Staples refuses to print my PDFs....

[Nonlethal Force]

It's a pet peeve with me, I get angry out of proportion with it, but I loathe the assumption that all users are abusers.

Yes, but I equally loathe the assumption that anyone couldn't be an abuser. Certainly not all users are abusers. But certainly there are more abusers out there than who get caught.

In response to your inquiry, Morrus, they do print Masters Thesis. My wife recently had to have 5 copies of her thesis printed up on some high quality paper, so we took it to a staples and they had no problems doing it. Word Documents are apparently pretty easy to print out. They have problems with things like pdfs which can be (and should be) appropriately locked by the publisher.

 

[jdrakeh]

They don't print a document you created?

That was my experience, yes.

What do they print?

Well, it's actually a "copy center". Accordingly, making copies of an existing physical document (though not a bound book) doesn't seem to be an issue for Staples. It's the printing from an electronic document intended for distribution that seems to have them running scared. Honestly, it seems to be a policy based almost entirely on fear of dealing with a new medium and lack of understanding about copyright, rather than a sane, rational, measure of protection against piracy.

 

[Morrus]

I

The store manager showed me the policy. It specifically stated that they would not print "any copyrighted material". Not "any copyrighted material unless you own the copyright", but "any copyrighted material".

Yeah. That's all material. The store manager told you that the company doesn't print stuff.

 

[Morrus]

In response to your inquiry, Morrus, they do print Masters Thesis. My wife recently had to have 5 copies of her thesis printed up on some high quality paper, so we took it to a staples and they had no problems doing it. Word Documents are apparently pretty easy to print out. They have problems with things like pdfs which can be (and should be) appropriately locked by the publisher.

So it's the file format? They'll print it if it's in .doc format, but not if it's in .pdf format?

 

[Nonlethal Force]

I don't know that for certain - as policy. But we've never have them refuse to print a Word document. We've also never tried a pdf. So, I'm not claiming to paint a fair picture - merely talking about my own experience.

EDIT: I should also claim that I live near State College, PA. [Penn State for those who don't know] Since State College is largely a university town and only a university town, they're pretty accustomed to doing things like thesis and even dissertations.

 

[Karlson_the_red]

Well, we actually print lots of things... But there is a difference between a pdf of Joe's painting service flyer, and a copy of Complete Warrior. I had to recently "let someone go" for printing pirated pdf's using the stores equipment. So there are a lot of abusers out there,,,

To Delta: It is a fine line to walk. No one should accuse anyone of anything, that is actually part of the training. But I will put it to you this way, if you worked hard on a project, say writing a book, and you get a percentage of all sold, would you not be unhappy if you found out people were making copies of it? As an artist, I had someone steal some of my stuff once and say it was their own, so I can tell you, I was not pleased. Copies were made and sold, and I saw nothing. What really hurt was the fact this guy got all the praise for my stuff...

Plus, just because someone wrote something, does not prove that they still control the IP.

As for the map of Simcity, What was wrong with printing out the Jpg with no copyright? It does sound like the guy was lazy...

Karlson

 

[Morrus]

Well, we actually print lots of things... But there is a difference between a pdf of Joe's painting service flyer, and a copy of Complete Warrior.

What's the difference between Joe printing his flyer and an author printing his book? Does Joe need to prove he has permission to print his flier?

I'm just trying to get a handle on what the criteria are. Seems that file type seems be one from evidence above; and it seems that size seems to be one, too, from what you're saying?

It sounds to me that people would be better off using an online service like Printfu, rather than using a shop like Kinko's or Staples.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

Actually, I am curious as well. In my sig (post above) you'll notice that I have a few Story Hours that are fictional (not table-top based). My wife hates reading off the computer screen, so for Christmas this past year I printed out my entire first Story Hour (~180,000 words). I realized that it also took about an entire cartridge of ink. It would have been better for me to go to staples, have them print it out, and probably get a better quality product. But, being a document of 180,000 words that looks like an unpublished novel, would they have prnted it for me? I'm curious ... because when I finish story hour 2 I want to print that one out for my wife, too.

 

[Karlson_the_red]

The big difference is the quality of the design. Joe's looks like his brother in law made it up on Cute pdf, while CW has a higher production value.

As for the author not getting it printed, i have no real clue. If there was no publishing info on the pdf, then just showing his driver license should have been enough. Once a publisher gets involved, it gets more complicated.

Karlson

 

[Nuclear Platypus]

Try an Office Depot or Office Max. They'd probably do it. At least when I asked the guy at the copy center if they could print pdfs, he said yes. I might try bringing in some gaming pdf to see if the offer still stands. But that was at least a year ago so things might've changed.

You might even try a university's computer lab and print stuff out then take it to Staples or whatever to be bound. I did it with Dragonfist but 10 pages at a time took awhile. Even late at night, some people actually use the computers for *gasp* school work! I think I have 2 printed versions of it - a fancy double sided bound one and a binder full of sheet protecteds since I didn't know how to print double sided pages. Doh. At least I hope I still have them.