Every Dublin campus has printers. DCU has them across Glasnevin, St Patrick's in Drumcondra and All Hallows; UCD has them all over Belfield; Trinity has them in the libraries off College Green; TU Dublin has them in Grangegorman, Tallaght and Blanchardstown. So why do so many students still end up searching for somewhere else to print? Because campus printing is built for a few pages between lectures — and student life keeps producing jobs that are bigger, later or less convenient than that.

How campus printing usually works

Although the details vary by college and change from year to year, the pattern is similar everywhere. You send your document to a print queue from a college computer or your own laptop, walk to a printer, identify yourself with your student card or login, and the job is charged to a print balance you top up in advance. It is self-service: you choose the settings, you feed nothing but you also fix nothing if the printer jams.

For a handful of pages this works well. The trouble starts at the predictable moments: the week before an assignment deadline, exam season, or the evening a thesis is due, when every printer in the library has a queue behind it, one is out of toner and another is waiting for a technician. Check your college's IT or library pages for the current prices and the printers nearest to you — for a quick single copy it is often the simplest option.

Where campus printing gets awkward

  • Big reading packs. Two hundred pages of articles for a module is a long stand at a printer and a heavy bag home. Printed double-sided on our draft paper it costs €0.10 per sheet and arrives at your door.
  • Theses and dissertations. Final copies deserve better paper and printing that is not rushed. Our guide to printing a thesis in Dublin covers paper choice and timing.
  • Weekends and holidays. Campus buildings run reduced hours outside term; your deadlines do not.
  • Living off campus. If you are in Phibsborough, Rathmines or Tallaght and have no lecture that day, travelling in just to print is time you could spend studying.

The alternative: print from wherever you are, delivered to your door

With Online Printing Dublin you upload your PDFs from your phone or laptop, choose black & white or colour, single or double-sided, and draft 70g, standard 80g or premium 100g paper, see the price instantly, and pay by card. We print and post to any address in Ireland — every one of the Dublin campuses and the student areas around them, from Glasnevin and Drumcondra to Belfield, the city centre, Grangegorman, Tallaght and Blanchardstown, and your family home too.

  • An Post Standard from €1.95, free when your printing comes to €30 or more: we post the next working day and it usually arrives the day after — ideal for the next week's reading.
  • An Post Express, tracked and delivered the next day once posted, for when a deadline is closer.

There is a minimum printing order of €2.95 and a €2.95 management fee, so for two pages the campus printer is still your friend. For a module pack, a semester of notes or a group project printed for everyone, it is usually cheaper and always easier.

A few tips that save money wherever you print

  • Print double-sided by default — it halves the sheets.
  • Use black & white unless a page genuinely needs colour; our guide to colour vs black & white shows where colour is worth it.
  • Combine a whole week of reading into one order rather than lots of small ones.
  • Split a group order: one person uploads everything and the others pay them back.

For more ways to keep costs down, see cheap student printing in Dublin and our guide to printing lecture notes.

Keep the campus printer for the quick jobs and let the big ones come to you: upload your PDFs and see your price in a few seconds.