How / where to print...

[Lee Taylor]

I'm not sure if anyone already posted anything about this but I was wondering how and where everyone else gets their zines printed / copied? At the moment I'm at Uni and thankfully have access to free photocopies by borrowing lecturers' copy cards mwah haha so I can do it pretty easily there, but I leave in about 7 months and I'm not sure how I'll do it from then on.

Does anyone print stuff from home on their own printer, or do people tend to get them done somewhere or go to places like libraries and use their photocopiers...?

Thanks :)

[Necro Neil]

I used to do that too! And hijack friends who worked with photocopiers to sneak me copies after work etc. What I did was get a scanner, scanned my zines, printed them off myself for a while, but what I do now is take the best photocopies of them to my local photocopy place and they print them. Its all about finding someone who understands what youre printing and is cheap! The guy who prints mine is an old punk guy so knows what Im after.

Also, I advise giving your zines as non cut and pasted together, so like mine I made a really good photocopy first that I use to print from, then you can just plonk an issue down, say 'copy me this 20 times' and theyll understand a lot easier plus no labour for them having to scan them, so you get it cheaper, they can just feed them into the copier and hit the button.

[Persephone Pomegranate]

I finally broke down and bought a laser printer last year and it's such a great investment for a zinester. I don't know exactly how much I pay per page but it has to be less than the .10/copy that all of the copy places around here charge. Plus I don't have to go anywhere. You do need a scanner though if you do cut and paste zines.

[ric ramos]

I also bought a printer laser. The problem is the toner that is the half of the value of the machine. It is only to use some techniques of impression economy.

[Erica S.]

I've read an estimate of 1000 copies per cartridge, obviously less if you use a lot of black. The refills I get are $45 each. This works out to an average of four cents per side, which isn't that much better than a copy shop and only holds for "normal" pages, i.e. not much dark printing. I guess if your print run is really low, or you only live by price gouging places like Staples, this might work. I really like going to the copy shop, though. :)

[ric ramos]

I still think that, with the homelike printer  has more advantages. Comfort, agility, readiness and it had regulated the quality.

[Persephone Pomegranate]

Having general anxiety disorder, getting to make copies at home rather than a copy shop is a huge plus for me. I think the 1000 estimate is on the low side. I had to cover the sensor that reads the toner level, otherwise my printer won't let you print until you change the cartridge. And once I covered that sensor, I got about double the pages that I got originally.

[ric ramos]

I also made that! With the sensor he blocks the toner and still surpluses 10% of the powder. Isolating the chip of my toner, the printer uses this surpluses.

[Elaine]

That is REALLY good to know!  Where is the sensor located on the machine?  I'd like to try that.

[ric ramos]

Elaine, that is a technique of defrauding the machine. For each printer a middle exists. I researched and I bought a printer I to make that. After installing the software, it isolates the chip of the toner and it inserts a cracker... And be happy!!!

[Persephone Pomegranate]

Elaine, it's different for different printers. I did a google search for my model to find where mine is. It'll be somewhere near where you insert the toner though. You'll also need to put black tape over it rather than some kind of clear tape to fully block the sensor.

[Elaine]

Thanks, I'll have to check my model number. (I'm not defrauding a business, it's just my home computer, there's still some toner in the cartridges, if this lets me use ALL the ink, I'm happier than I would be having to throw it out).

Persephone Pomegranate said:

Elaine, it's different for different printers. I did a google search for my model to find where mine is. It'll be somewhere near where you insert the toner though. You'll also need to put black tape over it rather than some kind of clear tape to fully block the sensor.

[Atomic Heat Ray]

I bought a copy machine on craiglslist for $75.  I used that, but it ran out of toner and I didn't get around to

buying another one.. and then I found a copy machine at the thrift store for $25, tested it and it printed awesome,

wasn't low on toner or anything.. So I actually have two copy machines now.  The small one only prints 8.5x11 though.

Buying the smaller one was cheaper than buying a toner refill for my big one though, haha.