PaperCut NG18.3.6 Build 48133

With the help of PaperCut NG you can monitor server and local printers, as well as restrict user access to them. This is a comprehensive software application that can be launched from a web browser.

Installer and initial configuration

The setup operation take a while to finish, and you can select the components you want to install between the primary server, secondary print server, web print server (sandbox mode) and site server.At the first run, you are greeted by a configuration wizard that invites you to specify the administrator's password, worldwide location, organization type, default costs for printing grayscale and colored (per page), along with the initial user credit and source. The setup options can be verified before proceeding any further.

Clean and intuitive web interface

Once logged in, you can check out the dashboard with the system startup (e.g. uptime, total user and printers, recent errors), pages printed, printer status, environmental impact, and real-time activity.It's possible to view the transactions and job log for each user, modify a user's credit, allow users to release jobs printed by others, export the transaction history to file, or compile a report based on the job log and export it to file.

Manage users, groups, accounts and printers

Users can be organized into different groups, so that you can perform actions for an entire group with filters applied for the balance, restriction status, department, office, or last activity. For instance, you can alter the restriction, overdraft, account selection or advanced user settings, allow or deny printing, generate random primary and secondary card ID numbers, reset statistics, or restore the configuration to default.PaperCut NG also lets you create accounts, override printer costs, schedule a quota and write notes, as well as configure the settings previously described in the users section. When it comes to printers, you can check out a list with jobs pending release, personalize notification messages for various events (e.g. when printing is denied due to insufficient credit), investigate charts, and set refunds.

Evaluation and conclusion

There were no types of issues in our testing, thanks to the fact that PaperCut NG didn't hang, crash or display error messages. It used low CPU and RAM. All in all, this software application features rich options and plenty of customization preferences to help yo easily monitor local printers and manage user access.