The vulnerability can be exploited remotely if printers supporting the remote firmware update process are not properly protected by firewalls. Local attacks are another possibility.

Consult Researchers Find Security Vulnerability In Printers for additional information about the vulnerability.

A press release issued by HP on December 23 confirms the availability of firmware updates that mitigate the security vulnerability. HP LaserJet printer owners are asked to visit the HP Support website to download the firmware updates to their systems. Here they need to select Drivers & Software, enter the product name or number into the form and select the product from the listing to be taken to a page where they can download the latest printer firmware for that model.

HP is furthermore offering security guidance for imaging and printing on this web page.

The press release provides no details on the changes made by HP or on the printer models firmware updates have been released for. HP stated however that the company is communicating the availability of firmware updates “proactively to customers and partners”. It is however not clear at the time of writing how update news are communicated to HP’s customer base. The HP website for one is not listing the firmware update on the main page, nor on the support start page.

No customer of affected printers has reported unauthorized access to HP, according to the press release.

HP LaserJet users should seek out the HP Support page to find out if a firmware update is available for their printer. The firmware should be installed as soon as possible to protect the printer from the vulnerability.

The free Open Source software Winflushprintjobs is basically an advanced version of the batch file that I posted in the stuck print jobs guide. The program is offered as an installer, portable version and source code. It ships with three different applications, a batch file called flush.bat a C program that has been specifically designed for Windows 95, 98 and ME, and a C program that deletes all print jobs on all local printers.

Most users will make use of the batch file to resolve the jammed printer issue. The batch script basically restarts the print spooler to resolve the issue. Restarting removes all print jobs from the queue including the stuck print job that cannot be deleted.

The C program on the other hand tries a different approach. Instead of resetting the print spooler, it tries to delete all print jobs on all local printers individually instead.

Both programs should be run from the command line if output is needed for verification, as no output is displayed if the programs are started with a double-click on the program icon.

Winflushprintjobs is a versatile program that’s best suited for situations where multiple printers are connected to a single desktop PC. The program does not support network printers.

Windows users can download the portable software from the developer website. The program is offered as a 32-bit and 64-bit edition for all versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Update: Download do not seem to work right now. You can download both releases from Sourceforge instead.

Roman printed a webpage to pdf document that included text and some images. I decided to investigate the issue further, and came to similar conclusions.

The following pdf printers were used in the test:

• Bullzip PDF printer
• DoPDF 7
• PDF Creator
• PrimoPDF

You can check out additional pdf printers over at the overview at Freeware Genius’s blog.

I have tested two different documents, first a Word document from SEOMoz, and second the forum page containing Roman’s forum post.

The results

Word document, original file size 439 Kilobytes

Bullzip PDF Printer: 350 Kilobytes
DoPDF 7: 317 Kilobytes
PDF Creator: 348 Kilobytes
Primo PDF: 512 Kilobytes

Web page, original file size 450 Kilobytes

Bullzip PDF Printer: 256 Kilobytes
DoPDF 7: 212 Kilobytes
PDF Creator: 240 Kilobytes
Primo PDF: 172 Kilobytes

The differences are not nearly as wide in range as Roman’s findings, but they may still be considerable. Especially the Word document differences are noteworthy. While Bullzip PDF Printer, DoPDF 7 and PDF Creator remain between 317 and 350 Kilobytes, Primo PDF breaks out resulting in a file size increase of 150 to 200 Kilobytes.

It is rather surprising that the pdf printer with the largest file size managed to create the lowest file size converting the web page. The three other printers are again close to each other, with DoPDF a little bit better than the other two.

Some pdf printers may come with options to reduce the file size of the resulting pdf documents, for instance by compressing images. All tests have been conducted with the default settings.

This test concentrates on file size, and there may be other factors playing a role for users, pdf quality a top one. A difference of a few hundred Kilobytes makes no big difference if the documents are stored on a desktop PC, they can however have an impact if the pdf documents are stored and accessed on mobile devices like ebook readers or smartphones with limited space and processing capabilities.

My suggestion would be to install at least two different pdf printers on the system for best results. Ideally two different printers, for instance one that utilizes Ghostscript (which many pdf printers do) and another one that does not use Ghostscript.

Have you been working with pdf printers? If you did, tell us about your experience in the comments.

Now people are beginning a wholesale move across to mobile devices, smartphones and tablets. Yet for some reason I’m still completely unable to phathom these devices still don’t seem to come with native printer support.

To make matters even more confusing, many modern printers have supported wireless connectivity now for several years, more than long enough to allow the mobile and tablet operating system manufacturers to pull their collective fingers out.

This constantly boggles and amazes me as there are all manner of things we want to do with our phones and tablets, from booking journeys to online shopping and email, where printing support would come in extremely handy. Yet, still nothing but stony silence from the major operating system manufacturers.

It doesn’t even strike me as technically difficult either. If you are connecting to a remote printer you will be doing so via wi-fi. The printer manufacturers would probably fall over backwards to add smartphone and tablet support to their driver-ranges, and it still doesn’t happen.

It’s not as if modern devices don’t have the storage and the processing power for these drivers. Many smartphones regularly come with at least 8Gb or 16Gb of storage and they’re now apperaring with dual-core processors.

So the great mystery continues. Why, unless we spend money on expensive third-party addons which may not even exist for your platform, are we being denied the one thing that was a cornerstone of the modern computing revolution? How is it that Microsoft, RIM, Apple and Google don’t see printing as being either important or relevant to our daily lives?

It’s not often I write a rhetorical article such as this. There is, sadly, no answer to this question at all and no hope that we’ll get some any time soon. It’s not a subject that any of the major operating system companies ever mention, despite printer manufacturers no doubt chomping at the bit to get into new markets and modern phones such as Nokia’s N8 coming with USB ports.

So we’re left in a strange place where the whole computing market is moving slowly and inexorably towards new forms of mobile computing and, at ever-increasing speed, away from the home office, while at the same time needing to keep the home office around for the next time we want to print a booking confirmation or an email.

Personally I find this situation immensely frustrating;after all, how hard can it be for printer manufacturers to come together to develop a single universal driver that will do the basics of text and photos (which is all we really need) that can then be bundled by default with modern smartphone and tablet operating systems. Such a driver would connect to compatible printers via wi-fi and, before you can say paper jam, there would be your hard copy… well, you know what I mean.

I’m really hoping that this situation resolves itself before too long so please, please show this article to every influential person you can find. I’d imaging you’ll probably have to hand them a device where they can read it on the screen though :/

The highly configurable software will create a report that contains printer IP addresses, mac addresses, host names, printer models, serial numbers, the total page count and color count as well as printer ink levels.

Each scan begins with the selection of the starting and ending network IP address and subnet mask as well as the SNMP community name.

Results can be saved in csv files or emailed to a specific email address. One of the interesting options of the printer management software is the ability to edit various printer information including a printer’s serial number (HP printers only), total page count, color page count and host name. Another great feature is the ability to send a test page to any network printer without needing a driver.

Page Countster is a portable software program for the Windows operating system that can come in very handy to create a printer inventory report with several additional printer management features.

It can be downloaded directly from the Donation Coder website.

The concept of the RiTi printer goes further than that. It does not require a power source for the actual printing process which is also something that traditional printers require. The printout is created by moving the ink case left and right manually. This obviously means that this method is not suited for printing out many papers at once.

Users who work regularly with printers might not be inclined to give that new printer concept a try as it opens a can of questions and possible problems:

• It is not practicable to print many documents
• The quality of the printout differs
• Only black and white printouts
• Coffee or tea dregs required to print

The RiTi printer could on the other hand prove to be the printer of choice for environmentally interested users who do occasional printouts.

source Greener Gadgets

A good way to save printer ink using optimization is to remove elements that are not needed in a printout. A user who wants to print out an article on a website might not need the menus, advertisements and comments that go along with it on the website. The second option comes down to specifying a print quality and font.

Ecofont has been designed for this exact purpose. Its nature does not make it applicable for all printouts but should be fine for internal printouts. The font makes use of a very obvious observation which centers around the idea that a font with less visible areas requires less ink. Ecofont therefor is a font with holes. This holes can save up to 20% of the usual amount of ink needed to print pages with a normal font.

It should be pretty obvious that this font is usually not one that should be used to print out important papers. Ecofont is offered as a free download at the creator’s website.

A click on the Print Now button will send the print job to the local printer so that the ID card photo can be printed the selected amount of times on the page.

There is not anything special about this printing software and the same effect could be initiated by almost any software that can display images and provide printing possibilities. The main advantage of using ID card photo printing software is the ease of use. It does not take longer than a few seconds to start the print job whereas it usually takes longer to do the same in non-specialized software programs.

ID Card Photo is compatible with most versions and editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. It can be downloaded directly from the developer’s website and requires that at least one printer is installed on the computer system.

We already mentioned how you can manually deal with stuck print jobs which basically involved stopping the Print Spooler service in Windows and deleting the stuck print jobs manually in the Windows directory.

Disabling and enabling the Print Spooler service and deleting files is definitely not the most comfortable way of dealing with stuck print jobs. The portable software Stalled Printer Repair (via Instant Fundas) offers a one-click solution to the problem. This is good news for everyone who has to deal with stuck print jobs regularly on his computer system.

The software program will detect a stuck print job automatically and display them in the program’s interface. A click on the Purge Print Job button will delete all stalled print jobs on the computer system so that the printer queue and printer can be used again on the computer.

If you regularly print out websites or documents you must have noticed that they do not fit perfectly on paper all the time. Websites are usually to large to fit correctly on paper which will move some elements – usually those on the right side that do not fit on the print – to a second paper. This could leave you with menus that will be printed on their own paper, something that is not normally needed at all.

FinePrint offers ways to deal with those pages and a few additional features that make it an interesting software for everyone who prints out those documents regularly.

Installation of FinePrint should go through without problems. It adds itself as a virtual printer to the computer system suggesting to the user that it should be set as the default printer on the system. Either way print jobs can then be send to the software application where they will be listed in the main interface.

You can send multiple print jobs to FinePrint and the software will display them all in its interface. One of the major features of the software is to remove pages that are not needed in the printout. You can flip through the pages and zoom in on them to find out if a page is needed or not. Pages that are not needed can be removed easily with the click of the button.

FinePrint will display the paper savings in the status bar which should give you an indication of its effectiveness.

Removing papers from a print job is one thing, combining pages on one paper is another. The printing software can print 1,2,4 or 8 sheets of the print job on a single sheet. It can also print them double-sided if the printer is supporting that feature. Printing 8 pages on one sheet is good for eagle-eye users or archiving purposes.

Additional options are available to save computer ink. Graphics can be removed from the printouts and the quality can be set to grayscale to use only black ink when printing. You can define borders, margins and bindings and also add stamps (confidential, proof, internal use etc) to the papers.

If the document is ready for printing you can simply send it to one of the connected printers by pressing the printer button in the FinePrint interface.

The only thing that is missing is the ability to remove or move objects on a page as well. Other than that is is a great application to save paper. Could be very handy in office or for users who regularly print out websites and other documents.

We are giving away five FinePrint licenses to lucky readers. If you want to win a copy leave a comment and tell us how many trees you would save with this software ;)

Samer recently discovered the software Printer Share which advertises itself as the ultimate no-brainer remote printing solution. One advantage of Printer Share is that the development company provides clients for Windows, Macintosh and Linux. The only requirement is an Internet connection on both computers to send the date.

Speaking of which. The company that developed Printer Share mentioned on their website that all data is encrypted before it is send which might make this printer software interesting for smaller businesses with at least two separate offices.

Sharing a printer could not be much easier. Both clients download the Printer Share software from the Internet and install it on their computer. Each has to register an account which will assign a unique username to it. The setup will also create a virtual printer called PrinterShare. If the user wants to print a document remotely he would simply send the document to the virtual printer which in turn asks the user where he wants to print it providing there is more than one remote location that is sharing a printer.

Any printers that are connected to a system can be shared by the system’s owner. This is one mandatory step if the owner wants to share a printer with other users.

The service is offered as a paid and free service. The main difference is that a cover page is printed when using the free service which contains advertisement. This is not the case in the paid version which however costs $19.95 per month.

This software might appeal most to users and businesses who print papers on a daily basis. Users who have no need for a printer and print documents once or twice a month could as easily send the documents to the other computer owner per mail or use some other sort of file transfer and initiate the print job that way.

Photocopier (via Inspect My Gadget) is a name of a free software program that can emulate a photocopier by utilizing a connected printer and scanner. The process itself has been designed to be as uncomplicated as possible. At best the only requirement is to put the paper into the scanner and press the copy button to start the photocopying process.

If everything goes as planned the printer should print out a copy of the document that has been put into the scanner. The Photocopier software program runs on all Windows operating systems starting with Windows 95 including Windows XP and Windows Vista.

The only other requirements are a printer that is connected to the system and a scanner that supports Twain. A few other settings are available. The user can pick the number of copies that should be made, the brightness of the scan, the scanning mode and basic scaling.

It’s interesting that they state that the cannot be sure that the printers that did not create the tracking dots are not using another way to add a tracking code to the printed documents. The printer manufacturers apparently gave in to the demands of the US Government in a “purported effort to identify counterfeiters”.

Currently there is not enough information to validate a tracking dot with a 100% certainty unless the manufacturer himself stated that the printer would indeed make use of it. The EFF has been using three sources of information to compile the list:

We looked at printer output under a blue light and/or a computer microscope; we consulted press reports about printers (e.g. at Druckerchannel); we relied on printer manuals and other manufacturer statements.

The two companies that have a completely green – meaning no yellow dots to be seen – listing are Okidata and Samsung. As the EFF states this does not necessarily mean that they do not use another method to add the information to the printouts but as of know nothing of this kind could be spotted.

HP Smart Web Printing (thanks Archer for the tip) adds a button to Internet Explorer and Firefox after installation. This button was immediately accessible in Internet Explorer. It is added to the Navigation Toolbar in Firefox which is disabled on my system by default. I had to enable the toolbar and drag and drop the button to another toolbar in Firefox to be able to access it.

Clips can be selected by pressing the HP Smart Select button and the sidebar that displays all created clips can be opened with the shortcut SHIFT CTRL K or by selecting the menu of the button.

The HP Smart Web Printing application integrates itself nicely into both browsers and provides a very interesting feature to be able to print exactly the area of the screen that should be printed. Definitely a must have for users who print regularly.

Their problem was that they always had to change the settings when they wanted to print a picture that they took with the digital camera. Here is what I did so that they did not have to change those settings all the time. You all know that it is possible to add additional printers to your system. What most users do not know is that you can also add the same printer again and configure it with different settings. What I did was I installed the printer again in Windows Vista.

This had the result that I now had two printer profiles. I started by naming them accordingly. One was named Print Text Documents while the other was named Print Photo. Since the profiles are independent of each other it was easy to keep the text document settings of the default printer and optimize the settings of the photo printer to print pictures in best quality.

No magic involved here, sorry. Whenever they want to print a photo they simply use the second profile with the name Print Photo. It’s theoretically possible to create additional profiles if need arises.

The Epson Software Resetter is a tool that can reset the chip on the printer cartridge so that the printer will recognize the cartridge as if it would be a newly bought one. Supported are more than 100 Epson printers of several different printer series like the Epson Stylus Color or Epson Stylus Photo series of printers.

The application runs under every Microsoft operating system except for Windows Vista and pre Windows 95 systems. Several functions beside resetting the chip are available. It is possible to rewrite the chip, freeze or reset the internal link counters, hot swap cartridges, reset the protection counter and use advanced cleaning modes.

A list of supported printers which is updated all the time can be accessed on one of the developers pages.

Oh and by the way. A great online store that is selling Epson printer cartridges for 75% off is 123 Inkjets. You can use the following coupon to take an extra 5% off your purchase, thought that might be interesting to some: SAVE5

Changing the Print Spooler directory is an easy task. It can be done by changing the default directory in the Windows Registry. Press Windows R, type regedit and hit enter. This loads the Registry editor. Navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers and change the value of the key DefaultSpoolDirectory from C:\Windows\system32\spool\printers to another directory of your choice.

The setting can be alternatively changed in the Control Panel. Double-Click Printers and Faxes. Click on file, Server Properties and change tot he Advanced tab. Type the path of the new directory in the Spool Folder box.

It is furthermore possible to change the directory for a selected printer instead. To do that click on the key of the specific printer in the Registry (subdirectory of Printers) and check if the value SpoolDirectory exists.

If the value does not exist create it by right-clicking in the right pane and creating a new REG_SZ value. Name it SpoolDirectory. Now double-click that value and add the path that you want to assign to this printer.

But what’s so special about Greenprint which I discovered at the Download Squad ? Greenprint gives you options before you start the print job. It displays all pages and determines those that are most likely not needed, this can be for instance pages with just a footer which would be a waste of ink. Besides that users can remove certain elements from pages that do get printed by right-clicking those pages and selecting one of the three available options to remove certain elements on the page.

Elements that can be removed are images, text and the whole page much like a basic version of the Firefox extension Aardvark. The advantage of Greenprint is that it is available in all types of applications because it installs itself as a virtual printer, the disadvantage is that you can’t select single elements on a page and remove only those. It’s all or nothing. Documents can also be saved instead of printed using Greenprint.

Statistics displays how many pages you did not print because of Greenprint and how many money has been saved because of this measure. The companies estimation is that individuals can save $90 per year if they do use Greenprint continuously. The figure seems a bit high because their estimation is that 1400 pages will not be printed because of Greenprint which would mean that a user would not print 4 pages per day. Maybe it’s aimed at companies where this figure becomes more likely.

The benefit is that the software uses the Internet to send it to the other computer which means that no cable or wireless connection to the computer is needed to get the job done. Another benefit is that you can print papers in a different office, city or even country using Printer Anywhere which might be interesting for companies who have offices in different cities and countries.

Your local printers (yes even network printers) will be shown in the application and you can select if you want to share them. It is also possible to encrypt the print job before sending it over the Internet.

A new printer called Printer Anywhere will be added during installation and you can choose all active printers that are connected using the Printer Anywhere software for a print job if you choose to print on that new printer.

If the remote printer is not available right now the print job will land in a queue. Once the printer goes back online the user at the other end has the option to print on the printer it has been send to or on another printer in his network.

Update: The Printer Anywhere website is no longer available. It seems as if the program’s name was changed to PrinterShare instead. The new website of the project offers downloads for Windows, Apple Macintosh and mobile devices. The software’s functionality appears to have remained largely the same. It is still required to run clients on both PCs to send print jobs from one to the other over the Internet.

I found this nice tip at the One Tip a Day blog who himself got it from Digital Inspirations. The open source software iCopy does not require installation and can be run from any location including USB devices.

Just place a document on your scanner and press a button in iCopy to start the process that prints the document in the end. It’s possible to set a quality level in iCopy as well as a brightness and contrast level for the scanned image. Several copies can be printed one after another as well.

iCopy works with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Microsoft Server 2003 with the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher installed.