Print Scout Release

Pharos Cloud offers two approaches for delivering print jobs to printers: 1) Print Scout Release and 2) Cloud Release.

Print Scout Release (also known as "Push Print") is a document release method where printers retrieve print jobs directly from a Print Scout. There are methods in which a Print Scout is used to deliver print jobs to secure printers.

Personal Print Scout Release
Crowdsource Print Scout Release
Virtual Print Server Print Scout Release

For details on delivering print jobs without using the Print Scout, refer to the Cloud Release documentation.

Personal Print Scout Release

With Personal Print Scout Release, print submission and print release occur on the same workstation.

User submits a print job on his Windows or macOS workstation running a personal Print Scout
The Print Scout encrypts and stores a copy of the encrypted print job on the user's workstation.
The user releases the print job from a secure printer.
Pharos Cloud notifies the user's personal workstation to release the print job to the secure printer.
The Print Scout decrypts and releases the print job.

The print job will only be released if the user's personal Print Scout is online. If the personal Print Scout is offline or does not have a line of sight o the secure printer, print release will fail.

Crowd Source Print Scout Release

With Crowd Source release, print submission and print release occur on different workstations. Print jobs are stored both locally and in the cloud. For print release, a user's individual Print Scout is used if online; otherwise, the cloud backup and another Print Scout are used to deliver the print job to the printer.

1. User submits a print job from a Windows or macOs machine running a Print Scout. User can also submit print jobs from a mobile device with the Secure Release app installed or from Chrome OS extension or Linux workstations.

Chrome extension, mobile, and Linux print submission options require Cloud Storage and OpenID Connect as the user authentication provider. Print jobs are not stored locally on the workstation.

2. The Print Scout encrypts the print job, stores a copy of the encrypted print job on the workstation, and uploads a backup copy of the encrypted print job to the Pharos Cloud.

3. When a user prints a job and their personal Print Scout is online and the job is stored locally, the Print Scout decrypts and releases the print job. It's important to note that this does not apply to print jobs submitted from a mobile device, Chrome extension, or Linux Print Scout.

4. When a user prints a job and their personal Print Scout is offline, Pharos Cloud will notify another Print Scout to release the print job to the secure printer.

Virtual Print Server Print Scout Release

With Virtual Print Server release, print release occurs through a Print Scout running in "Print Server" mode. Print jobs are stored both locally and in the cloud. For print release, the cloud backup and a virtual print server Print Scout are used. The employee’s personal Print Scout is never used for print release

To use this option, you will need to enable the Force delivery via print servers setting in the Secure > Settings > Document Handling section of the web console.

When Force delivery through Print Servers is enabled, all job release activities will be handled by Print Scouts that are in Print Server Mode (also known as virtual print server mode). The user's originating Print Scout will never be used for job release. All jobs will be stored in cloud storage and all job releases will require the job to be retrieved from cloud storage.

This option is designed for customers who have printers that operate on a different VLAN than workstations. In this case, the user's workstation will not have access to the printers, therefore a "special" Print Scout is needed within the printer's VLAN to handle all job delivery requests.

For this feature to work, the following are required:

Cloud Storage is enabled.
Print Scout is installed on Print Servers

User Workflow

Chrome extension, mobile, and Linux print submission options require Cloud Storage and OpenID Connect as the user authentication provider. Print jobs are not stored locally on the workstation.

2. The Print Scout encrypts the print job, stores a copy of the encrypted print job on the workstation, and uploads a backup copy of the encrypted print job to the Pharos Cloud.

3. The user walks up to a secure printer and authenticates. Pharos Cloud will notify a Print Scout running in Print Server mode to release the print job to the secure printer.