September comes around quickly, and with it the first wave of reading lists, module handbooks and lab manuals. If you are starting or returning to college in Dublin, a little planning in August saves you both money and the queue at the campus printer. Here is a practical back to college printing checklist for students at UCD, Trinity, DCU, TU Dublin and anywhere else in the city.

What is actually worth printing

Printing everything is expensive and printing nothing makes revision harder. Most students land somewhere sensible:

  • Worth printing: module handbooks, reading you will annotate, past exam papers, lab manuals, and slide decks for modules you find difficult.
  • Usually not worth printing: long reference texts you will skim once, anything that will be updated mid-term, and material your lecturer republishes weekly.
  • Print later: essays and reports for submission — wait until the final version, and check your department's formatting rules first.

Reading on paper genuinely helps for material you need to mark up. Reading on screen is fine for everything you will only pass through once.

Five ways to cut the cost

  • Print double-sided. It halves the number of sheets on long documents and is the single biggest saving available. Our guide on single versus double-sided printing explains when it makes sense.
  • Stay in black & white unless a diagram, map or graph genuinely needs colour. You can mix: colour for the ten pages that need it, mono for the rest.
  • Choose 80g paper for everyday notes. Save 100g for a thesis or anything you are handing in.
  • Bundle your order. Each order carries one €1.95 management fee and one delivery charge, so four modules in a single order is much cheaper than four separate ones. There is also a minimum printing order of €2.95, which a bundled order comfortably clears.
  • Use budget delivery. At €1.95 arriving at the weekend, it is the cheapest option — and in August you have the time to wait for it.

For more ideas, see our guide to cheap student printing in Dublin.

A timeline that works

  • Late August: check your reading lists as they appear and print module handbooks early, while there is no rush.
  • First week of term: print the slide decks for the modules you already know you will struggle with.
  • Reading week: a good moment to bundle everything you have accumulated into one order.
  • Before exams: past papers and summary notes — but order them a week ahead, not the night before.

One date to keep in mind: we deliver across Dublin 1 to 24 only, and there are no deliveries on Irish bank holidays. The October bank holiday tends to catch people out mid-term.

New in Dublin this year?

If you have just arrived, you will probably need paper copies of a few official things before you even reach a lecture: accommodation contracts, bank forms, PPS or immigration paperwork. Our guide to printing official documents in Dublin covers those, and if you have no printer and only a phone, you can order from your phone in a couple of minutes.

How ordering works

Upload your PDFs (up to 30 files per order, 30 MB each), pick A4 in 70g draft, 80g or 100g, colour or black & white, single or double-sided, and the number of copies for each file. The exact total is shown before you pay, with no hidden fees, and your prints are delivered to your door. Delivery is budget weekend delivery from €1.95 or standard 48-hour delivery for €9.95.

Get ahead of the September rush: upload your first order for an instant quote, or take a look at our printing services in Dublin.