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Overview
Northwestern University students pay for their printing and copying in Northwestern Print. The costs for printing for students are:
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Black and white printing - $ .03 per page (double-sided or single-side)
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Color printing - $ .10 per page
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Plotter costs: $2.50 per sq foot
How do students pay for their printing?
There are several options for how students can pay for printing. Options include:
NU Quota
Some students may receive a printing subsidy (NU Quota) from either campus or their school with an allocated amount of money from which print costs will be drawn from first.
Refunds Balance
If a student requests a refund for a failed print job, the funds are put into their Refunds balance where they can be spent on future printing.
Cat Cash
Cat Cash may be used to pay for student printing costs in Northwestern Print. When you have no remaining funds in your NU Quota or Refunds balance, your printing costs will be debited from Cat Cash.
Remaining Balance from NUPrint
Any continuing Northwestern student for the academic year 2023-24 with a balance in their NUPrint account will have that balance transferred to their new Northwestern Print account. We expect this balance transfer to be in place by the beginning of the 2023-24 academic year. Those funds will appear in your Northwestern Print Refunds balance. We regret that we will not be able to provide refunds for any student accounts with funds remaining in NUPrint that will be leaving Northwestern University.
How to View your Available Northwestern Print Balance
Log onto the Northwestern Print Web Portal at https://print.northwestern.edu/ with your NetID and password.
To learn more about Cat Cash and how to add funds to your Cat Cash account see Northwestern Print: Student Printing Adding Value to My Cat Cash.
Viewing your Balance at a Ricoh Multi-functional Device (MFD)
You can view your available balance on the Ricoh print release screen. Authenticate at an MFD either by tapping your Wildcard (Tap to print) or scanning the QR code on your smartphone. Tap to print is the easiest way to authenticate at an MFP to release your print jobs. This option uses your Wildcard proximity chip to identify you and access your print jobs.
Selecting and Installing the Correct Print Queue
Student-owned devices will require Mobility Print to be installed to print to Northwestern Print. The installer for Mobility Print will be available from a webpage. Mobility Print simplifies the printing process for your own devices (BYOD) and other end-user managed devices, such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, or Chromebooks. It delivers secure network print services for iOS, Windows, MacOS, Android, and Chrome.
Follow the instructions found on the Knowledge Base article about installing Mobility Print on student personal devices.
Mobility Print allows Northwestern students to install up to two student pay queues that will allow you to print to Northwestern Print from your laptop or mobile device. These queues default to duplex but can be changed to single-sided if required.
Requesting a Refund
You can request a refund for a failed print job through the Northwestern Print web portal at: https://print.northwestern.edu/. A University Libraries staff member will respond to your request within 1 business day. Refunds are provided in the form of a credit to your Northwestern Print balance (Refunds). Funds cannot be added back to a student’s Cat Cash account. For more information see Northwestern Print: Requesting a Refund for Student Printing.
Reprinting a Failed Job
If you are at the library when your job fails, you can send the print job again and request that it be released for free. This can be done at the Information Commons desk. You will not be charged for the second job; library staff will release the job for free. For more information see Northwestern Print: Reprinting a Failed Student Print Job.