General Frequently Asked Questions
For questions about sales and ordering please see
our Sales and Ordering FAQ:
For product specific questions see
the:
General
Q. PaperCut screen-shots show a "$" currency
symbol. My country uses a different symbol?
Q. But I don't want to "charge" my
users?
Q. Can I install PaperCut on a standalone
system or on a peer-to-peer network?
Q. Are there yearly support or
maintenance fees? What are the ongoing costs?
Q. What hardware is recommended?
Q. Will PaperCut slow printing?
Q. What printers are supported?
Q. What proxy servers are supported?
Q. Does PaperCut support different charging
prices for color, duplex and different page size
printing?
Q. I only want to monitor or charge
a small number of users on my domain. Do I have to
buy a license that supports all users?
Q. What about Mac or Linux (Unix)
workstations?
Q. About pricing?
Q. About support?
General
PaperCut screen-shots show a "$" currency
symbol. My country uses a different symbol?
PaperCut fetches the currency format from the Windows
Operating system's "locale" settings. PaperCut
will adapt to the regional settings configured under
the Windows Control Panel-> Regional Options.
But I don't want to "charge" my
users?
Most organizations don't use PaperCut to "charge" their
users. In an education-based organization, PaperCut
is more often used to restrict users to a sensible
quota - for example $5.00 a week. In business, PaperCut
can be installed in a "silent logging" mode,
enabling the tracking of statistics. With PaperCut's
logging it's possible to track; who prints the most,
how much each departments prints, and which printers
are the most used.
PaperCut Quota's "User Inquiry Tool" displays
the user's current account balance (remaining quota)
in a currency number format. If organizations don't
like the idea of using currency-based credits, the
currency sign can be removed from view. For more information
on removing the currency sign from PaperCut see this
knowledgebase article.
Can I install PaperCut on a single standalone
system or on a peer-to-peer network?
Yes. PaperCut Quota is suitable as long as the system
is running Windows 2000, XP, 2003 or Windows NT. In
fact, if you have less than 5 users using this system,
you can user PaperCut for free! When installing PaperCut
on a standalone system, when prompted in the setup
wizard, select "Synchronize user information with
this computer".
Are there yearly support or maintenance
fees? What are the ongoing costs?
We do not charge for support nor have any annual fees.
Free email support is provided for both paying customers
and customers on our "small networks free" license.
PaperCut is easy to setup and maintain however there
is always the possibility of a problem with any software
application. If you do require assistance, please email
us at support@papercut.biz and
we'll be happy to help. All support emails are addressed
within 24-hours and are directly addressed by us (the
original developers).
Version upgrade charges are another "catch" with
many software packages. Some companies charge full
price for upgrades, while others charge for even the
smallest enhancements. PaperCut Quota's policy is as
follows:
- Free upgrades for minor point releases (e.g. 5.0
to 5.1)
- Small upgrade fee for major releases. (e.g. Version
5.x to 6.0)
The upgrade fee for major release are kept to around
20% of the initial purchase price. We aim for a major
release every twelve months. Upgrading is always optional.
We continue to support older versions - even version
1.0 from 1998!
What hardware is recommended?
Postscript, PCL or compatible networked printers are
strongly recommended. Most printers now come with a
built-in network card option. Printers without network
cards can be used with network interface boxes such
as AXIS boxes or Netgear PrintServer boxes. Hardware
interface boxes usually cost less than US$100 . Parallel
Port connections direct to either the print server
or to network clients are also supported, however this
is not the preferred option.
For more information, see the product system requirements:
Will PaperCut slow printing?
Users will experience no noticeable slowing of normal
print jobs. Very large jobs may experience a few seconds
delay as the job spools to the printserver.
What printers are supported?
PaperCut works with the majority of printers including
printers supporting:
- Postscript
- PCL (all versions)
- PCL-GUI
- PCLXL
- Epson languages ESC/P2, ESC/PAGE and ESC/PAGE-COLOR
- Ricoh RPCS
- Some support for proprietary GDI printers
PCL is language supported by Hewlett Packard and many
other printer manufacturers make their products compatible
with PCL. We strongly recommend Postscript compatible
printers and drivers if available.
What proxy servers are supported?
If you intend to use PaperCut to track or quota internet
use, a compatible proxy server is required. PaperCut
works with the majority of leading proxy servers including,
Microsoft ISA Server, Squid (Windows and Linux), Wingate,
and FreeProxy.
Does PaperCut support different charging prices
for color, duplex and different page size printing?
Yes. PaperCut supports a variety
of charging techniques, including charging by specific
page size (with different color and grayscale rates),
page area charging, page size category charging, and
discounts for duplex printing to encourage paper conservation.
The powerful print charging capabilities of PaperCut
make it suitable for both simple (eg. schools) and
complex (eg. design, architecture, engineering firms)
applications.
I only want to monitor or charge a small number
of users on my domain. Do I have to buy a license that
supports all users?
PaperCut NG: The license is based
on the number of user logon accounts registered on
the domain. PaperCut counts the number of users within
the domain, and will prompt you if you exceed your
license quota.
If you only intend to monitor a small percentage of
your users, you can import the users from a Windows
group that contains a subset of your domain users.
PaperCut Quota: The license is based
on the number of user logon accounts registered on
the domain. PaperCut counts the number of users within
the domain, and will prompt you if you exceed your
license quota.
If you only intend to monitor a small percentage of
your users, you can import the users from a Windows
group that contains a subset of your domain users.
PaperCut ChargeBack: You'll only
need to purchase licenses for the users who will print
to monitored printers. (These are the users who will
usually have the popup window installed.) Only these
users should be added to the PaperCut Database.
To achieve this you can import the users from a Windows
group that contains a subset of your domain users.
What about Mac or Linux (Unix) workstations?
Many large networks contain a mixture of operating
systems. PaperCut will track printing not only from
Windows systems but also from Macintosh, Linux and
Unix workstations. Please take a look at our cross-platform
solution PaperCut NG.
About pricing?
We get a number of questions on PaperCut's pricing.
We price PaperCut based on the number of network users,
as we feel that this factor is a fair reflection of
an organization's IT budget. It ensures that organizations
of all sizes can afford PaperCut. The education discount
is also extended to non-profit and government organizations.
If you're unsure of your eligibility, please email sales@papercut.biz with
your circumstances.
Another common questions we get is, "How can you
price PaperCut so low (often costing less that US$1.00
per user), while other network/site-wide applications
cost far more?" We managed to keep costs low in
a number of ways. The main contributor is that we don't
distribute our application via retail, marketing, or
reseller networks. When you purchase PaperCut, you
are buying the software directly from the original
developers. There is no retail mark-up. We also only
distribute PaperCut via online download (no fancy boxes
with shrink-wrap). The persons responsible for purchasing
PaperCut are more than often IT managers or network
administrators. For these people, purchasing software
online direct from the developers is not a foreign
concept, but is often preferred. We also accept Purchase
Orders and Invoice.
About support?
As you'll see from the testimonials,
support is one of our best features. One of the most
frustrating aspects of IT support is that often you
call the support company, only to find that the question
is "too difficult" and needs to be elevated
- two weeks later you get the answer you're after!
This is not the case at PaperCut Software. We're a
small technically-focused company and the developers
themselves answer the support calls. This ensures you're
speaking directly to the people that actually write
the program and know it best.
PaperCut is now very much an international application
with a user base covering over 60 countries. To assist
with supporting our expanding user base we've recently
opened up a number of new contact options including,
live text web chat, US and international phone numbers
and a Skype VOIP contact. Our developers in Melbourne
take it in turns to cover a 12 hour period each work
day. This ensures we have business hour overlap with
most time-zones. Even though we don't offer round the
clock support in all regions, you'll find the quality
of our support is first-class and I'm sure we'll get
you the correct answer quicker than most!
Feel free to email or give
us a call if you need help.
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