Printer Based Tracking

Printer based print tracking is accomplished via Printer Profiles.

Create a New Printer Profile

Follow these instructions from the beginning to create a new Printer Profile. If you simply want to edit an existing Printer Profile, click the profile name on the Printer Profile page and then start at step 6 below instead.

Important: Printer Profiles are one type of Basic Rule within Workflow. Refer to How Rules are Processed to learn more about rules.
  1. Select Administration from the ribbon.
  2. Select Printers → Profiles.
  3. In the Printer Profile screen, click Create.
  4. Type a unique name for the profile.
  5. Select a Track Option from the list:
    • Track with popup – Presents the user with a popup when they submit a print job to printers that are assigned this Print Profile. The Workflow Client must be installed on the user's desktop.
    • Track with no popup – Tracks in the background only with no user interaction.
    • Do not track – Print jobs to devices assigned to this profile are not tracked.

    • Disallow printing – Prevents the user from printing to devices with this print profile assigned. The user will receive a notification that the job is canceled. A job cancellation event is created in the Job Events.

  6. Click Create to continue to configure the options for the new Profile. Although all options are described below, sections appear only if appropriate for the selected Track Option. When 'Track with popup' or 'Track with no popup' are selected, additional fields appear below.

Profiles

Type a unique name for the profile.

  • Track with popup – Presents the user with a popup when they submit a print job to printers that are assigned this Print Profile. The Workflow Client must be installed on the user's desktop.
  • Track with no popup – Tracks in the background only with no user interaction.
  • Do not track – Print jobs to devices assigned to this profile are not tracked.

  • Disallow printing – Prevents the user from printing to devices with this print profile assigned. The user will receive a notification that the job is canceled and a log is added to the Job Events.

When enabled, tracks print activity from users who are printing to file, not just to an output device.

Set this option to 'Yes' to count pages as sheets. When a user prints a duplex page, the count will be two sheets.

Pricing

Determines how the job will be priced. Options are 'Per page', 'Per square foot', 'Per square metre', 'Per square inch', 'Per linear foot', or 'Per paper size'.

Important: If you select 'Per paper size', ensure you also configure the pricing options in the Paper Size table that appears.

Select the Job type that corresponds to the selected pricing option. For example, if you selected 'Per square foot' as the Pricing option, your will select 'Plot' as the Job type. Possible job types are Unknown, Print, Copy, Scan, Fax, Postal, Misc. and Plot.

Assign a cost that relates to the selected Pricing option for b/w output. The currency used is based on the server locale.

Assign a cost that relates to the selected Pricing option for color output.

Job Options

Limits the device print output to just B/W, just color/ or to allow both color and B/W printing.

Set this option to 'Yes' to force 2 sided printing.

To adjust the page layout for print jobs, enable the 'N-up' option to print multiple pages on a single side.

Limits

When set to 'Yes', neither page nor cost limits are imposed on the print jobs.

If you set 'Ignore all printing limits' to No, you also need to define at least one limit. Click Add Limit, complete the additional options that appear and then save the limit. Limits are not required when this option is set to 'Yes'.

Important: When you add a limit Workflow automatically changes to "wait for page count" mode. This mode causes Workflow to wait until all pages are spooled before it displays the Popup window or any warnings.

Type: Set the type of limit:

Type Limit is Applied When
Total Pages The total number of pages (both B/W and Color) is reached
Mono Pages The value in the Limits field is reached for Mono Pages only
Color Pages The value in the Limits field is reached Color Pages only
Total Cost The total cost of the job, after the Popup is completed.
Base Cost The total cost of the job, before the Popup displays.

Title: Enter a unique Title for this limit.

Limits: Enter the amount for the limit that matches the Type you selected. For example, if you chose Mono Pages, you might enter 100 (pages), or if you chose Total Cost, you might enter 20.00.

Message: Enter the message that will be displayed to the user if they submit a print job (exceeding the set limit) to a printer that is using this profile.

Stop Job: Enable this field to stop the print job when the limit is reached.

Custom Fields

When there are no custom fields yet defined in the system, the message "There are no custom fields defined" appears. You can click the 'Go Create one?' link to open the Client Custom Fields and Values screen and start defining custom fields. Otherwise, this section displays the 'Only use the included custom fields' option. When set to Yes, the custom fields list appears in the section, and you can select the custom fields that will appear for this User Profile.