<p>for freshman student, do they need to bring their own peronal printer?</p>
<p>How easy to find printer in compus? expensive?</p>
<p>You can use E-print, a free on-campus printing network for students. You install a free software on your computer, print it to the OIT E-print network like you would to any other printer from word or whatever, go to any E-print station on campus, swipe your DukeCard to pull up a list of docs you printed, choose a doc, click print. The document will come out of the printer at that station. </p>
<p>Black and white printing is free and available at every E-print. For color, it's $0.50 a page and only at color E-print stations located in the libraries. </p>
<p>It's very easy to find a printer on campus. On east (and on most of west), if there's not an e-print station in the building you are in, it's almost guaranteed there is one in the building next door so very easy to find one.</p>
<p>Very few people bring printers to campus because it would just take up unnecessary space. While they do cap your printing for the year, the number of pages is more than any normal person would need for their entire college career.</p>
<p>I find it convenient to have my own printer. I like to print things like handouts out in color and don't want to pay 50 cents a page for it. Also I've never figured out how to print in color for eprint. (apparently though the only color eprint stuff is on East? someone told me that this year when my printer broke down and I needed something in color)</p>
<p>So no you don't need a printer. But if you like to scan things in or print stuff in color, I'd recommend having one of those all in one deals. Many of them are offered as deals with laptops.</p>
<p>(but most people don't have printers, I'm just weird like that)</p>
<p>You have to select the special E-Print Color printer from the Word drop down menu to print in color as those should go to a special queue. And there should be a couple color printers in perkins/bostock but IIRC they were down a lot last year. All in all, printing color is somewhat of a hassle, especially on west. But it shouldn't be too much of a problem as I printed color maybe twice in all my time at Duke thus far. </p>
<p>But yeah, having a scanner and light duty color printer on hand is very convenient. I have one of those that I got on sale around the beginning of my freshmen year for $80. Next year I'm gonna live on Central and it looks like E-print stations are pretty sparse there, so I might spring for a personal laser B&W printer for those late night printing needs. </p>
<p>But if you really don't see the need for a personal printer, then you don't absolutely need to get one. you could probably ask to use someone else's in an emergency.</p>
<p>Yeh, freshman really don't need a printer. I'd only get one if you find you scan things often or you really like being able to print in color in your room. (which I find very useful as an RA)</p>
<p>I've always had a printer, but I would wait and see your situation with classes.</p>
<p>For me, I'm particularly forgetful and ended up with a lot of classes (foreign languages in particular) which required me printing out a ton of random worksheets and things. SO I'd have to go to eprint every 8 seconds and then I'd realized I forgot 50% of what I needed, so it would be a 20 minute project. (Made even more terrible if it was raining) Feel out the situation and you may find it's more convenient for you.</p>
<p>Of course, for heavy duty printing, using an inkjet printer might get a bit expensive after a while.</p>
<p>off topic a little, but will duke provide you with a copy of office 08' (Mac version), even if you don't buy a mac from them? If not, how could I get one (It's my first time even thinking about buying a mac, and this is a factor in whether I get one).</p>
<p>You can get academic license copies of office at the Duke computer store. Just ask the people at the counter. According to the website it currently costs $45.33</p>
<p>::</a> Duke University Stores - Computer Store Site License Software ::</p>