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Common Questions about Find Me Printing

What print release options can I use to release jobs from a global/virtual queue?

There are a number of ways of releasing jobs from a global queue in a find-me (follow me) print scenario. The options are:

I'd like to have one single global queue for my whole organizations. How many printers can I host of a single virtual/global queue?

PaperCut has no hard limit however there are external factors that can includes how many printers/users you can associate with a single virtual queue. The factors are:

Number of jobs pending release
Some operating systems have a limit on how many jobs can reside in a single print queue. For example on Windows problems/warnings can occur if there are more than 1000 jobs in a print queue. The more printers/users you associated with a single global queue, the higher the anticipated number of jobs pending in the queue. Large organizations may end up getting this is upper job limit. The solution is to have multiple virtual queues and spread the users across these. For example users in floor A use global queue called QueueA and users in floor B use QueueB, etc.
The model and make of printers
Large organizations tend to have a mix of printer types, models and makes. The driver on the global virtual queue controls how the print job is rendered and what print options are available to the user. If there is a mix of devices in the organization there may need to be multiple global queues to support this mix. For example jobs rendered on a global queue with a Postscript driver cannot be routed across to a GDI based inkjet device. There may be the need to have multiple global queues each associated with different printer types.
Manageability
A single organization-wide global queue does offer some management/simplicity advantages but can introduce others. For example a single queue can be a single point of failure so an issue (say a problem jammed job) can affect printing for all users. Multiple global queues partitioned by office/building/floor/area can help mitigate this single-point-of-failure. This does not mean that the partitioned queue can only route jobs to printers in this area, it simply means that users in this region use this global queue by default. Jobs can still be configured to route to any device in the organization if this is what is desired.

How do I select a driver for the global queue?

It's important that the driver on the global queue is able to product output (e.g. Postscript or PCL) that is compatible with all printers/MFDs that will be associated with the global queue. Chapter 11 in the PaperCut manual discusses some selection options. If you have a mixed device fleet, there is of course no substitute for good testing. Take the time to test your selected global queue driver with your target devices.

Can I use Find Me printing on a fleet of printers from different manufacturers?

If all of the manufactures support Postscript on their devices then a "lowest common denominator" driver like a HP Postscript or a Windows "Generic Postscript Driver" will often do the trick for basic printing. You should test common areas across all devices to assure that page boundaries (printable area differences) and finishing options such as duplex combinations work as expected. Users can be instructed to use the direct queues on the server if the printers advanced features are required(e.g. stapling, folding, color profiles, etc).

Categories: Administration

Keywords: secure printing, secure print release, find-me printing, findme, follow me printing

Page last modified on January 26, 2012, at 08:41 AM

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