Hi Paul, > I'm trying to find a Linux based solution that enables users to pay for > print jobs. Solutions exist for Windows and Mac but I can't find > anything suitable for Linux. Perhaps my Google foo is weak, but I can't > seem to find anything that fits the bill. The closest is a library > system which allows staff to view print jobs in CUPS and select which > jobs to print - but that's not really useful for a public printing station. >
Look at Papercut. We use this in education to control what the kids print. We give them a starter credit ($10) and when they run out, they have to toddle off to the office to pay some more money and then we top them up from the receipt. We charge 10c per B&W page, 15c per double sided B&W page and 50c per page for colour. The latter slows 'em down. We also limit them to a maximum of 5 pages per job. Anything over that, the job gets dropped. Stops the little darlin's from sending a 1000 page print job down. Papercut is a brilliant product with lots of controls, history and graphing and should be perfect for what you need. Best of all, they have a version for 32 and 64 bit Linux. Trial download as follows http://www.papercut.com/download/ng/ . Unfortunately, unless you are limited to 5 users, the program costs but in our scenario, it is worth every penny. Regards, Rick -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
