Micro Focus iPrint Feature Tour

Let your people print - quickly, easily and more securely

Organizations want to reduce the complexity of managing printers by IT and allow end users to easily locate and install printers.

That’s where Micro Focus iPrint comes in. Micro Focus iPrint offers a single, scalable solution for managing all of your printing across multiple office locations from any device. It lets the users print quickly, easily, and more securely.

Figure 1 What iPrint Provides

Micro Focus iPrint provides secured enterprise print services for your desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. Micro Focus’s iPrint solution integrates with your existing corporate printers, regardless of the printing vendor or brand allowing you to deliver self-service printer provisioning to your device users. It even works with your current users in Microsoft Active Directory or eDirectory.

Eliminates complex printing environments and leverages the industry-standard internet printing protocol (IPP), iPrint provides instant global access to all your printing resources via a web browser. Users can also use email to submit the print job. iOS users can use their devices' AirPrint capabilities with the iPrint printer.

1.0 Features At Glance

1.1 WalkUp Printing

  • Flexibility to print from any printer: Allows users to print documents to any printer. Even if a printer is unavailable, user can walk to another printer and collect the printout.

  • Simplified User Printing: Users no longer needs to install multiple printers. Installing a single WalkUp printer will allow the users to release documents to multiple printers.

  • Saves Paper: Many times users give print and forget to collect their documents from the printer. WalkUp printing prevents such accidental and unwanted prints by putting the job on hold and also automatically deletes any dormant jobs. The users can now print or cancel the hold job as per their convenience.

  • Enhanced Security: Users have to authenticate and then only the documents can be released. This ensures confidentiality of the document is maintained and only the owner collects the document.

Printing using Identity Cards

You can also print the WalkUp jobs by using the identity cards. A card reader is placed adjacent to the printer and the user swipes his/her identity card to print the jobs.

The highlights are:

  • Convenience: All you need is a identity card, no additional software or logins

  • Simplicity: It is so easy to print a job, just swipe your identity card

Advanced Authentication Support

iPrint Appliance integrates with Advanced Authentication framework to release WalkUp jobs. Advanced Authentication is a multi-factor authentication solution that ensures secure printing to the iPrint printers with minimal administration. iPrint Appliance uses only Card or combination of a Card and a Smartphone for authentication.

1.2 Support for Azure Active Directory Users

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) users can print jobs to secure iPrint printers by using iPrint application. This functionality is available with Desktop printing (Windows), QuickPrint, Release Portal, and Context Menu-based Desktop Printing.

1.3 QuickPrint (Web Printing)

QuickPrint is printing documents via Web browser. You no longer require clients or driver installation.

1.4 Context Menu-based Printing

iPrint is now available as a context menu option on Windows. Right-click a file or files, then select iPrint and an iPrint dialog is displayed. Select a desired printer and click Print.

1.5 iPrint Portal

A new printer portal is designed for enhanced user experience.

Highlights are:

  • QuickPrint (Web Printing) to upload and print a document

  • Quick access (bookmark) to printers based on filters

  • Controlled printer visibility

  • Locate printers easily based on location, type, and model of the printers

To access iPrint Portal, specify https://<iprintappliance_IP or hostname>/print

1.6 Auto Clearing a Printer Queue

This feature reduces printing of stale jobs during a printer failure. During a printer failure, jobs gets queued up and are printed when the printer comes online thus exposing documents that may have secure data. Using this feature, the stale jobs can be deleted without any intervention from the users.

1.7 Multiple Licenses

The license page is enhanced to upload multiple licenses.

1.8 Printing from Chromebook

iPrint now provides secure enterprise print services for Chromebook users. The extension is available in the Chrome Web Store for download. The extension works with iPrint Appliance 2.1 or later.

The highlights of the extension are:

  • Prints documents to any iPrint-enabled printers, anywhere and anytime

  • Supports on-premises deployment. Data never travels through the cloud

  • You no longer need any cloud service for printing

1.9 Printing from iPrint iOS App

Micro Focus iPrint provides secure enterprise print services for your iPhone and iPad users with simplified and intuitive GUI. The features are:

  • Support for managing the iPrint app by using ZENworks Configuration Management 2017

  • Flexibility to print WalkUp jobs when you are near the printer

  • Supports printing using the iPrint App extension

  • Enabled for the 3D Touch feature. On the Home screen, press the iPrint icon to display the following actions: WalkUp Jobs, Photos, and Camera.

  • Controlled secure printer visibility

1.10 Printing from iPrint Android App

Micro Focus iPrint provides secure enterprise print services for Android and Amazon users. The features are:

  • Simplified and intuitive GUI

  • Enabled to support managed configurations (Android for Work). The supported devices are Android 4.0 and later.

  • Flexibility to print WalkUp jobs when you are near the printer

  • Share document from any application and print using the iPrint app

  • Print from any application that supports native Android printing

  • Enabled for the shortcut feature. Long-press on the iPrint app’s launcher icon to display the following actions: WalkUp Jobs, Photos, Documents, and Camera.

  • Controlled secure printer visibility

1.11 Certificate Management

iPrint Management Console is enhanced with a new work flow for managing the certificates. Using the Certificates page, you can upload the CA signed certificates and apply them to all the relevant services used by iPrint Appliance.

The Digital Certificates page is no longer available to manage the certificates, instead, you must use the Certificates page that is now part of the iPrint Management Console. For more information, see Certificate Management.

1.12 Direct PDF Printing

A new parameter direct_pdf_print is added to the iprintmobile.conf file to support printing of PDF documents on a PDF supported IPP printers. The printer’s capabilities are leveraged and there is no dependency on the drivers for rendering the PDF jobs.

For more information, see direct_pdf_print.

1.13 Apple® AirPrint Certified

Print from any Mac or iOS device without installing additional software to all Apple certified AirPrint printers.

1.14 Serve Yourself

Users just looks up for the printer they want on the map, then point and click. Everything else happens for them, automatically. Within seconds, they can print. Reduce the help desk calls and increase productivity by empowering users to print to any of your organization's printers.

1.15 Expand Your Horizons

Users can print any time, from anywhere, using almost any device. Click to send a print job to any printer irrespective of the location of the printer. With Micro Focus iPrint, you can print anywhere.

1.16 Email Printing

Any email-enabled device can print to any Micro Focus iPrint printer by sending the print job in the body of the email or as an attachment. Administrators can set up a single email address for the organization's printing, or one for each printer.

1.17 Support for Mobile Device Management

iPrint mobile apps now supports Mobile Device management (MDM) solution with your own device.

  • iPrint app is coded according to AppConfig standards which enables it to work with EMM vendors such as MobileIron, BlackBerry Good, and IBM MaaS360.

  • iPrint Android app can be managed with ZENworks Mobile Management.

1.18 Integrating With Your World

Makes secure printing easy by integrating its data store with your identity directory. By working with lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) sources like NetIQ eDirectory and Active Directory, iPrint can authenticate your users to increase the security of your printing operations. This means no matter what device an employee wants to use, iPrint offers authentication to keep your organization’s printing secure.

1.19 Works in a Heterogeneous Environment

Supports printing with major print vendors across mobile and desktop platforms.

1.20 Centralized Monitoring

Monitors and manages the print system using the iPrint Health Monitoring tool. Micro Focus iPrint also scales well, giving IT a central and easy-to-manage printing solution.

1.21 Accounting Applications

Supports print accounting with applications such as PaperCut and Nuance Equitrac.

1.22 Simplified Maintenance

Saves IT time and money by significantly reducing the management burden required for mixed fleets of Mac or Windows desktops. It works across the major mobile platforms as well, meaning IT only has to manage a single print solution for all your organization's endpoints.

1.23 Works with Legacy Printers

Mobilize your existing fleet of printers rather than buying new. It works with what you have now and what you may want going forward.