The Personal Printing Client for Konica Minolta printers is not installed directly on the printer, but rather, as a Windows service on a separate computer; this can also be the Personal Printing server. The Windows service sends the Personal Printing Client’s code, and it’s settings, to the OpenAPI on the printer. There, the Personal Printing Client can be used for authentication at the printer and to display the list of print jobs. The advantage of this solution is that a group of printers can all be configured simultaneously at a central location.
Generally, communication between printers and the Personal Printing server is achieved via the Windows service of the Personal Printing Clients for Konica Minolta. The Personal Printing server only communicates as the print server for receiving and sending print jobs. It communicates directly with the applications that the jobs are being printed from, and with the printers.
PIN or NFC card authentication on Konica Minolta printers
Installing the Windows service
The Personal Printing Client for Konica Minolta printers can be installed on the following systems:
- Windows Server 2008 and later
- Windows Vista and later
- incl. .NET Framework from version 4.5
All Konica Minolta printers from Open API v4.5 can be used.
- Download the client software from the ThinPrint web site.
- On newer systems, cancel the automatic blocking of the file PPKMClient.exe by clicking on Unblock in its file properties. Windows blocks executables downloaded from the internet or other sources automatically.
clicking Unblock to cancel the file blocking
- Copy the client software into a directory on the computer that you want to install onto. The installation uses installutil.exe from .NET Framework; you must therefore specify its directory, such as:
c:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe
- Open the command prompt, switch to that directory, and run the following command:
installutil.exe -i :\\PPKMClient.exe
registering the Personal Printing Client for Konica Minolta Printers Windows service
You will then find the service in the Windows services folder. It uses Automatic start up, but has not yet started.
- Therefore, start the service manually.
Personal Printing Client for Konica Minolta installed as a service
Preparing the Konica Minolta printer
Before we can configure the Personal Printing Client, the printer(s) must be made ready to communicate with the Personal Printing Client. To do this, open each printer’s web interface and then enter, or check, that the following settings are in place:
> in Network→ OpenAPI Setting:
Port No. (SSL) = 50003
This is required because the printer app only allows encrypted communication for the OpenAPI. Confirm twice with OK.
a printer’s web interface: OpenAPI with SSL-TCP port 50003
> in Security→ SSL Setting:
Mode using SSL/TLS = Admin. Mode and User Mode
This is also needed for encrypted communication with the Windows service. Confirm twice with OK.
a printer’s web interface: select SSL mode
> in Security→ External Certificate Setting:
- Provide the root certificate of your company’s CA (or another issuer’s certificate) for authentication of the Windows service on the printer. Select Trusted CA Root Certificate (or one of the other options), and then import the certificate, using the New Registration option. Confirm twice with OK.
a printer’s web interface: importing a root certificate or another issuer certificate
> in User Auth/Account Track→ Print without Authentication:
Print without Authentication = Full Color/Black or Black only
Otherwise – i. e. if Restrict is selected – the printer wouldn’t accept printing jobs from Personal Printing. Confirm twice with OK.
a printer’s web interface: Print without Authentication must be set to Full Color/Black or Black only
Special case Proof-of-concept
For the authentication of the Windows service on the printer within a proof of concept that uses one printer only, instead of importing the root or issuer certificate, you can generate a self-signed certificate for the printer.
> in Security→ Device Certificate Setting:
- To generate a self-signed certificate for the printer, select New Registration.
a printer’s web interface: machine certificates installed
- Then select Create and install a self-signed Certificate.
a printer’s web interface: generating a self-signed certificate for the printer
- You then export this certificate, using the Setting (see above). Select Export Certificate. Confirm twice with OK.
a printer’s web interface: exporting a self-signed certificate for the printer
Configuring the Windows service
Starting PPKMClient.exe (without parameters) will open the configuration console of the Windows service Personal Printing Client for Konica Minolta Printers. A shortcut for this purpose should be placed on your desktop.
configuring Personal Printing Client for Konica Minolta
The console for the Windows service contains the following fields:
- Personal Printing (Settings that the service requires to communicate with the Personal Printing server)
- Service settings (Settings that the printer uses to communicate with the service; the service sends these to the printer beforehand, using Register)
- Credentials (User names and passwords, with which the service is authenticated to the printer)
- User authentication modes (Settings for authenticating users to the printer: with NFC card only, with NFC card and PIN or with PIN only and the setting for which number or character groups of the card number should be used)
- Printer setup (List of Printers – with specific settings, if applicable – to which the service sends all the settings en bloc)
Personal Printing
| Menu item | Function |
|---|---|
| Host name | • address of the Personal Printing server localhost, if the service will be installed directly onto the Personal Printing server |
| Port | • TCP port for the service to communicate with the Personal Printing server 80, if the service will be installed directly onto the Personal Printing server 443, if Use SSL is enabled |
| Use SSL | enable, if using an https connection to the Personal Printing server; SSL is here for SSL or TLS |
| Default PIN | • is the same for all users and printers |
| • with self-registration: must be the same as the Default user PIN in the console of the Personal Printing server, e. g. 0000 | |
| • with manual setup by the admin: must be the same as the User PIN in the users’ AD configuration on the Personal Printing server | |
| Certificate issuer name (optional) | • name of the root certificate or issuer certificate, if the certificate installed on the Personal Printing server is not one purchased from a public certification authority, but is instead, a web server certificate from your own CA |
| • must be installed in the certificate store | |
| Delete job after printing | enable, if you wish jobs to be deleted after they have been printed out |
Personal-Printing-Client for Konica Minolta configured
Service settings
| Menu item | Function |
|---|---|
| Local IP address | address of the Personal Printing Client for Konica Minolta Printers Windows service |
| Local port | TCP port on which the service listens to the communication from the printers (via https) |
| Certificate file | • web server certificate incl. private key(!), that the service sends at the beginning of communication with the respective printer; (file type: .p12 or .pfx) |
| • must have been issued by the same root or issuer certificate that is stored on the printers | |
| • for a proof of concept, can also be the self-signed certificate of a specific printer | |
| Printer authentication | • optionally, select Enforce if the printer should also send it’s machine certificate |
| • must be issued by the same root or issuer certificate that is stored on the printers | |
| • for the specific machine certificate, see Client certificate in Printer setup |
Note! Changes in the Service settings GroupBox require an Unregister/Register reset, for the settings to be sent to the printers.
Credentials
| Menu item | Function |
|---|---|
| Override printer specific settings | • enabled: the passwords, used by the service for authentication at the printers, are the same for all the printers |
| • disabled: the service uses different passwords for each printer | |
| Administrator password | • printer administrator’s password |
| • only required for installation on MFPs | |
| OpenAPI user name | • account for logging on to the printer as a Public User or Registered User |
| • required if the OpenAPI account was previously set up on the printer | |
| • only required for installation on MFPs | |
| OpenAPI password | password for the OpenAPI user name |
web configuration for a KM printer: authentication
User authentication modes
| Menu item | Function |
|---|---|
| NFC card only | • user authentication at the printer with an NFC card or token |
| • User ID is used for authentication | |
| NFC card + PIN | • user authentication at the printer with NFC card or token and PIN entry |
| • User ID and User PIN used for authentication | |
| PIN only | • user authentication at the printer with PIN entry |
| • User ID is used for authentication – not the User PIN | |
| First digit of NFC card ID | • the position of the first digit in the user ID (= card number) that should be used for authentication 0 = 1st digit 1 = 2nd digit 2 = 3rd digit |
| Number of digits of NFC card ID | • the number of digits from the user ID (= card number) to be used for authentication |
Note! Changes in the User authentication modes GroupBox require an Unregister/Register reset, for the settings to be sent to the printers.
Printer setup
| Menu item | Function |
|---|---|
| Printer name | any name for the Konica Minolta printer |
| Printer IP address | address of the Konica Minolta printer |
| Printer SSL | the USE SSL option is mandatory |
| Client certificate | • machine certificate that the printer sends to the Windows service, when communication with the printer begins, if Printer authentication→ Enforce is enabled (file type: .p12 or .pfx) |
| • must be installed on the printer | |
| • should have been issued by the same root or issuer certificate that is also stored on the printers | |
| Administrator password | • printer administrator’s password |
| • only required for installation on MFPs | |
| • is only used if the Option Override printer specific settings is disabled | |
| OpenAPI user name | • account for logging on to the printer as a Public User or Registered User |
| • required if the OpenAPI account has been previously enabled on the printer | |
| • only required for installation on MFPs | |
| • is only used if the Override printer specific settings option is disabled | |
| OpenAPI password | password for the OpenAPI user name |
| Personal Printing printer ID | printer ID on the Personal Printing server (Setting up target printers) |
settings for a specific printer; see Printer port (here) with Port Number (SSL) in the section Preparing the Konica Minolta printer
Furthermore the console for the Windows service contains the following buttons:
| Button | Function |
|---|---|
| Search | • search for printers (via UPnP protocol) |
| • during the search, the first four fields are preassigned | |
| Add | manually add a printer |
| Remove | manually delete a printer |
| F5 | refresh the list of printers |
| Register | • send the client software and/or the client configuration to the printer |
| • following a successful transfer of data and printer configuration, the value in the column Client app registered changes from False to True. | |
| Unregister | deletes the client configuration from the printer |
| Apply | • confirm and complete the configuration |
| • settings are saved in the file PPKMClient.Settings.xml in the program directory | |
| • entries are enabled and the service is restarted | |
| • (a manual restart of the Personal Printing Client for Konica Minolta Printers will do no harm here). | |
| OK | • confirm and complete the configuration |
| Cancel | • cancel the configuration |
Authenticating on the Konica Minolta printer
- For sending a print job to the Personal Printing server see the section Authenticating on the Lexmark printer.
- When printing, the KM printer’s home screen is used for authentication. To login, the user must hold his or her NFC card or NFC token up to the dedicated reader, located below the display.
printing with Konica Minolta printers: start screen
After logging in, the following functions are available:
| Personal Printing Jobs | The list of print jobs that were printed previously from the desktop’s Personal Printer is displayed. The user can tap to select one or more jobs. |
| Select All | selects all print jobs |
| Reset | deselects all selections |
| List Update | updates the printer list |
| Info | displays additional information for each print job |
| Delete | deletes all print jobs from the Personal Printing server |
| Start | the printer’s regular Start button will start the print job. |
| Exit | With the Exit button, the user is logged out, and the Personal Printing Client goes back to the start screen to log in the next user – otherwise he or she will be automatically logged out after 60 seconds. |
printing with Konica Minolta printers: print jobs