Settings > General Settings > Printer > Printer connections
In order to print shipping labels and documents using Xentral, you need to connect your instance to a printer. You can connect various types of printers, like physical document and label printers as well as email and download printers.
The context in which you need a specific printer can be freely chosen. You can, for example, assign a printer to a specific project or type of document among other options.
Tip
In order to use the printer in Xentral, you need to turn on the device where the printer spooler app is installed. For example, you can install the spooler app on a dedicated device in your network so that all Xentral users can access the printer.
The following sections describe how to connect your printer from version 24.4 onward using the current version of the printer spooler app. If you want to connect a printer using an older version of Xentral, you can find a guide in this section: Connect printer (classic).
New printers can be connected to your instance via the Printer wizard in the settings.
To add a printer:
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Go to
Settings > General Settings > Printer > Printer connections.
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Click Add printer. The setup wizard opens.
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Select a use case for this printer:
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Shipping labels: Usually printed at the packing table in your dispatch center and might need special paper.
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Shipment documents: Can be printed in multiple locations depending on your need and type of document. Uses regular paper.
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I will use my printer for something else: You can choose this option to set up your printer at a later date. You will skip directly to step 3 of the wizard.
Click Next to continue.
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Decide on how and where you want to print your documents. You can select one of the following options:
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The first option slightly differs depending on what option you selected in the previous step.
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Shipping labels > By shipping method: Select the shipping methods you want to print labels for. You can select all of them with one click or you can select only specific shipping methods. If you have a special warehouse for bulky items, for example, you can set up a special printer there that only prints labels for your forwarding agency of choice.
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Shipment documents > All documents for a project: Select the projects you want to print documents for. This way you can, for example, differentiate between printers for B2B and B2C. You can also select what kind of documents you want to print for this project. So you can decide to print a specific type of document only at a certain printer where it can be reviewed.
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For a colleague: Select which one of your users should be able to use this printer. If one of the selected users wants to print a shipping label or a shipment document, this printer will be used.
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I will set this up later: You can choose this option to set up your printer at a later date.
Click Next to continue.
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Select a connection type. You can choose between a physical, email, and download printer.
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Connect new printer: Enter a Name for the printer and open the Xentral printer spooler to connect your printer to your instance.
If you haven't installed the spooler yet, you can download it by clicking on the respective download link for your operating system. Afterward you can install the spooler as described in the following section: Using the printer spooler. Make sure to copy your instance link as you will need to enter it while installing the spooler.
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Email: You can send the documents you want to print via email to another computer or printer. If you own a certain type of printer, you can send emails to the printer and have the email and its attachments printed automatically.
Enter a Name for the printer. Then enter the Email address of the recipient, a subject (Email printer subject), and a text (Email printer text) as you would with a regular email. This way you can mark print jobs from Xentral and can easily identify your documents if the printer is also used for other print jobs.
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Download: Enter a Name for your download printer. This will print your documents directly to PDF on the computer you are using. This is a quick way to start when you only have few sales orders.
Click Finish.
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You are ready to print! The newly connected printer is listed under Settings > General Settings > Printer > Printer connections. You can find all printer connections in this area of the settings - regardless whether they use the new or old printer spooler. If you have connections that use the old spooler, these are marked by a Legacy tag.
If you want to use a physical printer and haven't installed the printer spooler yet, please continue with: Using the printer spooler.
You can print via a physical printer by using the Xentral printer spooler app. The printer spooler is available for macOS (Intel and Apple chips) as well as Windows.
You can download the current printer spooler directly on the Printer connections page by clicking Download Spooler next to the Add printer button and selecting the correct spooler for your operating system.
You can recognize if you have downloaded the correct version by the ending of the filename:
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macOS: There are two different spoolers available depending on the type of processor you own.
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Intel chip: Filename ends in .dmg.
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Apple chip (M1,M2, etc.): Filename ends in -arm64.dmg.
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Windows: Filename ends in .exe.
The spooler app automatically updates itself from spooler version 4.5.0 onward.
Note
Make sure to uninstall previous spooler versions before installing version 4.5.0 or higher!
As soon as an update is detected, you are informed that the update is downloaded in the background. After the download has finished, a new message is displayed that allows you to update immediately by clicking Restart. You can also postpone the update by clicking Later. The update will then be applied the next time you manually restart your spooler.
The printer spooler allows you to see all available printers for the computer you are working on, to connect them to your instance and see if they are experiencing any errors.
To configure your printer spooler:
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Open the printer spooler by double-clicking on the Xentral Spooler icon. The spooler opens in a new window.
Note
There may be a message by your operating system asking you if you really want to open the app. Please continue to open the app.
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Enter the URL of your Xentral instance (e.g., https://example.xentral.biz).
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Log into the spooler by using the same login credentials you use for your instance. You can also use social login via Google.
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Click Accept, when the app asks you for access to your instance.
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You are directed to the Printers tab of the spooler app. Here you can see a list of all printers that are Available to connect on this device in a dedicated section.
Select a configuration for your printer in the Xentral printer drop-down menu. Every configuration for physical printers you set up using the printer wizard is listed here.
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Click Connect for the printer you want to use. The printer is now displayed in the section Connected to your instance.
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Optional: Click on Settings and enter a Name for your spooler.
A good name will help you differentiate between different spoolers in your instance if you installed the spooler on multiple devices. This way you can filter for a specific spooler when looking at all of your print jobs under Settings > General Settings > Printer > Print jobs. Or you can filter the list of printers in your instance under Settings > General Settings > Printer > Printer connections by spooler.
All printers that are connected to this spooler are listed in the Printers tab and can be disconnected here as well by clicking Disconnect. Beneath the printer you can see its current status and if there are any errors.
Print jobs are logged in two different locations:
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Spooler: The last 100 print jobs that were fetched by a specific spooler can be found in the Logging tab of that spooler.
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Instance: All print jobs by every spooler are logged under Settings > General Settings > Printer > Print jobs in your instance. The print jobs are listed in a table and can be sorted and filtered.
Note
It is also possible to reprint documents with the Print jobs function:
To reprint a single document, click on the three dots
in the rightmost column of the document you want to reprint and select Retry for a physical printer or Download for a Download printer.
You can download multiple documents by selecting all print jobs you want to download on the left side and then selecting one of two options:
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Clicking the PDF icon will generate a single PDF file that contains all of your selected documents.
The PDF file is only available in DIN A4 format.
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Clicking the ZIP icon will download a ZIP folder with a collection of all selected documents as individual PDF files.
The files contained in the ZIP folder retain their original paper size format. We recommend you use this option for reprinting shipping labels.
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You can migrate existing printer configurations that use the old printer spooler to the new spooler to improve your printing performance. To identify printer configurations that use the old printer spooler, you can go to Settings > General Settings > Printer > Printer connections. All of your printer configurations are listed here, configurations that use the old printer spooler are marked as Legacy.
To migrate a configuration via the old printer spooler to the new spooler:
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Open the new printer spooler on your computer.
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In the Printer tab, go to the printer you want to connect in the Available to connect section and open the Xentral printer drop-down menu. All of your possible printer configurations are listed here. Printer configurations that use the old printer spooler are marked as Legacy.
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Select the Legacy configuration you want to migrate to the new spooler.
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Click Connect.
The configuration has now been migrated to the new printer spooler and all the necessary changes have been made to your Xentral instance.
Important
Migrations always need to be done via the new printer spooler! You can't change the configuration to the new printer spooler directly in your instance.
This is the legacy way of connecting printers in Xentral. If you use a current version of Xentral, we recommend migrating to the new printer spooler as it is a lot more powerful.
The newest printer spooler app for macOS devices is available in two versions that are optimized for different types of processors:
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Apple processors (M1 and M2)
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Intel processors
To install xentral-spooler3:
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Click one of the following links to download the printer spooler installation file from the Xentral GitHub repository. The download immediately starts without any extra notice.
Note
If the links do not work, you can find the files in the Xentral GitHub repository.
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Go to your Downloads folder on your device and double-click the xentral-spooler3 file to open it.
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Drag the xentral-spooler3 icon to the Applications folder to complete the setup.
Once you've installed the printer spooler on your macOS device you can connect your printer to your Xentral instance. For this procedure you will need a Security key from your Xentral instance.
To connect your printer to Xentral :
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The first step is to acquire your security key. Go to:
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In Xentral NextGen: Settings > Administration > Printer Setup
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In classic design: Administration > System > Printer
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Select Xentral Device API activated.
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Click Generate key and then Copy to copy the key to your clipboard as you will later need it in the settings of the spooler app.
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Open the xentral-spooler3 app on your macOS device to initialize the process.
Tip
If the “xentral-spooler3” can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software message appears you must go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General and click Open Anyway.
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Once you've allowed your macOS device to open the app, open the Xentral-spooler3 app again and click Open to confirm.
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The Xentral-spooler3 app has the following tabs:
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Drucker (Printer) - In this tab you can find printers that are connected to your macOS device.
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Einstellungen (Settings) - In this tab you have the following fields that you need to fill in:
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URL zu Xentral (Xentral URL) - Paste the URL of your Xentral instance.
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Seriennummer (serial number) - Enter 123456789.
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Security key - Paste the security key that you previously generated in Xentral .
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Info - In this tab you can find general information about the Xentral-spooler3 app.
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Once you've entered all the necessary information, go back to the Einstellungen (Settings) tab and click Speichern (Save).
If all your input parameters are correct the Xentral-spooler3 app will display the message Ready for printing.
The last part of connecting your printer is to configure it in Xentral .
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Go to:
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In Xentral NextGen: Settings > Administration > Printer Setup and click + Add printer.
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In classic design: Administration > System > Printer and click +NEW.
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Enter the following basic information:
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Name / location - Enter a recognizable name, so you can easily identify your printer in the printer overview table.
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Designation - Copy the printer name from the Drucker (Printer) tab in the xentral-spooler3 app and paste it to the Designation field. You must use the same name. Otherwise, you won't be able to connect your printer with Xentral .
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Active - Select this checkbox to activate the printer.
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No background - Select this check box if you don't want to print a stationery with background on this printer.
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Select the check box in the Expert section to edit the following more advanced settings:
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Device type - Select the type of printer that you want to connect.
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Size - Select the size of paper depending on your printer.
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Connection - Select the Xentral Druckerspooler (Xentral printer spooler) in the drop-down menu.
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Optional: Email - Send the documents you want to print to an email address. Enter the address in the Email printer recipient field, the subject in Email printer subject, and a text in E-mail printer text. Your documents will be attached as PDFs and allow you to print your documents collectively at a later date.
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Serial number - Enter 123456789.
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Click Save.
You have now successfully connected your printer to Xentral .
Important
If you use a firewall, you need to add an exception to the firewall for the printer connection. Otherwise, the printer spooler will not work.
To install Xentral Spooler 3.0:
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Click here to download the printer spooler installation file from the Xentral GitHub repository. The download immediately starts without further notice.
Note
If the link does not work, you can find the file in the Xentral GitHub repository.
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Go to your designated Downloads folder on your device and double-click the xentral-spooler3 Setup 3.0.3.exe file to open it.
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If the Windows protected your PC message appears click More info and Run anyway to start the installation.
Once the installation is completed, the Xentral Spooler 3.0 app will launch on your device.
Once you've installed the printer spooler on your Windows device you can connect your printer to your Xentral instance.
To connect your printer to Xentral:
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The first step is to acquire your security key. Go to:
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In Xentral NextGen: Settings > Administration > Printer Setup
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In classic design: Administration > System > Printer
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Select Xentral Device API activated.
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Click Generate key and then Copy to copy the key to your clipboard as you will later need it in the settings of the spooler app.
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Launch the Xentral Spooler 3.0 app on your device.
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The Xentral Spooler 3.0 app has the following tabs:
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Drucker (Printer) - In this tab you can find printers that are connected to your Windows device.
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Einstellungen (Settings) - In this tab you have the following fields that you need to fill in:
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URL zu Xentral (Xentral URL) - Paste the URL of your Xentral instance.
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Seriennummer (serial number) - Enter 123456789.
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Security key - Paste the security key that you previously generated in Xentral.
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Abfrageintervall in Sek (Polling interval in seconds) - Enter an integer between 1-5 with 5 being the default value. This field controls how often the printer asks Xentral for new printing jobs. If it takes a long time to print, you can reduce the polling interval.
Please be aware that a reduction of the polling interval will increase the load on your instance! If you experience perfomance issues after decreasing the value, please reset the interval to the default value of 5.
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Info - In this tab you can find general information about the Xentral-spooler3 app.
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Once you've entered all the necessary information, go back to the Einstellungen (Settings) tab and click Speichern (Save).
If all your input parameters are correct the Xentral-spooler3 app will display the Ready for printing message.
The last part of connecting your printer is to configure it in Xentral .
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Go to:
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In Xentral NextGen: Settings > Administration > Printer Setup and click + Add printer.
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In classic design: Administration > System > Printer and click +NEW.
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Enter the following basic information:
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Name / location - Enter a recognizable name, so you can easily identify your printer in the printer overview table.
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Designation - Copy the printer name from the Drucker (Printer) tab in the xentral-spooler3 app and paste it to the Designation field. You must use the same name. Otherwise, you won't be able to connect your printer with Xentral .
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Active - Select this checkbox to activate the printer.
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No background - Select this check box if you don't want to print a stationery with background on this printer.
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Select the check box in the Expert section to edit the following more advanced settings:
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Device type - Select the type of printer that you want to connect.
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Size - Select the size of paper depending on your printer.
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Connection - Select the Xentral Druckerspooler (Xentral printer spooler) in the drop-down menu.
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Optional: Email - Send the documents you want to print to an email address. Enter the address in the Email printer recipient field, the subject in Email printer subject, and a text in E-mail printer text. Your documents will be attached as PDFs and allow you to print your documents collectively at a later date.
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Serial number - Enter 123456789.
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Click Save.
You have now successfully connected your printer to Xentral .