Printing Terminology Printer Software interface between OS and the Print Device Print Device Local Vs Network Print Server computer on which printers reside Print Driver converts print commands into printer specific language Requirements for Network Printing At least one computer to operate as the print server 2003 Server Support for many clients UNIX MS DOS MAC Netware etc Sufficient RAM to process documents Sufficient disk space on the print server Printer Spool Guidelines for a Network Printing Environment Users printing requirements Company s printing requirements Number of users What do they print Types of printers needed Work load estimates Number of print servers required Where to locate print devices Printing Configurations Nonremote local print device Printer device direct connected to local computer Driver and Print Job Queue on local computer Nonremote network print device Print device connected to the network Equal Access Each using computer has own job queue and print driver Remote local print device Printer device connected to a Print Server Administrator defines Security Print drivers automatically downloaded Job queue maintained on the print server Remote network print devices Same as above except printer device connected to network Nonremote Local Network Remote Local Network Printing Components GDI The part of the OS that begins the process of visual output Print Driver Enables the OS to communicate with the Print Device Print Graphics Driver Print Interface Driver Renders GDI commands into Device Interface Commands Provides the interface for configuring the printer Characterization Data File Provides information about specific print devices make model etc Print Spooler Receives processes schedules distributes print jobs Print Spooler Print router Pass print requests to the appropriate provider Local Print Provider Local printers Finds the connection Writes the content of the print job to the spool Remote Print Provider Same as above except attached via network Print Processors Despool the print job EMF data type RAW data type Print Monitor Language monitor bidirectional printing Port monitor send the print job to print device Creating and Sharing Printers Use the Active Directory Printer wizard to create and share printers Use the Add Printer wizard to connect to remote print devices Installing a Local Print Device Installing a Network Print Device Default protocol is TCP IP You do not need to place network print devices near the print server Network connections transfer data more quickly than do printer cable connections ie Local Use the Add Printer wizard to add a printer for a network print device Sharing an Existing Printer List in Directory publishes the printer in the AD Additional Drivers for users running different versions of Windows Accessing Printers Permissions Print Mange Printers Manage Documents Managing Printers Assigning forms tray Pause Cancel Resume Separator Page Redirect Ownership Setting a Separator Page A separator page is a file that contains print device commands Separator pages have two functions Identify and separate printed documents Change printing modes PS PCL Microsoft Windows 2003 includes four separator pages PCL sep PSCRIPT sep SYSPRINT sep SYSPRTJ sep You can build your own custom separator pages by creating a sep file that contains legal printer commands You can customize existing sep files Pausing Resuming and Canceling Documents Pausing or resuming a printer or canceling all documents on a printer might be necessary if there is a printing problem There are two places within the Printers window to pause resume or cancel all documents You can perform a number of tasks when you manage printers Redirecting Documents to a Different Printer You can redirect documents to a different printer You can redirect all print jobs for a printer but you cannot redirect specific documents You can redirect documents by opening the Properties dialog box for the specific printer Change the port assignment If another print device is available for the current print server you can continue to use the same printer and configure the printer to use the other print device Taking Ownership of a Printer By default the person who installs the printer owns it A number of users can take ownership of a printer Users or Member of Group with manage printers permissions Administrators Printer Operators Server Operators Power User by default have Manage Printers permissions Taking ownership of a printer is an advanced security feature that can be accessed from the Advanced button on the Security tab of a printer s Properties dialog box Auditing can be used to track who successfully and unsuccessfully attempts to take ownership of a printer Pausing Restarting and Canceling a Document You must have the Manage Documents permission for the appropriate printer to perform these actions If there is a printing problem with a specific document you can pause and resume printing of the document Restart a document if part of it is missing due to a printer problem Cancel when document sent to the wrong printer or is no longer needed To manage a document open the window for the printer and select the document Setting Notification Priority and Printing Time You must have the Manage Documents permission for the appropriate printer to perform these document management tasks You can control print jobs by setting the notification the priority and the printing time Use the General tab of the Properties dialog box for a document to set the notification the priority and the printing time for the document Web Administration IIS must be running You can access all printers http servername Printers Or specific printer http servername sharenam e Using a Web Browser to Manage Printers Allows you to administer printers from any computer running a Web browser Allows you to customize the interface Provides a summary page listing the status of all printers on a print server Can report real time print device data Using a Web Browser to Access Printers Setting Up a Printer Pool One Printer connected to multiple print devices Devices should be identical Must use the same driver Load Balancing Configured from the ports TAB Setting Priorities Among Printers You can set priorities among groups of documents that all print to the same print device To set priorities among printers point two or more printers to the same print device the same port and then set a different priority for each printer