Author Topic: NANY 2010 Release: Page Countster (Read 187997 times)

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #100 on:** January 11, 2010, 06:26 PM »

I was printing a pdf over the weekend and the length of time it took to spool it was amazing. (on adobe reader 9). it seems like it was only a 1 meg file anyway. I do know that a job with images on it takes longer to spool than a plain text document does. If I am not mistaken then pdf's are an "image", which is one of the reasons they look so nice.
-techidave (January 11, 2010, 06:24 AM)

That depends on how they were created. If they were scanned in then yes each page of a document is a picture of that page, embedded in another document (that's why OCR software sells so well). Natively created/Distilled/Compiled PDFs are actually object based (that's where the fun starts), and have to be dealt with on the fly during pagination (I swear that's really a word...).

Each paragraph and sometimes line, is a separate object containing vector based fonts (which is why they scale so well). This adds up to a ton of math that has to be done before the document (which is then huge) hits the spooler. Try this for "fun" ... Open the spooler so you can see the document go through. Send a small 1 or 2 page PDF to that printer and watch how big it gets before it actually gets sent to the printer. I've see 500KB documents hit 400MB many times ... Usually this happens just seconds before all parties involved simultaneously run out of memory (for no intelligent reason). The fix for this with older versions (6-8 ) of Acrobat was to select the "Print as Image" option in Acrobats custom select printer options dialog (could be set globally also, but I forget where).

The other more general "fix" for ill behaving PDF prints was to use PCL5 and avoid PCL6 like a plague. I just ran into this today, PCL6 was Happily printing Blank Pages, and the PCL5 (as usual) driver printed the job correctly (replete with page contents). PCL6 wastes far too much time tossing statistical information about the print job at the printer, and subsequently chronically borks the actual print job as a direct result (i.e. Long files names + Mac + PCL6 = lockups)

i know that more memory will help with printing bigger jobs. for a moment there, I was thinking that more memory in a printer would be like more memory in a computer.

Nothing wrong with that, it's a common logical assumption...(mine too, back when)...But, I've just been dealing with printers-N-such on a daily basis for the past 6 years so I've had plenty of time to notice-a-trend...

3of0 · « **Reply #101 on:** March 03, 2010, 04:01 PM »

Awesome piece of software! I love it!

Been looking for something like this for a while.

Something I'd like to see, which might end up being a different project, is to have something sit in a system tray, or running in the background as a service, monitoring a list of printers toner and send an alert, e-mail or notification, when the toner is out or very low. Possibly paper too. *shrug*

Looking for a way to be preemptive on some of the things around the office.

techidave · « **Reply #102 on:** March 03, 2010, 04:59 PM »

For some of the printers you can setup an email alert to notify when toner gets low or their is a paper jam or whatever. You might check your printer options.

Maybe I should have said that most of the recent printers (lasers)that are networkable have this setup available. I have a hodgepodge of different brands in my network. HP, Samsung, Xerox, Lexmark. Some of them will even email you when the paper tray is empty.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #103 on:** March 03, 2010, 07:00 PM »

Awesome piece of software! I love it! Been looking for something like this for a while.

Something I'd like to see, which might end up being a different project, is to have something sit in a system tray, or running in the background as a service, monitoring a list of printers toner and send an alert, e-mail or notification, when the toner is out or very low. Possibly paper too. *shrug*

Looking for a way to be preemptive on some of the things around the office.
-3of0 (March 03, 2010, 04:01 PM)

Thank You, I'm glad you're enjoying Page Countster.

There is an older (tray utility) project called PrinStats mentioned on the bottom of page one of this thread that is for monitoring a single printer's page count, toner level, and display messages (which would give paper out etc.). But it's only for one printer at a time. Real time monitoring/reporting of network printers is one of the features that is planned for the complete suite that (will be a comercial product) Page Countster is part of.

Beyond that Techidave is indeed correct in that many of the newer printers feature automatic emailing of certain events.

3of0 · « **Reply #104 on:** March 11, 2010, 05:47 PM »

Very cool. I haven't noticed that tool on some of the printers here, but I might not have dug deep enough either. Thanks!

techidave · « **Reply #105 on:** March 11, 2010, 06:59 PM »

What model printers are you using?

3of0 · « **Reply #106 on:** March 11, 2010, 07:05 PM »

Mostly HP 4000 series. HP 4000, 4050, and 4100. then a Konica Minolta color copier, which we do have setup for notifications.

techidave · « **Reply #107 on:** March 11, 2010, 07:25 PM »

are the HP's networkable with a nic in them? I believe our 4100 has some settings but I don't log into it very often.

techidave · « **Reply #108 on:** March 12, 2010, 09:35 AM »

I just logged into our 4100 and it must be too old for those notifications. I didn't see anywhere to set it up at. but while logged in to it, I did notice a "low toner" alert.

The 4000 would be the same but I don't know about the 4050 but would presume its too old also.

I haven't tried a firmware update to the print server to see if that would fix it or not. Perhaps someone else will know.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #109 on:** March 12, 2010, 02:05 PM »

The 4100 was the first model to have a toner level gauge ... and it's a bit flakey. If the printer doesn't like the cartridge's embeded chip, it will ignore it, and continue what ever it last calculated from the last chip it liked.

As far as the Email events go they're all (4000/4050/4100) to old for that.

3of0 · « **Reply #110 on:** March 12, 2010, 03:33 PM »

Alrighty. Thanks for looking into it.

I'm not interested in having a full task bar with statuses of various printers, so I'll continue to be on the look out.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #111 on:** March 12, 2010, 04:01 PM »

Damn! Not sure why I didn't think of this before ... There is a smaller version of HP's (insanely bloated) Web Jet Admin, called HP Easy Printer Care. It should give you what your after for the HP stuff that's On-the-Wire - It sits in the tray, monitors the herd, and gives a Balloon Message if anything "interesting" happens.

techidave · « **Reply #112 on:** March 12, 2010, 05:35 PM »

I hadn't heard of this one before. thanks for bringing it to our attention, SJ.

audinson · « **Reply #113 on:** March 14, 2010, 07:55 AM »

Thanks,
looking for something like this from long time and google help me to find it!.
Love it!

3of0 · « **Reply #114 on:** March 15, 2010, 02:33 PM »

Does what I'm looking for, thank you very much.

techidave · « **Reply #115 on:** March 29, 2010, 09:02 AM »

Hey Joker, how is it going. I just had an idea maybe to enhance this project. I often times will rescan my printers once a month or so and choose to save the previous scans so they show up in the list. But I don't remember when I last scanned them.

Is is possible to add the date scanned to the fields of data collected?

thanks,
Dave

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #116 on:** March 29, 2010, 09:30 AM »

Hm... Not sure right now as the project is currently back burner-ed while I'm working on a production inventory/management system for the office (and T-Clock 2010 has my off time spoken for).

But I do understand where you're coming from. The scan date (date report saved actually) is stored in the report file, it's just not given a column to keep the interface as compact as possible. However when you open a saved scan/report the message box that pops up displays the (that) date it was last scanned/saved. Granted it's in SQL (YYY-MM-DD) format, but that was a necessary evil for the SQL back-end and other applications in the suite.

Whenever I save a series of scan reports, I usually name the file using the SQL date format and location ID so it gives me a point of reference that appears on the title bar (opened report name is added to window title).

Let me know if that works for you, and I'll make a note in the project's To-Do list to explore other (less cryptic) options for last scan date verification/notification.

techidave · « **Reply #117 on:** March 29, 2010, 09:34 AM »

I will check it out. Maybe a checkbox to show this column on the report. Perhaps everyone won't want to see this info.

thanks for considering it.

vanman · « **Reply #118 on:** April 30, 2010, 10:16 AM »

When I try to open the download page, I get the following message:

"The domain laptechnologies.com has expired. If you owned this domain, please contact your domain registration service provider for further assistance. If you need help identifying your service provider, visit http://tucowsdomains.com. "

Any idea where I can get this usefull app?

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #119 on:** April 30, 2010, 12:17 PM »

Oh Crap!

Thanks for the heads up - Domain should be back online shortly.

vanman · « **Reply #120 on:** April 30, 2010, 05:05 PM »

Works like a charm!

I can see the use from a sys-admin's point of view, but for me it is just plain fun.

Nice little app!!

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #121 on:** April 30, 2010, 05:27 PM »

Glad you're enjoying it - and once again Thank You for letting me know the site had gone poof!

asjones987 · « **Reply #122 on:** November 27, 2013, 09:22 AM »

I love this tool but for most of my machines it does not get the Color Page Count? any ideas?

Anyone using an alternate tool if this one is not supported?

thanks

Alan

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #123 on:** November 27, 2013, 11:20 AM »

I love this tool but for most of my machines it does not get the Color Page Count? any ideas?
-asjones987 (November 27, 2013, 09:22 AM)

Not all manufacturers strictly adhere to the protocol standards that the program assumes.

What make/model printers do you have, and which ones are not reporting a color page count?

asjones987 · « **Reply #124 on:** November 27, 2013, 05:18 PM »

Not at work now but noticed that i recognizes Total pages properly but not Color on our Toshiba and Sharp MFPs for sure. We have 2 models of Sharp's and 1 series of Toshiba. All are only 2-4 years old.

I would have to check on the exact model. Not at the office at the moment.