Print Server Management with RPM
I was doing some site maintenance the other day and realized we have a lot of “how-to” articles for our virtual printer product RPM Remote Print Manager® (“RPM”).
Before the list, it helps to know that every one of these articles is really the same two moving parts arranged differently. RPM puts each print job through a queue you define, and a queue is a set of transforms followed by a set of actions:
- Transforms change the print data — convert PCL or SCS to PDF, reformat text, translate code pages, pull values out of the job.
- Actions decide where the result goes — a Windows printer, a PDF on disk, an email, an FTP server, another queue, or a program of your own.
Those two lists are the whole feature set, and they are worth a read on their own. Watermarking, triplicate printing and AS/400 label printing are not separate features — they are particular combinations of a transform and an action, which is why one product covers so much ground. Once the two stages are familiar, most of what follows is a matter of picking the right pieces.
Setup and printing
| Topic | Description |
|---|---|
| How to send print jobs to RPM | Sending print jobs to RPM is straightforward once you understand a few rules. |
| How to manage RPM print queues | This guide gives you everything you need to know to manage your queues. The material is complete and extensive, and even if you have been using RPM for a while, it’s worth reviewing. |
| How to determine the format of your print job | Here we note some tools and rules we use to help customers or to do our research. |
| Top tasks: Creating PDFs | When I first saw Adobe demonstrating PDF in the nineties, I was impressed with its cross-platform capabilities, but I never guessed it would dominate the landscape as it does now. So naturally, RPM has several paths for creating PDFs from your print jobs. |
| Top tasks: Triplicate Printing | We frequently hear from customers who need to print the same job from multiple trays, so we have discussed in this article several options for that, depending on your exact needs. |
| How to get multiple copies while printing to multiple trays | For some applications, you need extra copies for specific pages. This article shows you how. |
| Top tasks: Watermarks | Watermarking is the process where you add one or more images to a printed page. RPM supports adding watermarks to PDFs (docs we create for you, or docs you provide us), and RPM can also add watermarks to text print. |
| How to print to multiple printers | We specifically developed RPM with the plan to print to multiple printers. |
| How to save a print job to a file without printing it | RPM’s Archive action makes it easier than you would think. |
| How to print to a shared printer or save to a shared folder | Here is where you learn how to use Windows login credentials in RPM |
| How to automate printing a PDF document | If you have a PDF viewer, you might be able to use it in RPM to print PDFs |
| Command-line print PDF files to a Windows printer | Another approach to sending PDF files to a Windows printer from RPM |
| How to prevent queue names from appearing in RPM | Network probes can create a mess, and sometimes you don’t want to give out the privilege to auto-create queues. |
| How to configure my firewall | What is involved in enabling RPM to receive from my server outside the firewall? |
| How to control font and page format | How RPM works with TrueType fonts and tips to fit your text on the page |
| How to get the text print settings you expect | More tips on getting the closest font size |
| How to print ASA from a mainframe to PDF | Convert ASA files to PDF and print to a printer as well |
| How to print labels from the AS/400 | It takes some specific settings on the AS/400 |
| Page range printing with RPM | You set up RPM to print page ranges logically, based on patterns for start and end, rather than numerically using specific page numbers. |
Licensing
| Topic | Description |
|---|---|
| How to license the RPM software | The ins and outs; part of the License FAQ |
| How to migrate RPM to a new server | Migrating RPM includes licensing, of course, but covers much more. |