The short version: PaperCut gives you visibility and control over everything that prints, copies, scans, and faxes in your organization. Secure print release holds jobs at the device until the user authenticates with a PIN or badge, so sensitive documents never sit in an output tray. Detailed logs let you see and filter who printed what and when for auditing and compliance. And optional print and scan archiving can save an actual image of a job — so even a deliberately renamed document is captured. Together, these tools raise your security posture around printing and scanning without slowing your users down.
Printing is one of the most overlooked security and compliance blind spots in the modern workplace. In this EDGE Business Systems Learning Session — part of our Features and Benefits of PaperCut series — we walk through PaperCut’s security and logging capabilities and show exactly how they protect your print environment. Watch the full demo below, then read on for the breakdown.
Secure print release holds a print job in a secure queue until the user authenticates at the device — with a PIN code or the same badge they use to enter the building — and releases it in person. The document only prints when the right person is standing at the machine, so payroll runs, checks, and other sensitive documents never sit unattended in an output tray.
In the demo, EDGE prints to a “Print Anywhere” secure print queue. As the administrator, you can watch the job appear in PaperCut’s real-time activity, which shows that the system is holding the job and which user it belongs to. Walk up to any enabled copier — in the demo it’s a Canon, but because PaperCut is vendor agnostic it could be any manufacturer — log in with a PIN or badge, and your held jobs appear in the print release area by name.
There’s a practical bonus here, too: at release you can see each job by name and delete anything you sent by mistake or in too many copies — cutting down on wasted paper and toner while you’re at it.
Secure release also supports delegated access, which is especially useful for hybrid and remote teams. A remote employee can send a job securely from home, and a colleague in the office can release it on their behalf — using their own PIN — without ever needing to know the remote user’s PIN code. The document still stays protected in the queue until someone authorized releases it.
One of the most overlooked features in PaperCut is its logging. PaperCut records activity across your environment, and the logs show the name of each job — giving you a searchable, filterable record of who printed what and when.
That turns printing from a blind spot into an audit trail. In the demo, EDGE shows how you can filter the logs to answer real questions, such as:
This is invaluable for compliance, auditing, and reporting — and for sensitive situations like offboarding. If someone leaves the organization on bad terms, you can look back and see exactly what they printed — a payroll file, a price list, a client list — before they walked out the door.
Logs tell you the name of a job, but what if someone renames a document to hide what it really is? That’s where print archiving comes in.
Print archiving (which is turned off by default in PaperCut) saves an actual image of the job that was printed. So even if a user was clever enough to rename a file so its title gives nothing away, you still have a visual record of what actually came out of the printer. It’s a powerful option for high-sensitivity environments where you need certainty, not just a filename.
Yes. A question EDGE has heard for years is, “That’s great for printing — but what about scans? Can I archive the scanned images as well?” About a year to a year and a half ago, PaperCut added exactly that capability. Scan archiving lets you capture and retain scanned job images the same way you can with print jobs, so your security and audit coverage extends to documents going out through the scanner, not just coming off the printer.
Put together, these capabilities close a gap most organizations don’t realize they have:
It’s security and accountability built for the modern workplace — and it works across your existing fleet, whatever brand of hardware you run.
If print and scan security are on your radar — whether you’re an IT administrator, a compliance officer, or a business leader — EDGE Business Systems can show you how PaperCut fits your specific environment.
We’d love to talk through your security initiatives and share a live demo of PaperCut’s print and scan security. Visit edgeatl.com or reach out with any questions.
PaperCut holds print jobs in a secure queue until the user authenticates at the device with a PIN code or building badge and releases the job in person. The document only prints when the authorized user is present, protecting sensitive material from sitting unattended in an output tray.
Yes. PaperCut logs print, copy, scan, and fax activity and records the name of each job. Administrators can filter the logs by user and date range — for example, to see everything a specific user printed in the last 30 days — which supports auditing, compliance, and investigations.
Print archiving is an optional feature (off by default) that saves an actual image of each printed job. Even if a document is renamed to disguise its contents, archiving preserves a visual record of what was printed.
Yes. PaperCut added scan archiving roughly a year to a year and a half ago, allowing organizations to capture and retain images of scanned jobs in addition to printed ones.
Yes. PaperCut is vendor agnostic, so secure release and logging work across copiers and MFDs from different manufacturers — the demo uses a Canon, but the same workflow applies to other brands.
PaperCut provides a searchable activity log of who printed, copied, scanned, or faxed what and when, plus optional print and scan archiving for visual evidence. Together these give organizations the documentation needed for compliance reporting, audits, and risk reduction.