How Do I Use The Student Printing?
Overview about Printing
- Printing costs 10¢ per side for black & white printing and is available in all campus computer labs. Colour printing is available in the Library and Library Commons at a cost of 50¢ per side.
- You pay for printing by having money in your Payprint account. You can add money to your Payprint account online at payprint.viu.ca using a credit card, or, if using debit or cash, at the Library Service Desk - please note that amounts added to your account for printing are not refundable.
- You need to have a VIU student computer account to be able to print. Please see our page on creating a VIU student computer account for further details of this step.
- You need to have a VIU student card to add money to your pay-print account.
- You pay for printing with a prepaid balance in your computer pay-print account. Your account will be debited when you choose to print your print job from printer(s).
- You can add funds to your account online at payprint.viu.ca or at the Library service desk (Building 305, 3rd Floor).
- Select the Print command from the program in which you are working (e.g. Word, Explorer etc.)
-
- Make sure you are printing to the correct printer in the room; some workstations will have more than one printer mapped. You will need to go to the File menu, select the Print command, and wait for the Print Dialogue box to appear. Click on the drop-down menu next to the "printer Name" field at the top of the dialogue box, and select the lab's building and room number as the printer. Click OK at the bottom of the Print dialogue box.
- For example:
When you are in building 315 room 113, the printer would be 315-113hp
When you are in building 180 room 248, the printer would be 180-248hp
- Click Print from the Print menu, this will send your print job to the print queue at the release station you have selected from the print drop down box in step 1 above.
Go to the release station for your printer
- Once you have added a balance to your student computer account (see "What does it cost and how do I pay?"), go to the printer. You will see a computer next to the printer: this is the Print Release Station.
- On the Print Release Station, select the option "Student Computer Account".
- Enter your student number and computer account password.
- There will be another field with your student number copied into it. This filters your job out of every other student. (If you are printing from a laptop, this field must be blank or you cannot find your print job).
- Select your print job, verify you have sufficient funds, and click "Print".
There is a print release station with a black & white printer in every campus computer lab. In the VIU Library Commons, there are two print release stations:
- One with a black & white printer near the Photo ID office, and another with both a black & white and a colour printer near the Elevator (the colour printer is the bigger one to the left of the table). In the Library, there are two Print Release Stations with black & white printers: one near the photocopiers on the main floor, and the other in the computer lab on the 5th floor, room 508.
- Due to restrictions on the VIU network, students cannot print to campus printers outside the area they are working in. In other words, to print to the Library and VIU Library Commons print stations, you must be using a computer in the Library or VIU Library Commons; to print to a printer in a computer lab, you must be using a computer in that lab.
- In the Library and VIU Library Commons, you can print on transparencies or on photo-quality paper in either black & white or colour. Transparencies and photo-quality paper (semi-gloss) are available for purchase at the Service Desk. Library staff will help you print your documents on special media.
- Double-sided printing can be done on both colour and black & white printers in the Library and VIU Library Commons.
As an alternative to do-it-yourself printing, VIU's Printing and Duplicating Centre offers printing services.
- Right click on your desktop (or folder)
- New > Shortcut
- Enter the server address of the printer you would like to print from (found in the Printer List below \\sugarloaf.it.int.viu.ca (Library and upper campus printers) or \\saltspring.it.int.viu.ca (lower campus)) in the location field and press Next
- Give it a name such as "VIU Printers" and press Finish
- Double click on the shortcut to open it.
- You may get a login prompt. Enter your computer account credentials to log in. For the username, enter it in the format of viu\username.
- Locate the printer you want to print to and double click on the icon to install the printer
- Your printer is now installing - when it finishes, choose the newly added printer from the print dialogue window
- Right click on your desktop (or folder)
- New > Shortcut
- Enter the server address of the printer you would like to print from (found in the Printer List below \\sugarloaf.it.int.viu.ca (Library and upper campus printers) or \\saltspring.it.int.viu.ca (lower campus)) in the location field and press Next
- Give it a name such as "VIU Printers" and press Finish
- Double click on the shortcut to open it
- You may get a login prompt. Click Use another account. Enter your computer account credentials to log in. For the username, enter it in the format of viu\username
- Locate the printer you want to print to and double click on the icon to install the printer.
- Your printer is now installing - when it finishes, choose the newly added printer from the print dialogue window
- Open System Preferences (Apple Menu > System Preferences, or using Spotlight Search)
- Click Printers & Scanners
- Click on the "+" symbol in the bottom-left of the window
- Select IP Printing
- Address: Add the server address from the Printer List tab below (this will be sugarloaf.it.int.viu.ca or saltspring.it.int.viu.ca depending on the location)
- Protocol: Line Printer Daemon
- Queue: Add the printer name from the Printer List tab below
- Name: Choose a meaningful name (e.g. Library B&W)
- Location (optional): Choose a meaningful location
- Use: Generic PostScript Printer
- Click Add
- Library printers include Duplexing Units (double-sided) - verify that your printer includes this feature before checking the box, otherwise leave it unchecked
- Your printer is now installing - when it finishes, choose the newly added printer from the print dialogue window.
Note: When printing from a non-campus Mac computer, your print job will NOT be under your student number. When you log into the print release station, you must erase the field on the second screen you see (your student number is automatically copied into this field) in order to see your print job. You will need to search through the list of available print jobs for your computer name (usually your name) and the name of your print job. The print jobs can then be released normally by clicking on the print jobs you wish to release, and then clicking on 'Print'.
Some printers are on a server called SUGARLOAF and some are on SALTSPRING.
Printers are named in the following format: Building Number - Room Number (example: 356-340)
You can only print to the printers with Hold in their name, attempting to add and print to any other printers will fail.
Find the correct printer from the list below, then follow the instructions to add the printer on your laptop.
(In order to connect a printer in the list below you must add the correct server address)
NOTE: most of the labs listed below are also used for classes so please DO NOT print to a printer that has a class in session, unless you are in that class.
Server Address: | Printer Name: | Location: |
saltspring.it.int.viu.ca | 180-248hp-hold | Building 180 |
saltspring.it.int.viu.ca | 205-100hp-hold | Building 205 |
saltspring.it.int.viu.ca | 205-202hp-hold | Building 205 |
saltspring.it.int.viu.ca | 250-115hp-hold | Building 250 |
saltspring.it.int.viu.ca | 250-135hp-hold | Building 250 |
saltspring.it.int.viu.ca | 250-200hp-hold | Building 250 |
saltspring.it.int.viu.ca | 255-100hp-hold | Building 255 |
saltspring.it.int.viu.ca | 255-105hp-hold | Building 255 |
saltspring.it.int.viu.ca | 255-120hp-hold | Building 255 |
saltspring.it.int.viu.ca | 255-282hp-hold | Building 255 |
sugarloaf.it.int.viu.ca | 305-hold-bw | Library Commons |
sugarloaf.it.int.viu.ca | 305-hold-colour | Library Commons |
sugarloaf.it.int.viu.ca | 305-hold-colourmac | Library Commons |
saltspring.it.int.viu.ca | 315-112hp-hold | Building 315 |
saltspring.it.int.viu.ca | 315-113hp-holdbw | Building 315 |
saltspring.it.int.viu.ca | 315-113hp-holdcolour | Building 315 |
sugarloaf.it.int.viu.ca | 325-122hp3005-hold | Building 325 |
sugarloaf.it.int.viu.ca | 325-207-Colour1-hold | Building 325 |
sugarloaf.it.int.viu.ca | 325-207-Colour2-hold | Building 325 |
sugarloaf.it.int.viu.ca | 325-210-Colour1-hold | Building 325 |
saltspring.it.int.viu.ca | 356-340hp-hold | Building 356 |
saltspring.it.int.viu.ca | 356-atriumhp-hold | Building 356 |
saltspring.it.int.viu.ca | 360-318hp-hold | Building 360 |
Who can use this service?
StudentRelated Help Articles
Related Services
IT Service Advisory
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Contact Us
Phone/Email Support Hours:
M-F 8:00-4:30
250.740.6300
(local 6300)
ithelp@viu.ca
In Person Support Hours:
M-F 9:00-3:30
Nanaimo Campus,
Building 305,
3rd floor
Library Commons