Universal Print Drivers: Simplifying Printer Fleet Management

Key Questions:

• What is a Universal Print Driver, and why do manufacturers offer them?
• When is it beneficial to use a Universal Print Driver?
• When should you opt for device-specific drivers instead?

If you have a fleet of printers, you may have seen HP, Xerox, and most manufacturers offer some sort of Universal Print Driver. Have you wondered why? Or when to use it?

We have been helping companies manage and maintain their printer fleets, and this is a question we hear pretty often. When should I use a PCL driver? What about Postscript? What about a Universal Driver?

We will cover why you might want to consider a Universal Print Driver, and when it might be better to stick with device-specific drivers for your company.

Universal Print Drivers – Why They Exist

When we talk about a Universal Print Driver (UPD), like the HP UPD or Xerox Universal Print Driver, we need to understand that these were designed to help IT manage printer fleets more efficiently. If a computer uses a UPD instead of specific drivers for each printer, there are fewer drivers to manage. IT can use the HP UPD rather than finding four, five, or 20 different drivers—one for each make and model.

Every printer model has its own driver. This means there are more than 2,000 printers and copiers, and each has at least one specific driver, probably five drivers at a minimum (a couple for PCs, one for Mac, another for Unix, etc.). So, there are at least 10,000 drivers for printers for current products.

If we consider printers from the past 10 years, this could balloon up to 50,000+ possible print drivers out there. Isn’t it far easier to just use one print driver than to sift through 50,000? This is the problem trying to be solved by having a Universal Print Driver.

Universal Print Drivers – When They Don’t Make Sense

Sometimes, especially in marketing applications, basic print isn’t good enough. The specific print drivers offer more color control (since they were made by the manufacturer who understands the engine and the limitations of the specific products).

So, if you have an HP UPD and are printing on a Xerox Altalink C8130 copier, and you want to use features like PIN printing or color by words (which is in the Xerox-specific driver), you will lose such advanced functionality with the HP UPD.

How Do You Know What You’re Using?

When you are on the manufacturer’s website for a driver download, it will specifically tell you what kind of driver you are getting. If it says PCL or Postscript for that model, then no, that is not the UPD. A UPD will say it is universal as you are doing the download, and assuming you didn’t change its name when it installed, the computer will have the printer listed and supported by the UPD.

This is usually simple to determine. Of course, you could always just delete and reinstall the driver. If your IT department requires you to download the print driver off their Windows server, then you should ask them what type of print driver it is. There is a universal print driver for most platforms, including PCs, Macs, and Citrix.

If you are unsure, you can always speak to your technical support representative. We can help you get the appropriate printer driver installed. You will just want to be sure whomever it is installed for only needs the basic print driver features.

Conclusion: Using Universal Print Drivers with ManagedPrint

We recommend a single driver when possible. Just be aware as you deploy a single driver, there will be users who tell you that the driver doesn’t work because it lacks a special feature of the driver they used to use. We estimate that a UPD will work for 85% of your staff, but 15% will need the specific print drivers to be effective in their jobs.

ManagedPrint can help you navigate these decisions, ensuring your printer fleet is managed efficiently while meeting the diverse needs of your users. Contact us to discuss how we can optimize your print management strategy with the right mix of universal and specific print drivers.

Need help managing your printer drivers? Contact ManagedPrint today to streamline your print management and enhance your printing experience.