EOL Universal Printer Driver Vers. 4.0
KEY BENEFITS
Universal Printer is a single-driver printing solution for Windows Terminal Services (NT 4.0 , 2000 and 2003) and Citrix MetaFrame. Universal Printer introduces a radically new approach to network-based printing by enabling ANY client device, regardless of platform or operating system, to print to any shared network printer, regardless of make, model, or print driver.EOL Universal Printer™ fully enables client-side printing using a single PDF-compatible print driver, and supports both ICA and RDP 5.x Win32 clients without the need of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Full color support and up to 2400 dpi resolution are delivered over both ICA and native RDP. and includes support for non 32-bit Windows clients. With EOL Universal Printer, you eliminate your users dependency on ICA and RDP printer auto-creation altogether. No more will you have to install server-side printer drivers and recycling the print spooler service.
KEY FEATURES
CLIENT-SIDE PRINTING
This new version fully enables client-side printing using a single "universal" print driver, and supports both ICA 3.0 and RDP 5.x Win32 clients without the need for the Adobe Acrobat Reader.
NETWORK PRINTING
EOL Universal Printer™ 4.x enables single-driver printing to any shared printer on the network, without the need for any client side software!!! For each existing network printer (the "true" printer) defined on a particular print server, EOL Universal Printer™ creates a shared "Universal" Printer counterpart on that same Print Server. As such, users connect and print their documents to the Universal Printers instead of the original driver-dependent printers. Once a particular document has been printed to a Universal Printer, the print job is automatically forwarded to the corresponding "true" printer using its native print driver.
NEW FEATURES
Many valuable features have been added to the new version of EOL Universal Printer including:
- Single-driver solution that satisfies all printing requirements, including remote client and network-based printing.
- Support for Page Streaming means that no more waiting for the entire print job to be transferred to the client before printing can begin. Instead, pages are streamed down one by one to the client and instantly sent to the printer as they are being received.
- New lightweight client software with NO dependency on Adobe Acrobat Reader.
- Support for native printer capabilities including paper bins, margins, and color management.
- Bandwidth Management means that print jobs no longer need to monopolize the available bandwidth. The user interface remains fully responsive while printing is active.
- Automatic assignments of Universal Network Printers by user name, group membership, client IP address, or client name through the EOL THINssentials™ Management Console (EOL TMC®). In addition, automatic assignments by user name or group membership is fully supported through Citrix MetaFrame XP's Printer Management feature.
- One-step installation of the EOL Universal Printer™ client along with the Citrix ICA client (full PN, Web client, PN Agent) or Microsoft RDP client.
- Web-based automatic detection and download of the Universal Printer™ client software. Support for pass-through sessions. Users can launch ICA or RDP sessions from within ICA or RDP sessions and take full advantage of the EOL Universal Printer™.
- Higher print quality and accuracy with support for resolutions of up to 2400 dpi.
Product Comparison Chart
Product
Feature |
EOL Universal Printer |
UniPrint |
TriCerat ScrewDrivers |
| Print Integrity |
Excellent |
Fair |
Good |
| Bandwidth Intensive |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
1st Page Printed*
(cable modem) |
9 seconds |
50 seconds |
55 seconds |
1st Page Printed*
(dial-up, 40Kbs) |
16 seconds |
4 minutes |
13 minutes |
| Print Streaming |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Spooling Required |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Bandwidth Control |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Support for Native
Printer Features |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
ICA and RDP
Support |
Both |
ICA only |
Both |
Adobe Acrobat
Required |
No |
Yes |
No (Bulky EMF Format) |
*Independent testing performed by EOL 10/25/2002. You are encouraged to perform your own testing
SCREEN SHOTS
DOCUMENTATION, WHITE PAPERS and OTHER FILES
EOL Universal Printer User Guide
LICENSING
Per Server Basis
MAINTENANCE
EOL Universal Printer Maintenace is included in the price, when ordering directly at AMT Software.
HARDWARE/SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
Microsoft Windows Terminal Services
Citrix MetaFrame
Server 2003 / W2K Server
FAQ's
Many valuable features have been added to the new version of EOLUP including:
1. Single-driver solution that satisfies all printing requirements, including client-side and network printing.
2. For client-side printing, a new lightweight PDF viewer built into the EOLUP client. As such, Adobe Acrobat Reader is no longer required on the client side.
3. The size of the EOLUP client download has been reduced to approximately 1.5 Megabytes. Five separate client downloads are currently available:
· eolupcli.exe: UP client
· eolupcli_silent.exe: UP client - Silent install
· eolupcli_ica32.exe: EOLUP client + Citrix ICA Full PN client
· eolupcli_ica32a.exe: EOLUP client + Citrix ICA PN Agent
· eolupcli_ica32t.exe: EOLUP client + Citrix ICA Web client
· eolupcli.cab: CAB-based EOLUP client
4. The EOLUP popup window that prompts the user to either print directly to client, save to disk, email via SMTP or MAPI, has been implemented as a tab inside the properties of the printer to reduce the number of steps/clicks required by the user to complete a EOLUP-based print operation. In order to choose a particular delivery method, the user must invoke the printer selection box from within the app. For example, when using Microsoft Word, click on File > Print > Universal Printer > Properties > Delivery Options.
5. Higher print quality and accuracy through better PDF rendering. EOLUP v3.0 is based on the latest PDF conversion engine which supports resolutions of up to 2400 dpi.
6. The property tabs (Configuration, Image Compression, Advanced Options) of the printer have been simplified to only include the options and settings that are useful to the users.
7. Improved memory management and faster performance during server-side PDF conversion.
8. Reduced memory requirements when on the client side.
9. Font Embedding support. Font embedding is a feature that embeds non-standard server-side fonts into the PDF-converted print job in the event that the client PC doesn`t have those same fonts installed locally. Generally, most documents are created with standard out-of-the-box Windows fonts (i.e., Arial, Times New Roman, etc). In such cases, font embedding is not required because the Windows client is expected to have those same standard fonts installed. However, many apps install additional fonts that aren`t necessarily available on the client PC. In those cases, font embedding is necessary to ensure the accuracy of the print output. If print jobs with garbled characters are ever encountered, it is most certainly a case of font embedding. Check the font embedding option available at print time from the Advanced Options tab in the EOLUP properties.
10. Support for Page Streaming means that users no longer have to wait for the entire PDF-converted print job to be received before printing can begin. With version 3.0, pages are streamed down one by one to the client and automatically sent to the printer as they are being received.
11. Platform-specific print driver versions for Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server and Windows 2000 Server. When installing EOLUP v3.0 to a Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server (WTS), a kernel-mode version of the driver is installed (WTS does not support user-mode print drivers). In contrast, a user-mode version of the print driver is installed to a Windows 2000 Terminal Services server. The advantages of a user-mode driver is enhanced stability (no blue screens) and higher performance.
12. Support for pass-through sessions. Users can launch ICA or RDP sessions from within ICA or RDP sessions and take full advantage of EOLUP.
13. The client settings are now stored in an ini file (eolupclnt.ini) that resides in the Windows directory. Moreover, the client menu options and the system tray icon can selectively be hidden or shown. The client menu options are:
· Print to default printer
· Prompt for printer
· Preview job before printing
Sample eolupclnt.ini:
*******************************************************
[Settings]
Default=1
Hide1=0 ; 0 or 1 shows or hides the "preview job before printing" option
Hide2=0 ; 0 or 1 shows or hides the "prompt for printer" option
Hide3=0 ; 0 or 1 shows or hides the "print to default printer" option
Hide4=1 ; 0 or 1 shows or hides the "passthrough mode" option
NoSysTrayIcon=0 ; 0 or 1 shows or hides the system tray icon
*******************************************************
Note: to support pass-through (see item 8), the UP client must be installed on both the client PC and the pass-through server(s) from which additional ICA or RDP sessions will be launched to other servers. In this case, the Default and NoSysTrayIcon options in eolupclnt.ini (on the pass-through server) should be as follows:
*******************************************************
[Settings]
Default=4
Hide1=0 ; 0 or 1 shows or hides the "preview job before printing" option
Hide2=0 ; 0 or 1 shows or hides the "prompt for printer" option
Hide3=0 ; 0 or 1 shows or hides the "print to default printer" option
Hide4=1 ; 0 or 1 shows or hides the "passthrough mode" option
NoSysTrayIcon=1 ; 0 or 1 shows or hides the system tray icon
*******************************************************
This will automatically enables EOLUP pass-through mode when an ICA or RDP connection is launched from a server session to another server.
14. A new utility, eoldfprn.exe, is provided that automatically configures the EOLUP as the default for all Terminal Server and MetaFrame users.
15. Full support for ICA 3.0 and RDP 5.0.
