Deskie can connect the printers on your physical network to your member-facing platform, so members and guests can send files to print and be billed automatically for the pages they use. Printing relies on a small piece of software called the Deskie Print Server that runs on your local network. The print server talks to your printers through CUPS, and Deskie talks to the print server over a secure connection. This article covers how to enable printing, add printers, manage the job queue and its statuses, and set up per-page pricing.
How printing works
Printing in Deskie has three parts:
- Your printers. The physical devices on your local network.
- The Deskie Print Server. Software you install on a machine on the same local network as your printers. It discovers printers, reports their status and capabilities, and carries out the actual print jobs.
- Deskie. The platform stores your printers, shows them to members, manages the job queue, and handles billing.
When a job is created, Deskie hands the file to the print server, the print server prints it, and Deskie polls the server for status until the job reaches a final state. Because printing depends on hardware that lives at your space, it sits alongside the other site hardware features. For an overview of the local hardware Deskie connects to, see door access.
Enabling printing
Printing must be turned on for your workspace before it becomes visible to members. This is a workspace-level setting, so you need workspace management permissions to change it. See roles and permissions for who can manage workspace settings.
To set printing up you need two things configured for your workspace:
- Printing enabled. A toggle that turns the printing feature on.
- Print server URL. The address Deskie uses to reach your Deskie Print Server on your network.
Deskie also generates a print server API key. This key is the credential the print server uses to authenticate with Deskie. You can generate a new key at any time, and you will need to supply the current key when configuring the print server itself.
If printing is not yet enabled, the Printers page shows a notice prompting you to enable the feature in Settings and install the Deskie Print Server on your local network. Until both the print server URL and API key are configured, actions that talk to the server, such as syncing or printing, will report that the print server is not configured.
The Printers page
The Printers page lists the printers Deskie knows about for your current location. It is restricted to admins. Each row shows:
- Printer. The printer name. If you have given it a nickname, the nickname is shown with the underlying server identifier in parentheses.
- Location. Which location the printer belongs to. This column only appears when your workspace has more than one location. See workspaces and locations.
- Status. Online, Offline, or Error, based on what the print server last reported. If the printer has any reported issues, a warning icon appears next to the status with details on hover.
- Color. Whether the printer supports color or is black and white only.
- Last Seen. When the print server last reported this printer, or Never if it has not been seen.
- Enabled. A toggle that controls whether the printer is available to members. New printers start disabled, so nothing becomes printable until you deliberately enable it.
A status indicator at the top of the page shows whether the print server itself is reachable. It reads Online when the server responds and CUPS is connected, Degraded when the server responds but reports a problem such as CUPS not being connected, and Offline when Deskie cannot reach the server. Hovering over it shows the server version, CUPS connection state, and the number of printers available. This indicator refreshes on its own every 30 seconds.
Clicking a printer row opens that printer's detail page, where you configure its pricing, defaults, authentication, and view its print history.
Adding printers
There are two ways printers end up in Deskie.
Syncing discovered printers
The print server discovers printers on your local network automatically. Use the Sync Printers button to pull the current list from the print server into Deskie. Syncing also happens automatically when you open the Printers page and when you switch locations.
During a sync, Deskie does the following:
- Adds any newly discovered printers. New printers are created disabled, so you must turn them on before members can use them.
- Updates the name, status, color support, capabilities, and reported issues of printers it already knows about. Your enabled or disabled setting is preserved across syncs.
- Marks any printer that is no longer reported by the print server as offline and disabled.
If the print server cannot be reached during a sync, Deskie marks all of that location's printers offline and fails any jobs that were stuck in the queue or printing, with the message that the print server was unreachable.
Adding a printer by IP address
If a printer is not discovered automatically, you can add it directly using the Add Printer action. Enter the printer's IP address on your local network and, optionally, a friendly name to display. Deskie passes this to the print server, which attempts to add the printer and report its details back. A printer added this way is enabled immediately.
Configuring an individual printer
Opening a printer shows its current status, color support, server identifier, last seen time, and a running count of its print jobs and completed jobs, along with lifetime revenue from completed jobs. From the tabs you can configure the printer.
Overview
Set a nickname shown to users in place of the raw server name, and toggle whether the printer is enabled for printing.
Print defaults
On the Settings tab you can set default print options that apply to every job on this printer, such as paper size, duplex (single or double sided), print quality, paper tray, and paper type. The options available depend on the capabilities the print server reports for that printer. If no capabilities are available yet, sync the printers to fetch them.
Printer authentication
Some printers require credentials before they will accept a job. The Settings tab lets you store an optional login name, password, and user code (an account or department code some printers require). These are sent with each print job. Leave them blank if your printer does not require them.
Printer driver
If a printer is running a generic driverless driver, a Printer Driver card appears on the Settings tab. It shows the make and model, whether a vendor driver is installed, and whether authentication options are available. You can upload a manufacturer PPD file (a printer description file) to improve compatibility and enable full feature support.
The print job queue and statuses
Every file sent to print becomes a print job. A job records the file name and size, page count, number of copies, color mode, the per-page price, the total amount, its payment status, and its current status. You can view jobs per printer on the printer's History tab, and members see their own print history on their side of the platform.
Each job moves through a defined set of statuses:
- Pending Payment. The job is waiting on payment before it can be printed. This applies to guest jobs that have not been paid for yet.
- In Queue. The job has been accepted and is queued for printing.
- Printing. The job is actively printing.
- Completed. The job finished printing.
- Failed. The job could not be printed. A reason is recorded, for example that the print server was unreachable or not configured, or an error returned by the server.
- Cancelled. The job was cancelled.
After a job is submitted to the print server, Deskie polls the server for its status every few seconds and updates the job until it reaches a final state of completed, failed, or cancelled. Polling stops once a job reaches one of those states or after a few minutes have passed.
A job can be cancelled by the member who created it or by an admin, but only while it is still pending or in queue. Cancelling marks the job cancelled, waives any charge, and removes the uploaded file.
Pricing and how members and guests are charged
Pricing is configured per printer on its Pricing tab, with separate settings for members and guests. For each audience you control whether they are allowed to use the printer and what they are charged.
Per-page rates
Each printer can have separate per-page rates for black and white and for color, set independently for members and for guests. The price charged for a job is the per-page rate for the chosen color mode multiplied by the page count and the number of copies. If a rate is left unset, Deskie falls back to a default of $0.10 per page for black and white and $0.25 per page for color.
Member and guest access
You can turn member printing and guest printing on or off independently for each printer. If a printer does not allow members, a member's job is rejected, and the same applies to guests when guest printing is off.
How members are billed
When a member prints, the job goes straight into the queue and is submitted to the print server immediately. The charge is added to the member's invoice rather than collected at the moment of printing. Print charges are rolled into the member's regular invoicing. If the member belongs to a team, the charge is routed to the team's billing target so it lands on the team's invoice. To understand how these charges flow into invoices, see member activity and billing and invoices.
How guests are billed
When someone without a member profile prints, the job is created as pending and must be paid for before it prints. Deskie creates an invoice for the pending jobs and collects payment immediately. Once payment succeeds, the jobs move into the queue and are submitted to the print server. Guest payments are processed through Stripe, so your workspace needs Stripe connected. See connecting Stripe.
Guest minimum charge
Because card processing has a per-transaction cost, you can set a minimum charge for guests on each printer. If a guest's calculated total comes out below the minimum, the minimum is charged instead. Stripe charges a percentage plus a flat fee per transaction, so a minimum of around a dollar or more is sensible to keep small print jobs from costing you money. The minimum charge applies only to guests, not to members.