PaperCut MF System Requirements

PaperCut MF is a cross-platform print monitoring application that runs on all major operating systems. The system has been designed to support all platforms for both the client and the server components and to scale from small businesses with 5 users all the way to the largest education sites with 500,000 users or more.

To see the latest end of life announcements, visit our End of Life policy.

Capabilities Application / Site Server Mobility Print Server Print Release Station Web Print Sandbox Client / Workstation Job Ticketing On-premise OCR Server

Capabilities

Scalability

  • Suitable for networks from 5 to 500,000+ users.
  • Browser based admin interface - simple for small sites yet powerful for large sites.

Architecture

  • Suitable for single server environments to multi-server, multi-site and clustered environments.
  • Capable of monitoring locally attached or workgroup printers.
  • Powerful yet optional user client software (not required for print monitoring).
  • International: Available in 20+ languages and currency formats world wide.

Licensing

  • True enterprise-wide licensing: unlimited printers, servers and workstations.
  • Licenses are based on monitored user numbers.

Open Systems

  • Open and documented API, scripting interface, and database schema.
  • XML Web Services API with helpful source code examples.
  • Report data in CSV/Excel, PDF and HTML.

Printers

  • Almost all major laser, inkjet, label and wide-format printers/MFDs/plotters.
  • Supported print languages: PCL, PCL6, HPGL, PostScript, PCL-GUI, XPS, Ricoh RPCS, Epson ESC, QPDL, various GDI printers and many languages that don't even have names!

User Directory Services

  • Active Directory (native integration including nested groups and OUs)
  • Apple OpenDirectory
  • eDirectory
  • LDAP
  • OpenLDAP
  • NIS, PAM, Samba, and others

Security & Encryption

  • SSL encryption used for sensitive client-server communications.
  • Option to install a signed SSL certificate.

Database Servers

(optional)
  • Self managing internal database: suitable for up to 5,000 users*
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 / 2012 / 2014 / 2016 / 2017 or later (64-bit)
  • Microsoft SQL Express 2008 R2 / 2012 / 2014 / 2016 / 2017 or later (free from Microsoft)
  • PostgreSQL 8.2 or higher
  • MySQL 5.5 or higher
  • Oracle 12 or higher

It's highly recommended to move to an external database when you reach 500,000 or more records (e.g. over 500,000 print logs as seen on the About Tab under the 'Database Size Statistics' section).

Clustering Environments

(optional)
  • Microsoft Failover Cluster Manager
  • Microsoft Cluster Server
  • VMware Hight Availability Cluster
  • Linux HA
  • Novell Cluster Services

Application / Site Server Requirements

Operating System

  • Microsoft Windows (64-bit)
  • Apple OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) or higher
  • Windows Server 2019 / 2016 / 2012 / 2012 R2 / 2008 R2 / Windows 10* / Windows 8* / Windows 7*
    (core, server, advanced server, enterprise edition, 64-bit edition, workstation, professional versions all supported)
  • Microsoft Clustering Services supported at all application layers
  • Most modern Linux (64-bit) distributions including Red Hat 6.0+, Novell SUSE 11.0+, Debian 6.0+, and others (requires GNU glibc 2.11 or higher)†

See our End of Life Policy for more information about OS versions that are no longer supported.

Memory

  • 2GB minimum supported (4GB or higher recommended)
    Most modern print servers should have a base of 4GB of memory. Note that PaperCut NG/MF will only use 1/4 of the available memory by default, so plan to have 4GB of memory minimum to allow PaperCut NG/MF to use up to 1GB, or by Increasing the memory available to PaperCut.

Hard Disk

  • 3GB, plus additional storage for logs and print history. When using Print Archiving (off by default), a minimum of 100GB of free disk space is recommended.
    Most modern print servers should have a base of 60GB to 500GB of storage available.

Port Requirements

  • Use this guide to determine how you should configure your firewall.

Mobility Print Server Requirements (Optional)

Operating System

  • Microsoft Windows (64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2019 / 2016 / 2012 / 2012 R2 / 2008 R2 / Windows 10* / Windows 8* / Windows 7*
    (core, server, advanced server, enterprise edition, 64-bit edition, workstation *, professional* versions all supported)
    The "desktop" class systems such as Windows 7, 8, and 10 only allow 10 simultaneous connections (see knowledge base article). This means that these systems should only be used as a "server" to host print queues on networks with 10 workstations or less.
  • Apple OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) or higher
  • Most modern Linux (64-bit) distributions including:
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (6.0+)
    • CentOS (6.0+)
    • SuSE Linux (11.0+)
    • Ubuntu (10.04+)
    • Debian (6.0+)
    • Others supporting GNU glibc 2.11 or higher

Memory

  • 2GB minimum supported (4GB or higher recommended)

Hard Disk

  • At least 3GB of free space recommended.
    Important: Internet connection is required to automatically update the software when new versions are available. For more finformations, see the 'How do I update my Mobility Print server?' section in FAQ.

Port Requirements

The following ports must be available:

  • Port 9163 (HTTP) inbound TCP to the Mobility Print Server
  • Port 9164 (HTTPS) inbound TCP to the Mobility Print Server
  • If using mDNS, 5353 inbound and outbound UDP to/from the Mobility Print Server
  • If using DNS Service Discovery, 53 outbound UDP to DNS server from Mobility Print Server
  • If using DNS Service Discovery, 53 inbound UDP to Mobility Print Server from DNS server

Client Requirements

  • iOS 9.2+
  • OS X 10.11+ (El Capitan)
  • Windows 7+
  • Android 4.4+
  • Chrome OS with Chrome version 43+

Printer Requirements

Mobility Print works with the vast majority of printers. The key requirement is that the printer has a print driver for the server host operating system (e.g. a Windows driver).

Print Release Station Requirements (Optional)

Operating System

  • Windows Server 2016 / 2012 / 2012 R2 / 2008 R2 / Windows 10* / Windows 8* / Windows 7*
    (core, server, advanced server, enterprise edition, 64-bit edition, workstation *, professional* versions all supported)
  • Apple OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) or higher
  • Most modern Linux distributions (requires Java 8.0 or later)
  • Other systems supporting Java 8.0 or later

Memory

  • 1GB or greater

Hard Disk

  • 0MB - zero-install deployment (recommended)
  • 70MB - full local installation

Web Print Sandbox Requirements (Optional)

Operating System

  • Microsoft Windows (64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2016 / 2012 / 2012 R2 / 2008 R2 / Windows 10* / Windows 8* / Windows 7*
    (core, server, advanced server, enterprise edition, 64-bit edition, workstation, professional versions all supported)

3rd Party Software Requirements

  • Adobe Reader 9 or later (optional, internal PDF renderer is used in the absence of Adobe Reader)
  • Microsoft Office 2016, 2013, 2010, and 365 (to support Office formats)
  • Microsoft Standalone XPS Viewer / XPS Essentials Pack (to support Microsoft XPS) - download here.

Memory

  • 2GB minimum supported (4GB or higher recommended)

Hard Disk

  • At least 3GB of free space.

Client / Workstation Requirements

Operating System

  • Microsoft Windows 10 / Windows 8 / Windows 7 / Windows Vista
  • Apple OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) or higher
  • Most modern Linux distributions (requires Java 8.0 or later)
  • Other systems supporting Java 8.0 or later

Memory

  • Most modern client workstations are configured with 2GB to 4GB of memory, PaperCut requires a minimal 256MB.

Hard Disk

  • 0MB - zero-install deployment (recommended)
  • 100MB - full local installation

Most modern client workstations have 60GB to 250GB of storage available.

Web Browsers

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 and above
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Mozilla Firefox 25 and above
  • Apple Safari 9 and above
  • Google Chrome 27 and above

Job Ticketing Requirements

Operating System

Memory

Hard Disk

  • See Application / Site Server requirements for PaperCut MF
  • Consider additional disk space requirements for submitted files (e.g. 3D print files)

PaperCut version

  • Requires PaperCut MF 18.0.0 or later installed on the application server

On-premise OCR Server Requirements

Operating System

  • Microsoft Windows (64-bit) Server 2019 / Server 2016 / 10 / Server 2012 / Server 2008 R2

Resources

Port Requirements

  • Port 9181 (HTTPS) inbound TCP to the On-premise OCR Server

PaperCut version

  • Requires PaperCut MF 19.0 or later installed on the application server
* The "desktop" class systems such as Windows 7, 8 and 10 only allow 10 simultaneous connections (see Microsoft article). This means that these systems should only be used as a "server" to host print queues on networks with 10 workstations or less.
† SELinux should be disabled prior to installing.

Organizations of all shapes and sizes rely on PaperCut

  • Coveris
  • The University of Melbourne
  • PSL Group
  • UK Wealth Management
  • Wall Templeton

  • "By implementing scripts for color saving and assigning print jobs to central accounts we reached £50k in savings in just thirteen months! Papercut just keeps getting better with every release."

  • "With well designed interfaces and an excellent support service, we have implemented PaperCut University-wide and have been tracking student printing and saving on costs since 2008."

  • "We were looking for a cost-effective product that would cut our printing and consumables costs... and here it is! PaperCut does a great job and the easy installation and configurations makes it even more attractive."

  • "We need to make intelligent decisions about our print management as well implement a solution for accurate recharging and to raise awareness of the financial and environmental cost of printing. PaperCut ticked every box and then some and slotted perfectly into our network environment."

  • "PaperCut is a huge time-saver - with easy access straight from the desktop, it maintains all of our print management accounting for us and provides excellent print security."

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