Submitting a Job

We welcome all of the VCU community to the Creative Print Bureau! Alumni, faculty and students are welcome to attend any events, use our self-service lab, and send us print jobs.

We also are looking to increase services to members of the Richmond community. Richmond plays a huge role in the making of VCU and it’s important to us to support and engage with our city outside of the classroom doors. If you would like to send us a print but do not have a vcu email, let us know when you send your files!

The CPB will print your files as they are submitted, but we will contact you if we see any extreme issues that are immediately noticeable (such as conflicting sizes). We will not edit any files once we receive them. Please check your size, colors and copy before submitting a file to prevent misprints. If you require a white border, it should be added to your file before submission. We recommend first printing a test strip if you have concerns about resolution and color. You may send us a test strip per print that can be up to 4″ long and 44″ wide. Only 1 free test strip per job, more will incur charges.

We cannot add bleeds.

In efforts to minimize inventory waste, we only carry 24, 44, and 60 inch rolls for our inkjet printers. So if your smaller print leaves a large amount of excess paper, the CPB is at liberty to include a $5.00 up-charge. If concerned at all, feel free to discuss with a Studio Assistant and they can check if your prints will require an up-charge. Vinyl cuts should be at least one square foot to avoid up charges for material.

When possible, the CPB nests multiple prints together to prevent waste. The act of nesting is placing one or more prints along the width of a roll to be printed.

Reprints : It can happen occasionally where our printers, vinyl cutter, or other services experience problems. We work hard to catch and avoid these problems. However if something slips our notice, it is still the student’s responsibility to check their prints before leaving the Bureau. If there is a print error, the student must request a reprint before leaving. If the problem can be immediately resolved, a staff member will take the defective print and reprint the file in question without delay. 

If the defected print is due to a printer malfunction or technician error, our lab will provide you with a free reprint. If you wish to keep the defect in addition to the reprint, you may do so for half of its original price.  

In the case of reprints, no changes to the original file will be allowed. The reprint will follow the original print specifications.

The Creative Print Bureau rarely accepts claims of defective prints once they have left the studio.

Once the print leaves the bureau, complaints regarding fingerprint marks, scratches, paper dents, color or resolution will not be considered.

If the misprint is ruled to be the designer’s error, you will still be charged for the print and any reprints.

However, if a printer-specific defect (example: wrong paper type, printer smudge, incorrect pagination) is discovered after leaving the lab, bring the print back immediately. Students have three (3) business days to return the defective print. If a defective print is reported more than three (3) business days after picking up the job, management will not consider a reprint or credit.

As a VCUarts affiliated service, we prioritize helping students develop creative agency. We do not offer finishing services or bind your books for you, but we are more than happy to show you trimming techniques, or guide you in using any one of our self service machines. We value your creative practice, so please never hesitate to ask a staff member for advice or assistance. 

We reserve the right to offer finishing services on a case by case basis, especially when doing larger-end jobs. Departments, Faculty and Staff may request finishing services, for an up-charge.

Customers are welcome to print test strips on our inkjet media, up to 4″x42″ inches. Please send a .pdf of your asset sized properly, and specify which media you would like it printed onto. Only one free test strip allowed per project.

We invite you to ask us for cost quotes when submitting jobs. If requested, we will send you a quote and wait for you to confirm before printing your job. Your final costs may not always be the same as your initial quote. At pick-up, a studio assistant will happily break down any charges for you.

We will send you a digital invoice through email for you to pay via your debit/credit card. 

A valid VCU email is required for us to send your invoice. If you do not have a vcu email, you may also pay using our checkout tablet in the front entrance.

We average on a 1-2 business day turnaround. A business day is defined as a measurement of time in which normal business hours are operating.

During midterms, finals, our turnaround can often become 3-4 days. Please read under our Services and Equipment tab for more quotes on turnaround for each service. We will also post about turnaround time changes on our Instagram.

We can usually get very simple print jobs completed day of, when the queue is light. Do not assume this will be the case for your job, it is best to ask a Studio Assistant about the length of our job queue before submitting prints needing quick turnaround.

The Creative Print Bureau requires majority of your job files be submitted as .PDF for our printers.

There are currently a couple exceptions that require a different file format.

• Vinyl Cutting requires an outlined .AI folder.
• Saddle-Stitch booklets will need to be in a packaged InDesign folder.
• Textile prints should be saved as a photo file, such as .tiff or .jpeg

Unsure how to package your files using Adobe applications?  Check out this Youtube tutorial explaining how “packaging” files works on Adobe applications 

The benefits of saving a PDF for print are:

1. All elements are self-contained in the file, including images, fonts, and graphics being automatically included.
2. PDFs can be viewed as they intend to be printed.
3. PDFS are smaller than working files (the files created by image building programs like .INDD, .PSD, and .AI), and don’t rely on having specific types of software to view.

Inkjet Printing is going to be your best tool for anything poster sized or larger. These printers are great for creating vibrant, highly saturated prints.  Keep in mind that inkjet printing is not capable of double-sided printing, especially at large poster sizes. What we can do is print two images side-by-side, and then you can fold the separation to create a double-sided effect.

Laser printing is perfect for small prints, especially if you are wanting to print many copies for a cost efficient price. It is also the only printer we have that prints double-sided up to 12×18 inches, so any kind of book printing will be done on our Laser. This printer is not the best for heavily saturated, high detail prints, but the quality will still be of high standard.

Vinyl cutting is perfect for wall decals, wall text and decorative elements. Because our vinyl machine simply cuts the forms out from a large roll of vinyl, your design will be one color. You can always bring in vinyl if you would like to use a color other than our black or white stock.

>What kind of paper can I print on?

For our wide format Inkjet printers, we print on rolls of Matte, Satin, Glossy, Bond, and Process Film (transparent paper). We can also do sheet cut prints, but it must be on specialized inkjet paper. If you would like to see the inkjet papers we have available, please stop by the CPB and ask an assistant.

For our Laser printer, we stock several cover and text weighted papers made for laser printing. We also have successfully printed on newsprint, vellum and some handmade papers but we do not provide the paper. Any paper you would like to bring in needs to be approved by the Production Manager first. More guidelines for bringing in your own paper under the Services and Equipment tab. 

>What is the difference between text, cover and copy paper for Laser Jet?

Text paper is a thinner stock, ideal for flyers, copies, book body pages, zines. Cover paper is a heavier card stock.  Bond is even simpler than text paper, and is best for rough drafts. Cover paper is best for cards, book covers, high quality prints. We currently carry Cover and Text paper, please specify in your email which you would prefer. We also now have a Paper Samples Board out front of our studio, feel free to take samples for future reference.

>Media available for textile printing?

We currently stock a medium weight Satin Cotton and a heavier Canvas Cotton for textile printing. The rolls are about 58 inches wide.

The Creative Print Bureau suggests a 300 DPI/PPI resolution to get the best print.

A bleed allows your image to “bleed” slightly over the dimensions during print so the edges appear even after trim. A bleed cannot be added to a file after it is submitted to us, so it’s best to design with a bleed.

More information about bleeds can be found here

If you want your print to be 18×24 inches, create the file dimensions to be 18×24 inches. The Creative Print Bureau will not resize files. You can double check your file’s dimensions by opening up the file in Adobe Acrobat, moving your mouse over to the lower left corner, and its dimensions should appear at the bottom of the screen.

Paper Feed Calibration is the process we go through that allows our Laser printer to properly register front and back images for double-sided printing. If you are bringing your own paper into the Creative Print Bureau, you must bring in an additional 70 – 100 sheets if you want your paper properly  calibrated. There will be a $3.00 up-charge for every calibration run. If we can’t get close enough calibration after one run, we will check with you before completing a second run. Remember, single sided prints do not need to be calibrated.