Plotters

Large-format printers (Plotters):

Epson 9880 - Glossy Photo paper - 43.5 inches wide
HP5500 (B) - Mylar paper - 35.5 inches wide
Oce ColorWave 600 - Bond and Mylar paper - 41.7 and 35.7 inches wide

"IMPORTANT"

OCE plotter does not recognize hight less than 8.26 inch. The system will charge for at least 8.26 inch.

Costs

Large format printers are based on the linear inches printed:

OCE Bond 32lb - 42" wide - $0.35 per linear inch
OCE Mylar 4mm - 36" wide - $0.45 per linear inch
Epson Glossy Photo - 44" wide - $0.65 per linear inch NEW
HP5500 Mylar/Bond -36/42" wide - $0.50 per linear inch  NEW

Line Drawings

We offer a special post-print discount for line drawings from AutoCAD only on HP5500 plotter. Line drawings cannot be sent to the Epson or Oce ploters. In recognition that line drawings use less ink we offer a special reduced rate of 40% off the regular pricing.  Please bring your line drawing plots to the IT staff to get the discount applied to your account.

To decrease color mismatch we encurage sending a test print first to HP or Epson plotters
Test Print on any plotter except OCE - $0.01 up to 2 inch 

The billing for plotters system is post-production counted of your print and therefore it is required you have a minimum of $30 in your account prior to printing to cover anticipated charges. 

Any issues regarding refunds for printing will be considered no later then next business day.

Submission to Oce

Submission to Oce plotter currently using it's own submission interface - please consult "Submit job to Oce plotter through Terminal" manuals.

Submission to HP or Epson

Submission to HP or Epson plotters - WebPlot service provides an interface for submission of files to plotters via a web browser. Only PDF file format is allowed using WebPlot. Custom dimensions are permitted but are limited to the roll dimensions of the plotter chosen less 0.5 inches on each size of the roll.

Plotting involves several procedures that happen behind the scenes when a job is submitted for plotting. Jobs pass through a Raster Image Processor (RIP) Server where they are processed and passed on to the plotters. The printing account information is also processed to bill your account.

Important

Typical large-format printing will take 5-10 min. to process, and another 5-10 min. to print if there are no other jobs queued before your job. During peak periods, it could be a backlog of several hours from previously queued jobs waiting to be printed. Up to a 4-5 hours wait is not uncommon the evening before, or the day of a review.   Full support for these devices is only available during regular business hours with limited secondary support by students, most evenings and weekends. Please plan accordingly and check web queue before submitting

To minimize errors during processing, all PDFs must be created by "printing" to the Adobe PDF writer. You access the PDF writer by going print, but rather then it printing anything it will create a PDF and ask you where you would like to save this file. DO NOT use Save as or Export to PDF from programs like Illustrator. Please use the lab computers or install the latest version of Acrobat on your laptop - older version of Acrobat writer can cause problems.

Known issues with Acrobat 8.0 from Adobe Creative Suite:

Some files can be rotated 90 degrees when they are created. When you go to print these files they are oriented incorrectly. To minimize these rotation errors please remake newly created PDF's again by opening them in ACROBAT, re-enter the dimensions and re-created the PDF.

To use any submission tool there is one methods of uploading your print file:

• Manually copying or FTPing the file to the Plots directory (R:\Plots)

The Plots folder is accessible through the 'Root' of the file system or with the path \\ald.utoronto.ca\Root\Plots - but remember you must have made a VPN connection first to use this path or be logged on to one of the lab computers. Alternately you can use FTP to transfer files to the 'Plots' folder. Note that files will remain here for one day only and be erased automatically by system.

Once the file is uploaded you must submit the file to the server for processing.

Colours: The Faculty recommends using the Adobe RGB colour profile when using Webplot (HP and Epson). The Adobe RGB profile has a good range of colours that when processed through our print system tend to come closer to what is produced on the LCDs in the labs. Whenever possible when printing a series please use the same plotter for the series to avoid colour shifts.

For OCE plotter use CMYK colour profile.