Member Avatar for ilyons

Hey all,

I work at a small (~120 students/semester) study abroad program and I'm looking to revise my setup of a networked printer. As it stands, we have a very mixed environment (every version and SP of Windows from XP to 7 and Mac OS X 10.4 and up) and students that need to print powerpoints, docs, etc. Right now we have a Kyocera 2020D KX.

The main issues are as followed:

1) Driver delivery; it's not ideal to manually install (with the disc) the driver on each of the 120+ student laptops.
2) This likely falls under the driver settings, but it would be ideal if I could set the print profile to print on A4; all of these computers are American and, well, US Letter is not an available paper size in Europe.
3) As of now, the printer chokes on some files; even printing messages off of Gmail, for example, can cause a long (~2min/page) processing time for the printer.

If anyone has any ideas in terms of streamlining the process, please let me know.

Many thanks,
Ian

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Short, practical follow-up to the points raised by : the mixed Windows (XP -> 7) + Mac OS X 10.4+ environment, the need to force A4, and the long (~2 min/page) processing on the Kyocera 2020D KX.

As and hinted, the single most useful move is centralizing the queue — but with concrete choices. Two realistic approaches: (A) lightweight Linux/CUPS box (even a small, low-cost machine) that hosts the printer queue, advertises via IPP/Bonjour for Macs, and presents a stable PPD/driver and default options (set DefaultMedia to A4). CUPS can do server-side rendering or use a PostScript/PCL driver to limit on-printer RIP time. (B) Windows print server (shared SMB queue or print-management) that holds both x86 and x64 drivers so Windows clients can Point-and-Print without manual installs. Both let you set A4 at the queue level so students inherit it automatically.

On the slow/“choking” jobs: the printer is likely spending CPU/memory time rasterizing complex pages. Ways to mitigate: have the server render (server-side RIP) instead of the printer; use a PostScript/PCL-capable workflow so the device receives a PDL it understands; or ask students to “Print to PDF” and then print the PDF (simpler, often much faster). Also check firmware and available memory — adding RAM to the device or a firmware update often fixes long processing times.

Quick checklist to try now

  • On a central machine, create the shared queue and set defaults to A4 + draft quality for general student use.
  • Install both 32- and 64-bit Windows drivers on the server and confirm Mac clients can see the queue via IPP/Bonjour.
  • Test three prints: plain text, a complex PowerPoint slide, and a Gmail message (or print-to-PDF then print) to compare times.
  • If problems persist, consider a replacement device with native PostScript/PCL support or adding memory to the Kyocera.

Short-term, ’s “fast draft” suggestion saves toner and time, but centralizing drivers + moving rendering off the printer gives the most reliable, scalable fix.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for royng

You can try printing it in fast draft. Never heard of the printer you use. I would recommend Hp printer, they are good and convenient to use for me. Maybe you might want to change the printer settings

Member Avatar for mjdodd

you say the printer is networked, in my experience is is better to have a dedicated network printer server... ie one computer exclusively as a printer server and thus you can set it for serving as appropriate.
M

Member Avatar for benmar

that's right you need a printer server,,,

Member Avatar for royng

if you could follow benmar and mjdodd. Having a printer server is easy, fast and convenient to use

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