Print Quotas

One thing you should know about printing -- there is a limit to how much you can print. This limit is called your print quota and it is the number of pages you are allowed to print. The command acc (demonstrated in section 1.9.7 on page ) will show you your current print quota.

Your print quota is determined by which courses you are enrolled in. Undergraduate students are allocated 100 pages plus 150 pages per course. You will be given the 100 pages and 20% of the course based pages prior to the HECS census date for that session. The remaining 80% of the course-based quota is issued after the HECS census date (when enrolment information is confirmed). Your quota is renewed every session. Some courses will also give you a colour print quota.

A `page' of print quota actually refers to a printed side of a sheet of paper, not to an entire piece of paper. Thus, a sheet of paper printed on both sides counts as two pages as far as print quotas are concerned. (The cost of the paper is actually only a small proportion of the total cost of printing. Other costs which outweigh the cost of paper include the toner and maintainence of the printers.)

Try to be conservative with your printing. If you can read it on the screen, why do you need a printout? Be very careful not to print binary files (such as anything called a.out). They will probably be rejected; but they may appear as many pages of random gibberish and each page will be deducted from your print quota. Any quota consumed in this manner will not be refunded.

If you want to print more than your quota will allow, you can purchase more print quota. You can collect a form from the Help Desk, which you take to the University Cashier in the Chancellory (C22 on the University maps). Pay at the Cashier, and take the receipt back to the Help Desk staff, who will increase your printer quota. For $1 you receive 10 pages, for $10 you receive 100 pages.

You can check your print quota usage by typing acc in an xterm window. Alternatively, you can view your entire printing history by using the command:

% priv pquota -v

Loc Van Huynh 2007-03-15