Universal Printer (novaPDF)

The TSplus Universal Printer allows you to preview or print documents from any PC or mobile device supported by TSplus Remote Access. Universal Printer is relevant from an HTML5 session and when connected using a generated client. Universal Printer is not relevant when using the standard RDP client (mstsc.exe) because printers can be shared between server and client.

Starting Remote Access version 17, Universal Printer leverages novaPDF (https://www.novapdf.com/) to produce 100% industry-standard PDF (Portable Document Format) files from the remote document. The generated PDF document is then sent to the desired local printer. The Universal Printer (novaPDF) replaces Universal Printer (CustPDF) and Universal Printer (GhostScript) which are discontinued and no longer available to install on your Remote Access server.

Two printers are available for remote printing: Universal Printer and Virtual Printer. Although Virtual Printer offers better printing performance, it is not compatible with the HTML5 client and requires to install a client application. Therefore, the Universal Printer is set as the default printer following Remote Access setup. See TSplus Virtual Printer.

Requirements

NovaPDF11Service service should be in the exlcusion list of any active firewall or antivirus.

Configure the Universal Printer

To configure your Universal Printer, open the AdminTool and click on the Printers menu.

To access to Universal Printer control panel, please navigate through the AdminTool: Printer > Universal Printer Manager

Set a default printer for all users

• No default printer defined: the user’s default printer configuration is not affected.
• User manage their default printers: the “Let Windows manage my default printer” option is disabled, and it is therefore up to the user to select their default printer.
• The last printer used is the default printer: the “Let Windows manage my default printer” option is enabled.
• Set a default printer for all users: the administrator forces the user’s default printer.

The Universal Printer section displays fours tiles which enables administrators to:

• Check the Universal Printer setup status. If the Universal Printer is not installed, then clicking on the tile will install the Universal Printer.
• Check the Universal Printer printing status. If the Universal Printer is not ready to receive print jobs, the tile may display additionnal relevant information about the error.
• Check if the Universal Printer is set as the default printer. If the Universal Printer is not set as the default printer, then clicking on the tile will set it as the default printer. Please note that this behavior may be overriden by your users should they be allowed to do so.
• The tile named Universal Printer Manager leads to an more detailled screen which provides additonnal actions and properties, such as removing the Universal Printer.

Universal Printer Manager

The Universal Printer Manager allows administrator to check the Universal Printer status, remove the Universal Printer, access to the printing queue and printer properties.

In particular, the button located at the bottom of the page allow administrators to:

• Remove the Universal Printer: Uninstall the Universal Printer. It can be reinstalled later from this screen.
• View Printer: Opens a window where you can see the status of your printing documents, pause, resume or cancel the print job. You can also set your printing preferences and properties.
• Universal Printer Properties: Opens this window, where you can see all the printing properties. After the General Tab, there are tabs for sharing, ports, advanced, color management, security and device settings. At the bottom of the popup window, the printer properties allows administrators to set the page size for printing from A4 to any kind of printing format. You can also choose between two printing orientations: Portrait or Landscape.

Note: The Universal Printer leverages novaPDF, which enables administrators to create profiles to define fonts, graphics, watermark, overlays and more through the Manage profiles button located below the Page size and Orientation sections on the printer properties popup window. Should a profile be selected by default, then the Show Select Profiles dialog before printing may be checked to allow user to select a profile before printing. Please refer to the novaPDF documentation for more details about profiles: Profile Manager.

Printing with the Universal Printer

While printing using this printer, the document in the print queue is automatically converted into a PDF file by the Universal Printer (novaPDF) printer.

The generated PDF file is then pushed to the local PDF reader of the user’s workstation.

Each print job is opened as soon as it is ready on the user’s local disk. The printing process starts once the PDF file has been transferred on the client’ side, which guarantees the print job to start without delay.

Configuring Printing options with the Client Generator

You can choose from 3 printing options on the Local Resources tab of the Portable Client generator
When using the TSplus connection client, you need to map at least the C: drive or all disks

Printing with Standard RDP Printer-Mapping Feature

This is commonly used by Remote Desktop users and is equivalent to what you would have with Microsoft Terminal Services.

If you plan to use exotic printers, be sure to check the box for printers in the local resources tab of the client generator.

Most of the time it will require that you install the same version of the printer drivers on both the client and the server in order to work properly.

This means that if your server is Windows 2008 64 bit and your client computers are running Windows XP 32 bit, you will need to install the 32 bit XP Printer Drivers on the server.

Click on the Start Menu, then on Devices and Printers. Click on any printer to display the Print server properties button at the top of the window:

Once in the Print Server Properties, click on the Driver tab to manually add your client driver. (In this case, we are installing the Windows XP 32 bit driver)

You can also directly install your printer drivers using information and drivers from the Printer Manufacturer Website.

• It is recommended to check your hardware manual for an installation procedure in a terminal server environment.
• If you are using USB printers, make sure you updated the RDP protocol of your client computer to RDP version 6 or above to ensure maximum compatibility with redirected printers.

For the best results, it is recommended not to use USB printers. Compatibility and reliability are improved when using COM or LPT printers.

Some exotic printers, such as label or receipt printers, may not be suitable to be redirected in a TSplus session, you should always check with your hardware manufacturer for compatibility and installation procedures in an RDS or terminal server environment, which is very close to TSplus in this case.