The Benefits of Terminal Server Printing

What is Terminal Server Printing?

Terminal Server printing describes the method that the printer interacts with the server. Several printers may exist on one Terminal Server. From this single point of contact, print jobs may be directed to other server printers located on the server. The Terminal Server will have access every print job within the print queue. The printers installed on a Terminal Server are called Server Printers

How Does Terminal Server Printing Work?

There are basic steps to describe how a Terminal Server operates. Generally, the Graphic Device Interface (GDI) will create an Event Management Framework (EMF) file on the Terminal Server. The printer subsystem will receive the EMF file from the GDI. The network print server will receive the EMF file from the print router on the Terminal Server. The EMF file is transferred to the print spooler by the network printer server. The physical printer receives the print command or job from the printer port. The print monitor service facilitates the transfer to the physical printer

Server Printers have fairly good performance and are reliable. For optimal performance, the Terminal Server and the print server should be on the same LAN. Individuals will receive access to the same printers despite their physical log in location. On the other hand, users must browse the network to find those printers that are not manually configured. All printers must be manually configured initially by the user or group. Additionally, technicians are required for printer set up on a Terminal Server, if a "fat" client is used

How Can Terminal Server Printing Be Used in an Enterprise?

Terminal Server printing is instrumental in a large office environment or an enterprise where there are multiple computer users. Instead of supplying a printer for each person, several industrial printers may be purchased and shared among a group of users. Users on the same LAN will most likely be offered several printer options to keep the workflow of the enterprise moving at an advanced pace. Experts may help businesses determine how many printer servers are necessary to accommodate the users in the enterprise

Users may log in from any location and send print jobs remotely to a printer within the office. The flexibility of Terminal Server printing is what makes this type of printing desirable. Monitors are typically placed at the printer or a log is accessible by the computer to allow each user to know where their job lies in the printer queue. This keeps individuals from wasting time waiting for documents to print. An estimated time for the print job will also be displayed. This type of printing is also used and preferred in public places where multiple computer users may have access to one industrial printer.

For additional network printing solutions thin client printing should always be considered. Thin Client computing and printing decreases loads and rely's on one central server and software package.