View the contents of printed documents

Managing office printing often requires viewing the contents of printed documents. This helps prevent unnecessary costs, protect sensitive data, and optimize printer performance. O&K offers several tools to tackle this task: saving documents as PDFs or graphic formats, viewing, and analyzing them. In this article, we’ll explore three programs—O&K Printer Viewer, O&K Print Router, and O&K Print Watch—and explain how they assist with print monitoring and preserving document contents. Find out which solution fits your needs best!

1. O&K Printer Viewer: Viewing Printed Files

O&K Printer Viewer is a user-friendly tool for viewing the contents of printed documents. It converts printer data into graphic formats or PDFs, supporting widely used drivers like PCL5-6, Postscript, HP-GL/2, as well as drivers from HP, Samsung, Epson, and other brands.

How to Use:

1. Enable the “Keep printed documents” option in your printer settings.
2. Open O&K Printer Viewer, go to “File” → “Open Print Queue,” and select the document you need.

Pros:

• No need to install agents on user PCs.
• Works via the shared printer queue on a server.

Cons:

• You must manually enable saving for each printer.
• With high print volumes, the queue fills up quickly.
• Searching for documents is inconvenient.

2. O&K Print Router: Saving Copies as PDFs

O&K Print Router is a virtual printer for redirecting print jobs and automatically saving document copies as PDFs. It simplifies content tracking.

How It Works:

1. Install O&K Print Router as the default printer on a PC.
2. Set rules: for example, send color documents to a color printer and black-and-white to a monochrome one.
3. Every printed document is saved as a PDF.

Pros:

• Easy setup with automatic PDF creation.
• Flexible print routing options.

Cons:

• Requires installation on each user’s PC.
• Users can bypass PDF saving by printing directly.

3. O&K Print Watch – a solution for print monitoring, saving every print job as a PDF, and much more.

3. O&K Print Watch: Full Control and Viewing

O&K Print Watch is a powerful tool for print monitoring and preserving document contents. It’s perfect for comprehensive print management.

How to Set Up:

1. Install O&K Print Watch on a print server or a PC with a connected printer.
2. Enable image saving for all printers or specific users/printers.
3. View contents using the built-in O&K Printer Viewer or XPS Viewer.

Pros:

• Automatically intercepts and saves all print jobs.
• Convenient search by users, printers, or groups.
• No agents needed on user PCs.
• Full integration with O&K Printer Viewer (included in the license).

Cons:

• None—it’s the most versatile solution.