PaperCut has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Print Management Solutions Independent Software 2026 Vendor Assessment (Doc #US54124826, September 2026). I’m proud of that, and grateful to the customers and partners who’ve built it with us.
I believe being named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape reflects what we’ve built alongside our partners over more than 25 years. But a recognition on a chart is a snapshot. The bigger story is what comes next: the foundations of printing are being rebuilt, and our partners are the people customers will turn to for help.
So rather than dwell on the snapshot, I want to talk about that bigger story.
Three changes, one shift
For most of the last two decades, printing sat on a stable base: a Windows print server, a vendor driver for each device, and a network you mostly trusted. That base is now moving on several fronts at once.
Windows Protected Print
Microsoft is retiring the legacy kernel-mode drivers Windows printing has relied on for years, in favor of driverless printing built on IPP and Mopria standards. It’s a security win, since driver flaws sat behind exploits like PrintNightmare. But it changes how printers are installed, which features carry over, and which devices keep working as expected.
The architecture gap
Windows on ARM and Apple silicon Macs are arriving in fleets built for x64. Drivers and tools that assume one processor architecture strand users on the other. And Apple has signaled that Rosetta 2, which lets older Intel-era software run on newer Macs, is being wound down.
Zero trust
Security teams no longer accept that anything on the corporate network is safe by default. As the rest of IT moves to cloud identity and managed devices, printers, print servers and print jobs have to prove who they are and who’s asking, like every other endpoint.
And that’s not all. For years, pushing out print queues was simple. Microsoft’s Group Policy made things easy in an environment where everyone was on a Windows device and using a machine connected to an on-premise domain. But as organizations move their business to the cloud (adopting modern MDMs like Microsoft Intune or Jamf), they’re realizing they’re notoriously bad for installing and keeping print queues consistent across a mixed environment. Problems increase when changing a user’s print queues as they move between locations.
You’ve probably met these as separate problems: a scanner that stops working after an update, a new laptop that can’t find a printer, an audit that flags the print server. They’re not separate. They’re the same shift showing up in different places.
Why 2026 was a strategy year for us
2026 has been a year of deep strategy work at PaperCut. Windows Protected Print, the move to ARM, print queue deployment, and zero trust aren’t separate problems. They’re one change to how printing works. We’ve used this year to make sure our modern print stack, and the partners who deliver it, are ready to lead customers through that change rather than react to it.
We’ve looked at these changes together because a fix for one that ignores the others just moves the problem somewhere else. That has meant hard thinking about product direction, how we sequence the work, and how we equip the partners who support you.
What we mean by the modern print stack
The modern print stack is our shorthand for printing that fits how IT works now, not how it worked in 2005. In practice that means five things.
1. Driverless and standards-based
IPP and Mopria first, so printing keeps working as Microsoft tightens its defaults.
2. Identity-first
Print access tied to the identity systems you already run. PaperCut MF 26.0 added native SAML 2.0 single sign-on with Entra ID, Okta, PingFederate and JumpCloud.
3. Architecture-agnostic
x64 and ARM devices side by side. Our Global Print Driver deploys automatically as a fallback, so one queue can serve both.
4. Deployed your way
On-premises, private cloud, public cloud or hybrid, with Unified Subscription letting you move between them at your own pace.
5. Backed by local experts
Your PaperCut partner knows your fleet, contracts and history, and can guide the change.
Some of this is in our products today and more is on our roadmap.
Questions worth asking now
You’ll likely feel this change before you see it coming. Four questions are worth asking now:
1. Fleet readiness
Which of your printers and MFDs are Mopria-certified and IPP-ready?
2. Endpoint mix
How many ARM-based or Apple silicon devices are coming in your next refresh, and what will they need to print?
3. Identity and access
Is printing part of your zero-trust plan, or still an exception to it?
4. Print queue deployment
How will you get the right queues and drivers to the right users and locations once print servers, GPOs, and scripts are gone?
If you’re not sure of the answers, your PaperCut partner can help you find out.
Start with the diagnostic
We built our Who Broke Printing hub to help you answer those questions. It’s a free six-question diagnostic that gives your workplace a personalized read on its exposure to Windows Protected Print, the architecture gap and zero trust, with plain-language guides on each.
Try it today:
VISIT THE HUBWhoever broke printing, we’ll be there to help fix it. That commitment is what we’ve built with our customers and partners for more than 25 years, and it’s where our focus stays.
