Schedule Printing

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When

Schedules get printed at the last possible second because everyone is making schedule changes up until the last possible second.

Designing

Files

The files needed to do the schedules:

  • Schedule.xls which is probably in last year's SNAFU Con Staff dropbox zip file. This file is generally in the room for the staff, NOT the graphics
  • schedule.indd - can be found in last year's graphics archive. This file is the pocket schedule which takes the PDFs from the excel spreadsheet and lays them out for one pocket schedule. This file is used directly in the following indesign file so there usually isn't a PDF. It is already trying to link to Schedule.pdf in the same folder, so save some time and export all the pocket pages into one PDF from Excel and it should work.
  • schedule spread.indd - can be found in last year's graphics archive. This file is the spread for the pocket schedule. It takes the previous indesign file and makes it into a printable spread to print on our duplex printers. Pocket schedules are usually printed directly from this file so there is no exported PDF.

There may be more files related to the back page which generally isn't completed in excel due to the graphics involved for the map.

Slashed Lines

There are slashed lines in the schedules from 2014 and 2015. Get rid of them in 2016.

  • They do not export to PDF so large schedules should be printed directly out of excel if you want to keep them.
  • They ABSOLUTELY DO NOT scale down for the pocket schedules at ALL. A solid gray is required for the pocket schedules.
  • They do not print on the Brother printers at all and MUST be printed on the HP. Which isn't the end of the world because the HP is a power horse that holds a whole ream of paper and costs about $30 for 14k pages.

Printing

  • The Brother printers do duplex but don't hold as much paper. They are generally faster but are a slightly worse quality when using 3rd party toner (Brother brand toner is a good quality). You can use Brother compatible toner but it dies after a much shorter time. If time allows, print as much as possible on the HP because it is significantly cheaper.
  • PRINT ON THE HP FIRST. If there is a reason to feed the file through two printers, printing on a Brother, then trying to feed that paper into the HP is a NIGHTMARE and will result in at least a 25% loss of paper and will increase the time involved by like 1000% (exaggeration? maybe not).
  • As said above, slashed lines need to be printed on the HP. The HP will have a better quality print over-all and cost the con less but duplex needs to be manual.
  • Pocket schedules are usually done on a Brother because of the duplex feature but could be duplexed manually on the HP. Due to the time costs involved with the pocket schedules overall, it is probably best to spend the extra toner on automatic duplexing.

Graphics

Run test pages.

  • HP tends to run light
  • Brother tends to run dark

Toner

Don't under-do toner purchases. Buying toner at office depot is very, very expensive - as much as double amazon sometimes. Seriously, don't fuck around. Just buy like 10 toners for the Brothers and 3 for the HP. In 2014 we used 10 Brother toners and 2 HP. Adjust as necessary based on expected usage.

Minimums for the beginning of the year: 3 HP toners, 10 Brother Compatible Toner, 3 Brother Brand Toners.

Shake it up as necessary since we will be favoring the HP. The Brothers cost like 6 times more than the HP to print on.

HP Toner

Brother Brand Toner

  • $45 ea
  • $0.017 per page
  • Brother TN450 High Yield Black Toner - Retail Packaging
  • I'm not sure how many pages we get from this. "Expected lifetime yield 2,600 pages" Quality is generally excellent at the life of the toner. Sometimes by turning on continuous printing we get more than the lifetime expected yield, but the quality suffers a little after it's past it's yield. Usually no more than as if it were a 3rd-party.

Brother Compatible Toner

  • $10
  • Between $0.01 and $0.02 per page
  • Compatible Brother (NT-PB450) Toner Cartridge for TN420 / 450
  • Does about 500 pages well if we're lucky and don't get a lemon. Maybe another 500 pages at a mediocre quality. "Expected lifetime yield 2,600 pages" Quality okayish. Sometimes gets toner scraping onto the pages.

Printers

See Printers.

Paper

Expect a usage of 25-30 reams in a year. See Paper.

Brother - Continuous Print Mode

If the Brother stops printing because it's out of toner, but the quality still looks okay, you can change the printer settings to continuous print by rapidly pressing the green OK("Go?") button 7 times. All the lights will light up and then it will print forever. This risks ruining some paper but sometimes means a difference of 1000+ pages on Brother brand toner. It's usually the difference of about 300 pages on 3rd party.

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