-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Printing JSTOR Articles Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 19:06:55 -0500 From: Kristen Garlock <lynae@umich.edu> Dear SERIALST Participants: As you might imagine, we were sorry to see the recent postings on SERIALST expressing concern about difficulties associated with printing articles from JSTOR. Making printing as easy as possible for the broad spectrum of JSTOR participating libraries and researchers is a goal we have worked hard on since JSTOR's first days, but there are aspects of printing a JSTOR article that remain a challenge for some participants with certain hardware and software configurations. For participants who are having difficulties, please allow us to emphasize, first, that we would love for you to contact us. We want to make every aspect of using JSTOR as convenient and easy as possible for you and your patrons so we welcome your questions and the opportunity to resolve any problems that may exist. JSTOR User Services staff may be reached by email <jstor-info@umich.edu> or by phone at 888-388-2574 (toll free). If you prefer, please feel free to contact me directly at <lynae@umich.edu>. As most of you know, JSTOR is an archival project, and the articles within the database are presented as page images. While this approach allows us to create a faithful replication of the printed volume, relying on page images makes JSTOR printing different, and therefore more challenging, than printing plain text. For example, hitting your browser's print button, which of course is the natural inclination of every user, will only print the very low resolution image of the page that is displayed on the screen; it will not allow printing of the entire article. To print entire articles at higher resolutions requires special software and unfortunately there is presently no way for us to get around that completely. But we have provided a variety of printing options, and the purpose of this message is to provide a summary and review of those options (see below) for those of you who are interested. We apologize for the length of this posting but hope that some among you might find it helpful. Best regards, Kristen Garlock JSTOR User Services Coordinator __________________________________________________________ JPRINT or PDF? Both applications: - Print JSTOR articles in their entirety. - Print both high resolution (600 dpi) and low resolution (150 dpi) articles. - Are available for multiple platforms. JPRINT Advantages: - Faster in most cases. - Uses less RAM than Acrobat Reader, and so is less likely to slow down other applications on the user's workstation. Disadvantages: - Does not currently work through a firewall. - Requires downloading of a helper application that is specific to JSTOR. PDF Advantages: - Adobe Acrobat Reader is commonly available and familiar to users. - Works through a firewall. Disadvantages: - Requires more time to process the PDF files. - Must wait for entire article to download before printing can begin. PRINTING OVERVIEW JPRINT In order to allow the printing of articles in their entirety, we developed a helper application called JPRINT. JPRINT is designed to work specifically with JSTOR articles. JPRINT is a helper application that must be downloaded to individual workstations. Once it is installed, it is not necessary to reinstall the application unless the workstation software is reloaded. However, JPRINT can be installed on multiple workstations that are regularly reloaded by adding the application to the installation template. After the application has been installed and printing preferences have been set to use JPRINT, the application works almost transparently. When the user selects any JSTOR "PRINT" command and selects "OK" to Print, JPRINT is automatically triggered and the user is presented with the regular printer dialog box. At this time, the user may print the entire article or select specific pages to print. JPRINT prints more quickly than PDF files because it begins sending pages to the printer as soon as they are received from our server. It does not need to wait until the entire article is downloaded before sending the first pages to the printer. JPRINT may be downloaded from <http://www.jstor.org/print/>. Installation instructions are also available from this page. Printable instructions for Windows machines are available at <http://www.jstor.org/support/#handouts>. PDF The PDF printing option was introduced after JPRINT, in response to requests from participating libraries, to provide a printing option that works with a more familiar and ubiquitous printing application (Adobe's Acrobat Reader). Like JPRINT, the PDF option allows users to print articles in their entirety. If Acrobat Reader is already configured to work with the web browser on a workstation, it is not necessary to install any additional software. When printing PDF versions of JSTOR articles, it is necessary to wait until the entire article is downloaded to the workstation. It is at this point where users run into the types of problems described by SERIALST participants. Printing PDF versions of JSTOR articles can take a long time to print. Because the articles are page images, it both takes a long time for the article to get to the user and it takes a long time for Acrobat Reader to get the article to the printer. Both the downloading and printing of JSTOR PDF files are directly impacted by the size of the article. Longer articles will take longer to print. However, extreme delays in printing JSTOR articles could indicate a problem that we may be able to help you resolve. "HIGH QUALITY" vs. "ECONOMY" For both JPRINT and the PDF option, if you have a fast network connection, we recommend the use of the "High Quality" option. For slow network and dial up connections using 56K or less modems, we recommend the "Economy" option. In general, this means that on campus users and those with cable modems or DSL lines should select "High Quality," and off-campus users with dial up connections should select "Economy." The "Economy" option will not print appreciably faster for those with high-speed connections, but the download time will be shorter for dial up users.
