With biometrics being used increasingly to identify users in areas such as access control and cashless catering, Selectec has been working with a leading biometric company to develop a viable solution for print/copy accounting.

Benefits of our fingerprint biometric system include:

• A biometric solution offers great security
• Easy to use for all users
• Increase productivity for users
• Cost effective
• Low footprint so can be used anywhere
• Easy to deploy and set-up

Just what all you worry warts have been waiting for an xx.1 release! We know some of you like to wait for the first minor release before making the jump to a major version and let everyone else do the release testing for you. Well you don’t have to wait any longer PaperCut 11.1 is now available for download – As with any minor update you can find a bunch of new features, enhancements, improved printer support and as always a host of embedded changes…

Some of the more interesting additions to v11.1 are:

• Xerox (Secure Access): Improved compatibility with a wider variety of Xerox devices.
• Print job watermarking now supports a wider variety of PCL6 printers and drivers.
• Various improvements to the end-user web interface to improve accessibility
• Lexmark now has added support for additional card readers including Elatec readers (contact us for prices)

As always full release notes are available below.

We can offer a 40-day trial of PaperCut just get in touch to discuss your requirements or reseller opportunities. Any existing releasers please update via the reseller pages (soon to be re-born into a full-fledged portal).

PaperCut Version 11.1 Released – 16 February 2011 – PaperCut MF 11.1 (Build 13151) Release Notes

Enhancements:

• Print job watermarking now supports a wider variety of PCL6 printers and drivers.
• Various improvements to the end-user web interface to improve accessibility (e.g. for user with screen readers).
• Added a new printer script recipe which asks the user if a job should be held in a hold/release queue or not. This allows the user to select secure release for only sensitive documents and use direct printing for other documents.
• Display information about the licensed devices and payment gateways in the About page.
• Updated the “User printing – summary” report to show a breakdown of color and grayscale pages. Added office and department fields to the Excel/CSV report.
• Added a new filter to all the print logs reports to only show Web Print jobs.
• Added a new username filter the user list and user configuration reports.
• Added a new server-command and web services API to renaming shared accounts.
• Emailed system notifications sent via SMTP can now be encrypted if the mail server supports TLS.
• Automatically enable printer error detection if printer scripting is enabled. This ensures that the scripts using error check call will work as expected without needing to enable printer error notifications.
• Novell OES Linux: The installer now checks the iPrint version and will warn if the version is known to cause problems.
• Various documentation improvements including SSL certificate installation.
• Various translation updates for Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

Fixes:

• Removed the “mixed content” warning message that may appear when administrators connect to the admin web interface via HTTPS using Microsoft Internet Explorer.
• Fixed a problem that may cause find-me print jobs on Windows to fail if the Print Provider service was restarted while the jobs were awaiting release.
• Fixed problem with dashboard “pages printed” graph that would show data offset by one day in some time zones.
• Fixed the column headers in the printer attributes Excel/CSV report.
• Fixed issue that may have prevented detection of printer toner levels when PaperCut was installed on a non-English edition of Windows.
• Fixed issue in client popup authentication under specific configurations where the logged in username was not correctly displayed.
• Fixed an error that could occur when using a “Quick Find” search if a screen had been left idle for more than 5 minutes.
• Fixed a problem that can stop watermarks from appearing if using the %user_id%, %user_full_name% or %user_email% watermark replacements when the user’s email address was blank.
• Fixed a problem with watermarks with custom position 0mm from top. They were previously printed at the bottom of the page.
• Fixed problems displaying Chinese characters in the Dashboard “What’s Next” widget.
• Fixed an error that may occur if an invalid regular expression was entered in the print document name filter. Improved validation to disallow invalid filters.
• Fixed issues that may prevent admin interface navigation while using an older Firefox 2 browser.
• Fixed issue with web services API and server-command that would allow creation of duplicate shared accounts. Additionally, new shared account security settings are now inherited from the template account.
• Fixed a problem in reports where a date range filter may not have applied if combined with a shared account filter containing two or more accounts.
• Do not allow the batch internal user import to run if the “Internal User” feature is not enabled. This stops users from accidentally running the wrong import type.
• Fix a problem with admin rights where a user would be denied access from the “Devices” tab if they were restricted to only access a subset of printers.
• Windows: Removed rare “file locked” message that may appear when conducting install-over-the-top upgrades.
• Mac OS: Fixed a problem with the OS X widget that could make the configuration settings not display correctly.
• Linux: Improved installer to save about 80MB of server disk space.

Printer compatibility improvements:

Copier / Device Integration:

Managing information costs and reducing waste are two of the challenges facing printer users today. Most sites soon notice that print costs are escalating out of control. This is where we come in.

Since print management dramatically helps reduce the number of pages printed or copies taken or waste paper that gets thrown into the recycle bin, it can make a huge difference on the amount of paper waste. So you can feel warm inside knowing you are doing your bit to save some trees and cut down on carbon dioxide emissions. Another environment and money saving feature is ‘find-me printing’ which cuts down on the number of printers and MFD’s reducing costs for toner and paper and saving on the electricity bill. So what exactly isn’t there to like about print management?

The money saving aspect of print management should make it easy to convince the people that control the purse strings they are making the right choice. Most sites we talk to (even those running external hardware units) easily make their money back in the first year (some even make a profit!!!).

So now you know it’s good to save money and save the environment at the same time but how are you going to implement this? One of the most effective ways to reduce these print costs and improve the productivity of your network printers is to use PaperCut MF.

PaperCut MF is a solid software solution that allows you to easily manage your print assets, to collect usage data by location and device, to identify any waste and simply implement cost recovery and allocation strategies, to maximise your system productivity and that all-important return on investment.

Below are 10 great reasons to get in touch and get setup with a trial of PaperCut.

1: “FindMe” Release Anywhere Printing (Pull Printing to you and me)

Simply put, documents follow users to their printer of choice. Allow your users print to a PaperCut MF “Virtual Print Queue” and regardless of their location they’ll be able to retrieve their print jobs from a networked printer or MFD. This delivers tremendous flexibility when and where needed.

2: Go Green!

Hundreds of report combinations to view, export as file or deliver via email and real-time statistics on CO2, energy and trees consumed by the printing process. PaperCut MF reporting and print controls empower IT departments to control waste. In particular, CO2 and Carbon emission reporting is available at a glance with a handy optional widget or report. The employment of green initiatives is a growing requirement in today’s world.

3: Easy to Manage

An intuitive interfaces make PaperCut easy to administer and easy to use. Regarded as the simplest system of its type to deploy and manage, PaperCut MF delivers. For instance, System Administrators have full access to advanced administration and configuration options via a familiar, simple web interface. This can be accessed anywhere and anytime on your network. Early in 2011 expect a new layout for the UI giving you all the information you need at a glance. PaperCut MF is up to date in both its looks and its architecture.

4: Site Wide Policy Enforcement

Take control of your paper, MFD and Toner usage. With PaperCut MF you can take charge and control “who” prints, “what” gets printed and to “where”. There are even some simple scripting controls available to ensure your staff automatically adhere to the agreed company print policies. These include “duplex print”, “no colour from web” and “job routed to least cost device” as well as “Free printing during class time” – very handy for exam time at school. If none of the pre-made scripts suit you, then you can of course define your own features with a custom advanced printer script.

5: Centralised Administration

Administer the system straight from your web browser anywhere on the network. PaperCut MF provides administration access from any location on your network via a standard web browser. End-Users also have access to a set of web tools that empower students and staff to track and monitor their own activities in real time as well as various tools and log information.

6: Driverless Printing

A driver-less printing solution for laptops and wireless devices. A simple yet very affective feature called “Web Print” allows printing from net-books and other mobile devices. Perfect for “mobile workers” and students with their own laptops with documents they need to be printed. Simply upload the document, select the device on the floor plan and print. Also (but nothing official just yet) iPhone/iPad printing could be on its way soon. We will update the website as soon as we get confirmation. We know a lot of sites handing out iPads these days will be interested in this feature.

7: Scalability

The modern software design and architecture provides scalability for networks of all sizes. Whether your network consists of a single server with a handful of users to a clustered multi server network with 60,000 plus users, PaperCut MF will scale to meet your needs without any troubles. PaperCut is happy to run on Windows, Mac, Linux, Novell (iPrint) and mixed environments and is just as happy to live in a virtual machine.

8: Easy Deployment

It’s extremely easy to install and configure. Simply click next and follow the prompts. The PaperCut MF install process allows you to setup preferences for Users, User Groups, Devices, Cost and Quota’s. It could not be simpler.

9: Monitoring and Usage Reports

Hundreds of report combinations to view, export as file or deliver via email.  With a vast choice of standard reports finding out who, where and how much is printed has now become whole lot easier and the best bit is, it will let you see who is causing all the trouble by printing 300 pages to a USB desk jet printer instead of a large MFD. PaperCut MF provides the tools to monitor the output of your printer and MFD fleet with real time activity reports that can be deployed silently so that staff gets used to the changes in workflow.

10: Secure Access and Release

Running around to retrieve confidential print jobs will be a thing of the past. No matter where you are, print jobs can be collected conveniently from any supported device with either secure user or card authentication.

We had to stop at 10…….but we could go on all day about:

• Dedicated Print release stations.
• Professional client billing – charge back those printing costs to clients.
• Sync across multiple user directories (e.g. a Microsoft Active Directory and a separate LDAP server).
• Shared accounts – charge printing to accounts/departments that can be shared by multiple users.
• Watermarking – apply text to the bottom of each page.
• A bunch of Public APIs to link into.
• Supports Microsoft SQL Server (32 and 64-bit, and Server Express), Oracle, PostgreSQL and MySQL out-of-the-box on all platforms.
• Credit card payments and top up cards to add value to accounts.

And best of all – Capture “off the glass” walk-up copying using embedded software for the following platforms:

• Ricoh, via Ricoh Embedded Software Architecture (ESA)
• Sharp, via Sharp Open Systems Architecture (OSA)
• Xerox, via Xerox Network Accounting
• Lexmark, via Lexmark Embedded Solutions Framework (LeSF)
• Konica Minolta, via OpenAPI
• Kyocera Mita, via Kyocera Hybrid Platform for Advanced Solutions (HyPAS)
• HP, via Chai SOE DSE
• Toshiba
• Gestetner
• Lanier
• Nashuatec
• Triumph Adler
• Olivetti
• With more coming soon!

Interested? Then get in touch.

The clever PaperCut developers have been busy putting their Kyocera Mita embedded application through the last stages of testing – At this rate they will run out of embedded environments to work with! We have had a lot of interest in the Kyocera solution so follow the jump at the bottom of the page for more information. This solution is based on the HyPAS platform.

Kyocera’s HyPAS (Hybrid Platform for Advanced Solutions), a powerful and scalable software solution platform, optimizes the performance of Kyocera’s award-winning MFPs through custom, integrated software applications that are designed to meet and exceed users specific document imaging needs. HyPAS will transform your Kyocera MFP into a resource designed to evolve as your business evolves – resulting in enhanced information sharing, resource optimization and an improved pre-existing, as well as future document workflows.

PaperCut MF provides integration with Kyocera Mita MFDs, enabling the tracking, charging or billing of “off the glass” copying, faxing and scanning. The goal of PaperCut Software’s embedded MFD solution is to leverage the capabilities of Kyocera Mita devices to provide walk-up copier users with the same set of rich application features provided in the print control area. These include:

• End user authentication including integration with single sign-on environments such as Active Directory, Open Directory, eDirectory, LDAP and others
• Optional proximity/swipe card authentication (via USB readers)
• Group-based access control to the device and colour copying
• Monitoring and control of photocopying, scanning and faxing (quotas, charging, allocation and logging)
• Allocation of copying, scanning and faxing to accounts/departments/cost-centres/projects
• Releasing jobs from a hold/release queue (secure printing)

Kyocera Mita MFD Integration details.

The Kyocera Mita solution joins the long list of copier brands PaperCut will work with. The PaperCut Software development team have developed solutions for several major copier brands, including:

• Ricoh, via Ricoh Embedded Software Architecture (ESA)
• Sharp, via Sharp Open Systems Architecture (OSA)
• Xerox, via Xerox Network Accounting
• Lexmark, via Lexmark Embedded Solutions Framework (LeSF)
• HP, via Chai SOE DSE
• Toshiba
• Konica Minolta, via OpenAPI
• Kyocera Mita, via Kyocera Hybrid Platform for Advanced Solutions (HyPAS)
• Gestetner
• Lanier
• Nashuatec
• Other devices are currently under development.

For updates and pricing information just get in touch.

Looking to monitor Prints and Photocopies? Confused where to start?

No worries as the UK master distributor for PaperCut MF we like to think we know what we are talking about and are more than happy to offer help and advice to anyone looking to implement a print and copy control system as it can be a little daunting knowing where to start.

With over 30,000 client sites worldwide and a growing reputation as the product of choice for education and corporate verticals, PaperCut continues to meet the demand through the provision of smart, flexible, low cost print and copy management software.

Featuring the latest web based administration and end user tools, including driverless web printing and enhanced scripting e.g. job routing and “Find Me” (pull) printing by login, account or card ID based authentication methods , business makers, IT administrators and users alike all agree that PaperCut meets their needs at an affordable price.

Feature Highlights

• Simple web based administration
• Cross-platform support – Synchronized releases on Windows, Linux, Novell and Mac on both server and workstation
• Track printing on any device
• Track off-the-glass copy, fax and scan via embedded application on the MFP
• Integration into major directory services – Active Directory, Open Directory, eDirectory, LDAP, Samba, PAM
• Login or ID Card – authenticate users via proximity card at the MFP
• Find-me printing, secure printing and conditional job routing
• Web Print – a 100% driverless printing solution for wireless netbook and laptop users
• Policy Scripting – Write scripts to enforce functions like duplex. Dozens of pre-built scripts supplied
• Over 50 in-built one-click reports
• Payment Gateways – connection with dozens of leading payment services such as PayPal.
• Pre-Paid Top-Up Cards – a free method for schools and colleges to create value cards.
• Scalability to 350,000 users – via server clustering
• Interface available in 20 languages (including full Unicode support for Chinese and Japanese)
• Open source code and documented public API
• A friendly and approachable support / development team

Any questions? get in touch.

Did you know the Copicode IP can be configured as a Print Release only terminal?

The default behaviour then becomes:

• A user sends their job or jobs to the Find Me or any printer set up as a hold release queue.
• The user then authenticates at the Copicode-IP (usually with a swipe reader or proximity card)
• All print jobs are then released and the Copicode-IP display returns to the Logon Screen.

This mode is useful if you only require the print release function and ideally suited to swipe or prox release environments.

Got a Copicode IP and want to test it out? then select mode 6 when installing.

Any questions just ask.

This is a bugfix release for PaperCut MF 9.6, and contains the following changes:

Enhancements:

•Enabled virtual queues (Find Me Printing and load balancing) for use with Web Print.
•Improved memory allocation on PPC based Macs, resulting in better performance on this platform.
•Improved Slovenian translations.
•Mac: Performance improvements when analyzing very large PostScript jobs.
•Group selection lists in the admin interface now all include “Enlarge” links next to them, for sites with very long group/OU names that all start the same.
•Shared account list report in CSV now includes the parent account code on each line.
•Added feature to allow real-time lookup of a user’s card/ID number in an external database.
•CBORD Payment Gateway: Improved support for using release stations and copier devices when using the CBORD live/on-demand transfer mode.
Fixes:

•Introduced workaround for long-standing Windows bug that resulted in network connectivity issues and non-paged pool memory leaks at some large sites.
•Fixed problems using the new print job refund requesting features when running PaperCut on an Oracle database.
•Fixed problem preventing print jobs from being manually refunded when the cost had been rounded for display.
•Fixed problem using Web Print for users who had the manager mode pop-up enabled.
•Fixed problems with Find Me Printing when the print queue name contained non-ASCII Unicode characters.
•Web Print: Fixed problems handling jobs with document names that contained non-ASCII Unicode characters.
•Fixed problem that could cause the Web Print service to stop unexpectedly.
•Fixed issue on CentOS x64 running CUPS that may have prevented PaperCut from working with particular backend types.
•Improved Web Print support when using the sandbox method with a Linux primary server.
Printer compatibility improvements:

•Improved page size detection when printing custom sizes with InDesign on the Mac.
Copier / Device Integration:

•Sharp OSA:
•Fixed problem that displayed users as “Unrestricted” if they had a negative balance. This would only be displayed if overdrafts were enabled that allowed the user to continue copying even after their balance was negative.

Find Me printing solves the problem of finding the closest printer from a long list of available printers. It is a roaming print service that allows print jobs to find users based on their physical location. It’s sometimes referred to as “Pull Printing”, “Push Printing” or “Follow Me” printing. It’s a great solution for large sites operating a common printer fleet.