4.7 Printing the Package: Printer Type & Print Logistics

Why Equipment Is a Blueprint Topic

The NNA's Lesson 3 objectives include "learn which printer type is best for loan documents" — a rare piece of hardware advice inside a compliance course. It earns its place because printing is where two failures start. A package printed on the wrong device gets rejected by the lender or the county recorder; a package printed on the wrong network or printer becomes a privacy incident under Guiding Principle 6. Equipment is the first control in the prep workflow, not an afterthought.

Budget for it honestly: a loan package typically runs 100 to 300 pages, and you usually print two sets — the signing set and the borrower's copy — so a single assignment can mean 200 to 600 sheets.

Laser, Not Inkjet

The near-universal industry answer is a monochrome laser printer. Three reasons:

1. Toner does not smear or run. Laser toner is fused to the paper with heat; inkjet ink sits on the surface and can smudge under a signer's hand, bleed if the page gets damp, and fade over time. Recorded instruments have to stay legible for decades, and many lender and title instructions state plainly that inkjet-printed documents will not be accepted.
2. Cost per page. Across 200-600 pages per assignment, inkjet cartridge economics are punishing. High-yield laser toner cartridges rated in the thousands of pages bring the per-page cost down to a fraction of a cent.
3. Speed. A laser engine rated at 40-45 pages per minute finishes a two-set package in roughly ten to fifteen minutes. A 20-page-per-minute inkjet turns the same job into an hour of standing over the tray.

Color is almost never required. Duplex (two-sided) capability is useful for your own reference copies, but print loan packages single-sided unless the instructions specifically permit duplex — recorders and post-closing auditors expect one page per sheet.

Dual-Tray: The Letter-and-Legal Problem

Loan packages are mixed-size documents. Most disclosures are letter (8.5" x 11"), while the security instrument, riders, and several state-specific forms are often legal (8.5" x 14"). That mix is exactly what a dual-tray printer solves.

• Dual tray means two trays holding different paper sizes at once — letter in one, legal in the other. The printer reads each page's size from the PDF and pulls from the correct tray automatically, so the whole package prints in one job, in order, unattended.
• Two trays of the same size is not dual-tray. Extra capacity is convenient; it does not solve the size problem.

Without dual trays you have two bad options: babysit the printer and swap paper mid-job, or run a page-separator utility that splits the PDF into a letter file and a legal file, print each, then re-collate by hand. The second approach works and many new NSAs start there, but re-collation is a real source of out-of-order packages and missed pages.

Printing an Unsupported Size

Never substitute letter paper for a legal-size page. Shrinking a legal page to letter can cut off margins, page numbers, or part of a legal description, and a recorder can reject the instrument for it. If you are out of legal stock, you are not ready to print.

Equipment Requirements at a Glance

Printing Is a Security Task

Guiding Principle 6 turns printing into a compliance obligation, and three Standards apply directly:

• Standard 6.5 — Printing of Documents. The NSA "will personally download and print all closing documents and not assign this responsibility to any other person." A spouse, an assistant, or a print shop cannot do it for you.
• Standard 6.10 — Access Instructions. Never share the logon credentials or access instructions for the document portal with anyone.
• Standard 6.11 — Unprotected Network. Do not use a public or unsecured network to access, download, or print closing documents, or to fax signed documents back.

That rules out the obvious conveniences: the library, the hotel business center, a coworking printer, a retail shipping-store copier, and coffee-shop Wi-Fi. It also means the printer itself should be under your control — a device on your own network, in your own space.

Practical habits that follow:

• Retrieve every page immediately. A page left in an output tray is a disclosed Social Security number.
• Clear the print queue and any stored jobs. Many office-class printers cache jobs on an internal drive; know whether yours does.
• Shred misprints and extra sets with a cross-cut shredder. Do not recycle them whole.
• Delete the downloaded PDF when the assignment closes — Standard 6.13 requires permanently erasing electronic closing documents from your computer immediately upon conclusion of the assignment.

Build a Print Failure Plan

Printer failures do not respect signing calendars. Experienced NSAs keep a plan on the shelf rather than improvising at 6 p.m.:

1. Spare toner and a spare drum for your primary printer.
2. A second printer, even a slow one, that can finish a package if the primary jams.
3. A portable printer in the car for last-minute reprints and re-draws at the table.
4. Enough paper for two full packages in both sizes, restocked when you drop below one package.

And know your limit: SPW Standard 9.1 requires you to refuse an assignment you reasonably foresee you cannot fulfill, including the printing and providing of copies of closing documents. Declining a same-day 400-page package because your toner is low is professional. Accepting it and calling at 5 p.m. to say you could not print it is what gets an NSA removed from a roster.