FAQ.

Find answers to frequently asked questions about Zerocopy.

General

Zerocopy enables students to print their courses for free. All they have to do is register on zerocopy.be, upload their courses and go to one of the Zerocopy Print Locations or get their documents delivered at home. This free printing service is made possible through advertising in the courses and on our website.

It’s an easy process:

  1. Register: click on the registration button and make an account.
  2. Confirm: you have received a confirmation link in your inbox, click on it and you are good to go!
  3. Complete: complete 20 profile questions, so we can give you relevant ads
  4. Upload: You select the .pdf, .doc or .docx you would like to print in your pc and click on start upload.
  5. Print your documents for free: Go to the nearest Zerocopy Printing Location or Order your Documents with the Zerocopy Delivery Service. At a location: Log in on the Zerocopy computer or printer touchscreen with your username and password. Select the documents you need and hit print!

Zerocopy printing is 100% free! The advertisers pay for your prints! How cool is that? 

Hehe, that would be great! There is actually a system of credits. 1 credit = 1 page. You can get more credits by adding friends or by finding promo codes in emails or in flyers. 

Also, every account has a limit of 2.000 pages printed for free per academic year. We put this limit because we are limited in the number of pages that we can print for free. We want to make sure that every student has the possibility to print its courses for free. 

Today we have partnerships with copy shops all around Belgium. Log in or register on your Zerocopy account and find at the bottom of the page the map with all our printing partners. Or, you can order your courses and stay at home. In this case, we print your courses for you and we send them by post to your chosen address. Great, isn't it? 

YES! We are looking for young graduates and students all year long. So if you feel you have a rebel heart willing to have a positive impact on society, check our jobs page. 

Account

  • Make sure that you activated your account through the mail sent to your email address. Don't forget to check your spams.  
  • Check if you are using the right password. If you are not sure of your password, just click on "forgot password" to create a new one. 
  • If you still have problems after checking the points above, feel free to contact us on support@zerocopy.be

In order to print in a copy shop, you will need a password. So, if you created your account through Facebook we invite you to click on "forgot password" on the log in page. You'll receive a mail to set up your password. Easy peasy!

We already are sad to see you leaving! 

To delete your account, send a mail to gdpr@zerocopy.be with subject "delete account". 

Check our Privacy Policy to have more information. 

Uploading documents

If you can’t upload a certain PDF or the PDF does not convert to "Ready to print" within 1 hour, you can download and install PDF24Creator on your PC to remake your PDF and upload it again. Just open PDF24 Creator on your PC, drag your PDF into PDF24 Creator and save it again with PDF24 Creator. That new PDF should upload just fine! It’s magic!

The upload limit of a single document is 20 MB. The total limit of documents uploaded to your account is 500 MB. If you already uploaded lots of documents, you might want to delete some of the ones you have already printed. This will make sure everything works faster and better. You can also reduce file size via online tools like this one and upload your compressed file.

Here are some solutions: 

  • Try to compress your PDF via a free online tool like this one and re-upload the compressed file
  • Split your PDF into smaller parts via an online tool like this one
  • If you make PDFs yourself, minimize the images and remove any unnecessary ones.

Documents are automatically deleted after 10 days. So, you can upload your documents till 4 days to print them in a copy shop. 

If your document shows “Error” as its status, it usually means that something went wrong during the upload.

This can be the result of either a network connection mishap or due to the appearance of an unembedded font in your document. Some fonts are not supported by our system.

 

What can you do to fix it?

First thing first, remove the document from your Zerocopy library and reupload it again.

 

If the “error” status persists, run your document through a PDF compressor tool like ILOVEPDF or Small PDF. Then, upload the compressed document. 

If the “error” status persists after using a compressor tool, the problem usually lies in the fonts used in your document.

Check if the font is the problem:

  1. Open the document in a PDF viewer (ex. Adobe Acrobat)
  2. Go to Document Properties > Fonts
  3. All listed Fonts have to be “Embedded”, if not the unembedded font is causing the error

 

If the font is the problem and you have access to the original version of the uploaded file (ex: .doc,.ppt):

  1. Remove the document from your Zerocopy library
  2. Try changing the Unembedded fonts included to more conventional ones such as Arial, Times New Roman, etc.
  3. Reupload your document
     

If the font is the problem and you only have access to the .pdf version of your document:

  1. Remove the document from your Zerocopy library
  2. Change the unembedded font using a PDF viewer, to do so try following these steps, and include more conventional fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman etc.
  3. Reupload your document

 

If the font isn't the problem, contact us on support@zerocopy.be 

If you have a PDF document that has a font error, you will need to convert your PDF into a Word to change the font. 

  1. Convert your PDF document to a Word document on Ilovepdf or Smallpdf.
  2. Download the Word document on your computer. 
  3. Open the Word document. 
  4. Select all the content (CTRL+A).
  5. Change the font to a common font (ex: Times New Roman, Calibri, Arial).
  6. Save the Word document. 
  7. Upload the Word document on Zerocopy. 

It should work now! 

When you receive the message "We cannot calculate the number of pages in your document", it means that the file you uploaded, isn't supported by our system. 

Our system supports PDF and Word documents (doc and docx). 

Sometimes, your PDF or Word document cannot be uploaded. The problem might come from where you downloaded your document in the first place. 

For example, a document that was created or converted into a Google Document won't be supported. 

How to solve this problem? 

If it's a Word Document: 

Convert your Word document into a PDF by opening your Word document and clicking on File > Export > Create a PDF. Upload your PDF on Zerocopy. 

If it's a PDF document: 

Compress your PDF document by going on this website. Upload your original PDF document and choose "compress". Upload the compressed PDF on Zerocopy. 

If your document is a PDF in slides format, it will be printed 1 slide per page on the full page. 

If you want to have 1 slide with space to take notes or multiple slides on one page, follow these steps: 

  1. Open your PDF document. 
  2. Click on the print icon on the upper left of your document. 
  3. The "Print" window opens. 
  4. Select the "Printer": "Microsoft print to PDF"
  5. In "Page sizing & handling": If you want 1 slide per page with space for notes, select "Poster" and put 50%. If you want multiple slides per page, select "Pages per sheet" and put the number of slides you want per page. 
  6. Select the "Orientation": portrait or landscape. 
  7. Check the preview of your document and click on "Print"
  8. Save your new PDF document on your computer.

Credits system

At Zerocopy, being sustainable is very important. We want to make education more affordable the most ecological way possible. Therefore, we created the credit system:

  • 1 credit = 1 page 

Why? To make you think about what you print. Is it the right document? Does it contain all the necessary information? Will I study on it? 

There are multiple ways to receive more credits: 

  • Complete all the information in your profile.
  • Invite friends with your personal referal link.
  • Check the banner on the top of Zerocopy platform and look for a survey to fill in.
  • Be attentive on your campus! You might find promocodes for credits on a billboard or on a flyer.
  • Click on our partners banners on the top of the Zerocopy platform.
  • Accept receiving mails from our partners. Promocodes can be found in them.

First, thanks for sharing Zerocopy with your friends! Then, check in "My account" section if the number of added friends increased.

If it didn’t, your friends have not used your personal link to register, or they didn’t confirm their account with the confirmation mail.

If the number did rise, but you still didn’t receive credits. Contact us at support@zerocopy.be

No worries! Your credits will automatically come back. It takes a few hours to check that the payment hasn't been completed. 

In the copy shops

Before going to the copy shop,

  • Make sure all your documents are uploaded and "ready to be printed". 
  • Make sure you have enough credits. 
  • Make sure to know your password. (! If you created your account with Facebook, you need to create a password by clicking on "forgot password" on the log in page.)

What you DON'T need: 

  • Your student card 
  • A USB key 
  • Your computer

When you enter the copy shop, ask for the Zerocopy computer or tell the staff you came to print with Zerocopy. You will have access to a computer with a Zerocopy page opened. Log in and select the documents you want to print. Don't forget to upload all the documents you need in advance! Then click on print, take your printed courses and walk out without paying anything!  

If you uploaded your documents more than 10 days ago, they may have been deleted automatically.  If you uploaded them less than 10 days ago, they probably never uploaded. You will need to re-upload them. Before going to the printing point, check if your documents are ready to be printed by clicking on "my documents".  

Delivery

The cost of the delivery is between 2 and 5 euros. During the study period though, we try to make it free as well. Tip: Always check for delivery promo codes in partner emails or in surveys. 

We are using the official system of Bpost (national post service) to verify the postal addresses. If your address isn't accepted, it means that it is not recognized by Bpost.

To solve this problem, make sure:

  • That your street name is correctly written.
  • That you put the right house number.
  • That you put the right postal code. 
  • That you put the right city.
  • To write the kind of street (street, avenue, road, ...).
  • To write the letter part of your house number in capital letter.

If after checking all this, it still doesn't work, try to write your address in another language. French, Dutch and English are supported by the Bpost system. 

 

Have you checked your spam? 

In either case, don't worry. If you saw the confirmation message on the Zerocopy platform the order has been placed and you'll receive your printed documents. 

I you want to be sure, click on your user name, account, then deliveries. If it's there, all is fine. If not, order again. 

Unfortunately, no. Once an order is placed, the printer starts and the delivery can't be canceled.

The courses usually take up to 5 working days to arrive.

If you ordered your courses less than 5 working days ago, your courses are on their way!

If you ordered your courses 5 working days ago, be a bit more patient. Bpost sometimes can take its time to deliver :) 

If you ordered your courses more than 7 working days ago, that's not cool! Feel free to contact us on this address support@zerocopy.be

In average, your documents will arrive within the 12 working days at your home. We know that it takes some time, so we advise you to go to a copy shop if you need your courses right away. If you have time, then order your courses, relax and get them delivered at home. 

Questions?

Read our FAQ

Ready?

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Zerocopy

Kantersteen 10
1000 Brussels