Printing

The Astrophysics group has access to the following printers: Choose which printer to print to depending on where your office is and the need for colour. Usually astroprint is the default printer.

Connecting to Printers

Linux

The Linux desktops are already set up to use astroprint and astrocolour.
If you want to use the print release printer in room 3.41, then follow the instructions here
If you want to print from a Linux laptop, then please contact the Computing manager, but it is similar to the Mac setup below.

The key information that you need is the printer name and that it is a 'Generic Postscript Printer'.

Don't forget to enable duplex printing!

Apple Macs

If you are printing from a Mac to astroprint or astrocolour, there are generic UoB instructions here and more specific instructions are below.
Make sure you are connected to eduroam.

click on apple at top left of screen and choose system preferences

choose 'printers and scanners'

The first time you do this, you need to add the Advanced button to the
add printer toolbar: Ctrl-click on the toolbar, select Customize
Toolbar... and then drag the Advanced button onto the toolbar

click the '+' on the bottom left of the window to add a new printer.

click on the 'Advanced button'

Specify 'Type' from the menu as 'LPE/LPD Host or printer'.
Leave 'Device' as 'Another Device'.
Specify the URL as:

astroprint:
lpd://astroprint.star.bris.ac.uk

astrocolour:
lpd://astrocolour.star.bris.ac.uk

Specify the name as 'astroprint' or 'astrocolour' and the location as 4.13.

The LPD/LPR printer setup uses 'Generic Postscript Printer' and that
should work fine. But you could set up a specific driver for the
printer model (see above) if there are some special features that you
want.

If everything is OK, click the 'Add' button. If the 'Add' button is
greyed out, check that there is no carriage return at the end of the
URL.

In the window that pops up next, ensure that there is a tick in the
duplex box and the 'Tray 3' box is unchecked. Click OK.

Now print something to the printer, eg this web page. The first time
you print, click on the '+ More Settings' to make sure your paper size
is set to A4 and not 'American letter' which may pause the
printer. 

Transparencies

In the unlikely scenario that you need to print on transparencies, then please ensure laser printer transparencies are used otherwise an unpleasant melting related catastrophe will happen.


Rhys Morris
Last modified: Wed Jul 19 14:25:00 BST 2023