Secure print release
Secure print release, with a QR code instead of a card reader.
Documents wait until the person who sent them is standing at the printer. They scan the sticker or tap Print now, and their pages come out. Nobody else’s payslips on the tray, no forgotten prints in the recycling, and no hardware to buy.
How it works
Send now. Print when you’re there.
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Send
Upload from a phone or laptop, or email the document. Choose the printer, check the pages and the price, and confirm.
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It waits
The document appears in the sender’s Waiting for you list. Nothing prints, and nothing is charged.
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Scan at the printer
At the printer, they scan its QR sticker with their phone camera. That unlocks Print now for them, at that printer, for 15 minutes.
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It prints
One tap and it prints. Anything else they send in the next 15 minutes prints without another scan.
Release options
Three ways to release a print job. Pick one per printer.
A printer in a private office doesn’t need the same rules as the one by the front door, so each printer has its own setting.
| Direct | Release in the app | Secure (scan) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What people do | Confirm. It prints straight away. | Confirm, then tap Print now when they’re at the printer. | Confirm, then scan the printer’s QR sticker and tap Print now. |
| Document waits | No | Yes | Yes |
| Proves they’re at the printer | No | No | Yes |
| Release from a laptop | Not needed | Yes | Needs a phone camera |
| Good for | A printer in a private office | Busy shared printers | Confidential documents, open-plan spaces |
Pull printing without the hardware bill.
Traditional pull printing means a card reader on every printer, a badge for every person, and a server that holds the queue. Commontray needs none of them.
- The sticker is the release station. Print it from the admin page and stick it on the printer.
- The phone is the badge. People are already signed in on the print page, so the scan proves who they are and where they are.
- The queue lives with Commontray, on the computer at your site or the Commontray Box, not on a server you maintain.
The sticker carries a secret code for that printer. Someone who only knows the address of the print page can’t release jobs from their desk, or from home.
Scan to release
Reception printer
Point your phone’s camera at the code
Hold and release that’s fair about money, too.
A held document costs nothing until it prints. If nobody collects it, it’s deleted after the hold time and never charged. If it prints, people pay for the pages the printer reports, not the pages that were sent.
- Hold time from 1 to 72 hours (12 by default).
- Never-released documents are deleted, not billed.
- A printer with a problem that stops printing, like a paper jam, can’t release until it’s fixed, so nobody pays for a job stuck in a broken printer.
The details
Small things that make release work in a busy space.
15 minutes at the printer
After a scan, anything else that person sends to that printer prints straight away. No scanning twice.
One list of waiting documents
Uploaded and emailed documents wait in the same Waiting for you list, ready to release together.
New code, old stickers retired
One click on the admin page changes a printer’s code. Old stickers stop working at once.
Code on a screen
With the Commontray Box, the code is on its screen, next to the printer’s status and ink levels.
Problems shown first
If the printer is out of paper, people see it before they release, and you get an alert.
Nothing to install
Release happens on the same web page people print from. No app, no driver, no badge. See mobile printing.
Questions
Print release questions
Is secure print release the same as pull printing?
Mostly, yes. Both hold a document until the person who sent it is at the printer and asks for it. “Pull printing” and “follow-me printing” usually describe the version where a job can be released at any printer; secure print release is the general idea. Our guide What is pull printing? explains the differences.
Do we need card readers or a release terminal?
No. The QR sticker on the printer is the release point, and people use their own phone to scan it. With the Commontray Box, the code is on its screen instead of a sticker.
What if someone shares a photo of the sticker?
Use New code for that printer on the admin page. The old sticker stops working straight away; print the new one and stick it on. The code only unlocks release for the person who scanned it, so a photo never prints anyone else’s documents.
Can people release from a laptop?
With Release in the app, yes: they tap Print now on any device. With Secure release they need to scan the sticker, which takes a phone camera.
What happens to documents nobody collects?
They are deleted after the hold time, 12 hours unless you change it (anywhere from 1 to 72 hours), and they are never charged.
Can documents be released at any printer?
People choose the printer when they send, and release at that printer. If you have several, put each one’s sticker on it and people pick the one nearest to them.
Put a stop to orphaned printouts.
Turn on secure release for one printer today. It’s free for your first printer.