Print Queues OS X Server

[pulsewidth947]

I'm looking for some advice about setting up a print queue/credit system on the Macs where I work.

Has anybody implemented something like this in their place of work? I know you can set Workgroup Manager to allow X amount of prints every X days, but I think a credit system would be more appropriate.

At the moment, Students can print as much as they like and we are going through a ream of paper a day which is outrageous. Half of that is just thrown away which makes me feel bad.

Were using an Xserve running 10.2.8 Server ed, and about 19 iMacs running 10.2.8.

 

[MisterMe]

I'm looking for some advice about setting up a print queue/credit system on the Macs where I work.

Has anybody implemented something like this in their place of work? I know you can set Workgroup Manager to allow X amount of prints every X days, but I think a credit system would be more appropriate.

At the moment, Students can print as much as they like and we are going through a ream of paper a day which is outrageous. Half of that is just thrown away which makes me feel bad.

Were using an Xserve running 10.2.8 Server ed, and about 19 iMacs running 10.2.8.

You should not approach this situation from a perspective of anger. Do a realistic needs assessment of your paper needs. Quite frankly, I don't think that a ream of paper a day is at all out of line. That half of the ream is thrown away, not withstanding.

 

[pulsewidth947]

I'm not being irrational, the students are printed non-work related stuff off.. and because they arent held accountable for the prints they just send loads of copies through.. they print EVERYTHING off.

If what was printed was work related, they could print off as much as they wanted. But as 60% of what they print ISNT work related, then something must be done.

 

[Makosuke]

No, I'm with pulsewidth947; on average, it seems that left to their own devices students have no qualms about sending just about anything to the printer. They don't generally seem to care whether they dump half the pages in the trash ten seconds later, since they're not paying for it (directly, anyway).

As such, a quota system of some sort is a great solution, and my university has been looking into one for exactly the same reason--paper costs are outrageous, and probably 9/10ths of what's printed either ends up in the trash or has nothing to do with coursework.

That said, at least as of OSX Server 10.3 there isn't really a way to impliment the sort of "credit" system you seem to be talking about. The only option you have in Workgroup Manager is to create various specific quotas that give the user X pages per Y days. This is great for limiting the amount of waste a single user can produce, but it doesn't offer any sort of accounting that would be necessary for a credit system that would more effectively deal with the cumulative waste of dozens of users printing several extra pages each.

For that, you'll probably have to look to some more advanced print server system, and I can't help you with that. Maybe somebody else can.

 

[pulsewidth947]

Thanks Makosuke, guess I'll have to ask around for some suitable software. I know this is possible with PCs, as I've often encountered quotas when printing from them. The other problem we have is that we have 19 iMacs, all printing to the same 7 year old laser printer. When a student sends a photoshop document to print it holds the queue up for everyone else. They get bored of waiting and log out while their print queue is still in print center. Then when the next student tries to print they cannot as there is a phantom print waiting to come through. They come to me complaining that there print isnt coming through and all I do is delete everything from the print center queue and it works.

What would be really nice is a quota system that'd work from both mac and pc platforms, but I doubt there is one. Theres never one simple solution that makes your working life easier is there?!