Overview
This article is to help explain more about the large-format printers (a.k.a. plotters) here at RPI and printing custom paper sizes.
Important Notice:
The Operations staff works as hard as possible to get your job plotted and in the output bins quickly. However, plotting is a slow and labor-intensive process. Generally plots are brought up to bins in the lobby on the hour.
Typical times:
- Non-glossy - one hour
- Glossy - two hours
- Clear film - two to four hours
These estimates are often increased during period of heavy usage -- typically mid-term and end-of semester.
Details
About the Plotters:
The RCS plotters, vcplot, vcplotbw, vcplotg, vcplotgbw, vcplotcf, and vcplotcfbw, all accept PostScript jobs and are appropriate for large-format applications.
These HP DesignJet T7100 inkjet printers produce output on continuous paper up to 120 inches long, with a minimum paper height of 11 inches. The paper width is 36 inches, but your document width should be 34 inches or less. In addition, you will always want to leave a 1-inch margin at the top of the document to leave room for the job-identification tag to be applied.
- Non-Glossy plots: vcplot for color and vcplotbw for grayscale.
- Glossy plots: vcplotg for color and vcplotgbw for grayscale.
- Clear film: vcplotcf for color and vcplotcfbw for grayscale.
Note: Be aware that glossy and clear film paper is very expensive! Check the charges before you send a job to these plotters.
Please note: We cannot guarantee 1:1 scaling for the plotters in the Voorhees Computing Center.
Sending a Job to a Plotter:
Adobe Illustrator is the preferred program for plotting. This program is available in the Adobe creative cloud suite or on the VCC Lobby computers. For instructions on sending your job to one of the plotters using Adobe Illustrator, please reference the Plotting a pdf file using Adobe Illustrator article.
Charges:
The fees for these plotters have been set to recover the cost of supplies and depend on paper type and color/grayscale settings. See the list of plotting charges for details.
Where do I pick up my job?
- If you are printing to a printer located in the lobby, you will find your job at the printer. If you are printing to one of the printers or plotters in the VCC Print Room, output is brought upstairs and placed in the bins by RCS userid - generally on the hour.
Typical times:
- Non-glossy - one hour
- Glossy - two hours
- Clear film - two to four hours
These estimates are often increased during period of heavy usage -- typically mid-term and end-of semester.
- Please do not go down to the Print Room to pick up your output, as you will not be allowed to pick up your printouts. All that you will accomplish is to distract the Operators who are busy running the printers.
Custom paper size - larger than letter size:
- If you want to print on paper larger than 8½″ × 11″, be sure to follow these instructions. You must change the paper size in the printer properties before printing.
- The following printers can print on 11 × 17 inch (tabloid) paper:
- VCSOUTB (one- and two-sided, b&w)
- VCC9000CB (one- and two-sided, color, plain-paper)
- VCC9000CBG (one- and two-sided, color, glossy-paper)
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