If you intend to share the Black Ice printer driver on your network, please follow these instructions in order to set-up the printer correctly
Printer Sharing limitations
When sharing Black Ice printers over a network, there are some restrictions that should be taken into consideration.
Redirect printing: Print redirection is not available when shared over a network.
The Profile Manager is not available on a shared printer.
Terminal Servers: The Black Ice terminal server printer drivers can be shared over a network, but they can only be used by other terminal server systems.
Similarly Windows 8/7/Vista/XP printer drivers can be shared over a network, but they can only be used by other Windows 8/7/Vista/XP systems.
Shared 32 bit printer drivers can only be used by 32 bit operating systems and shared 64 bit printer drivers can only be used by 64 bit operating systems.
Sharing the printer drivers
Throughout this section we will use the following terminology:
Server Printer: The Black Ice printer driver installed and shared on a system is the “server” machine. The term “server” not necessary means a Windows Server operating system.
Client Printer: The “Client” system’s printer, prints on the “server” printer. The shared Black Ice “server” printer driver adds a network printer to the “client” system. This “client” printer will generate an output on the “server” printer driver.
When a shared Black Ice printer driver is installed as a network printer on a Client machine in your network, you will be able to change the Black Ice printer driver settings from the Client side. However there are a few points to remember and verify before printing:
The output file will be generated on the server, not on the client!
Output Directory (Filename Generation tab): You can select the output directory on the Client side, but this directory must exist on the Server machine as well. If this directory does not exist on the Server machine, the file will be generated in the Server’s TEMP directory.
On the Client every user can create and set different output directory. On Server side the Administrator should only configure the shared printer driver. On the Server side, the Administrator should make sure that every Client directory exists and the user has write permissions. If Client directory does not exist on the Server machine, the file will be generated in the Server’s TEMP directory.
Since the port monitor has no read/write permission to generate the image into a network directory, if you specify a network directory (for example \\aaa\ccc) as an output directory, the printed file will be generated into the Server’s TEMP directory.
One should not use Environment variable. If one uses a “<<test>>” environment variable on the Client and one use “<<test>>” as output directory on the Client, and a “test” folder exists at c:\ root directory on the Server side, the output files will be placed in the “test” folder. If “test” folder does not exists on the Server. The file will be placed in the C:\Windows\Temp on the Server.
Enabling Start Application (Start Application tab): If you select a start application in the Client printer, the selected application will run on the Server. The application has to exist on the Server. The application in this case won’t be able to run in user context, and therefore you have to set the BLF_DONOLAUNCHINUSERCONTEXT flag in the Client printer through the Client printer driver’s ini file. Please see the ini file specification.
Adding Watermark (Watermark tab): If you select watermark on the Client machine, the watermark image file(s) must exist in the Server machine on the same location. If the watermark image doesn’t exist on the Server, the printed image will not contain the watermark. Important Note: Please make sure images are located in a directory where all printer driver users have at least read access.
Using Bates Numbering (Bates Numbering tab): You can enable bates numbering in the Client printer and create a new bates numbering format name, but Bates numbering won’t be applied to the printed image unless the same format name is defined on the Server machine. The actual format settings need to be specified on the Server printer, but the format name has to be added on the Client side as well.