Harper College

Printing and Copying

Printing on Campus

As part of Harper College's ongoing green initiatives and to reduce costs, credit students receive a print allocation of 500 pages per semester for printing in the open labs and Library.

All students are required to use their network login and HarperCard ID to release print jobs.  

Answers to frequently asked questions about Harper's new printing policy are below.

Scanning and Copying

Student copy machines accept coins and are located in:

  • Student Center, Room A236
  • Hallway outside of I117
  • Outside of Avante Y203 Lab

Book scan stations are located on the first and second floors of the Library and at our remote site, the Learning and Career Center in Prospect Heights. Book scan stations can be used to:

  • Scan documents to USB
  • Scan documents to email

Student MobilePrint

Submit print jobs from your personal device ON or OFF campus with Student MobilePrint. View all the details here or get started with Student MobilePrint right now.

Printing and Copying Frequently Asked Questions:

Reducing the amount of paper is part of the College's ongoing efforts to have a more environmentally friendly and greener campus. Also, as a not-for-profit, taxpayer supported institution, the College is committed to reducing costs wherever possible.

The College has been monitoring campus printing in the student labs for over a year to determine the average and maximum print usage of students. 45% of students printed less than 50 pages in the open labs. Over 92% of students printed less than 500 pages per semester. The remaining 8% of students accounted for 45% of our print volume. By limiting excessive printing of those few students we can cut down on the overall print costs for everyone.

The copiers are provided by an outside vendor and are not currently included in the scope of the Print Green initiative. Only the prepaid debit cards and print/copy stripes can be used in the copiers.

Students will see their allocation balance when they swipe their HarperCard at the release stations. They can also see the prepaid balance on the Copy/Print Debit Card or added to the HarperCard (the thin magnetic strip on the back) when using the pay station.

As a student, you may put additional money on your print/copy stripe (the thin magnetic stripe on the back of the HarperCard). The same machine used to dispense and recharge the generic Copy/Print Debit Card may also be used to recharge the print/copy stripe of your HarperCard.

No. At the beginning of each semester the page count will be reset to 500 for all registered credit students. The page quota is paid from the college budget and is intended to save money and help the environment.

If you have allocation remaining from the previous semester, you will be able to use it up until totals are reset for the next semester. Semester resets are based on the Academic Calendar and are done on the Sunday night one week before the semester begins. If the interim period between semesters is less than one week the reset occurs on the Sunday night before the semester begins.

  • Read the document on screen instead of printing it.
  • 'Print Preview' the print job on the screen before sending it to print.
  • Select only the pages you really want to be printed while you are at the workstation. The release station does not allow you to select pages once the job is queued for print.
  • Review the total pages in your print job before sending it to print. You are not charged until the print job is released at the release station. If there are more pages than you expected, do not print it.
  • Save larger documents onto a jump or flash drive.

Yes, a print job is charged at the time it is released to print. We will reimburse your account for printer malfunctions. You must log the problem with the staff at the desk. Be prepared to give them your login ID, ID number, date and time, printer name and name of print job (name of the file being printed). If the log confirms the problem you experience, you will have the charged amount restored to your print account. Contact the personnel at the desk to report the problem right away, so that we can service the printer immediately.

You may talk to the personnel at the desk or email printgreen@harpercollege.edu.

If you were already registered for classes the day before you got your HarperCard, you can use it immediately. If you registered for classes the same day you got your HarperCard, you will be able to print the next day.

Each machine reads a different magnetic stripe on the card.

  1. The Print Release Station with the card swipe reader attached to the face of the monitor decrements from the credit students' print allocation using the wide magnetic stripe on the Harper card. Use this release station if you have a balance in your Harper print allocation.
  2. The Pay Print Station with the box-like reader (with a slotted opening for the card) works like a gift card. It decrements from a debit stripe (narrow magnetic stripe) on either your Harper card or the Print and Copy Debit card and releases your job to print. Anyone may use this release station if they have added value to their card from the Print/Copy Vending machine and have a balance remaining on the Print and Copy Debit card or Harper debit stripe.

The debit stripe on both cards allow you to print or copy. The first time you buy a print/copy debit card, you are charged $.50 for the card itself; after that you can add value at no extra charge. If you add value to your Harper ID, you are not charged $.50 for an initial debit card purchase.

A18: The Box Office in J building keeps a Lost and Found for ID cards. Check with them to see if it was found.

A19: You can print up to 30 pages (15 duplexed sheets). If you need to print more than that, you will need to submit multiple print jobs.

There is a limit on the number of pages you can print at a time in order to minimize problems caused by oversized print jobs and to maximize the availability of the printer to all users.

The cost is $ .10 per side. If printing duplex a sheet would cost $ .20 to cover both sides of it. If printing simplex, the cost would be $ .10 because only one side of the sheet is printed.

The cash pay station counts each side printed on a sheet of paper. A simplex (one side of the sheet) print is charged at $.10. A duplex (both sides of the sheet) print is charged at $ .20. You are only charged for the printed sides of the sheets. If 9 pages are printed duplex, you will see "5 sheets at a cost of $ .90". (Note that the unprinted side of the last page is not charged.) The number of pages charged is determined by the number of pages that the application sees. If you have a blank page in the application that will be counted as a printed page.

A color printer is located in Y203. The cost per page is $.50. Duplex printing is not turned on by default on the color printer. Color printing is not covered in Student Allocation, you must use the pay stations to release to the color printer.

At the coin operated copy machines it is $.20 per page when using coins. 

Only letter size (8.5" x 11") paper can be used.

Last Updated: 12/14/23