Top simple tips for starting to cope with the new printers
- FIRST: To get started: press the bright green light (light goes off;
touch screen lights up).
[Yes: Canon use the green light to mean the machine is off; and when
the green light goes out, it means the machine is on. Two inches below,
smaller green lights mean various things are on and working, while when they
are off, the functions are off. Yes, Canon really is that bad at user
interface design.]
- Copying (and scanning) basic:
- Put originals face up in feeder tray on top of the whole machine.
- When you press the solid round green button off the screen to the right, it
will start copying using whatever settings are currently set. (No need to come
out of the options menus AND no way to start the copying from the options
menus.)
- The "Home" button is helpful for getting out of the settings menus back
to the top level. It is the top-left-most button (physical on some machines;
on screen otherwise).
- The stapling function is under "Finishing" options → stapling
→ 'next' → ... . But only some printers have a stapler.
Lower level Info / how-to / fixes
- Make it switch input paper trays automatically
when one is empty:
Fix on the spot, on the printer
The bottom-left-most button (physical on some machines; on screen otherwise)
Opens menus where you impose a specific paper tray instead ("consumables").
(It shows which trays are loaded ....)
Fix in defaults on your desktop
The lowest popup menu (default value showing on mine is "Safari", then "Layout")
→ Select "Paper feed" (NOT "Printer Features")
→ Popup menu "All pages From:" → "Auto Select"
- To get colour printing; and hi-res; and stapling:
On PCs, look at this handout, panel 3: "How to change your print job
settings" https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_301417_en.pdf
On Macs [this works on OS 10.9.5 at least]: (My own settings.)
Do "print" to open print dialogue box
Printer "PullPrint" (set this on the printer menu)
Show details (press this button)
The lowest popup menu (default value showing on mine is "Safari", then "Layout")
→ "Color Matching" &arr; "In printer"
→ "Paper Handling" ?? &arr; "scale to fit paper size" ?
→ "Paper Feed" &arr; All pages from: "Auto Select"
→ Select "Printer Features" (and more menus appear)
Popup menu "Feature sets": (default value showing on mine is "Paper")
→ "Finishing 2" has a menu to set stapling
→ "Color 1" has a menu to set colour / B&W
→ "Quality 1" has a menu to set resolution to 1200 dpi
- To scan a book chapter
- Practise by copying, till you get the right settings; then go to scan
- Settings → Favourites → M1 [preset]
- Auto/colour = B&W, not colour (unless pics not line drawings).
- Autosize = A4R (smallest that is larger than actual book size)
- ?PDF = OCR (not compact)
- (Don't use magnification: doesn't change scan; use Preview to fix print
size and to crop later.)
- Have to press green btn for each page; then soft button to send at the
end.
- To do a mass handout
- Assemble PDF file.
- Set printer settings for it. (Save them, if only temporarily?)
- Print to PullPrint.
- Press retain. Print one copy and check
- Set number of copies (use number keys) and print again.
- To copy/xerox
Complaints
- Damaged IP connector as it goes into wall socket for printer in level2n
position
- Level4n prints postscript as code; not as the page it represents.
This is not true of other printers. And is not true of files from a PC, only
from my Mac.
- Retain button not enabled.
- UCB pendrives not enabled (as storage for scanning).
- Jobs on printer appear in reverse order; and are printed in that reverse
order.
This is annoying and bewildering to users, and
moreover disguises the fact that it is misleading.
- Print queue may seem not available over the web to normal browsers, but
is. Works more obviously on Firefox not Safari.
- All machines should be on a list of machines and their capabilities.
AND every machine should have a notice taped on to it saying what its
capabilities are: stapling? colour? scanning?
- The output tray of the machines only holds about 100 sheets (bit less
if stapled); so it needs frequent emptying to continue with the job.
Of concern in producing class handouts.
- UCB pendrives not enabled (as storage for carrying print jobs to a printer).
- Can only get 1-sided copy output by having 1-sided originals and copying
2-sided → 2-sided. Wasteful of machine cycles.