PaperCut Print & Copy Control for Schools & Colleges
Track, control and optionally charge for every print and photocopy on your network. idXtra supplies and installs PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF, with top-up options that work alongside your cashless system cards, cutting paper and toner waste from day one.
Why PaperCut for Education?
Excess printing incurs huge costs on educational institutions in both hidden and explicit ways. Over 20,000 schools, colleges and universities worldwide use PaperCut NG to control costs. The education IT environment is unique: user turnover is high and networks are dynamic. From its first release, PaperCut has been designed by education network administrators specifically for the education environment, and education remains its primary focus.
PaperCut NG integrates with your network's existing print servers to instantly enable real-time monitoring, quota control, activity reports and flexible administration. You can implement it with different monitoring models, from silent monitoring to quota enforcement to charging on a user-pays model, making end-users responsible for their own activity and ensuring network resources are used sensibly.
Functionality schools use every day
- Advanced scripting: free printing during class time, teacher approval of colour jobs, enforced duplex printing.
- Top-up cards: a simple, cost-effective, voucher-based student payment system.
- Automatic Active Directory synchronisation using your existing year level and department groups.
- Customisable web interface that integrates with your existing intranet.
- Web printing from student-owned laptops, tablets and phones with no drivers to install.
- Online payment module supporting credit and debit cards or PayPal, reducing cash handling.
PaperCut has been in production use on networks with many thousands of users for well over a decade, with proven scalability, clustering support and sites of over 350,000 users. It is renowned for straightforward installation: security permissions apply themselves on install, there are no backend databases to configure, new printers are detected automatically from a template, and the optional client software deploys with zero install. By reducing paper and toner usage, PaperCut usually pays for itself in a few months.
What PaperCut Gives You
Every page of output on your network becomes transparent, measurable and accountable.
Track Every Printer
Track printing from virtually any printer, including locally installed devices, in an area that is notoriously difficult to monitor and control.
User Accountability
Monitor the printing of every user on your network, with optional balances to limit how much printing each student or staff member can perform.
Smart Print Rules
Cancel or restrict jobs sent to inappropriate devices, block oversized documents, limit copies and enforce duplex to regulate the print process.
Environmental Reporting
Detailed reports illustrate the environmental impact of your paper output, supporting your green agenda and purchasing decisions.
Web & Mobile Printing
Students print from laptops, tablets and phones via your wireless network with no software or drivers to install, a standard service for everyone.
Cross-Platform
Works with Active Directory, eDirectory, RM or LDAP authentication, and Windows, Mac and Linux print servers with pop-up messaging on every client.
PaperCut MF: Copier & MFD Control
PaperCut is available in two versions. PaperCut NG is the fully featured print management solution; PaperCut MF adds comprehensive copier and multifunction device control plus value loaders that automate cash and web payments.
PaperCut MF tracks, controls and optionally charges for the printing and photocopying performed by users. To capture "off the glass" walk-up copying, it supports embedded applications that run directly on the multifunction device with single sign-on from your existing domain, and hardware terminals with user authentication via magnetic stripe, proximity, barcode and smart cards, the same card technologies your idXtra cashless system already uses.
Feature highlights
- Track and control walk-up photocopying using hardware or embedded software.
- 100% web-based administration from anywhere on the network.
- Vendor neutral: no hardware or operating system lock-in.
- Differential charging per copier or printer, with varied prices for colour, duplex and large format.
- Secure print release and find-me printing in open access environments.
- Charge to shared accounts, ideal for departments, faculties and cost centres.
- Advanced reporting in PDF, HTML and Excel, including environmental impact.
Problems PaperCut Solves
Wasteful printing and large documents tie up our printers
Set an upper document size to stop unusually large print jobs, limit the number of copies, restrict colour and enforce duplex. There is even a filter to stop "double submitted" jobs caused by accidentally clicking print twice.
Users don't like change
PaperCut is designed to be phased into production. Start with silent monitoring, then add quotas and print rules, and introduce user-pays printing once the processes are well established, without disrupting the workflow of staff and students.
We don't have a large IT team to run a print management system
PaperCut is self-maintaining: automatic synchronisation of users, groups and printers, automatic configuration of new accounts and periodic quotas. Users top up their own accounts with cards or online payments, and one-click and scheduled email reports keep you informed.
Deploying software on workstations is difficult and time consuming
No software is required on each workstation. The optional client can run using the zero-install method, launched directly from the PaperCut server.
Guest and wireless users are anonymous on the network
Anonymous users can be authenticated for printing using the PaperCut client, a hold/release queue or PaperCut's user web tools.
The IT department reacts to problems instead of preventing them
PaperCut automatically tracks printer errors and can send email or SMS alerts to admin or helpdesk staff the moment a printer needs attention.
Print management systems are too expensive
Special educational pricing with per-user licensing means you do not pay extra for servers, workstations, printers or operating systems. Savings from reduced consumption mean PaperCut is software that truly pays for itself.
One Card for Printing, Catering and Access
Combine PaperCut with your idXtra cashless system so the same smart card that pays in the canteen also releases print jobs and controls photocopier access.
Get In Touch
Contact us today for a free consultation or live demonstration.
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The Foundry, 156 Blackfriars Road
London, SE1 8EN