Virtual Printer Definition

Fri, 07/15/2016 - 11:42 By Dave Brooks
RPM Remote Print Manager is our virtual printer

Introduction

RPM Remote Print Manager® (RPM) is our print server product. We developed this software in 1995 as a print server and have marketed and supported it since that time. We only recently became aware that our customers referred to it as a virtual printer.

Enter the Wikipedia

We did a Google search on "definition virtual printer" and landed on Wikipedia. It's interesting that we literally meet all the definitions offered on that page. Below we refer to the version of the page dated 10 January 2016.

RPM is not connected to a physical printer

When you send a job to a queue in RPM, we use the setup in the queue to process that job. Our output model includes printing but covers a lot of ground besides that. There is no default output in RPM, so your jobs will never end up on someone’s printer by accident. RPM will hold the jobs until there is a place to send them.

In fact, we refer to RPM as:

the print server that does not need a printer

Saving a document in another format

RPM can save many document types as PDF and multi-page TIFF. This depends entirely on what you send us but it’s generally true. RPM will also process native printer-ready files, so we can’t guarantee that everything can become a PDF.

Send documents to a fax server

Fax servers these days seem to use an email interface. RPM is perfectly suited for that. Here are the steps as we see them:

  1. Convert the print job to PDF
  2. Add watermarks as appropriate
  3. Set up an email action to send the print job as an attachment to the desired phone number

If you need to pull the phone number from the actual document, we can help you with that as well. Please see the data extraction page for ideas on how to do this. We also have a video which should be instructive.

Printing multiple sheets per page

RPM supports the Windows printer utilizing the full driver setup from the “Print Properties” dialog. Many printers support “N-up” so you can put as many pages on a sheet as you like. If your printer does not support this, it may be possible to run a third-party program on the output, and then print that. RPM can help you with this. Please contact our pre-sales technical support to help review your situation.

Watermarks

Saving print-ready output

RPM can save PDF output, as we have already demonstrated. RPM can also save PCL format, which is a frequently used print language.

Converting documents and remote printing

We have seen where RPM can convert documents. RPM can send print jobs using LPR or port 9100 printing methods to any reachable printer. RPM can also print to any available Windows printer, even shared printers.

More information: