Posts Tagged ‘PaperCut MF’

PaperCut Version 12.0

Written by scottm. Posted in PaperCut, PaperCut MF, PaperCut NG, selectec News

Another year, another major release.

2011 was a busy year for everyone and saw PaperCut v11 expand its feature set beyond expectations. PaperCut v11 had twelve releases, the highlights of the previous year’s work were:

  • iPad Printing support
  • Web Cashier
  • Delegated print release
  • New web payment integration options
  • SNMP hardware checking for print jobs
  • Print job watermarking now supports a wider variety of printers and drivers
  • A new admin dashboard
  • Plus a heap of other enhancements, fixes and embedded tweaks.

So what’s new?

PaperCut 12.0 adds a regularly requested new feature, automatic conversion to duplex and grayscale. Before v12, PaperCut could only disallow all single sided (simplex) and colour printing jobs on a printer, but now jobs can be magically converted to duplex and/or grayscale. This will be useful for enforcing print policies such as only allowing students to print in duplex. The conversions can also be added to a script and the only limit there is your imagination. The PaperCut Dev team have worked long and hard on this and they look forward to getting feedback over the next few weeks.

Also thrown into v12 is a new report, we call this the Executive Summary. This gives, in a single page, an overview of some useful metrics about printers, users and their jobs.

The eagle eyed amongst you will notice a new icon for the client software and the end user web page has finally been updated to match the admin dashboard. We also have a new custom dashboard widget this will allow an administrator to add a link to an external application for easy access from the administration dashboard. Last of all we have a bunch of new scripts and improved translations. Let’s not forget the usual mix of fixes as well.


If you have a current subscription to our premium upgrade assurance plan you may upgrade to version 12 at no additional cost.

Existing customers contact your reseller for the download links. Resellers / Dealers / Manufacturers use the reseller portal for the goodies. New customers? Contact us or a local ASC for trial information.

What next?

Top secret! But we will have support for a new embedded platform very soon. We will also be looking to improve our driver support for automatic conversion as and when users report issues.
Full release notes below.

20 January 2012 – PaperCut MF 12.0 (Build 16353)

This is a bugfix release for version 12.0 and contains the following changes:

Enahancements:

  • Added the option to filter reports by the “[Internal Users]” group.
  • On a server with multiple network interfaces, the PaperCut primary server may now be configured to listen on one specified interface (rather than all).

Fixes:

  • Fixed issue that could cause print job redirections to fail (e.g. for load balancing or Find-me printing).
  • Fixed layout of Executive Summary report when displaying very long printer names without any spaces.

19 January 2012 – PaperCut MF 12.0 (Build 16338)

New features:

  • Conversion Filters – This feature provides the functionality to convert colour jobs to grayscale and simplex jobs to duplex. E.g. convert jobs on high volume printers to duplex to save paper, automatically convert emails printed in colour to grayscale.
  • New Executive Summary report providing organization-wide summary statistics and environmental impact.
  • The user web interface has been updated with a new modern look.
  • PaperCut has a new icon!

Enhancements:

  • Added support for a new custom dashboard widget to display customer/site specific messages/notices to administrators.
  • Web Cashier:
    • Operators can now look up users by card number (including though use of an attached card reader).
    • When a purchase would take an unrestricted user’s balance below $0, a confirmation message is now displayed.
  • When restarting the application server on large sites the reconnection of secondary servers is now staggered to prevent high load.
  • New advanced print scripting scripts and snippets:
    • snippet for denying jobs printed out of hours
    • script to convert email printing to grayscale
    • when printing a large job, ask the user if they would like to automatically convert to duplex to save paper
  • New translations for Danish and Polish, plus significant updates to French and Spanish.
  • Internet control: Added a config option to swap the sent and received bytes parse from proxy log files.

Fixes:

  • Fixed problem using Web Cashier with Swiss Francs.
  • Fixed problem when logging in to the PaperCut App for iOS if the username is entered containing uppercase characters.
  • Disallow printer scripts setting the print job costs to NaN (not a number). This resulted in failing to record the print job.
  • Fixed display of printer hardware check related screens in some languages.
  • Fixed issue disabling pay stations from the Devices tab in the administration interface.
  • Fixed the Rates page in the user web interface to display only printers.
  • Fixed minor status reporting problem when testing shared account imports.

Printer compatibility improvements:

  • Fixed page count detection for TOSHIBA e-STUDIO 855 PostScipt duplex jobs with odd numbers of pages.
  • Improved page size detection for Adobe InDesign documents printed to Xerox PostScript printers from Mac.
  • Fixed page count detection for HP LaserJet M4345 MFP PCL6.
  • Improved grayscale detection in Sharp PostScript printers.
  • Added page size detection for NEC MultiWriter 8250N printer.

Copier / Device Integration:

  • Value loader devices supporting user self-registration: Added an option to use the swiped card number as the username of the created user.
  • Sharp Onboard/Embedded (OSA): Fixed a problem that could cause the “Unable to enable device” error that could appear if the user double clicked the “OK” button on the account confirmation screen.
  • Xerox Onboard/Embedded (Network Accounting / JBA): Enforce the group-based access controls to login to the MFP device.
  • Xerox Onboard/Embedded (Xerox Secure Access): Added support for USB card readers supported on some recent Xerox MFPs.

PaperCut Version 11.4

Written by rossm. Posted in PaperCut, PaperCut MF, PaperCut NG, selectec News

Good news everyone, PaperCut 11.4 is now available for download. Included in 11.4 are a host of enhancements and fixes to make life easier for users and admins.

Also thrown into version 11.4 is a great new feature (requested on a weekly basis by the selectec team) called print release delegation. This means a teachers assistant can release print jobs on behalf of teachers, or for personal assistants to release print jobs on behalf of others etc.

On the hardware side of things you will find a host of tweaks and fixes plus that all important support for the Konica Minolta Bizhub C35 devices.

PaperCut MF 11.4 (Build 14579) -4th August 2011

New features:

  • Delegated print release. Administrators may grant users the right to release other users’ print jobs. A common use for this is to allow personal assistant to release jobs printed by their manager.
  • Added a “Deleted user list” report, showing recently deleted users.
  • New payment integration (payment gateway module) for the Nelnet and NuVision payment services.

Enhancements:

  • Cost adjustments (a feature to add or change costs at the time of printing) can now be specified per-copy, in addition to the existing per-job, per-page and percentage options. This is useful for charges like binding, which is naturally a per-copy charge.
  • Added an audit message when an admin edits a job log.
  • Mac/Linux: Improved print popup speed for when printing very large jobs.
  • In the refund request form the “reason” field can now be marked as mandatory.
  • Improved performance of the refund request system on large sites (with millions of tracked print jobs).
  • Improved detection of virtual print queue misconfiguration. Messages are now displayed guiding administrators to the problem source.
  • Improved logging of database connections errors to help pinpoint the cause of database connection problems.
  • Hardware page count validation has been improved for better reporting of printer error statuses.
  • Improved detection of potential misconfiguration when setting up printer page count hardware checks.
  • Increase resilience against AD domain outages by detecting and avoiding syncing group memberships while a domain is down.
  • Improvements to the Windows active-active printer cluster documentation (changes to minimize the chance of losing print job state on cluster failover).

Security:

  • Fixed potential information disclosure that may have allowed a malicious user to bypass security and view the print logs of other users. This issue was detected as part of a system audit conducted by a 3rd party security company.

Fixes:

  • The printer filter on ad hoc reports now includes devices.
  • Users’ last activity date is now updated after completing a copy job.
  • Fixed issue with the printer filter option “Only apply filters to restricted users”, which was applying when unrestricted users charged to a restricted shared account.
  • Fixed issue accessing the user web interface from an iPhone.
  • Adjusting user balances now only requires the admin right “perform adjustments & charges” and not “change user settings” as well.
  • When performing a secondary print server installation on a Windows system with UAC enabled, the config file is now opened with correct administrator privileges after the installation so that the file can be saved.
  • Improved reliability of Find-Me Printing under situations where the print provider service is restarted unexpectedly.
  • Fixed connectivity issues with the client tool on Mac OS 10.6.8 systems with unusual IPv6 address formats.
  • Fixed sorting in the “Shared Account List” report on some databases.
  • Fixed some problems with the included example “Web Print” printer maps images.
  • Suppress CUPS-specific warning message when installing on Novell with iPrint.
  • Fixed a rare error that could be triggered by the Windows print provider during system shutdown.
  • Fixed problems syncing against Active Directory OUs with certain Chinese characters in the name.
  • Fixed display of PDF reports in Greek.

Printer compatibility improvements:

  • All-round improvements to page-level color detection for PostScript drivers.
  • Improved detection for Ricoh GDI print jobs.
  • Added support for the Brother MFC-J6710 and related printers.
  • Improved page counting for PCL6 documents printed in booklet mode.
  • Improved color detection for HP devices using various JetReady formats.
  • Fixed a copy count detection problem that may have occurred when printing from Excel on an HP K550.
  • Improved page size detection for “A3WIDE” on Ricoh Aficio 20xx PLC6 printer drivers.

Copier / Device Integration:

  • CopiCode-IP: Update the CopiCode firmware to version 1.3.5. This includes the following changes:
    • Enhancements to the disbursement features.
    • Added support for the CA400 coin unit.
    • Allow configuration of the “Balance” label for the coin unit.
    • Added support for usernames longer up to 32 characters (previously 16 characters was the maximum).
  • Konica Minolta Onboard/Embedded (OpenAPI):
    • Added support for Konica Minolta Bizhub C35 devices.
    • Worked around issue in some firmware versions that did not notify the server when a user logs out.
    • Display paper size and color/grayscale on the print release job details page.
    • Added a compatibility option to ensure that PaperCut remains compatible with 3rd party scanning applications.
  • Sharp Onboard/Embedded (OSA):
    • Allow line breaks in custom messages (i.e. welcome message, login message).
    • Resolved an issue that may have allowed restricted users to overrun their account.
  • Toshiba Onboard/Embedded (e-BRIDGE Open Platform):
    • When users have a negative balance this is now displayed on login (rather than $0.00).
    • Improved the reliability of the login process on devices with older firmware versions.
    • Added support for tracking Toshiba iFax (i.e. fax by email).
    • Fixed problems recording the number of scanned pages on some firmware versions of eBX series devices.
    • Simplify configuration of eBX series devices by including pre-built Role Based Access Control (RBAC) XML files.
  • VCC Controller/terminal:
    • Added shared account searching.
    • Added card self-association.
    • Added username/password login for the VCC classic terminal.
    • The “release” option is now hidden if the option “Automatically release user’s jobs upon login” is enabled.
    • Improved support for VCC terminals with Linux server clusters (ability to specify a bound IP address).
  • Xerox Onboard/Embedded (Xerox Secure Access): Visual improments (increased space between labels and values).

PaperCut – an “Outstanding Cost-Recovery Solution”

Written by scottm. Posted in PaperCut, PaperCut MF, PaperCut NG, selectec News

The experts over at Buyers Laboratory have announced that PaperCut MF V11.2 has been honoured with a Summer 2011 “Pick” award as “Outstanding Cost-Recovery Solution.” BLI’s prestigious “Pick” awards honour the top-performing solutions evaluated in BLI’s lab during the previous six months.Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI) is the world’s leading independent evaluator of document imaging hardware and software.

To read the full report a Buyers Laboratory subscription is required, you can sign up here.

This is a excerpt from the BLI website public news article:

With an increasing desire to reduce waste, recoup costs and provide improved print/copy job access and security, schools and businesses are in need of an accounting and cost recovery system that is easy to use, efficient, and affordable—and that can work in a heterogeneous computing environment. PaperCut MF is a cross-platform solution that facilitates accounting, billing, tracking and charging of copy, print and scan jobs through authentication cards or user login at the device. Those cross-platform abilities, along with the solution’s affordability and ease of use, helped PaperCut MV V11.2 earn a Summer 2011 “Pick” award as “Outstanding Cost-Recovery Solution” from the editors at BLI.

Read the full news item at the Buyers Laboratory website.

Of course here at selectec HQ we already know PaperCut is outstanding, which is probably why over 30,000 organisations use it to reduce their print costs and their environmental impact. The report is on v11.2 so we can’t wait for a review of 11.3 or even the soon to be released 11.4!

About Buyers Laboratory

Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, Buyers Lab has been the leading independent office-equipment testing lab and business consumer advocate. In addition to publishing the industry’s most comprehensive and accurate test reports on office document imaging solutions (www.buyerslab.com/solutions) and devices (www.buyerslab.com), the company has been the leading source for extensive databases of specifications and pricing on solutions, copiers, printers, fax machines and multifunctional products. The company’s databases cover almost 15,000 products and have a long-standing reputation for being the industry’s most trustworthy and complete source for global competitive intelligence. They are available to BLI subscribers online via the company’s bliQ and bliQ Solutions Center competitive information services. These encyclopedic resources also provide quick and easy access to BLI’s First Look Reports, Field Test Reports, Lab Test Reports, Solutions Reports, and BLI-produced articles.

Twice a year with its “Pick” awards, BLI gives special recognition to the hardware and software products that provided the most outstanding performances in BLI’s unique evaluations. Software solutions undergo an in-depth hands-on review that focuses on key attributes for a solution’s target market and compares how well the product stacks up against leading competitors. “Pick” winners rise above the competition in key areas such as value, feature set, ease of use, ease of administration, hardware compatibility, software integration, security and support. Software solutions earn an overall rating based on a five-star scale, and “Pick” contenders are culled from those that earn the highest ratings. Consequently, a BLI “Pick” is a hard-earned award that buyers and IT directors can trust to better guide them in their acquisition decisions.

In addition to the testing of office equipment for its subscribers, Buyers Lab provides consulting services to buyers and a vast array of confidential for-hire private testing services that include document imaging device beta and pre-launch testing, performance certification testing, consumables testing (such as toner, ink and photoconductors), software and solutions and print media testing (including virgin and recycled papers).

For more information on Buyers Laboratory, please visit www.buyerslab.com or www.buyerslab.com/solutions, or e-mail info@buyerslab.com.

Any images and text are © 2011 Buyers Laboratory Inc. All rights reserved.

PaperCut Version 11.2

Written by rossm. Posted in PaperCut, PaperCut MF, PaperCut NG, selectec News

With around 20 changes to embedded software and loads of core software enhancements, fixes and updates 11.2 has something for everyone.  The most notable new enhancement released within 11.2 is the ability to now output details of a user’s department and office history.  E.g. If a user switches department midway through a month, print audit reports showing activity by department will now account for their activity in the old department for the first half of the month and the new department for the second half. The biggest change on the embedded side of things is a revamped interface for Sharp OSA devices and you can expect plenty of new features in the upcoming months to take advantage of OSAv4.

Release Notes

11 April 2011 – PaperCut MF 11.2 (Build 13713)

This release contains a database upgrade and administrators should factor this into their upgrade plan.

New features:

  • PaperCut now maintains a historical record of users’ department and office fields. E.g. If a user switches department midway through a month, reports showing activity by department will now account for their activity in the old department for the first half of the month and the new department for the second half. It’s also possible to retrospectively edit this history and have it immediately affect reports.

Enhancements:

  • Compatibility improvements for Internet Explorer 9 (IE9).
  • Significantly optimized PaperCut’s start-up process to reduce database load on systems with many attached devices.
  • Printing summary reports (e.g. Group printing – summary) now all include a breakdown of color and grayscale pages (rather than needing to run a job type summary report to see this detail).
  • You can now quickly produce a device list report via Export/Print report links under the Device list table.
  • An Application Log (App Log) audit message is now written when an admin manually expires a pre-paid top-up card.
  • The web based release station’s automatic refresh time is now configurable.
  • Improved the error messages displayed when PaperCut attempts to connect to an external database that is currently offline or down.
  • Release station: improved date presentation for jobs submitted in the same day (e.g. “11:04″ instead of “Apr 12, 11:04″).
  • Added various new Web Services APIs:
    • add/remove a printer access group
    • check if a user group exists
    • remove a user group
    • list all printers
    • list all groups
    • add/remove an administrator access user/group
  • New print script API to find all printer groups that the current job’s printer is a member of.
  • Improved default parameters used when performing printer load balancing. This reduces the likelihood that large jobs cause a printer to be underutilized.

Security:

  • Browser session cookies are now stored as “HttpOnly“. This is in line with current best practice and helps mitigate impact if an XSS attack was discovered.

Fixes:

  • Fixed some memory related issues seen on some 64-bit systems.
  • Improved reliability when database connection problems occur during server start-up.
  • Fixed a problem where CSV/Excel scheduled reports created prior to version 10.7 could run over the same report period each time (e.g. always the week in which the report was created, rather than every new week).
  • Find-me printing: when a user attempts to release a print job at a release station but all target print queues are in error or disabled, an error message is displayed and the job stays held. Previously the job would be cancelled.
  • Fixed a problem where scheduled reports do not run when daylight savings time starts in the UK (or other regions where DST starts at 1am). The default scheduled report time has now been changed to 12:55am from 1:15am to prevent this happening in the future.
  • Windows clusters: fixed a problem that could cause Find-Me print jobs from printing if the print provider service failed over while they were awaiting release.
  • Fixed issue that prevented filtering an ad hoc report on a department or office that contained commas.
  • Improved clean-up/deletion of temporary files created when very large reports are created.
  • Fixed issue when running on SQL Server where the same data could appear on multiple pages of tables.
  • Fixed a problem when using Web Print to charge a print job to a shared account when the user has the “Charge personal account (and allocate to shared account for reporting)” option enabled. This could cause the job not to be logged by PaperCut.
  • When running on some external databases the “average pages per job” values in reports could have been inaccurate. This has been corrected.
  • Period comparison reports previously excluded activity occurring on each period’s end date. These reports now include activity from those dates.
  • Fixed sorting of some logs reports such as “Group printing – logs” when running on an external database.

Printer compatibility improvements:

  • Added grayscale detection support for Xerox Colour Press 700 PS.
  • Added support for HP Printer Drivers v2.6 on Mac OS 10.6.
  • Added support for Dell 2150cdn.
  • Improved page count detection on the Epson 4880.

Copier / Device Integration:

  • HP Onboard/Embedded (Chai SOE DSE):
    • Improved compatibility with devices running recent HP firmware versions.
    • Improved reliability of devices to workaround an HP firmware memory leak that can result in device “Error 49″ failures.
    • Disable all access to the device if the user has no available credit.
  • Konica Minolta Onboard/Embedded (OpenAPI):
    • Fixed issue where devices may not have functioned if the server was under very heavy load during startup.
    • A new improved tracking method reduces the possibility of users printing more pages than they have credit for.
  • Kyocera Mita Onboard/Embedded (HyPAS):
    • Added support for non-ASCII characters (such as the pound and euro symbols).
    • Added Chinese (simplified and traditional) translations.
  • Lexmark Onboard/Embedded (LeSF):
    • Added support for new devices: C792, X792, C925, X925.
    • Fixed display of Chinese (simplified) text.
  • Ricoh Onboard/Embedded (ESA):
    • The PaperCut onboard/embedded application for Ricoh ESA has now been certified under Ricoh’s new global certification process, confirming that the application runs on Ricoh devices in any region globally.
    • Improved responsiveness and reliability under slow network conditions.
  • Sharp Onboard/Embedded (OSA):
    • Added Print All button to the print release function, providing the user an option to easily release all jobs or choose which jobs to release.
    • Added HTTPS connection support for secure transmission of information between Sharp MFPs and PaperCut.
  • Sharp Onboard/Embedded (OSA 3+ with 7″ screen): a brand new interface is available that takes advantage of new functionality made possible by Sharp OSA 3 and OSA 4 devices:
    • New improved user interface that takes advantage of the Sharp embedded web browser (HTML). New features included improved look-n-feel, color appearance and much better usability.
    • Card based authentication now just fully automatic (just swipe card to log in).
    • Simplified on-screen workflow.
  • Toshiba Onboard/Embedded: When using shared account based charging the wording that describes which account will be charged has been clarified.
  • VCC: The cost setting precision is now updated during initialization (e.g. after power cycle or network connection). Previously this setting may not have taken affect until after the application server was restarted.
  • Xerox Onboard/Embedded (Network Accounting / JBA): Fixed a problem that could allow user to charge to their personal account when they were configured to only charge to shared accounts.
  • Xerox Onboard/Embedded (Xerox Secure Access):
    • Improved single sign-on capabilities: when a user authenticates using their username and password the user’s credentials are now made available to the device so that “Scan to home” and other workflows can funcion without requiring re-authentication.
    • Fixed a problem that could cause network card readers to contintue to run even after “Swipe Card” authentication was disabled.

PaperCut Version 11.1

Written by rossm. Posted in Featured Posts, PaperCut, PaperCut MF, PaperCut NG, selectec News

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

Written by rossm. Posted in Featured Posts, PaperCut, PaperCut MF, PaperCut NG, selectec News

A late Christmas present for you all – The PaperCut developers have been working non stop the last few months to get version 11 out of the door. As well as a flash new look you will find a host of embedded changes including access to the new Xerox Secure Access “preview”.  Here is what they had to say about PaperCut version 11.

It’s January 2011, and we’re excited to announce the release of our latest version of PaperCut – Version 11 (or is that XI?). If you’re an existing PaperCut user then two things will be immediately obvious:

  1. A new & improved look and feel
  2. The addition of a new tab – Dashboard!

The new look and feel is the result of an impressive design contest that was held recently to refresh the appearance of the administration console, as those who follow us on Twitter would be well aware of.  While the previous design wasn’t exactly “old” (it’s web based – lifespan is measured in days & hours!), we felt it was time to refresh and revitalise the appearance to give it a new lease on life.

To coincide with the recent redesign of our website we wanted to bring some of the new look & feel we implemented into our application… or at least add a few rounded corners and gradients . We hope you agree that the results are a greatly improved appearance which is far easier on the eyes.

The new Dashboard tab is now the first tab displayed when you log into the administration interface.  The Dashboard provides an overview of all system activity and the current status of all your devices and users.

In the v11 release we have included seven new dashboard gadgets:

  • The System Status gadget provides system statistics such as uptime, active users, jobs today and system warnings.
  • The Pages Printed graph helps you track printing volume over the last 30 days.
  • The Printer Status gadget is ideal for an “at a glance” view of your print fleet. It displays pages printed today and device information such as toner levels and paper jams.
  • The Real-time Activity gadget lets you see what’s happening right now in real-time. It shows events like print jobs arriving, users logging in, exceeding print quotas, print job status and much more. This tool has been designed specifically to help you monitor activity and diagnose problems.
  • The What’s Next? gadget offers tips for for first-time users .
  • The Environmental Impact gadget displays overall environmental impact statistics at a glance.
  • The News gadget ensures you’re kept up to date with relevant release and development activity at PaperCut.

Future releases will allow you to extend the dashboard with additional gadgets as well as providing the ability to add, remove and re-arrange the display.  If you have any ideas or suggestions for new gadgets, then let us know by completing our “Vote for a Feature” form in Administration console -> About -> Product News.

The full list of changes in this release can be found on the release history page.

Version 11.0 is a new major version, in line with our commitment outlined in our December-January period for new major version releases. If you have a current subscription to our premium upgrade assurance plan you may upgrade to version 11 at no additional cost. For our other customers please see our upgrade policy to determine if you are eligible for a free upgrade.

We hope you enjoy this release, and we look forward to hearing what you think about it!

Ten Reasons To Use PaperCut

Written by rossm. Posted in Featured Posts, PaperCut, PaperCut MF, PaperCut NG, selectec News

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.

What can PaperCut read from a card?

Written by rossm. Posted in Network Payment Hardware, PaperCut, PaperCut MF, selectec News


This question haunts all of us here at Selectec HQ because we get asked it every day :)

So what will PaperCut read from the cards?

To be fair, this isn’t really a PaperCut issue but depends more on the card reader itself.

Barcodes:

If barcodes are being used, the reader will need to be able to read the specific barcode symbology (most in the UK are Code39 or Telepen in our experience) and readers can usually be configured to read the correct symbology. It has been a long time since we installed a barcode reader.

Magnetic Stripe:

Magnetic stripe cards have 3 tracks of information. It’s often track 2 that is used and because of this most readers read track two, but if you have the information on another track then you can get readers for that track or even multi-track readers.

Contactless/proximity:

Seems simple but there are many types of contactless cards (RFID 125 kHz, Motorola/Indala W26, Motorola/Indala W27, Motorola/Indala ABA Track II, Motorola/Indala Lite, Motorola/Indala , KANTECH, HID Prox, Proxlite, MIFARE, MIFARE + RFID 125 kHz, LEGIC Advant, TIRIS 134 kHz, COTAG, MULTI ISO, PAC, HID UDF, HID iClass, HiTAG, HiTAG2 etc.). With contactless cards, readers would normally read the unique serial number embedded on the card.

This can get fairly complicated so we will start at the beginning. Let’s take for example a Classic MIFARE 1k card as these are encountered in many PaperCut sites.

Elatec TWN3A MIFARE Classic 1K card has 1024 bytes of storage, split into 16 sectors. Each sector is protected by two different keys, called A and B (more on this later). 16 bytes per sector are reserved for the keys and access conditions and cannot normally be used for user data. Also, the very first 16 bytes contain the serial number of the card and certain other manufacturer data, are read-only and live in sector zero.

This brings the total storage capacity of these cards down to 752 bytes for a Classic 1k MIFARE card. None of this is really relevant but we thought it may be interesting for some people. When a Mifare card is first created in the factory it has its first sector, sector zero, programed with a unique serial number. This is set by the factory into read-only memory – so this number cannot be changed and stays with the card.

With a MIFARE reader attached to a copier, the reader simply reads the unique ID. PaperCut will lookup that number against its database of users and log on the correct user. If no user is found, PaperCut will prompt you to assign the card to a user account and ask for your network username and password.
This self-registration service takes away all the administration of card numbers by staff members. Before self-registration, a site needed to know the serial numbers for each card and batch import them into PaperCut. Now this isn’t always too much of a problem but many sites don’t actually know the serial number of cards and often the card supplier does not have a record either, so the process often involved an IT staff member with a card reader and a lot of copy and pasting.

 Thankfully self-registration works really well. It’s especially handy if users lose a card as they can just be issued with a new card and that’s all the admin it takes. Please note that self-registration is only available on supported devices.

PaperCut and cashless catering or door access?

Often the contactless card a site uses is in use with other systems such as door access or cashless catering. Whoever provided these systems is often using other sectors on the cards to hold information. This data is encrypted and will often only be able to be read by the readers provided with the system and some middleware to decrypt the data. This is fairly common and PaperCut is more than happy to work alongside these systems as it will simply read the serial number from the card (in sector zero).
PaperCut and the other system won’t know or care about each other they can both read different numbers from a card, but allow you to login to different systems using the same card.

One thing to note is that if a cashless catering system is in use and a purse is held on the card, that money is just used for the catering. PaperCut keeps its own “funds” in its database and the catering software keeps its funds in its own database.  It may be possible to integrate the two stores of money but this requires customisation. Please contact us for further information.

Can I read different sectors?

Now if reading the serial number from the card is not good enough (it’s yet to be a problem) then it may be possible to read one of the numbers on the other sectors. To do this you will need a special type of card reader, something the industry calls a “playback reader”. We have no idea why they are called playback readers but they are a similar cost and look exactly the same as other readers. It’s just the firmware that acts differently.

These playback readers can be programed via a downloadable configuration utility to read certain sectors from a card. It’s a simple matter of ticking a box for the sector you wish to read and then clicking “save”. This then flashes the reader’s firmware.

Programming the card reader to look on a particular sector and getting anything out of it are unfortunately two different things. Most sectors would be encrypted by whoever put the information on the card to start with (the door access or cashless catering supplier for example) so the configuration utility needs to have an encryption key entered into it, so it can read from that sector. Most people protect a MIFARE card with 2 keys (A and B).

Key A normally reads the sector while key B allows you to read and write to the sector. You would only need key A as all we wish to do is read the information on the chosen sector. We expect most companies would be happy to give you the key A information if you are using the systems they supply.

Remember – PaperCut doesn’t care what number is on the card and the site shouldn’t worry either. No one ever sees that number. Trying to get PaperCut and door access/cashless catering to read the same number is not required.

What we do.

We always ask for a sample card before suggesting what reader type will be best for the situation and, of course, the reader type also depends on the hardware you have.

Any questions or comments, just get in touch for a chat and we will do our best to answer any queries and advise you of the best option for your specific setup.

selectec are happy to offer a 40-day trial of PaperCut MF but we suggest you get in touch to discuss your requirements first.

How PaperCut MF authenticates at a MFD

Written by rossm. Posted in Network Payment Hardware, PaperCut, PaperCut MF, selectec News


Typically a site planning on implementing print and copy monitoring (or perhaps adding copy monitoring to an existing print management system) will contact us and discuss the requirements.

It’s our job as the master distributor for PaperCut MF in the UK to provide a neutral point of view and outline various factors to consider when planning print/copy management as it can be a little daunting knowing where to start. A key aspect is how users authenticate at the copier/MFD. 

With PaperCut there are various authentication options including:

  • Username and password – Users can use their domain/network username and password to log into the MFD
  • Identity number – Users can log in with their identity number. ID numbers are convenient when usernames are very long or too cumbersome to enter. For example, rather than entering a username like ‘john.smith001’, it may be more convenient to enter an employee ID of ‘1234’.
  • Identity number with PIN – When users log in with their ID number, they must also provide a PIN number which provides an additional layer of security.
  • Swipe card – The user may log in by swiping a card (magnetic stripe, Mifare, barcode, HID etc).
  • Swipe card with PIN – When users log in by swiping a card, they must also provide a PIN number. This provides an additional layer of security in case a user loses a card, this will stop anyone else logging in with the card and getting “free” copies.
  • Automatically log in as user – A specific user is always logged in to the device (useful for print room staff)

Using a contactless card reader attached to the MFD (supported models only) is the quickest authentication method. Users simply walk up to the MFD and wave the card near the reader. The reader pushes out the number it reads from the card and sends this information to the PaperCut server where it performs a look-up to see what user has that card number associated to it. Once the lookup process has taken place (it’s instant, don’t worry!) the copier logs the user on and allows them to take photocopies or release any prints waiting, assuming there is enough credit.

PaperCut Embedded - Login Screen

PaperCut Embedded - Login Screen

What if you don’t know the numbers on your cards or don’t want to maintain card numbers and import them into PaperCut?

No worries! PaperCut allows self-registration. This time-saving feature puts all the responsibility on your users and away from the overworked IT Team.

Users with cards attempting to swipe the card for the first time will be prompted on the screen of the MFD that the card they have scanned is unknown to PaperCut. They will then be asked to associate that card with their user account. Users will simply input their network username and password and then as if by magic the card number scanned is assigned to that particular PaperCut user. The next time users wish to login they swipe the card as normal and are logged in and allowed access to the MFD.

Other options include importing card numbers into PaperCut from a CSV file, importing card numbers from LDAP or even keeping the card data on an external database. Alternatively, if you have nothing better to do with your time and are somewhat of a masochist, you can manually input each card number in PaperCut one by one…

So card based authentication is the preferred method. It’s quick and easy to use and inexpensive to setup. We are glad to say that the majority of sites that install PaperCut MF in the UK use cards for authentication.

selectec are happy to offer a 40-day trial of PaperCut MF but we suggest you get in touch to discuss your requirements first.

Go Compare!

Written by rossm. Posted in PaperCut, PaperCut MF, selectec News

One of the most popular questions via our website or over the phone seems to be: What is the difference between PaperCut NG and MF?

 As you probably know PaperCut NG gives you these key features:

  • Control student print quota, or charge for printing.
  • Track and budget staff printing by faculty or department.
  • Simple installation – starts working immediately.
  • Directory integration with automatic user account creation.
  • Simple web-based administration for office staff.
  • Automatic scheduling of credit/quotas.
  • Solutions for managing wireless laptop printing.
  • Runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and Novell, making PaperCut the most flexible and integrated management solution available.

Of course PaperCut MF has all of the above features as well, so what exactly is the difference? In truth, the answer is ‘very little’. Apart from a change of logo and a few extra tabs, regular PaperCut users wouldn’t notice much difference – that is until you throw a photocopier into the mix. PaperCut MF is designed to capture “off the glass” walk-up copying. It can achieve this using two methods:

       1. Modern embedded applications that run directly on a multifunctional device, enabling single sign-on using existing domain infrastructure.

       2. Direct TCP/IP network connection with selected 3rd party hardware terminals.

Both options allow user authentication and access via various login methods including user name and password, PIN codes,  as well as common card formats including: magnetic stripe (“swipe”); barcode; proximity.

Basically, if a customer is only ever going to want/need to monitor and/or control printing, then NG is the ideal solution. However, if now or in the future a customer is looking to monitor and/or control printing and copying (and, increasingly, scanning and faxing), then MF is the right option. Currently, we have a lot of sites planning for the future, so MF has been installed and is being used solely for monitoring printers, until the time comes to implement copier control and monitoring.

PaperCut MF is a complete integrated copy and print solution that you can manage from within a single mature application. We can offer a 40-day trial of PaperCut MF to any interested parties, but we suggest you contact us with your requirements first.

PaperCut Features

PaperCut NG

PaperCut MF

Set print quotas on individuals, groups or across departments

Automated Quota Allocation System

 

Track and charge walk-up / off-the-glass copier usage, just like for printers

Simple installation – starts working immediately

Directory integration with automatic user account creation

Clustered  Server Support to Increase efficiency and distribute wear and tear

Scalability up to 100,000+ Users

External Database Support

Reasonable licensing that doesn’t dictate your IT infrastructure

 

Multiple print server support as standard

Runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, Novell and mixed environments

 

Print Job Filtering and Restrictions

Support for Hardware-Based Copier Terminals

 

Support for Copy Control via Embedded MFD Software

Hundreds of report combinations to view, export as file or deliver via email

Monitor locally attached printers

Error notifications when printers are in error

Charge copying to accounts that can be shared by multiple users

Secure print release via PC-based print release stations

Secure print release via card reader using fast release terminal

Secure print release via staff and end-user web interfaces

Secure print release via hardware terminals

 

Secure print release via embedded MFD software

Monitor faxing and scanning on supported hardware

Web-based staff print release

Find Me Printing (pull printing)

Advanced business reporting

Add credit to user’s accounts via admin web interface

Support for cash value loaders

Support for web based credit card payments

Real-time environmental Impact statistics

Manage wireless and unauthenticated printing from user-owned devices

Administer the system straight from your web browser anywhere on the network

Bill back printing costs to clients

TopUp/PrePaid Cards – ideal for student payment management

Open architecture – full documentation and APIs provided to all customers