Terminal Services Remote Desktop RDP printing

[ApeosMan]

Hi,

I have a customer that is printing via Terminal Services RDP (Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol) and whilst printing more complex documents where the spool file size becomes large the transmission time is greatly increased compared to local printing. The reason why it's increased is because the print job is being sent over the internet via a VPN as their servers are off-site, hence why they're using Microsoft Remote Desktop.

Now when the customer prints more complex documents like graphic intensive presentations etc the spool file size can be 30mb+ and the transmission time to the printer can be long. PCL and PostScript both tend to make large spool files with certain print jobs, but the Fuji Xerox XPS print driver creates a really small spool file size, the problem is it's just a generic windows XPS print driver with no finishing/advanced options to select. The XPS print language really compresses the spool file without loosing image quality. I'm surprised printer manufactures haven't used XPS to their advantage.

I've recommended Thinprint as the Thinprint protocol compresses the print data and the Thinprint protocol is on the MFP's they have. But I'm curious to know how other people here have dealt with Remote Desktop or Citrix printing?

Thanks.

[MattL]

Re: Terminal Services Remote Desktop RDP printing

I have used Citrix printing over the years with HP printers, although connected on a VPN effectively they are connecting over the web back to the server. Biggest problem we had was drivers, for basic things it was ok but advanced stuff it did cause us huge problems. We ended up installing the application on the client, in your case you do not have network access as such so it could be a bigger problem.

It is something that has never really worked properly, it is there for basic things it would appear.

[Phrag]

Re: Terminal Services Remote Desktop RDP printing

They may not be using Vista, 7 or 8, as the XPS color and graphics features are only available for those OSs; Or at least only supported on those systems.

[TheOwl]

Re: Terminal Services Remote Desktop RDP printing

RDS (Remote Desktop Services as it is known now from Server 2008 onwards) printing at the end of the day is exactly the same as printing from a local PC on the site with a print server that lives on the other sie of the VPN connection.

I would be assuming that the VPN link is held open by the clients router and not via each indivdual PC yeah? Do you have any idea of the line speeds being achieved by the remote site (not the main site to which the VPN is connected to)?

From Windows Vista onwards, PCL and Postscript printing are now legacy printing environments as Microsoft released the XPS printing system which all runs off XML. You will always find a better compression of spool files with XPS drivers simply because it is Microsoft based.

Also, are the printers installed locally on the RDS server, or are they being forwarded with the RDS session? If they are being forwarded, then are the drivers installed locally on the PC making the RDS connection, or are they via a print server?

[Phrag]

Re: Terminal Services Remote Desktop RDP printing

From Windows Vista onwards, PCL and Postscript printing are now legacy printing environments as Microsoft released the XPS printing system which all runs off XML. You will always find a better compression of spool files with XPS drivers simply because it is Microsoft based.

This is handy to know. I might try these XPS drivers out if they are available. It might solve some slow spooling issues with PDF's?

[ApeosMan]

Re: Terminal Services Remote Desktop RDP printing

RDS (Remote Desktop Services as it is known now from Server 2008 onwards) printing at the end of the day is exactly the same as printing from a local PC on the site with a print server that lives on the other sie of the VPN connection.

I would be assuming that the VPN link is held open by the clients router and not via each indivdual PC yeah? Do you have any idea of the line speeds being achieved by the remote site (not the main site to which the VPN is connected to)?

From Windows Vista onwards, PCL and Postscript printing are now legacy printing environments as Microsoft released the XPS printing system which all runs off XML. You will always find a better compression of spool files with XPS drivers simply because it is Microsoft based.

Also, are the printers installed locally on the RDS server, or are they being forwarded with the RDS session? If they are being forwarded, then are the drivers installed locally on the PC making the RDS connection, or are they via a print server?

Held by the clients router and I have no idea about the line speeds, but the drivers are not loaded locally and are on the RDS server.

[ApeosMan]

Re: Terminal Services Remote Desktop RDP printing

This is handy to know. I might try these XPS drivers out if they are available. It might solve some slow spooling issues with PDF's?

Not sure if any printer manufactures actually have any fully functional (booklet making etc) XPS drivers yet, but many just use the generic windows XPS driver which is limited.

XPS does indeed create a smaller spool file size, but not substantially smaller, but it's still good for testing PDF's that grow out to huge sizes when using PCL or PS.

[TheOwl]

Re: Terminal Services Remote Desktop RDP printing

Well it sounds like they have the RDS setup in the most efficient way for printing as the print job is only going down the line once. Your client might just have a slow line speed which is causing the print jobs to take some time to be sent out and the fact that the connection is probably full of RDS sessions as well. Depending on the RDS environment and the experience that has been setup for the users (such as Windows Aero Themes and others) on the RDS server, it could be bogging down the connection.

Konica Minolta has fully functional XPS drivers, so I can't comment on other manufacturers and their XPS drivers.

The problem with XPS is that Microsoft just expected the printing industry to change over night to a platform that they developed without doing any reasearch. The fact of the matter here is that PCL and PS have been around for years and were developed by HP and Xerox (well ex Xerox techs that left and formed Adobe) and have been developed very well, but Microsoft wants a piece of the pie.

While PCL and PS and been made a legacy, they are very much and will continue to be the industry standard for printing for a very long time to come.

[rthonpm]

Re: Terminal Services Remote Desktop RDP printing

I've had a few customers with heavy RDP use who have had very good luck using screwdrivers as a print service. http://www.tricerat.com/products/sim...g/screwdrivers

It seems to work pretty well from what I've seen, mainly since once they started using it printer support calls for RDP users dropped to almost nothing.