Procedures and Guidelines

PrintFX and FabLab reserve the right to:

  • Investigate any jobs submitted to our labs for violation of lab rules and policies. This may include reporting any violation or misconduct to the Department of Student Affairs, faculty and the department chairperson.
  • Refuse or stop jobs that are incomplete, including incomplete or unsigned order forms.
  • Refuse jobs that do not follow our guidelines or the staff's instructions.
  • Stop jobs that are producing undesired results during the production process.
  • Refuse or stop work if a student violates the student code of conduct at our service desk, lab spaces or directly with our staff.
  • Stop jobs that may damage or harm the equipment.
  • Ask a customer to leave our labs in which case you must leave or security will be contacted to escort you off the premises.
  • Change substrates (paper, fabric, vinyl, etc.) and / or pricing without notice.
  • Reject jobs received from non-FIT accounts.
  • Reject Alumni job requests.

PrintFX and FabLab:

  • Make the very best effort to meet our turnaround times, but cannot guarantee the exact completion time. This is because production time is affected by various factors that are in some cases beyond our control which could lead to unexpected delays. Special project printing / class finals with large quantities may also cause delays.
  • May reject a job when technicians processing orders find customer errors or omissions. In some cases we call to see if the issue can be resolved and if we cannot talk with you, we will place the order on hold. Technicians do not monitor emails nor respond back to emails or voicemails. You can speak with a technician about your job directly by calling (212) 217-5470 to resolve any hold issues.
  • Do not produce commercial work. This includes jobs in small or large quantities to be sold, distributed, or exhibited in commercial and non-commercial spaces. Art that is exhibited with FIT affiliation is approved on a case by case basis. Our services are committed to graded classes and our supplies are limited. Please use an outside production bureau for commercial needs.
  • Will not make specific size or color corrections to submitted production jobs for our customers. Customers must make the changes or corrections.
  • Are not responsible for keeping a copy of digital records of art or production files.
  • Do not allow students behind the front counter service desk without staff permission. It will be considered trespassing and we have the right to ask you to leave.
  • Do our best to predict results, but cannot guarantee quality. Results may vary based on the art being produced on the variety of mediums offered or as the result of software incompatibility issues.
  • May charge a different final price, if errors in art sizes or a job order are different from expectations that led to a quoted price. 
  • Do not allow for outside paper or fabric mediums for printing.
  • Do not train non-PrintFX or FabLab employees in equipment installation or usage.
  • Do not print edge to edge.
  • Do not take photos of finished jobs to be sent by email unless it involves production errors.
  • Accept formal requests to take photos or videos of its labs and equipment by emailing the lab coordinator. The request needs to originate from the department head or instructor. If approved, a time will be scheduled to allow for photos and videos.

Quality Control

  • All jobs are quality controlled (QC'd). This means they're checked by two staff members to ensure correct printouts.
  • If a student leaves with a print job without checking for issues, we cannot guarantee any kind of reprint if an issue is found after the job leaves PrintFX.

Cancellations and Academic Holds

  • Cancellations must be made in writing or email prior to the start of the job. If it has already been started, we cannot cancel it. This will incur the normal service charges involved.
  • Jobs that require issues to be resolved that are not addressed within 24 hours will be cancelled.
  • Any student job that has not been paid for after two weeks will receive an emailed warning, then if a total of approximately three weeks passes, the account will be placed on academic hold. Once the payment has been made, it will take one business day to update the account, not including weekends or school holidays.

Rejection and Job Holds

  • Jobs that are missing information (i.e. blank form, partially or incorrectly completed form, missing artwork, mismatched names on art files, etc.) may be rejected by email which will highlight why the job was rejected. If you have questions about the rejection, please call us at (212) 217-5470. Do not email as our response system is partially automated and we do not monitor rejected jobs for responses.
  • Please resubmit the job with the missing information or corrections via a new email.
  • Jobs accepted that have errors / complications, will be put on hold and placed back into the job queue after you have made the corrections. However the placement in this queue is based on the time we received your corrected job which would then delay its turnaround time.
  • Jobs that were not corrected in one business day will be cancelled.

Payments, credits and refunds

  • There are certain services that require payment in advance such as self-service 3d printing and large format scanning.
  • All other services require payment upon pickup. We do not accept credit / debit card, cash or checks as payment. All payments must be made through FIT's campus card's e-account via Fashion EX.
  • PrintFX does not issue direct refunds. We may be able to credit a student if deemed necessary.
  • Any issue with your campus card account must be resolved by making an appointment with IT.
  • Any issue with your credit balance must be resolved before new payments will be processed.

Department Jobs

  • PrintFX requires that a PrintFX Supply Reimbursement Authorization form be submitted at the same time as the job order. After the job is picked up, PrintFX is responsible for submitting it to Accounting for them to transfer the funds from your department's budget to PrintFX's to satisfy the payment.
  • College finance stipulates that department cost centers cannot begin with a #6xxxx or #7xxxx for budget transfers used to pay for our services.
  • You can calculate the cost using the order form or website. Do not add the cost to the Reimbursement form. A final cost will be emailed to you for approval. We do not start the job until we receive that approval by email. This occurs to assist in the calculation of any job order changes after the initial order has been placed.
  • Any jobs received and paid for via a budget transfer from April 15th to June 30th, will be processed but we will send the Reimbursement form to Accounting for the transfer of funds to occur in the next fiscal year. No exceptions.
  • PrintFX no longer accepts running balances.

» Services for FIT Departments 

Department Orientations

Class orientations are only conducted up to April 15th in the spring and November 1st in the fall. This is due to midterms and finals requiring all staff to help process jobs.

Class orientations must be reserved through the submission of an orientation request form.

Vellum Printing

Vellum files or hard copies with heavy solid black areas are prone to spotty print quality issues. This is the nature of toner based printers and cannot be corrected through the print software or by reprinting unfortunately.

Laser Printing

Laser prints are toner based and are of a lower quality than inkjet. The file's color quality and its centering on the paper cannot be guaranteed.

Lasercutting

  • Any requests to watch or record your lasercut job during production must be submitted using the FabLab Help Request form.
  • Test samples may not reveal the flammable dyes and combustible chemicals contained in your material.
  • Lasercuts that do not follow our cutting guidelines may be rejected.
  • Students should center their vectors on the artboard if that is the desired result.
  • All files should be in RGB color mode in Adobe Illustrator with the appropriate line weights.
  • Cut-outs should have a 1/8" to 1/4" space between them.
  • There should be a 1/4" margin around all materials.
  • Oversized materials may be rejected if the storage space for materials is full. Please cut your materials to the correct size to fit your vector file.
  • Certain materials may not cut well because of various material composite factors like wood glue, fabric layers, etc.
  • Thin acrylic can warp under heat resulting in misaligned cuts.
  • Materials may suffer burned edges or soot stains due to the heat from the laser firing process.

3D Printing

  • Acceptable file formats for 3D printing are STL or OBJ.
  • A rough estimate of size for your object's bounding box in inches or millimeters is needed to print the correct size.
  • Objects that do not follow FDM or SLA printing guidelines may not be printable.
  • STLs or OBJs that contain more than one mesh may not be printable. Submit one mesh per print file.
  • We do not make specific mesh edits. You are responsible for correcting your mesh issues in the native 3D program you used to make the mesh.
  • Wall thicknesses, solid or hollow print guidelines vary by technology.
  • You are responsible for removing your supports and any finishing on your prints.

» FabLab Details

Reprint Policy

PrintFX has two technicians who quality check every production job order before releasing it to the student or faculty/department. Any flawed prints caused by errors in printing during the QC check will be reprinted. You are responsible for inspecting prints upon pickup before leaving PrintFX as we cannot guarantee a reprint once it leaves our facility. Most reprint requests are reviewed on a case by case basis. If a reprint has been approved, then the original flawed print must be returned to PrintFX.

Trimmers Usage

  • Customers should perform a test cut to ensure the blade is clean and sharp. PrintFX does not monitor blade usage. Residue, paint or ink remaining from prior student usage, could inadvertently ruin the medium being cut.
  • Cutting on the floor tiles is not permitted.
  • Cutters are only available during open hours.