PrintFactory PrintStation is an interface to manage jobs ready for output on the printer.
Furthermore, sending multiple jobs via PrintFactory PrintStation to the printers can unburden the RIP.
Instead of driving the printer directly from the RIP, you can choose to RIP a file once to the PrintStation folder. In PrintStation you can then define number of copies, nesting, positioning etc and send the nested files to the printer.
Prerequisite
When creating a new printer, or changing the printer’s setup set the following:
- in RIP -> double click the printer driver for which you want to sent up a PrintStation -> Choose PrintStation connection and define a folder where the ripped files will be placed that need to be printed using PrintFactory PrintStation.
Setting up PrintFactory PrintStation
1. Launch PrintFactory PrintStation from the PrintFactory Program group.
On Windows: c://Program Files/PrintFactory/PrintStation.exe
on Mac: Applications/ PrintFactory/PrintStation.app
2. In Printer Setup:
a. select the printer from the list
b. fill in the printer name
c. Set up the connection to the printer: either by USB port, Ethernet IP address
3. Input Tab
a. Queue folder: browse to the folder chosen in Prerequisite above.
b. Check Fast job intake if you want to start printing when the job is being
buffered.
Note: if the printer seems to pause because it does not receive data fast
enough, uncheck this option.
4. Clean up tab holds the option to delete the printed files after a set time or after
printing.
Using multiple PrintStations on one computer
Windows
When multiple printers are connected to the same computer it can be useful to have multiple PrintStations running to serve these printers. When launching an additional PrintStation it will automatically number them and give them individual preferences.
Although this is a quick and convenient way to set it up it is also difficult to analyze when the configuration is not correct anymore.
It is recommended to create a shortcut of the PrintStation for each instance that you like to launch.
There are 2 methods to create a shortcut:
- Method 1
- Launch the PrintStation.exe application
- In the Printer Setup panel type in Printer Name and define the printer properties.
- Note: Do not use spaces in the naming
- Click the OK button
- Next, close the application
- Note: When the application is closed, a new PrintStation shortcut is created on the desktop with the given printer name.
- Repeat the process for as many instances as you need.
- Method 2
- Go to the folder where the application is installed and create a shortcut of PrintStation on desktop
- In the shortcut tab append the following commands at the end of the Target field:
-name PREFNAME
-
- Note:
- PREFNAME is a short ASCII/Latin encoded name without spaces and special characters. Like in the sample below, the PREFNAME is “Mutoh”.
- Please note the shortcut should be created before opening the PrintStation.
- Note:
-
- Rename the shortcut to any name that properly identifies the printer which it serves. Enter that name also in the preferences at “Printer Name”, after opening the shortcut. Note that the printer name will be displayed as window title in the taskbar.
MacOS X
On MacOS X Automater is used to create additional PrintStation instances. Using the Automater an application is created with the following argument:
-name PREFNAME
Where PREFNAME is a short ASCII/Latin encoded name, preferably without spaces and special characters. Like in the sample below the PREFNAME is “Example”. Start Automator and select to create an Application. Double-click Run Shell Script in the Library/Utilities folder and replace the text content — cat — with the following:
open -a "PrintFactory PrintStation.app" --args -name ExampleSave the Automater application anywhere you like.