PaperCut NG offers a range of charging types to cover the needs of most organizations. Most people will find that either Simple or Standard Charging meet their needs best and we suggest you look at these first.
Simple charging is the default and is appropriate to all types of printers. It allows administrators to define a simple cost-per-page setting only. For example if the cost per page was defined at $0.10, 50 pages would cost $5.00.
Standard charging is ideal for printers that support advanced print attributes including:
Duplex or double-sided printing
Color or Black & White (grayscale) printing modes
Multiple paper trays offering standard and large sizes
Standard charging allows administrators to define the exact charges per page for each printing category and paper size in a spreadsheet-like table. Each row in the table specifies the charges for a specified paper size. Rows for common paper sizes are added by default and you may add or delete rows as required.
To add a row, select the desired paper size and press Add.
To delete a row, press the trash can icon
The columns in the table represent the different printing modes for each paper size.
Color: specify the cost per sheet for printing color single sided. This should be the most expensive option.
Grayscale: specify the cost per sheet for printing grayscale (black and white) single sided. This should be lower than Color.
Color duplex: specify the cost per side for printing color double sided.
Grayscale duplex: specify the cost per side for printing grayscale double sided. This should be the lowest cost option.
Press Apply after making any changes to save your changes to the database.
Category based charging is an alternative to Standard charging for printers that support advanced print attributes.
The difference with Category charging over Standard charging is that a base charge and discounts are specified, rather than an exact charge per category. For example, Black and white (grayscale) documents can be granted a discount over full color. An option also exists to discount and encourage double-sided printing. Discounts can be applied either as fixed amounts or as a percentage of document cost.
A practical example, Mary has a color printer that supports letter and legal paper and duplex. She would like to define rules to:
Charge $1.00 per page for letter (standard size) color printing.
Charge $0.40 per page if the users select grayscale (black & white) - a $0.60 discount for grayscale
Charge an extra $0.80 if they use large legal size paper
Offer a 50% discount for duplex to encourage double sided printing.
To accomplish this complex set of charging rules, Mary should setup the Advanced charging options for the particular printer as defined in the screenshot below.
The charging by paper size mode is designed for printers with multiple trays and a variety of available paper sizes. Administrators have full flexibility to define cost for each of the paper sizes support by the printer. For example, printing a letter size page would cost less than printing a legal size page. This mode includes options to enable discounts for grayscale and/or duplex jobs. Discounts can be applied either as fixed amounts or as a percentage of document cost.
This mode is designed for plan printers, plotters or printers that support a variety of paper sizes. For example, many engineering firms use these types of printers for plotting CAD design diagrams. Charging by area allows the cost of the print job to be a function of the paper area.