Initial reactions to mobile printing highlight ease, convenience

The University's Office of Information Technology announced the introduction of mobile printing on Feb. 14, allowing members of the University community to print from their phones and tablets by emailing the file from their Princeton email account to mobileprint@princeton.edu.

Adam Gallagher ’16, a student technology consultant for Mathey College, explained that the idea was developed during what he described as a “visionary meeting" last year, in which workers and management at OITdiscussed different ideas for technological developments at the University that students would find useful. One of these ideas was mobile printing, he said.

Leila Shahbender, senior manager of Customer Services at OIT,said OIT had to perform some technical research in order to implement this student requested program.

“We had to do quite a bit of research to ensure that we could have it work with our existing print management system," Shahbender said. "There was also an additional amount of technical work that had to go on to get us to the point where we were actually able to make a production.”

Mobile printing was tested before its release, and no major issues have surfaced, Gallagher said. However, he also said that two issues have been encountered: Any document printed through mobile are automatically double-sided and are printed in full, not in select pages.

“Sometimes people don’t report things to [OIT] when they should, so we assume that no news is good news,” Shahbender said,adding that OIT “always look[s] to improve [its] services.”

Eric Rehe ’14 said he has wanted the ability to print from mobile devices for a few years. He said he realized how convenient printing from a mobile device would be after he purchased an iPad.

Rehe said he asked OIT about printing from mobile devices last year and although he said that “it seemed like it’s taken a long time,” he added that he thinks that it is “a cool system and that it will make people’s lives a lot easier.”

Dylan Bowman ’14 said mobile printing can be helpful sometimes when one is rushing to class and needs to get something printed quickly. Bowman added that although he has not used the system yet, it is something he might think about using more.

“So far the program has worked quite well and [student] feedback has been good,”Adam Ouellette,student computing analyst in Support Services at OIT, said.

Shahbender said shewants students to remember to think before printing.

“Sustainability is a really important value at the University," Shahbender said. "We’d like to reduce the amount of paper that is used, and therefore, think before you print.”