Help with printing at Staples

[Syco54645]

So I am having nothing but trouble trying to print these with what I have on hand (except for my B&W Laser printer, that works fine). I do have a printer that uses HP97 tricolor cart but I have yet to try that as I am all out of ink and am fairly certain I wouldn't be able to print very many with this cart anyway.
So with that said I am thinking about going to the self print Staples near me. How do I go about getting these to print correctly there. I have seen people make reference to going this route but not seen instructions.

Thanks!

[TDIRunner]

I've never tried to print at Staples or any other printing service, but these seem to be the most common problems that people run into

• They often print too large.  By default, they try to fill up the entire piece of paper.  Make sure they understand that you want them printed out in the size they are prepared for.  Make sure you have them run a few test prints before having them run an entire group.
• Sometimes they won't print anything that might be a copyright infringement.  This is more of a case by case basis and will depend on the person you are dealing with.  It might help to inform them that you are not selling these, but if they say no, there ins't much you can do other than try another location.

[Syco54645]

I've never tried to print at Staples or any other printing service, but these seem to be the most common problems that people run into

• They often print too large.  By default, they try to fill up the entire piece of paper.  Make sure they understand that you want them printed out in the size they are prepared for.  Make sure you have them run a few test prints before having them run an entire group.
• Sometimes they won't print anything that might be a copyright infringement.  This is more of a case by case basis and will depend on the person you are dealing with.  It might help to inform them that you are not selling these, but if they say no, there ins't much you can do other than try another location.

I would end up using the self service area. Failing that I guess I can try getting ink for the tricolor but that is just a waste...

[Jeremy1976]

download photoshop and make sure the sizes are correct so you don't waste any money on the clicks. 

[wiggy]

Just make sure they print at the native resolution and use no scaling of any sort. Just make sure your covers are all 300dpi, as some are randomly 72dpi, which will confuse their whole setup.

[Syco54645]

Just make sure they print at the native resolution and use no scaling of any sort. Just make sure your covers are all 300dpi, as some are randomly 72dpi, which will confuse their whole setup.

Would taking them in as PDF work? I don't want to have to deal with anyone there if I do not have to.

[wiggy]

That's probably your best bet, Just make sure they're all the same res and dimensions.

[amace04]

I've had minimal luck at Staples.  I've tried their self-serve, and it ALWAYS rescales it.   I tried printing just a jpeg by itself, and it will only rescale. WHen I try and "print" it as a pdf then print the PDF, their self-serve machines completely remove all formatting options.  Once the girl working there offered to just print my stuff for me at self-serve price, but the other two times the other person working said she wouldn't due to copyright.

I just go to the UPS store now for printing.  $0.40 a sheet, never any headache (one of the girls working there always like seeing what I've got, and the guy there has a super mario tattoo, so they just don't give a shit about copyright)

[PX0]

You might be able to trick the formating software.
Try putting your cover on a background that fills out the rest of the page.

So your "image" fills the entire page. That way nothing should be getting cut off or extended.

[wiggy]

It's based on page size, not content.

Unless you know exactly what the machine is trying to do, you've gonna have a hard time "calibrating" the image so to speak.

[PX0]

@wiggy

I think, by using an image equal to the page size, you can already rule out a lot of the possible formating the machine could do.

It should not enlarge the image, because it already has the same size as the page.
It should not stretch the image, because it already has the same dimensions as the page.
It should not cut off any margins (white space), because there are none.

You might have to do some measuring, if the machine cannot print without margins.

[Batwell95]

you might try www.onlinelabels.com/ i'm thinking about trying them myself.

[wiggy]

That website is beyond busted when viewed on a phone

I wasn't really trying to offer it, but we have a Konica Minolta digital press. If you're interested in printing a large number of covers (like 50+), I can help ya out. The best part is that I can do 13x19, which means 2 covers per sheet, saving you $$$

[JakeHC]

That website is beyond busted when viewed on a phone

I wasn't really trying to offer it, but we have a Konica Minolta digital press. If you're interested in printing a large number of covers (like 50+), I can help ya out. The best part is that I can do 13x19, which means 2 covers per sheet, saving you $$$

Just out of curiosity, what's the price for you to do a huge batch run like that? I'm over in AUS so I don't think I'd ever go through with it (and I know the offer wasn't directed at me).

[wiggy]

It wasn't directed at anyone to be honest. I see so many people having issues with printing, and I can shoot hundreds of pages out of this thing in minutes, and it doesn't even get used every day, so may as well make a few extra bucks with it.

It would largely depend on paper preference. Can't say off hand without looking at invoices for the paper choices we have on hand. The printer is long-since paid off, but we have a service contract in place on it. It costs me about $.08 per sheet/side no matter the paper size.