Managing deployed print queues

🔎 Admin console: Manage > Print Queues

Print queue deployment overview

New to print queues and drivers? Then read on. But if you’re already in the know, you might want to jump straight to our more detailed guides:

• Prepare a manufacturer printer driver — How to obtain, prepare and configure a manufacturer driver with the desired finishing and default options.
• Creating and deploying PaperCut print queues and drivers — Create Find-Me and Direct print queues, and control who will receive them.
• Bulk deploy print queues using CSV — Edit, create and/or deploy print queues with a CSV file.
• Troubleshoot deployed print queues — Things aren’t working as expected? Dive into some common issues that could occur and how to fix them.

Next, let’s learn the basics of print queue deployment.

Terminology

What is print queue deployment?

Print queue deployment is a feature that lets you automatically configure and assign print queues on users’ computers and other mobile devices. It gets the right printer drivers and print queues to the right people in the right location — automatically.

By using this feature, you enable users to move between locations, for example, branches, offices, or campuses, and print without ever having to set up a printer for any of the locations! The printers are dynamically downloaded onto their computers so the users can connect to them whenever they need to — it just works. Additionally, to reduce confusion, when users change location, irrelevant print queues can be automatically removed from their Printers list, based on custom deployment rules.

The print queues are deployed based on specific rules that you create, which can include user email, IP range, gateway MAC address, and/or gateway IP address. This provides enormous flexibility in configuration options!

Why use print queue deployment?

Changes in modern print environments

You’d think by now the task of enabling users to print would be easy, especially because printing has been around for decades. But when using traditional methods, it just isn’t. Some global trends are actually making this task more complex than it was 10 years ago.

Unlike traditionally managed print environments, modernized print environments can keep up with global trends like these:

• Mobile workforces — People are working from multiple locations, for example, different branches, campuses, or stores. This movement is expected to be supported seamlessly and printing should just work.
  
• Employees’ choice of computer type — Many organizations ask new employees what laptop they would like to use, whether it’s a Windows laptop, Mac, or even a Chromebook, and then need to support it.
  
• Printer drivers are on their way out — With technologies like the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) and Windows Protected Print Mode (WPP), driverless printing simplifies management, boosts security, and ensures compatibility across devices, making printing seamless for everyone. PaperCut is looking to support printing on WPP-enabled computers soon in PaperCut Hive and Pocket.
  
• Cloud-based user identity management — Cloud services are now the de facto method of managing user identities and resources. Previously, to deploy printing via a traditional server you had to deploy a local Active Directory to manage your users locally and then sync them back up to the cloud. This is stopping millions of customers from getting the true benefit of their cloud directory.

Print Queue Deployment solves these modern print environment challenges

With Print Queue Deployment, your print environment works for you, not the other way around:

• Automation and efficiency — Automated print queue and driver management allows users to add printers with the right finishing options without waiting for IT, keeping downtime to a minimum. No manual printer mapping here!
• Improved end-user experience — By tailoring print queues to user groups and locations, it’s easy for users to find and use the printers they need.
• Improved security and compliance — With features like Secure Print Release and user authentication, Print Queue Deployment ensures that only authorized users can access print jobs. You can also easily configure and manage permissions when different users require specific permissions for each printer.
• Streamlined management — Managing dozens or even hundreds of printers, or changing your printer fleet? No problem. Deploying print queues in bulk reduces complexity and makes life easier for your IT team. Also, for organizations that need Direct Printing, the hassle of individually setting up printers for every single user is gone. Oh, and driver distribution and updates can be automated as well.
• Simpler troubleshooting and support — Centralized printer settings make managing printing and supporting your end-users much quicker and easier. The time you get back can be used to focus on more critical tasks.

How print queue deployment works

In a nutshell, the Print Queues section of PaperCut Hive and Pocket enables you to deploy print queues between systems.

Within a print queue, the printer driver is what controls the options you see when printing. Printing manufacturers know their printers best, and write drivers to display options that correspond to the printers that you purchased. However, as a system administrator looking after printing, it can be tricky to automate the installation of printer drivers on your users’ devices.

Printer drivers can be complex pieces of software. And the printer driver installer you download from the printer manufacturer’s website might also include a bundle of drivers for many different printers, along with other printer-related utilities. It may even “synthesize” a driver on the fly, depending on the printer you point it to when setting it up.

This is where PaperCut Hive and Pocket’s Print Queue Deployment functionality comes in. It copies only the parts of the printer driver needed for printing. You still have all the control of choosing the driver and settings, and PaperCut handles deploying the printer driver to your users.

A print queue has two parts: the print queue’s configuration and the printer driver.

• Print queue configuration — This is private to your organization and resides on a single computer. It contains your print queue name, default print settings, and other driver-specific settings related to your print queue.
• Printer driver — This is the part that’s cloned and shared with users. It’s the core of what was downloaded from the manufacturer’s website. For new PaperCut print queues, you can only clone a driver from a computer on which you’ve already set up the print queue configuration.

PaperCut uploads and stores print queues and printer drivers in the cloud. When you request to test or deploy a queue, both the print queue configuration and its driver are downloaded to the users’ devices (clients) you select.

For a more technical and security-focused description of this functionality, see Technical and security details .

Scenarios: how should different organizations use Print Queue Deployment?

Open the following scenarios to learn more about how different types of organizations might deploy print queues to meet their needs.

Education organization

A school district has multiple campuses. Students use iPads and Chromebooks, and stay at one campus for the whole year, but may change campuses the next academic year. Teachers, however, can change campuses between different days, and sometimes even on the same day, so it’s important for them to immediately have access to printing whenever they arrive at today’s class. Additionally, the principal has a desktop inkjet printer and likes to print directly, and the campuses’ print rooms’ staff need the ability to print complex document types.

Potential setup

• Deploy a Direct print queue associated with the Principal’s office’s desktop inkjet to the Principal and their assistant.
• Deploy a Direct print queue to each print room:
  • Add a manufacturer driver with all necessary finishing options (for example, binding booklet functionalities and wide-format poster printing functionalities).
  • Add a deployment rule and give access to the print room staff (for example, by adding each staff member who works in that print room).
• Deploy a Find-Me queue with a generic or manufacturer driver to all students and staff.

Why this setup helps

The Principal and their assistant can immediately print and grab documents within their secure, shared office space, no matter which computer they use. Specific staff in the print rooms can process larger, more expensive, and more complex document types after being trained on wide format printers etc. All students and staff can always securely print at any Find-Me printer, even if they change classroom or campus.

General business organizations

A corporation has recently acquired another business, and the IT admin needs to sort out printing for both sites. Each site has a different type of MFD, and also runs on a separate network. Staff sometimes move between the two sites, and need to be able to quickly print as they finalise documents for that day’s meeting. Also, staff agents often work from home or from client sites, so they need to be able to submit print jobs then print them in the office later.

Potential setup

• Enable the Cloud Node so print jobs submitted remotely by users are stored for later printing when the users return to the office.
• For standard printing from any device, anywhere: deploy the built-in Find-Me queue (PaperCut Printer) to all end-users.
• For brand-specific printing with advanced finishing options: deploy a specific Find-Me queue with a manufacturer driver (customized to the MFD’s brand) at each site, and add a deployment rule based on that site’s network gateway.
• Each print queue is given a clear name following a naming convention, for example: Office - Floor - Printer Type. This way, users can always correctly identify and select the print queue they need.

Why this setup helps

• Users can print from any device, from any location, then pick their printing up next time they’re in an office.
• Users only see the relevant print queues for their location — all other print queues disappear automatically from their printers list.
• Different types of MFD are all supported, including on different networks.

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMB)

A co-working space has people coming in and out of the shared space on a day-to-day basis. Some people come frequently, some people only visit once. It’s important to allow all these people to print when they need to, with as little explanation as possible.

There are two printers in the co-working space with relatively basic functionality — if people need more specialist printing needs, they are referred to the printing business around the corner. For everyday printing, the co-working space allows them $2/day.

The only on-site staff member has to do it all — restock the fridge as well as the printer paper, and check people in. They don’t have the time or specialist knowledge to do complicated printer management.

Potential setup

• If secure release of documents is required: create a Find-Me queue (the built-in PaperCut Printer) and deploy it to all users.
• If direct printing of documents is preferred: create a direct print queue for each printer and deploy to all users.

Why this setup helps

• Without on-site sophisticated IT support, deploying to all users removes the need to understand network gateways, hostnames, or other more technical deployment considerations, and put their time into more important things.
• Everyone has access to printing, and the business can determine the release security level required.
• With Cost Tracking also enabled, the co-working space manager can keep an eye on how much users are printing, and follow up with any users who are spending too much.

Healthcare organization

A multi-site private hospital with high information privacy requirements is looking to enable printing for their staff.. Doctors and nurses move between hospital wards and sites, and don’t want to waste time trying to figure out which printer to print to from a long list.

For some activities, it’s important that people can print very quickly to a specific printer, such as:

• Checking in a new patient at reception and immediately printing a document from the reception desktop printer.
• Printing an updated form within a ward and adding it to a patient file.
• Starting a patient discharge flow by printing a discharge form and handing it immediately to the patient.

Potential setup

• Deploy a Find-Me queue with generic or manufacturer driver to all end-users.
• Deploy Direct print queues with generic or manufacturer driver to specific workstations based on a hostname deployment rule (where the user submitting the print job is immediately co-located with the printer).

Why this setup helps

• All end-users can securely print to a single Find-Me print queue no matter which site they are at today, so they’re never blocked from printing.
• Specific workstations print directly to a co-located printer, so the end-user of that workstation can immediately grab-and-go.

Professional services

A multi-office law firm with strict confidentiality requirements needs to enable secure, flexible printing for their staff. Lawyers, paralegals, and administrative staff often move between client meeting rooms, offices, and courtrooms, and need printing to just work.

In many cases, it’s essential that print jobs are either easily retrievable or immediately available at a nearby printer, especially when:

• Preparing physical copies of documents for a client meeting in a conference room.
• Printing court submissions minutes before leaving for a hearing.
• Producing a signed contract to be filed and couriered immediately.

Potential setup

• Deploy a Find-Me queue with a generic or manufacturer driver to all end-users.
• Deploy Direct print queues with a generic or manufacturer driver to specific desktop workstations or office locations using hostname or network-based deployment rules.

Why this setup helps

• Staff can print to a single Find-Me queue from any location, securely release it when and where they need it. Ideal for lawyers moving between offices and meeting rooms.
• Direct print queues at key workstations and users computers ensure fast, no-wait printing when urgency and immediacy matter.
• With Cost Tracking enabled, legal firms can recover printing expenses by billing them back to clients.

Direct print queues vs Find-Me print queues

A Direct print queue is for sending print jobs from a user’s device (computer) directly to the printer to be printed immediately. No user action is required at the printer for the job to be printed.

A Find-Me print queue enables a user to print to a single site-wide global queue, then go to the printer of their choice and release the print job there. Using Find-Me queues requires user authentication before the job can be released.

Both types of queues can have either the PaperCut Global printer driver or a manufacturer driver assigned to them.

For some organizations, having a single Find-Me print queue with a generic driver is sufficient. But sometimes, organizations require Direct print queues to meet printing needs such as:

• advanced finishing options like specialty color profiles, stapling, or hole punching
• some users need to print directly to a printer without needing to personally release the print job (for example, a receptionist’s desktop printer, or a wide format printer in the print room)
• different users need different default printing options (for example, student printing defaults to black and white).

In situations like these, Print Queue Deployment allows your users to automatically receive a mixture of print queue types (Find-Me and Direct), solving these organizational and user needs.

Direct print queues

Direct print queues point to a single printer. Basically, a Direct print queue:

• sends print jobs from a user’s device (computer) directly to the printer to be printed immediately
• requires no user authorization at the printer for the job to be printed
• enables specific driver use with finishing options, so users have the print capabilities they need.

Find-Me print queues

A Find-Me print queue:

• enables a user to print to a single print queue, simplifying their print experience
• releases jobs at any printer
• requires users to walk up to the printer to securely release their print jobs.

The PaperCut Printer is the default print queue in PaperCut Hive and Pocket. It’s a Find-Me print queue with a generic driver. You can rename the PaperCut Printer or create additional Find-Me print queues with manufacturer drivers to change the finishing options available to end-users.

Best practices for choosing which print queue type(s) to use

Choosing how to deploy print queues depends on your users, environment, and how much flexibility or control you need over your printing.

Find-Me queues

Direct queues

Both Find-Me queues and Direct queues (Hybrid Setup)

Deployment rules — define print queue recipients

When you create a print queue you can configure it to be automatically sent to all users, or you can use deployment rules to define who receives the print queue and/or in which location they need to be before they can receive it. This allows you to customize the recipients.

To ensure print queues are deployed to the right person in the right location, for each rule you need to set one or more specific conditions that the users and their devices must meet before they receive the print queue. It’s important to understand how these conditions work together.

A rule can be comprised of one or more of these conditions:

A single condition type can have multiple values (“OR” Logic)

Within each single condition, you can define multiple values. Here’s how that works:

As long as the condition type is satisfied, the affected users or computers will receive the print queue.

Combining multiple condition types (“AND” logic)

Within one rule you can select multiple conditions, for example, Limit to network AND Limit to hostnames. When you select multiple conditions, a user only receives the print queue if they satisfy ALL of the selected conditions.

Example:
You select both Limit to network AND Limit to individual users. To receive the print queue, users must be on one of the specified networks and be one of the specified individual users.

Rules summary

For a rule with multiple conditions selected:

• Across different conditions: Users must meet ALL conditions.
• Within each single condition: Users only need to match ONE of the values.

For the related procedure, head over to Determine who to deploy the print queue to (create deployment rules).

Subscription requirements

Requirements differ depending on the product.

PaperCut Hive

You can create an unlimited number of print queues for each licensed printer in PaperCut Hive without incurring additional subscription fees. For example, creating a default color print queue for one set of users and a default black-and-white print queue for another set of users does not impact your subscription cost.

All printer subscription tiers include Print Queue Deployment as standard:

• Printer Subscription (formerly known as Device with Mobile Release)
• Lite Embedded subscription
• Full Embedded subscription

You can’t create or deploy print queues for printers that are not licensed.

PaperCut Pocket

PaperCut Pocket is licensed based on users, not printers. Print Queue Deployment in PaperCut Pocket is included in the standard user-based subscription and does not require an additional subscription.

Known limitations

Print Queue Deployment is still under development. At the moment, you need to know about these current limitations:

• When deploying the PaperCut Hive/Pocket client via an MDM tool:
  • Potential delay — It could take a while for the MDM tool to deploy the system and user component, which may delay users receiving their print queues when they log in to a computer.
  • Initial authentication — A user with a fresh client installation is prompted to authenticate when they first print to the PaperCut Printer. Until PaperCut Hive or Pocket knows their identity, it won’t deploy any Direct print queues. This could confuse users, as they might not know that they need to print through the default Find-Me queue before they will have access to additional print queues.
• Reusing uploaded drivers or configured deployment rules is only possible via bulk print queue management (CSV upload).
• It is not possible to edit configured deployment rules. To make a change, a new deployment rule must be created. The new deployment rule can’t have the same name as an existing one. In some cases, this might mean you’ll have to delete the print queue before you create a new one to replace it.
• Direct print queues don’t support cost-based limitations on user printing (when Cost Tracking is enabled), nor do they support policy enforcement (for example, mandatory black and white printing). When a user prints via a Direct print queue, credit is deducted from their balance, but when the balance reaches zero, they will still be able to print to Direct print queues and enter a negative balance.
• A user has to have direct network access to a printer for Direct Printing to work. Routing print jobs via other PaperCut Hive clients or the Cloud Node is not yet supported.

We are continuing to develop Print Queue Deployment to make it even better in the future, including working on advanced Direct print queues!

To get started, see the next topic, Preparing a Windows/macOS printer driver .

For related troubleshooting, see Troubleshooting > Print Queues .