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Technical overview: How does archiving work?

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The Print Archiving system has three processes:

Process 1: The job archiving process

  1. A user prints a job from a network device (desktop workstation, mobile, etc.).

  2. The job is sent to the print server.

  3. On the server, the job is intercepted and the job’s spool file is copied into the archive. This is usually a file containing the print data in a Page Description Language (PDL) such as PostScript, PCL, EMF or XPS. The copy process is carried out while spooling takes place, with minimal impact on printing performance.

  4. If the spool file is in a PDL format known to the system, images of the printed pages are created.

Process 2: Archive access and preview process

  1. The administrator logs into the PaperCut NG/MF Admin web interface.

  2. In the print log, the archived jobs are displayed as thumbnails or icons.

  3. If the job is in a supported PDL format, clicking the thumbnail brings up a viewer. From there you can page through and view the document.

  4. As the administrator pages through a document, further images are generated as required.

Process 3: The overnight management process

At the set system maintenance time overnight, the archive is inspected for any content older that the Keep jobs for up to: X days option set by the administrator. Any content that matches is permanently removed from the archive.

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