Help with PaperCut

I am evaluating a software for print management.We have a dedicated print server supporting around 60 different printers

which include mono lasers, inkjets and color laser.
I am running a trial of Papercut as recommended by everyone, I would say I am quite happy with it.

But I am facing a peculiar problem with HP inkjet printers (HP Business Inkjet 1200 and HP Officejet Pro K5400.

I want to able to block students/teachers printing B/W documents to these hp printers, which is not working out.

I have enabled color detection mode and tried both the methods 1) standard detection and 2) page level detection.

for eg. If I enable Allow Color documents only, I am able to print a B/W Word document while a notepad file would not

print. But this also sometimes does not work. If I check the status of B/W Word document even though in papercut events, it detects it as Greyscale=NO although it should be yes and hence prints.

I have been in contact with Papercut support and they adviced to create two print que's for the same printer one for B/W

and the other for color on the same printer, I dont think it is an ideal solution.
This is supposedly due to the PCL print driver.

Does anyone of you face a similar problems with inkjet printers.


Also what have you guys using with regards to the notification tool. Messenger service is blocked on the network due to security issues and the balloon tips are also disabled.

Please provide inputs.

Thanks in advance

I junked most of the injects we had around the school many moons ago. However for your particular problem it is indeed a driver issue. I'd suggest:

1. Switching to the Postscript driver if possible or the PCL5 driver failing that.
2. check for firmware updates for the printer.
3. Trying to use the 'Universal' HP Printer Driver rather than the model specific one as it is kept up to date.
4. Disabling 'Bi-Direction Printing Support' and 'Enable Advanced Printing Features'.
5. Recommend to SLT/Line Management/Department these printers are replaced as they are not compatible with Papercut.

As for notification, we use the provided client side tool. We also have internal email for Staff + Pupils so we can also use that.