PaperCut is designed to fit into a huge range of printing environments, covering setups with differing platforms, single or multiple print servers (perhaps across many sites), diverse hardware and network layouts, and many different opinions on print policy.

To achieve this, PaperCut comes configured for the most common scenarios out-of-the-box, but can easily be customized to suit your environment.

Modular Architecture

PaperCut’s modular architecture makes it possible to scale from the small and simple all-in-one server to the largest of multi-site networks.

Visual Customization

Client Tool

Standard client tool look
Standard client tool look
Customized client tool look
Customized client tool look

User Web Interface

Standard user web interface look
Standard user web interface look
 

Customized user web interface look
Customized user web interface look
Standard print release station look
Standard print release station look
Customized print release station look
Customized print release station look

 

Integration

External Databases

PaperCut ships with an embedded database to save the trouble of setting up your own. It is suitable for most environments, but some sites will prefer to host PaperCut’s data on their own database. PaperCut supports the most common databases out of the box, including Microsoft SQL Server/Express, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and others on request.

3rd Party Software and Services

  • User and group synchronization from directory servers including Microsoft Active Directory, Apple Open Directory, Novell eDirectory, other LDAP variants, plus Unix/NIS/POSIX.
  • Payment services such as PayPal, VeriSign, Authorize.Net and others via the payment gateway module, plus custom payment services or other sources.

Scripting

The included server-command scripting tool and XML web services API allow scripting or programming integration with PaperCut. For example:

  • Schedule enabling and disabling of printers at given times, such as disabling lab printers after hours.
  • Display user print balance on an intranet page.
  • Schedule a custom print quota addition for the start of term.
  • Disable printing for a student when they are disabled in a student management system.

Components

Display user print statistics and environmental impact counters on an intranet page using web widgets, or in the Windows Vista sidebar using the Vista gadgets.