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Common Questions about Web Print

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This article covers common questions about Web Print. Also check out the section in the manual on Web Print for more information.

Good question! We have a separate article that discusses the various error or status messages you might see when uploading print jobs through Web Print. Please check out Web Print Status Messages - and what they mean…

I’ve set up Web Print but PDFs specifically are not printing… What should I check?

A commonly missed step is that the “first use” screen such as “registration” in Adobe has not been acknowledged. The most likely explanation is that Adobe Reader has never been opened by the user account running the Sandbox application and there is an unacknowledged prompt in Adobe before it can be used. You must log on to the Web Print Sandbox as this user account, then ensure Acrobat Reader runs and opens PDF documents.

How do I set up duplex/simplex or double-sided/single-sided, or color/grayscale or stapling options with Web Print?

The default settings (like duplex or stapling etc) are pulled from the print driver configured on the Server. If you change the print driver on the Server to do duplex, then the queue advertised with Web Print will pick it up.

The modify print options section in the manual discusses this in more detail, but one workaround is to set up different web print queues for different functions - for example you could set up separate duplex and simplex queues - or set up a queue that has stapling options enabled. When users print to that specific queue the driver settings will get picked up by the web print queue.

PDFs are timing out or not printing at all when using Web Print.

If you’ve already checked the steps in the first question above, then it may be worth trying the built-in xpdf renderer (this will work on version 13.2 or above). Locate the web-print.conf file, where [app-path] reflects the installation directory on your primary Application Server (when running “Default” mode) or on your standalone Web Print Server/s (when running “Sandbox” mode):

[app-path]/providers/web-print/[platform]/web-print.conf

… and use a text editor such as Notepad to add the below config to it as a brand new line:

options.pdf=xpdf

This new line can be copied anywhere in the web-print.conf file. Do not change any other line, and save the file. When finished making the change, restart the Web Print service, and test.

Is Web Print Default mode (PDF) available on Mac/Linux?

Yes. As of version 10.5 of PaperCut, Default mode for Mac and Linux (running CUPS) is available. It is set up and configured as part of the default installation. As at the time of writing, Web Print Default mode is not available for Novell OES Linux running iPrint. Novell OES sites should configure Sandbox mode.

Why am I not able to print images?

Web Print and Email to Print are both able to support the printing of picture / image files (e.g. BMP, DIB, GIF, JFIF, JIF, JPE, JPEG, JPG, PNG, TIF, TIFF). If you’re able to successfully print PDFs through either Web Print or Email to Print - but you’re not able to send images - it may be because you’re using default mode on an OS that doesn’t support picture files.

Check the ‘Web Print setup options (by platform)’ table on the Web print manual page (which applies to both Web Print and Email to Print). If you’re using default mode on an OS that doesn’t support picture files, you may need to use a Sandbox server.

Can I print a selected page range in a document?

The Environment Captain at a large high school, being keen to look for ways to save paper, asked their IT department if it is possible to print selected pages using Web Print, rather than an entire document. What a great idea - every page counts! With the current functionality, you can only print entire documents. The school’s IT manager, put her thinking cap on, and came up with a solution. You can print the selected pages to PDF and then print the PDF document. A simple workaround that will save trees and dollars.

How can I remove or hide a printer from the Web Print printer list?

As covered in the Web Print Configuration section of the manual, you enable or disable Web Print for individual printers under Printers[select printer]Advanced ConfigurationEnable Web Print (users may upload documents to print). By de-selecting that option, your printer will no longer appear in the Web Print printer list.

Can I run my Web Print Sandbox server by using a service, rather than a user account?

Unfortunately at the moment we don’t have a way of making the web print sandbox machine use a service rather than a user account login to run the web print process. This is due to the underlying applications such as MS Word etc, needing the API calls to be made under a user context rather than a service.

What is the suggested load limit for a Web Print server (sandbox or simple mode)?

The load question is difficult to answer as it depends on the speed of the sandbox/server, the average size of the jobs, and the behavior of your users (e.g. does load spike). As a very rough guide however we would not recommend putting through more than 120 jobs per hour through the system. It should be noted that if load spike and jobs need to rendering/processing queue, users receive feedback on their position in the queue.

I don’t have a Microsoft XPS Document Writer virtual printer in my Printers folder. Where can I get this?

Windows XP and Server 2003

You can download the Microsoft Standalone XPS Viewer and XPS Essentials Pack. The XPS Essentials Pack contains the tools to generate XPS documents.
!!!Windows 2008 Has XPS support but it is not enabled, instructions to enable XPS can be found here
!!!Windows Vista onwards Microsoft provides an XPS virtual printer by default.

Can I use Microsoft Office 2016 with Web Print?

To date the majority of our Web Print testing has been with 2010/2013 and many of our customers are currently using Office 2016. The manual is scheduled to reflect this updated support with the release of version 16.2. The integration method we use is DCOM/ActiveX and this remains consistent across all versions of Office. You can even use Web Print fine with Office XP, however, we don’t recommend this for security reasons. For 64-bit Windows, install the 64-bit version of Office when available. Installing the 32-bit version of Office loads an extra software layer to gain access to the 64-bit print subsystem.

Can I use Microsoft Office Viewers with Web Print?

At this time you can’t use the MS Office Viewers to enable Web Print. These Office Viewer applications do not come packaged with the required application programming interface (API) necessary for Web Print to programmatically open and print documents.

To date Microsoft has released a number of viewers to provide a means for people who don’t have Office programs to see your work. PaperCut is currently developed using the following API’s which are included with the full version of Microsoft Office.

Microsoft Office Viewers

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/office-online-file-converters-and-viewers-HA001044981.aspx

Microsoft Object Model Reference

Can I use Web Print on Microsoft Server Core?

For Simple Mode, Web Print requires that Adobe Reader is installed to the PaperCut Application Server. At the time of writing (October 8, 2010) it does not appear possible to install Adobe Reader to Windows Server 2008 Core.

Those wishing to utilise the Web Print module will need to implement the Sandbox Mode install.

What options do I have for iPad printing?

You’ll find more information about implementing and managing printing for the iPad (and related devices such as the iPhone) via AirPrint on the page Managing iPad Printing with PaperCut.

The drag and drop feature is not displaying correctly - what causes this?

The most common is due to Internet Explorer running in compatibility mode. Head into Settings and find the Compatibility View Settings option, then make sure the Display intranet sites in Compatibility View option is cleared. When this is selected and PaperCut is listed as an intranet site, Internet Explorer runs in a version that does not support the drag and drop feature.

When I choose to print multiple copies of a PDF document, each copy appears to be tracked and treated like a separately submitted Web Print job. Why?

Additionally when printing multiple copies of other document types, this can result in all copies being tracked neatly under a single job. Why the difference?

For certain filetypes, the Web Print Server is able to ask the relevant application needed to process a submitted document to print multiple copies at once, in a way somewhat similar to how a normal user would select to make more than one copy when printing a file from that same application on their workstation. However, the applications used to support some specific filetypes don’t offer this capability when printing from a service, such as the Web Print Server service. For those filetypes, we instead must facilitate the printing of multiple copies by submitting each requested copy as a distinct Web Print job.

Amongst the applications which support the native printing of multiple copies simultaneously are Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx), Excel (.xls, .xlsx), and PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx). The Microsoft XPS Document Writer does not allow us to simultaneously print multiple copies of XPS documents, and Adobe Reader also does not allow us to submit all requested copies of a PDF document under a single job… however, we provide a built-in xpdf renderer that does, which can be used for your PDF documents. If you do not need the specific capabilities of Adobe Reader for the processing of your PDF format Web Print jobs, you are therefore able to get the single-copy printing behaviour by uninstalling Adobe Reader from each of your Web Print Servers, and then restarting the Web Print Server service on each of these in turn.

Do Web Print Servers running in “Sandbox Mode” open and execute macros which are embedded within Microsoft Office documents?

Web Print Servers running version 17.4.2 or later of PaperCut MF and PaperCut NG can disallow the execution of any embedded document macros. This is controlled with the web-print.disable-macros configuration key, accessible via the Config Editor. This should minimise the possibility of document-borne attacks impacting your Web Print setup.

Also note that by running in “Sandbox Mode”, the processing of Office documents is partitioned away from your critical infrastructure, such that only your Web Print Servers should be at immediate risk of exposure to this form of attack.


Categories: FAQ , Web Print


Keywords: “web to print” , webprint , simplemode , acrobat , PDF , wireless printing , wireless printing setup , install , tips

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Last updated March 5, 2024