Step 1: Determine your print environment
Print Deploy is flexible to fit your environment, no matter whether you use a print server or not, or whether the users' computers are joined to a local domain or not, or even if you are using a combination of the two.
For a summary of the print environments that Print Deploy supports, take a look at Print environments supported by Print Deploy .
This page guides you through choosing a print environment that suites the needs of your organization.
Already confident about which print environment you have? Jump straight to the setup topic:
Read on to find out which print environment you need to set up:
When to print via a print server or directly to printers
| When to print via a print server | When to print directly to printers (serverless) |
|---|---|
 You are charging for printing and want to ensure that all print jobs are vetted by a server before they are passed to the printer. For example, at universities or shared-office workspaces where users have to pay for their printing. |
Your organization has distributed sites, centrally hosted servers, and slow WAN connections, where the speed of printing can be significantly improved by keeping the spool file local to the branch. |
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You are setting up printing at a large office like a headquarters or large branch office with many users and printers. |
You are setting up printing at smaller branch offices, where there is no server infrastructure on site. |
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You want your users to be able to completely shut down their computer, and still release their print jobs. |
Your organization hosts all of its services in the cloud, but does not have a fast enough internet connection to send print jobs to the cloud and back. |
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You need to support printing from iOS, Android, and Chromebooks; we recommend using a print server with Mobility Print. |
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You want to use Print Archiving for auditing purposes. Print Archiving stores a copy of the print job together with information on who printed it, when they printed it, and where. |
When to authenticate with a local domain or PaperCut NG/MF
| When to authenticate with a local domain (e.g. Active Directory) |
When to authenticate with PaperCut NG/MF (no local domain) |
|---|---|
|
You don't want your users to be prompted for a once-off sign in when printing for the first time. |
Your organization uses cloud-based directories like Google Cloud Directory (G Suite) or Azure AD. |
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Your users don't know their password, for example, when they are signing in using a smart card. |
Your organization has some users who are not managed in directories at all, for example, contractors or guests. |
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You don't mind if you print via a server or not (it works equally well on both). |
Your organization supports multiple operating systems, for example, Windows and MacOS computers—setting up Kerberos authentication on these could be challenging. |
Traditional print server environments require computers to be joined to a local domain (for example, Active Directory). Using Kerberos authentication, the server validates the identity of the user who is printing the document.
When a user’s computer is joined to a domain, PaperCut NG/MF can extract the user identity either:
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on the print server
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through the Print Deploy client—for when the user is printing directly to printers.
Organizations with environments that manage user identities in cloud-based directories like Google Cloud Directory (G Suite) or Azure AD, often do not want to deploy a local directory just to enable authenticated printing.
If your organization uses a cloud-based directory, use Print Deploy because PaperCut NG/MF takes care of the authentication directly with your cloud directory, whether users are printing via a server or directly to printers.
Work out what your print environment needs to be
Taking into account the information above, choose the best print environment for your organization. Then click the relevant link below for details on how to set up Print Deploy to make your plan a reality.
- Print server with computers joined to a local domain
- Print server with computers not joined to a local domain (Mobility Print)
- Print serverless (Direct Print) where computers are joined or not joined to a local domain
If you are catering for larger and smaller sites, or catering for a combination of computers joined to a local domain or not, choose more than one print environment and set up a hybrid.