1

Is it possible to have multiple printers and only one printer job queue? Any good software or hardware solution?

Idea is like so:

  • someone sends a print job to printer (possibly shared via Windows Server 2012+)
  • this job is then queued in printers' print servers (or any SW/HW print server)
  • then this person physically goes to the one of this printer and he or she will pop a job from printer's queue (using his PIN/NFC/RFID and choosing his job) and the printer will print it
  • job is then cleared from queue on all printers

Maybe there is some even better way to achieve this. I will appreciate any useful idea ;)

patok
  • 693
  • 1
  • 5
  • 14
  • So you expect the user to walk around from printer to printer to find hjs/her print job to enter their pin? That sounds like a recipe for having a bunch of angry users. – joeqwerty Apr 13 '18 at 14:53
  • no, I absolutely do not expect this... I expect that the user would be able to choose any of involved printers once he send a job to the queue and regardless of which printer he physically choose (meaning the printer where the user authenticate himself with ie. PIN), the printer will take the job from queue, print it and then this job will be removed from the queue on **all** printers – patok Apr 14 '18 at 09:59

1 Answers1

0

The short answer is yes, this functionality is possible, but these types of features are not available with a basic Windows print server. Since you mention being able to use PIN/NFC/RFID, presumably you are using large enterprise class multi-function copy machines. I'd recommend checking with the manufacture of those devices, I know several of them offer specific solutions that integrate with AD, allow you to print a job from any network device, and retrieve that job from any printer the user likes (the feature is usually called secure print release). There are also several universal programs out there like Papercut and Printerlogic. I'd recommend searching for print management solutions.

Nick
  • 11
  • 2