers and payment manually deducted from WolfPrint print credit is required before jobs are processed. Please plan ahead.

We also have an archival photo-quality printer that will print up to 44″ wide in the Bayley IT Lab in Brooks 203. This printer uses 12-color, 200-year, archival ink on glossy photo paper. This is a very high-end digital printer that produces beautiful prints. This printer costs $5.00 per square foot, manually deducted from the user’s WolfPrint print credit. Two-sided printing is not possible on this paper. Because of the cost and configuration needs of this printer, full-time IT staff must review and send jobs to it. Please plan ahead to make sure one of us is available.

There is a fabric-only printer available to Art+Design Fibers students. This large-format inkjet printer for fabric only can print up to 44″ wide for $1.60 per square foot.

Consultation Available

Please feel free to consult with the IT staff as you develop project ideas. We can provide information that can lessen frustrations ahead of time. For example, we have seen projects such as 48″x48″ posters. As you can imagine, this is difficult when our printers only print up to 44″ wide. Another example is a 12″x18″ color print, which would cost $2.40 on the large-format printers when an 11″x17″ print would cost only 50 cents on the color laser printers.

We’ll also be glad to come to a class to discuss and demonstrate the best methods to complete a project. It’s more efficient for us to meet with a whole class early in the process than try to help each individual in that class as the deadline approaches. Just let us know and we can schedule a time.

Perhaps there are cases where the project could be projected instead of printed. This would alleviate the cost of printing. Digital Critique Spaces are available and most of our classrooms and studios have digital projectors installed. The IT Lab also has projectors available for check-out.

We hope you can learn the methods and processes needed while using the resources available in the college. Considering our capabilities when developing projects can help alleviate frustrations for users.

Again, please fell free to contact us if you any questions.

This chart also provides detailed information for each WolfPrint printer in the College of Design.

If you have questions, please contact the College of Design IT staff in Brooks 202-204 for help. If you have a laptop you need help with, bring it with you. You can also send an email to design_help@ncsu.edu or use this form to contact the College Information Technology staff with specific information about your problem.