Papercut 13

[DrCheese]

PaperCut 13.0 – Archive and view print activity – PaperCut Blog / News

 

^ This is very, very cool. I love this software!

[ianatpapercut]

Thanks for the shout out, we're pretty proud of it. I'm keen to see the specific scenarios that sys admins apply this functionality to, and what enhancements everyone thinks of, so I'll keep an eye on any and all comments here.

[CyberNerd]

and what enhancements everyone thinks of, so I'll keep an eye on any and all comments here.

 

Web print from odt,odp,ods would be nice to complement the docx,pptx,xlsx,pdf.

It should be fairly easy to implement, given the OpenOffice/LibreOffice has command line conversion and print to file: https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Starting_the_Software_With_Parameters

[ianatpapercut]

Web print from odt,odp,ods would be nice to complement the docx,pptx,xlsx,pdf.

It should be fairly easy to implement, given the OpenOffice/LibreOffice has command line conversion and print to file: https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Starting_the_Software_With_Parameters

 

Hah, I was mainly referring to Print Archiving, however I will see what I can do about getting support added for those file formats. Thanks for the link, I'll have a look at that and make sure it'll do what we need to offer the same WebPrint functionality.

[localzuk]

Great feature. When I upgrade to it, I'll have a play! Will be great for tracking who is printing what when they print to the kids printers. A bit of a complex feature would be some form of document analysis - so if it contained a certain percentage of skin tones, it could be flagged etc... (to highlight if kids are printing porn or something!)

 

A feature that would be great - built in iPad/iPhone support, without needing a dedicated server for it. With so much becoming cloud based, and people using cloud tools to manage their iPads, they (like us) don't have an Apple server to do this.

Edited January 24, 2013 by localzuk

[ianatpapercut]

Great feature. When I upgrade to it, I'll have a play! Will be great for tracking who is printing what when they print to the kids printers. A bit of a complex feature would be some form of document analysis - so if it contained a certain percentage of skin tones, it could be flagged etc... (to highlight if kids are printing porn or something!)

 

That's certainly a complex one just due to the surprisingly vast variation in colour rendering approaches between models and[b/] manufacturers, but never say never! We do keep a track of all interesting requests, how many customers have requested it, the size and type of those organisations, etc. Hopefully Print Archiving is a good first step at least to help you deal with the inappropriate usage.

 

A feature that would be great - built in iPad/iPhone support, without needing a dedicated server for it. With so much becoming cloud based, and people using cloud tools to manage their iPads, they (like us) don't have an Apple server to do this.

 

It's something that's possible (and as an ex-sys admin I can totally understand the reasons behind the request), but there are a couple of reasons why we haven't gone down that path. You've probably seen them in our documentation and knowledge base, but they boil down to a significant engineering commitment to duplicate Apple's Airprint stack and then rebuild it as they change things (as has already happened since Airprint's release). The desire to avoid annoying Cupertino is also somewhere in the mix. Given the small hardware investment of a Mac Mini has been taken up by a large number of customers specifically to support iPad printing, we're not looking to go down the more involved path at this stage.

[CyberNerd]

Some integration with cloudprint may also be useful, and let them deal with the ipad then...

https://developers.google.com/cloud-print/

[ianatpapercut]

Some integration with cloudprint may also be useful, and let them deal with the ipad then...

https://developers.google.com/cloud-print/

 

Good eye; it's one of the many potential integration projects we've got. At this point the critical mass isn't quite there to justify it in comparison to something like Print Archiving, but adding functionality to authenticate and retrieve GCP jobs, then insert them into already PaperCut-managed queues would be a great major feature.

[Big_Ted]

It would be nice for me as a user to send a print, have the print go into papercut be archived and then be available for me as an end user to reprint at any time i wish. Handy for users who tend to print the same document often (time tables or attendance sheets etc) .

 

Going a step further before i release my job from the archive as an end user i would love to be able to preview it on a PC or MFD

 

Last of all as an admin having papercut automatically scan the archived jobs for keywords/content/urls etc. (for inappropriate content, perhaps just detect large amounts of flesh colour /pink? )

[dgsmith]

Just saw today that papercut was released (at last) and when I saw what this version brings.. well.. I am seriously impressed! Far too often we have students printing "Document 1" and "Untitled" and unless they are sending alot through of the same copy, it's almost impossible to trace who has sent the spam/rubbish on the printer.

We're on v10 now so definitely I think time for us to move upwards, though still waiting after 2 years for the ability to filter printers in the print release queue before seeing a list of pending jobs, which is very important for us to be able to do (just thought i'd throw that one in there again)!

 

But yes very, very good feature and it's why papercut is still one of our best, value-for-money purchases we've ever made

[localzuk]

Just saw today that papercut was released (at last) and when I saw what this version brings.. well.. I am seriously impressed! Far too often we have students printing "Document 1" and "Untitled" and unless they are sending alot through of the same copy, it's almost impossible to trace who has sent the spam/rubbish on the printer.

 

We tackled this with document name bans. Document1 Workbook1 etc... were all banned. They had to name them first. Seemed to work ok for us.

 

But yes very, very good feature and it's why papercut is still one of our best, value-for-money purchases we've ever made

 

Yup! Agree entirely. We've just signed up for a further 5 year support contract.

[ukwebb]

don't forget the security implications, theoretically, anyone with admin access can view any document printed by anyone. Imagine them turning the feature on just for the day that the Payroll run is done !!!!!

[Steve21]

don't forget the security implications, theoretically, anyone with admin access can view any document printed by anyone. Imagine them turning the feature on just for the day that the Payroll run is done !!!!!

 

So could any admin just open the payroll documents direct off the server though...

 

There's always got to be trust with network admins and sensitive information. Yes some may abuse it, most don't.

 

Steve

[dgsmith]

don't forget the security implications, theoretically, anyone with admin access can view any document printed by anyone. Imagine them turning the feature on just for the day that the Payroll run is done !!!!!

 

How does that differ to a network admin having access to sensitive documents on a day-to-day basis? I don't know for sure seeing as we have yet to upgrade, but I imagine papercut will have perhaps put in the ability for certain printers to not log a screenshot of the documents being printed, and if this doesn't exist I guess it may be useful to have this ability.

 

But still in saying that it isn't really any different to having the standard level of access network admins have to certain areas anyway. If it causes a problem for us when we upgrade, we'll simply just omit the sensitive printers from papercut logging seeing as this feature (from a school point of view) is only really beneficial for logging student activity.

[ukwebb]

How does that differ to a network admin having access to sensitive documents on a day-to-day basis? I don't know for sure seeing as we have yet to upgrade, but I imagine papercut will have perhaps put in the ability for certain printers to not log a screenshot of the documents being printed, and if this doesn't exist I guess it may be useful to have this ability.

 

But still in saying that it isn't really any different to having the standard level of access network admins have to certain areas anyway. If it causes a problem for us when we upgrade, we'll simply just omit the sensitive printers from papercut logging seeing as this feature (from a school point of view) is only really beneficial for logging student activity.

 

the big differences are that for a network admin to view the payroll data normally, they'd have to also install the payroll programme, whereas any user 'could' view PNG files !, especially as the images are viewable via the web interface, so you dont actually need server access to see them!

 

as you correctly say you can indeed restrict who can view the documents, and also change which users and or printers are actually monitored

 

The key point though, is to remember that an option that allows users to be monitored silently can be equally be abused silently!!! if you do use this brilliant new feature, remember to lock it down too!

[ianatpapercut]

Just to follow-up on the security discussion, I can confirm that Print Archiving is off by default, that only the "admin" user has access to view the data when the feature is first turned on (you must explicitly add the admin right to each administrative user/group), and you can disable archiving on an individual user or printer basis. If there are any security concerns with the implementation in 13.0, please contact us at [email protected] ASAP.

[PrinterPal]

Hi Ian,

Good product ,we supply printers into schools in the uk ( fixed cost per print - free equipment ) and recommend your product as it

works well together giving accurate costs and controlled printing.

Usually tell customers to find free trial by google have you got a direct link we could post up for them please ?

Steve

[ianatpapercut]

Usually tell customers to find free trial by google have you got a direct link we could post up for them please ?

 

If you just give your customers PaperCut - Print management software used by 50k organizations to control and quota printing, the free 40 day trial is prominently displayed on the front page in a couple of places. This then leads to PaperCut for Education - Print control software software for schools, colleges and Universities. (other industries selectable at the top), and the actual downloads are available subsequently at this location: Download - PaperCut NG - PaperCut

[mobybrick]

When combined with the hold/release queue functionality, does this allow admins (or delegated hold/release admins) to preview a print-job before they release it to a user? I suspect not... but it would be great if that could be added!

 

Regards

Moby

[ianatpapercut]

When combined with the hold/release queue functionality, does this allow admins (or delegated hold/release admins) to preview a print-job before they release it to a user? I suspect not... but it would be great if that could be added!

 

At this stage, the archived jobs only appear in the job log (i.e. jobs that have already been released from a PaperCut-managed queue to a device). However, that's definitely the kind of feedback I'm collecting. We certainly have ideas as to where this feature can go, but taking it a step at a time and listening to customers (and the market in general) has generally been our strategy.

[mobybrick]

Thanks. I've also suggested to your colleagues previously that the job logs should record who released a hold/release job, as there are sometimes issues about which user authorised a wasteful print.... but so far, I don't think that feature has been incorporated.

 

Ta

Moby

[dgsmith]

Thanks. I've also suggested to your colleagues previously that the job logs should record who released a hold/release job, as there are sometimes issues about which user authorised a wasteful print.... but so far, I don't think that feature has been incorporated.

 

Nor has the ability to filter the printers before showing a list of pending jobs, but I don't want to go on about that (however much we desperately want that ability)!

[Big_Ted]

After a walk round BETT and chatting to a lot of users/resellers their seemed to be a fair amount of demand for print managers (and end users) to be able to preview jobs at a release station.

[Big_Ted]

fresh from .au

5 February 2013 - PaperCut MF 13.0 (Build 20822)

 

This is a bugfix release for version 13.0 and contains the following changes:

 

Fixes:

 

Print Archiving:

Fixed a problem where some Windows 2008 Servers (non R2 systems) may not detect the Ghost Trap viewer software used to assist Print Archiving.

Improved image generation for the Xerox Global PCL5 driver.

Fixed some messages that did not display correctly in some non-latin languages.

Added a warning to check if you're installing a version you are not currently licensed for.

Fixed a problem where print scripts using the common print script include file would sometimes incorrectly report an error.

Fixed a rare number rounding issue in CSV reports.

When running an unattended silent mode install (/silent), do not display the VM information message dialog.

Printer compatibility improvements:

 

Improved page-level color detection for Kyocera PostScript printers on Linux.

Improved support for Xerox printers on Mac print servers

[CyberNerd]

Good eye; it's one of the many potential integration projects we've got. At this point the critical mass isn't quite there to justify it in comparison to something like Print Archiving, but adding functionality to authenticate and retrieve GCP jobs, then insert them into already PaperCut-managed queues would be a great major feature.

 

Doubling every 3months. and thats just the chrome users:

Google Announces 2,000 Schools Use Chromebooks