Printer Pooling - DataCard Sp35 Installation Manual

Printer pooling

This section includes:
• "Printer pooling"
• "Use a printer pool"
Printer pooling is a feature of the WIndows XP and Windows 2000 operating systems. A printer pool treats a group
of printers as one printer and distributes print jobs among the available printers.
Requirements for a printer pool
To create a printer pool for Datacard® printers, you must:
• Install the printers (connect the printers and install the Smart Driver™) to the same PC. Your can use one or
more of the following methods to install the printers:
— Install the printer locally using a USB port
— Install the printer using a direct network connection
• Use the Windows XP or Windows 2000 operating system on the PC. (Windows NT includes support for printer
pooling; however the Datacard® Smart Driver™ does not support printer pooling on Windows NT.)
• All printers must have the same features to be part of the pool. Printers can be installed before or after the
printer pool is set up and will be included in the pool. By default, all directly connected Datacard® printers are
included in the pool, so all printers must support and use the same card features.
For example, if the cards will have magnetic stripe data encoded, all printers must have the same type of
magnetic stripe module.
• Use the Datacard® method for setting up printer pooling, not the Enable Printer Pooling check box on the
Properties dialog box for the printer. Windows permits checking this box but does not permit displaying a
message if the printer does not support it.
• Special features that require interactive mode, including reading magnetic stripe and programming smart cards,
do not work with printer pooling. (The PC must communicate directly with the printer about a specific job, and
this information is not available to the PC.)
• A printer pool that is installed without having an actual Datacard® printer and its driver installed will not print
cards.
• Shared printers cannot be part of a printer pool.
Set up printer pooling
To set up a printer pool on a PC:
1 Install each printer and its driver on the PC. See
driver" for steps to follow.
2 Set up each printer with the same settings, especially print ribbon type, print on both sides, magnetic stripe
settings, and laminate "apply material."
— See Working with Properties and Printing Preferences
3 Verify the operation of each printer on its own.
4 Install the Smart Driver™ printer pool (described in the following procedure).
5 Set up the pool with the same values that each printer uses.
— See Working with Properties and Printing Preferences
6 Verify the operation of the printer pool.
SP Series Install e-Guide
"Unpacking and connecting the printer"
if needed.
if needed.
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and "Installing the