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Use Library Tech: Printing & Scanning

Printing & Scanning

the corner of a copier and two sandisks

Printing Policies

For Current Caltech Students, Faculty, and Staff

  • Free-printing allowance: $25 per academic term
  • 10¢ per sheet for black and white
  • 20¢ per sheet for color
  • Maximum single print-job size (because of printer limitations): 200 pages or 100MB, whichever is less.

Charges exceeding the free-printing allowance will be charged to your Bursar’s account or to a PTA account at the end of the calendar quarter. All printing will be charged.

Check your printing credit balance at https://cls-printers.cls.caltech.edu:9192/app. Please note this link will only work on-campus, or off-campus using the VPN.

The Library strongly encourages patrons to monitor their printing allowance. Patrons should print only for themselves. If a file must be printed for each member of a group, please inform group members of the file's network location, and let each print their own copy using their personal printing allowance. Excessive printing may result in the Library contacting patrons to ensure understanding of the policy.

For Other Borrowers

Printing is only available to current Caltech students, faculty, and staff. Policy revised October 1, 2015.

Print using PaperCut / Web Print

If you need more in-depth assistance please contact helpdesk@library.caltech.edu or call x6775.

The following file types are supported for Web Print: Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, PDF, and Picture Files (.bmp, .dib, .fig, .jfif, .jif, .jpe, .jpeg, .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .tif, and .tiff).

  1. Utilizing a web browser (this example uses Google Chrome) enter the following URL into the URL Bar: https://cls-printers.cls.caltech.edu:9192/user Accept any “expired certificate” warnings you may receive.
  2. Enter your access.caltech username and password credentials and then click the Log in button.
  3. Click the Web Print link located on the left hand side menu.
  4. This is your queue. Click the Submit a Job >> button located on the upper left.
  5. On the following screen, select your print job to print as a simplex (single-sided), or duplex (double-sided), color print job or black and white print job. Once you’ve made your appropriate selection, click the 2. Print Options and Account selection >> button on the lower right.
  6. On the following screen is where you can select the amount of copies you need. Click the 3. Upload Documents >> button on the lower right to continue.
  7. The following screen is where you can navigate to the file you wish to download or simply drag and drop the file to the upload area.
  8. Once your file is properly queued click the Upload & Complete >> button located on the lower right.
  9. On the following screen you’ll find your current print queue and the status of your print job(s).
  10. When the Status changes to Held in queue, your job is ready to be printed by logging into a printer with your access.caltech credentials.

Print from Personal Windows Computer / Remap a Printer

If you need more in-depth assistance on locating proper drivers or connecting to the printer, please contact library@caltech.edu or call x6775.

  1. Bring up the Run window by pressing the Windows key and R key
  2. Type the following in the Open: \\131.215.225.26 (if you're Library Staff you can alternatively utilize \\printers) and then click the OK button (or press the Enter key):
  3. At this point you will be prompted for your access.caltech credentials. In the username field enter your access.caltech username and make sure you preface it with ITS\. An example would look like: ITS\username. Your appropriate password should be utilized in the password field. Check the Remember my Credentials checkbox. Click the OK button: 
  4. A new window should open up showing you a list of all the available printers. There are only four (4) printers that you can authenticate against with your access.caltech credentials. All other printers will fail. The following four (4) printers are available to you no matter which library branch you are printing to:
    1. library-color-duplex - This queue defaults to duplex (double-sided) Color.
    2. library-color-simplex - This queue defaults to simplex (singled sided) Color.
    3. library-grayscale-duplex - This queue defaults to duplex (double-sided) Grayscale (Black & White).
    4. library-grayscale-simplex - This queue defaults to simplex (singled sided) Grayscale (Black & White).
  5. Double-Click any, or all, of the previously mentioned printers in step 7. (You can also right click the appropriate printer icon and then select Connect… from the menu.) There might be a slight delay while the printer server ensures you have the proper printer drivers for your selection:
  6. At this point it might take several seconds but a window will quickly show as drivers are being installed.
  7. Once the drivers are successfully installed, you should see the printers available in your Settings menu:

Print from Personal Apple Computer

If you need more in-depth assistance on locating proper drivers or connecting to the printer, please contact helpdesk@library.caltech.edu or call x6775.

  1. Identify the make and model of the printer you wish to connect to. In this case we will be attempting to connect to a Xerox C8035 printer. This information is important because you might need to install drivers onto your Apple computer.
  2. The Caltech Library does not host drivers for download. You will need to go to the appropriate vendor website and acquire the proper drivers based on make/model and operating system. In this example you will need drivers for either the Xerox C8035 or the Xerox C8055.
  3. Go to: https://www.support.xerox.com/support/altalink-c8000-series/downloads/enus.html?associatedProduct=C8000-series-built-in-controller&operatingSystem=macosx10_14&fileLanguage=en
  4. Under Drivers & Downloads select Built-in Controller for the Associated Product, macOS 10.15 – Catalina for the Operating System, and English (N. America) for the Language. Click the macOS Common Print Driver Installer to download the driver package.
  5. In order to download the XeroxDrivers_5.4.2_2138.dmg driver package you will need to click the accept button on the End User License Agreement:
  6. Locate your newly downloaded XeroxDrivers_5.4.2_2138.dmg driver:
  7. Double Click the XeroxDrivers_5.4.2_2138.dmg to start the driver install process:
  8. Click the Continue button:
  9. Click the Continue button:
  10. Click the Continue button:
  11. Click the Agree button and the Continue button:
  12. Click the Install button:
  13. There is a possibility you will have to authenticate this install with your local machine admin authority credentials. (Note: this is NOT your access.caltech account. This is your local machine admin account because you are affecting changes to your local machine).
  14. Click the Continue button:
  15. Click the Close button:
  16. Launch a web browser and in the URL bar enter the following: localhost:631 for the address. There is a very possible chance that when you attempt to access this your computer will deny access to this resource (or display a Web Interface is Disabled message). This is quite normal and the solution is very straight forward. If you do not encounter this issue, skip directly to step 32:
  17. Launch the Terminal application and enter the following: cupsctl WebInterface=yes (and press enter). When complete, exit Terminal:
  18. You should have the following screen. Click the Administration link near the top. Click the Add Printer button:
  19. After you have clicked the Add Printer button you will be prompted for your local machine admin authority credentials. (Note: this is NOT your access.caltech account. This is your local machine admin account because you are affecting changes to your local machine). Enter your local machine admin authority credentials and click the Sign In button:
  20. On the following screen select the LPD/LPR Host or Printer bullet and click the continue button:
  21. There are four (4) printers to choose from:
    1. library-color-duplex – This queue defaults to duplex (double-sided) Color.
    2. library-color-simplex – This queue defaults to simplex (single sided) Color.
    3. library-grayscale-duplex – This queue defaults to duplex (double-sided) Grayscale (Black& White).
    4. library-grayscale-simplex – This queue defaults to simplex (single sided) Grayscale (Black & White).
  22. On the following screen, in the Connection field, enter one of the following to connect to a specific printer:
    1. lpd://access.caltech.username@131.215.225.26/library-color-duplex
    2. lpd://access.caltech.username@131.215.225.26/library-color-simplex
    3. lpd://access.caltech.username@131.215.225.26/library-grayscale-duplex
    4. lpd://access.caltech.username@131.215.225.26/library-grayscale-simplex
  23. IMPORTANT: It is very important that you replace the access.caltech.username variable with your correct access.caltech username. This is how you authenticate to the printers. For example, if your access.caltech username is mauricemoss, then you would enter: lpd://mauricemoss@131.215.225.26/library-color-duplex. The access.caltech username must be correct otherwise the card release will not recognize the print job. After entering the appropriate information, click the Continue button:
  24. On this page you may enter any custom data you like for the Name, Description, and Location. It will not affect print functionality. Click the Continue button to proceed:
  25. On the following screen, under the Make pulldown window, select Xerox and click the Continue button:
  26. On the following screen you’ll need to scroll down until you locate the appropriate Printer model/driver. In this example we want to select the Xerox AltaLink C8055 series for the Library public printers. Once selected, click the Add Printer button:
  27. If you reach the final page then your printer has successfully been added: