Printer Filters & Restrictions (convert or block print jobs)

PaperCut NG/MF lets you control what happens to print jobs before they reach the printer. You can automatically convert print jobs to color or duplex, restrict which groups are allowed to print to a printer, set the maximum allowed cost, copies, or page count, deny print jobs based on document name or paper size, and more.

To set these options, go to Printers > select a printer > Filters & Restrictions tab.

PaperCut NG & MF offer two categories of print job filters:

• Conversions—Change the way jobs print, like forcing color jobs to print in grayscale or duplex jobs to print on a single page.
• Restrictions—Decide which jobs are allowed, and block the rest.

Some extra things to know about:

• Color detection — Make sure This is a color printer (use page-level detection) is enabled. Otherwise, jobs may be denied depending on your filter settings. See: Set the color detection method .

• Applying these settings to other printers — Filters and restrictions are managed on one printer at a time. Once configured, you can copy settings to other printers. See: Copy printer settings . Also, edit the “[Template printer]” so new printers inherit these settings.

• Filters and Find-Me Printing — If using Find-Me Printing, only the filters on the Find-Me queue apply. Filters on the target/destination queue are ignored. This can be overrode for restrictions but not conversions. See: Overriding cost and filter settings .

• Changing print attributes at MF devices — If a user changes the settings of a held job in a way that violates the printer’s Filters & Restrictions, the device shows an error and prevents release. The job is released once its settings comply. See: Changing attributes of print jobs at the device .

   

Conversions (Grayscale and Duplex)

Conversion filters modify print jobs on the fly. Instead of blocking a job, a conversion filter can automatically adjust it.

Common uses:

• Convert color jobs to grayscale to avoid accidental color printing.
• Convert jobs on high-volume printers to duplex to save paper.
• Automatically convert student jobs to duplex.

Available filters:

• Convert to Grayscale — Automatically convert color jobs to grayscale for selected users.
• Convert to Duplex — Automatically convert simplex (single-sided) jobs to duplex for selected users.

Example: convert student print jobs to grayscale

You can convert all jobs that were sent by a student to grayscale from the Filters & Restrictions tab as follows:

1. Ensure you have a Students group in your domain (or equivalent) that contains all students.

2. Ensure the Students group has been added to PaperCut so that it is displayed on the Groups tab. For more information about adding and removing groups see Groups in PaperCut NG/MF.

3. Click the Printers tab.
   The Printer List page is displayed.

4. Select a printer.
   The Printer Details page is displayed showing the Summary tab contents.

5. Click the Filters & Restrictions tab.

6. Select the Convert color jobs to grayscale for check box; then select Users in the following groups from the list.

   

7. Select the Students group in the list of groups for selection.

8. Click Apply.

9. Test by printing a color job as a user in the Students group.

Use the PaperCut TCP/IP Port for faster conversions (optional)

Conversion filters work by modifying print jobs on the fly. On Windows (when using standard printer ports) this is performed by modifying a print job and submitting it as a new job. An alternative is to configure the printers to use a PaperCut printer port. When using a PaperCut port, print jobs are modified in-place rather than copied. This has several advantages:

• Processing is faster as there is no need to take a copy of the job.
• When jobs are re-submitted the new job might look unusual (the owner is SYSTEM, the document name has a special code in it). Using the PaperCut port avoids this and any potential confusion from administrators about what those jobs are.
• There is no need to disable the advanced printing features option on the print queues. Without the PaperCut port this option can cause problems with watermarking and other advanced features. When the PaperCut port is used it can cater for this option being enabled.
• Processing is more robust. Without the re-submission there are less steps, so less things to go wrong!
• Re-submitting can alter job ordering and priority (a feature of Windows print queues). Using the PaperCut port avoids this.

For information about setting up a new or existing printer to use the PaperCut port, see Windows printer queue configuration .

Changing the printer port is not required on other platforms such as Mac, Linux or Novell as the same limitations do not apply.

Restrictions (Color, Cost, Page Count, Copies, Duplex, and more)

Restriction filters let you control which print jobs are allowed and which are blocked. You can apply filters to all users or target specific groups, giving flexible, granular control over printing behavior.

Available filters:

• Restriction Scope - Decide who the Restriction filters apply to. By default, restrictions only affect Restricted Users . Clearing the check box applies restrictions to all users.

• Group Restriction - Allow printing only for specific groups. Jobs from users outside these groups are automatically denied.

• Groups With Color Access - Only allow certain groups to print in color. Users who aren’t in the allowed group will have their job canceled but will be notified so long as they are running the PaperCut User Client.

• Maximum Cost - Define the maximum cost of a single print job. Prevents users from accidentally using up their print allowance on a single job.

• Page Count - Define the maximum number of pages allowed in a single print job. Helps avoid long jobs clogging queues or very small jobs on high-volume printers.

• Maximum Copies - Define the maximum number of copies allowed in a single print job. Controls accidental bulk printing.

• Duplex Mode - Deny print jobs based on duplex mode. Choose to only allow simplex (single-sided) or duplex (double-sided) print jobs.

• Color Mode - Deny print jobs based on color mode. Choose to only allow color documents or grayscale documents.

• Document Name - Deny jobs based on document title or file extension. Useful for avoiding known problem file types like SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) or sensitive files. This is not a security feature because users can potentially bypass this filter by renaming a file, but it’s still useful as a stop sign to give people pause when printing.
  

• Paper Size - Only allow jobs with specific paper sizes. Prevents jams or quality issues by ensuring the document matches the loaded paper. For example: block A4 jobs on North American printers loaded with Letter paper.

• Spool Size - Filter by the document’s spool file size. This filter can help avoid overloading a printer by denying excessively large print jobs such a text book.

• Duplicate Documents -Filter out duplicate print jobs. Deny duplicate documents printed within a certain number of seconds.

Use Filters & Restrictions with Scripting

Filters & Restrictions work great for simple rules that apply to everyone or to specific groups, but sometimes you need more flexibility. That’s where Print Scripting comes in. With scripting, you can build logic that looks at the details of each job before deciding what to do.

Examples of what’s possible with scripting:

• Convert all printed emails to grayscale (filter by application type).
• Convert large documents to duplex automatically.
• Suggest or require grayscale when a job contains many color pages.

Example: convert printed emails to grayscale

Printing of emails is a prime candidate for reduction of paper and printing costs. Printing of emails in color (when the colour is being used for blue links and email footers) is doubly so. Having PaperCut automatically convert emails to grayscale requires a printer script as multiple factors are taken into account. The logic would read: when a user prints and the print is an email, convert the print to grayscale.

There is a built-in recipe script to achieve this:

1. Click the Printers tab.
   The Printer List page is displayed.

2. Select a printer.
   The Printer Details page is displayed showing the Summary tab contents.

3. Click the Scripting tab.

4. Click Import Recipe.

5. Find the recipe called Convert all email printing to grayscale; then click import next to it. Note the message at the top of the script about the method it uses to detect when an email is printed.

6. Click Apply.

7. Test by printing an email in color.

Group based restrictions on printing

Group based restrictions provides a feature for administrators to restrict printer access to a group or groups of users. Group based restrictions can be put on printers under Printers → [Name of the printer] → Filters and Restrictions.

This feature is useful in the following situations:

• macOS does not support group based printer permissions as standard. This feature in PaperCut provides a way to put group based restrictions on printers.
• Windows does provide group based permissions as standard, however the message received by the users accessing restricted printers is ambiguous. Using the feature from PaperCut administrators can provide a customizable denied message when their printing fails because of group restrictions. Notification message can be modified from Printers → Notification Options

To learn more about groups read User Management section of PaperCut NG Manual.

Control who can print in color

To control which group of users have access to color printing to a particular printer use one of the following methods:

Method 1 - Specify ‘Groups With Color Access’

1. On the print server, create a print queue.

2. Share the print queue as normal.

3. Add the printers to PaperCut NG/MF and define appropriate costs.

4. Click the Filters & Restrictions tab.

5. In the Groups With Color Access area, select the groups that should have access to color printing via restriction. For example, you might want to allow only staff to print in color.

   

6. Click Apply.

Method 2 - Set the ‘Color Mode’ to ‘Allow grayscale documents only’

This method uses two print queues, each with different driver defaults. One queue is set to grayscale only and the other have full color access. Group access is used to control who has access to the color queue.

1. On the print server, set up two print queues that point to the same physical printer. Call one queue Grayscale Only and the other Color. You now have two printer icons (logical printers) each connected to the same physical printer.

2. Share the printers as normal.

3. Set Windows access permissions on each queue as required. Ensure Users who require color access can print to the color printer and other users can access to the “black and white” only printer.

4. Add the printers to PaperCut NG/MF and define appropriate costs.

5. Click the Filters & Restrictions tab.

6. In the Color Mode area:

   • select the Deny print jobs based on color mode check box.
   • select Allow grayscale documents only from the drop-down list.

   

7. Click Apply.

This method although being more complex to manage, sometimes offer better user experience as users do not need to select driver color and black and white options for each print.

Troubleshooting Conversions

The most common issues happen when jobs aren’t converted to duplex or grayscale as expected.

• Check the Color detection mode - make sure “This is a color printer (use page-level detection)” is enabled for the printer or the job may be denied depending on your filter settings. See: Set the color detection method .
• Update print drivers - If a newer driver is available, updating might resolve issues that prevent conversions from working.
• Disable Advanced Print Features - In Windows environments, some print drivers spool print jobs in a format called Enhanced Metafile (EMF). This encrypted format makes page analysis difficult for PaperCut. For page analysis to work best we prefer standard languages like PostScript or PCL. Two ways around this problem - Disable Advanced Printing Features or set up the printer to use the PaperCut TCP/IP port .
  

If problems persist, contact the PaperCut support team . Include the printer make, model, and driver version for faster assistance.