Printing Architecture Solution

[attachment=16116]


Overview
The purpose of this white paper is to serve as a reference to provide a thorough understanding of printing solutions in a MetaFrame environment. By using the information provided in this document, an optimum printing solution can be applied to virtually any MetaFrame environment. Planning and implementing a printing architecture is one of the most important and often overlooked aspects of a network infrastructure.


Printing Basics
The purpose of this section is to provide a general concept of printing fundamentals like how print architectures are configured and what components are required for an implementation.


Printing Vocabulary
The following is a list of general printing terms that are used in the industry and are used throughout this document.
Printer: A device that puts text or images on paper or other media. A printer can be connected to a server, a client computer, or directly to the network.


Overviews of Printing Architectures
The determination of a printing architecture in a terminal services environment is very important, especially when remote offices or mobile users are involved. The exact amount of bandwidth consumed when printing is difficult to measure, as users print multiple documents of differing size. There are steps that can be taken to minimize bandwidth consumption and improve the efficiency of the network by paying particular attention to the placement of the terminal servers and print servers. The following subsections will introduce the three general categories of printing. Detailed explanations and implementation steps will follow later in this document.