What is PaperCut NG?

PaperCut NG is a comprehensive print management system designed to seamlessly monitor and control your resources with easy to use administrative and user tools that can be securely accessed from anywhere on the network though a web browser.

Print management requirements vary from organization to organization, and often change dramatically within an organization over time. PaperCut NG is designed for flexibility and scalability and can be configured to meet your print management needs now and in the future. It is used in a wide variety of environments ranging from universities with large printer fleets supporting over 100,000 users to smaller organizations that track printing for a fewer than 50 users on 3 or 4 printers. You can implement a basic system within a few minutes, or if you need more than simple monitoring and reporting, you can configure powerful features that include differential pricing, blocking filtersFilters allow you to control attributes of the print settings by either forcing a particular attribute or denying a a print job that does not meet specific criteria. There are two types of print filters: conversions and restrictions. and programmatic control via APIs and scripting. No matter where you start, you can easily adjust parameters to implement changes as gradually or quickly as you want.

Possible implementations can include:

• Silent activity monitoring

• Visible activity monitoring and expense tracking by work area, projects and departments

• Quota/allowance enforcement

• Charge per-print system

• Combinations of all of the above to accommodate various user / group profiles

In addition PaperCut NG provides SysAdmins with a kit of tools to manage printers including:

• Detailed logging and reporting

• Notifications for printer errors and low toner

• Job blocking filters and re-direction

Benefits

Some of the key benefits of PaperCut NG are:

• Transfers accountability to users or departments by individually tracking activity.

• Creates environmental awareness by drawing users' attention to the impact of their specific usage.

• Reduces overall printing cost through job filtering, enforcing flexible quotas, or direct cost recovery.

• Discourages overuse of IT resources by establishing a managed print environment.

• Improves efficiency by allowing administrators to create rules that can steer printing to designated printers for load balancingPrinter load balancing automatically distributes print jobs between two or more printers. Load balancing is generally used to equally distribute print jobs across a pool of printers saving valuable time in document output for the user and at the same time balancing the wear and tear among printer devices., to implement Find-Me printingFind-Me printing allows users to print to a single global print queue without selecting a printer, and then release the print job at any printer (via a Release Station)., or to redirect print jobs based on criteria defined using advanced scripting tools.

• Improves network reliability by implementing rules to prevent printer queue jams, queue hogging, and inappropriate printing types.

• Protect intellectual property and conform to audit objectives by enabling features such as print auditing and digital signatures.

Key features

Some of the key features of PaperCut NG are:

• Track all printing activity by user, client account, printer and document metadata.

• Enforce per user quotas, or group account budgets

• Differential print cost/charging allowing costs to be assigned on a per printer basis with advanced options to charge different amounts based on document type (e.g. color, grayscale or duplex), page size, user or group.

• Hardware neutral solution supports all major printer types and operating systems. No hardware vendor lock-in!

• Both cross-platform and multi-platform support. Run a mix of Windows and/or Linux print servers and support clients ranging from Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix and Novell OES.

• User Web Tools allow end users to track usage, transfer funds, request refunds and upload documents from unauthenticated (wireless) laptops.

• Provides end users with advanced options to allocate print jobs to shared accounts, cost centers, faculties or departments.

• Single sign-on user authentication with native Active Directory integration or synchronization with LDAPThe Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a directory service protocol that runs on a layer above the TCP/IP stack. It provides a mechanism used to connect to, search, and modify Internet directories. The LDAP directory service is based on a client-server model. user accounts. (no separate passwords to manage!)

• Flexible hold/release queue support with Release StationPrint Release Stations place a print job on hold and allow users to release it when required. Often a Release Station is a dedicated PC terminal located next to the printers, however, Release Stations can take other forms such as a web browser based interface. Some common examples where Release Stations can be used include secure printing, approved printing, and authentication. In a secure printing environment jobs are only printed when the user arrives at the print area and confirms his or her identity. This ensures the user is there to collect the job and other users can't "accidentally" collect the document. In some organizations it may be appropriate to hold jobs until they are approved by selected individuals. A good example would be a teacher approving printing on an expensive color printer. Hold/Release queues can be used as a form of authentication in an unauthenticated environment. Users must authenticate prior to releasing their jobs allowing PaperCut NG to confirm their identity. software allowing administrators to implement management approved or secure user release printing environments.

• Service Oriented Architecture utilizing the latest software design methods including, test driven development, XML Web Services and layered architecture. This ensures scalability and stability by design.

• Advanced reporting and charts available in standard formats including PDF, Excel, and HTML. All reports accessible from anywhere on the network via a standard web browser.

• Ability to run on top of leading 3rd party Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMSA Relational database management system (RDBMS) is a program that lets you create, update, and administer a relational database. Most commercial RDBMS's use the Structured Query Language (SQL) to access the database, although SQL was invented after the development of the relational model and is not necessary for its use.) including Microsoft SQLStructured Query Language (SQL) is a special-purpose programming language designed for managing data held in a relational database management system (RDBMS), or for stream processing in a relational data stream management system (RDSMS). Server, Oracle, MySQL and PostgreSQL Database.

• Enterprise level security and encryption based on SSLSecure Sockets Layer (SSL) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral. The protocol uses a third party, a Certificate Authority (CA), to identify one end or both end of the transactions. To be able to create an SSL connection a web server requires an SSL certificate. When you choose to activate SSL on your web server you will be prompted to complete a number of questions about the identity of your website and your company. Your web server then creates two cryptographic keys - a Private Key and a Public Key..

• Open architecture with a powerful scripting language, source code access and APIApplication Programming Interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software and applications. An API expresses a software component in terms of its operations, inputs, outputs, and underlying types, defining functionalities that are independent of their respective implementations, which allows definitions and implementations to vary without compromising the interface. documentation.

System requirements

PaperCut NG supports the following server platforms:

• Microsoft Windows 10 (Pro/Enterprise)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (any edition)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (any edition)

• Microsoft Windows 8 (Pro/Enterprise editions)

• Microsoft Windows 7 (any edition except Home editions)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (any edition)

• Microsoft Windows Vista (any edition except Home editions)

• Mac OS X 10.8 - 10.10 (i.e. Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite)

• Novell Open Enterprise Server 11 (OES11)

• Most modern Linux operating systems including:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (6.0+)

  • Novell SuSE Linux (11.0+)

  • Ubuntu (10.04+)

  • Debian (6.0+)

  • Others supporting GNU glibc 2.11 or higher.

Print queues can be hosted on:

• Any Windows version listed above

• CUPSCommon User Printing System (CUPS) is a printing system for Unix operating systems that allows a computer to act as a print server. A computer running CUPS is a host that can accept print jobs from client computers, process them, and send them to the appropriate printer. based print queues on Mac OS X 10.8 and above and Linux

• Novell OES

Servers and clients must use user ID/username based authentication (e.g. Active Directory, Windows NT, LDAP, or local system accounts).

PaperCut supports a minimum of 768MB of memory, with 1GB or higher recommended. Sites with more than 500 users should consider a server class system with more than 2GB of RAM and 500MB of free disk space. When using Print ArchivingPaperCut's Print Archiving stores an historic record of all printed content. This allows approved administrators to browse and review the content of past print jobs within their environment. at least 100GB of additional free disk space is recommended.

Site Servers have similar operating system and memory requirements to the Application ServerAn Application Server is the primary server program responsible for providing the PaperCut user interface, storing data, and providing services to users. PaperCut uses the Application Server to manage user and account information, manage printers, calculate print costs, provide a web browser interface to administrators and end users, and much more.. However, Site Servers do not need to run the same operating system or database as the Application Server. For more information, see Resiliency with Site Servers.

PaperCut NG supports approximately 90% of printers on the market. Where possible use printers that support one of the two major printer language standards - Postscript or PCL.

On workstation clients:

• All supported Microsoft Windows platforms: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP

• Mac OS X 10.8 or higher recommended

• Most modern Linux and Unix Operating Systems (Java 8.0+ required for optional User ClientThe User Client tool is an add-on that resides on a user's desktop. It allows users to view their current account balance via a popup window, provides users with the opportunity to confirm what they are about to print, allows users to select shared accounts via a popup, if administrators have granted access to this feature, and displays system messages, such as, the "low credit" warning message or print policy popups.)