Direct Print Overview

Overview

In addition to Secure Release (where print jobs are held until a user walks to the printer to release it), Pharos Cloud offers Direct Print. Direct Print allows employees in your organization to send and print their documents directly to the printer.

With Direct Print, a user adds one or more direct printers using any of the following

  • Pharos Chome Print extension (for Chrome users)
  • Pharos Secure Release desktop app (for Windows and macOS users).

When the user submits a print job to one of the configured direct printers in Pharos Cloud, the print job is delivered to the printer immediately.

This solution is suitable for organizations who want to replace Google Cloud Print or do not require authentication at a device.

Key Features

Print Driver Management

One of the most challenging aspects of managing printers is managing drivers. Print driver management allows IT admins to:

  • Centrally manage print drivers in the cloud
  • Select a driver from the list of manufacturer’s printer drivers for Windows in the Pharos Cloud web console
  • Upload device-specific drivers using the new Driver Capture tool
  • Use the IPP Class driver, which uses the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP)
  • Hide drivers from the list, especially those not relevant to your organization.
  • Set a default printer driver. This becomes the default driver when creating a Windows queue. If not specified, it will default to HP Universal Printing PCL 6 (v7.1.0).

More Information: Print Driver Management

Location-based Printing

Note: Location-based Printing is supported on Windows and macOS only.

Location-based printing enables users to print to devices based on their location. The Print Scout installed on user workstations detects the user’s location and seamlessly shows a list of the available printers at their current location.

More Information: Location-based Printing

Group-based Printing (Install Print Queues based on Groups )

Direct Print lets you assign groups to install specific print queues, regardless of where printers are physically located. Users in these groups can access a particular queue without their location needing to match the printer. This ensures that the queue is available to users in the assigned group, no matter where they are.

More Information: Group-based Printing

Restrict Access to a Direct Printer by Group

With Direct Print, administrators can assign a printer to one or more groups. When a printer has been assigned to a group, it is only available to the users in the assigned group. If there are no group assignments, all printers are available to all users by default.

More Information: Restrict Access to a Direct Printer by Group

Restrict Access to a Print Queue by Group

With Direct Print, administrators can assign a Print Queue to one or more groups. When a Print Queue has been assigned to a group, it is only available to the users in the assigned group. If there are no group assignments, all print queues are available to all users by default.

More Information: Restrict Access to a Print Queue by Group

Directory User Group Synchronization

Pharos Cloud supports the automatic provisioning of users and groups from identity providers using the System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM) protocol. SCIM is an open standard automating user provisioning for organizations by communicating employee identity data from identity providers (IdP) to service providers.

More Information: Directory User Group Synchronization

Direct Print Dashboard

The Direct Print dashboard offers a concise overview of significant metrics related to your Direct Print setup and offers guidance on potential actions you can implement to enhance your print environment.

More Information: Direct Print Dashboard

Key Benefits

  • Eliminate print server and associated IT labor. As a cloud solution, there are no extra servers to install or manage.
  • Simplify driver deployment and management
    • Enables users to easily discover and add printers themselves.
    • Enables admins to automatically install printers on users’ workstations based on their location.
    • Automatic deployment of print drivers and finishing options
  • Enhance security
    • Eliminate print server vulnerabilities
    • Protect data with end-to-end encryption
    • Support zero-trust security principles

Supported Clients

Direct Print supports the following clients:

Note: The Chrome Direct Print feature is available only for Pharos Cloud only. It is not yet available for Uniprint or Blueprint Enterprise.

Supported Authentication Provider

Direct Print supports OpenID Connect, Email Authentication and Active Directory authentication for Windows and macOS.

Note: Chrome Direct Print does not support Email Authentication and Active Directory Auth.

Limitations

  • Direct Print v2.0 cannot be used on 32-bit machines. In case you have a 32-bit machine and require Direct Print, please get in touch with Support to obtain an earlier version of the Print Scout, which supports Direct Print v1.0. It's important to note that Direct Print v1.0 lacks some functionalities, including print driver management and location-based printing.
  • Chrome Direct Print now supports location-based printing but does not support automatic installation of queues.

How Direct Print Works

1. IT administrators configure Direct Print on the Pharos Cloud web console.

a. IT admins select the Authentication Provider.

b. IT admins run the Device Scout to discover printers that are ready and compatible with Direct Print. Alternatively, admins can manually import printers for use with Direct Print.

c. IT admins set up locations and print queues for users.

  • Create locations and add relevant print devices to the locations as appropriate.
  • Configure print queues.
    • Print queues can be configured to be automatically or manually installed.
    • Print queues can support two types of print drivers a) manufacturers’ drivers for Windows b) Pharos IPP driver.
    • Each print queue is configured with default finishing options (for example, Letter Mono Simplex).
    • Each print device can have one or more associated queues.

2. Users add printers using the Chrome Print extension or IT administrators deploy Print Scouts to users’ workstations. The Print Scout is responsible for:

a. Installing the Pharos Secure Release desktop app. This tool is used to manage print queues on users’ workstations.

b. Downloading the print drivers and finishing options.

  • Auto-install print queues. When a user logs in to the Pharos Secure Release desktop app, the Print Scout checks the auto-install print queues that are allowed for a given location and then downloads the print driver and finishing options if they are not already downloaded.

  • Manual-install queues. When a user adds a manual-install print queue, it checks if the print driver and finishing options already exist and then downloads them if they are not available.

Note: Auto-install print queues are not yet supported on macOS and Chrome extension.

c. Creating print queues and adding them to the list of available printers in the Pharos Secure Release desktop app.

3. IT administrators invite Direct Print users by sending an email with instructions on how to activate Direct Print.

4. Users start printing to the print queues that they have installed themselves or have been automatically installed for them.

5. If the Applied setting for an auto-install queue is set to "Daily," any changes made to the finishing options will be reset everyday. For example, if a user switches from “mono” to “color”, the setting will revert to the original “mono” setting overnight or whatever the queue was installed with.

If an IT administrator modifies the driver, finishing options, queue name, or queue type for an auto-install queue, those changes will be applied to the workstation overnight (regardless of whether the Applied setting is set to “Daily” or “New Install Only”).

Manual-install print queues do not get updates from the Pharos Cloud web console after they have been installed on user workstations.

Note: Direct Print is functional only for line of sight printers - users can add and submit jobs only to printers that the user's computer can see.

Device Discovery

IT admins would use the Device Scout to automatically discover Direct Print compatible printers. The Device Scout can detect a device's IPP capability and configuration. Specifically, the Device Scout scans for Ipp Support (whether the printer supports the IPP protocol) and Discovered IPP Url(e.g. ipp://ipaddress:631/ipp/print). Alternatively, you can manually import printers for use with Direct Print if you do not wish to use the Device Scout to discover printers. You can import a comma-separated values (CSV) file containing a list of printers that you want to add as part of Direct Print.

Direct Print Screen in the Pharos Cloud web console

The web portal includes the Direct tab with the following sections:

  • Setup Guide – This provides a quick and easy way to deploy Direct Print by guiding you through the required steps.
  • Dashboard - The dashboard offers a concise overview of significant metrics related to your Direct Print setup and offers guidance on potential actions you can implement to enhance your print environment.
  • Direct Printers – Use this screen to configure components required for Direct Print: locations, printers, and print queues.
  • Print Scout – Provides details about the individual workstations where the Print Scout is installed.
  • Invite – Invite users to start using Direct Print. The system provides the template that admins can use as a starting point.
  • Settings – Use the Settings screen to configure the following: authentication provider for Direct Print, user registration, and user and group synchronization with SCIM

Note: The Direct tab on the Direct Print web console is only available if you have a Direct Print license.

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