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        Microsoft Printer Hardware Partners Deliver on Universal Print Support
        
        
        
			- By Kurt Mackie
- June 22, 2021
Printer OEMs such as Brother, Canon and Lexmark are bringing products with native support for  the Microsoft 365  Universal Print solution to market. 
Microsoft spotlighted a few of these printer partners in an announcement Friday. New printers supporting Universal Print out of the box  are said to have so-called "native" support. Other printer makers may  leverage Microsoft's Windows Universal Print  Connector software, which is conceived as a solution for older  printers already in use. Printer manufacturers also are developing their own  firmware updates to support Universal Print. 
In past communications, Microsoft has typically said that  the best Universal Print experiences could be had on a new printer with native  support.
Printers with Native  Universal Print Support
Printer products from Brother, Canon, Konica Minolta and  Lexmark all are available with native Universal Print support, according to  Microsoft's announcement.
The announcement sometimes provided links to these  printers, but it's not always apparent which printers have native Universal  Print support. An overall list of Universal Print partner integrations, though,  can be found in this  Microsoft document.
Native Support Yet  To Come
It seems that many of Microsoft's printer hardware  partners are still working on developing native Universal Print products. In  some cases, they are working on their own software solutions or on firmware  updates for existing printers.
HP is working to release a solution that integrates "all  printing devices that support Workpath" under its "HP for Universal  Print" effort, with a targeted release date of "summer 2021."
Kyocera expects to release its first Universal  Print-ready printers "by late summer," with more arriving in "early  fall 2021."
Ricoh is working on a solution that will add native  Universal Print support, but the timing wasn't indicated. 
Toshiba has certified its printers that will work with  Universal Print. However, native out-of-the-box Universal Print support in its  print products is still yet to come.
Xerox plans to release firmware updates to add Universal  Print support to its printers in "fall 2021." 
Universal Print  Licensing and Costs
Universal Print brings the promise for IT departments of  not having to set up a print server and manage printer driver updates. However,  when Microsoft announced the "general availability" commercial  release of Universal Print back  in March, it also disclosed licensing details, as well as some cost aspects.
It turns out that organizations will need Microsoft 365  Business Premium or E3/E5 types of licensing to use Universal Print. 
Under the Universal Print scheme, organizations need to buy  "add-on packs" consisting of 500 print jobs per month, which are  pooled across their end users. Organizations have to purchase more add-on packs  if they exceed the limit per month, and it is IT pros who are tasked with that  oversight. If print jobs aren't used within the monthly time period, then there's  no carryover to the next month.
Microsoft stipulates that licensed end users are allotted  just five print jobs per month under Microsoft's Universal Print scheme, which  is a factor in how IT pros estimate the amount of print jobs that are available  on a pooled basis per month. 
"For  example, a subscription with 1,000 licensed users will have 5,000 jobs per  month available to all users," Microsoft explained. 
That is, five  print jobs per user means that you multiply 5 x 1,000 licensed users, which  equals 5,000 pooled print jobs.
The add-on count  is measured in terms of print jobs. Page counts aren't part of the cost  estimate.
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
            
        
        
                
                    About the Author
                    
                
                    
                    Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.