Banner page: Why or why not?

What is a banner page?

The banner page is the first page of a print job, used as a separator of print jobs and used to identify the originator of the print job request. There are good reasons for printing banner pages, but a case can also be made for disabling them.

In a work environment where many people print to the same printer, banner pages can be helpful in differentiating between print jobs and also letting others know the owner of the job to either expedite delivery of the job or allow it to be left for that person to pick up. Banner pages can include the date, time, name of the person printing the document, the IP address of the computer from which the job was printed and, in some cases, the name of the document.

Now, if you work in an environment where there are only a couple of people using the same printer or maybe it is a dedicated printer, then you may not need to use the banner page. Turning off the banner page will save paper.

How to enable and disable the banner page

The banner page is turned on or off at the machine or in the embedded server/Centre Ware Internet Services and in the driver. You can learn how to enable or disable the banner page by visiting the support page for your machine and entering the search terms banner page or separator page. Below is a sample screenshot of the driver preferences. This graphic from a Versa Link B7035 shows where you can enable or disable the banner page in the driver. On the Versa Link drivers, the banner page is accessed through the Earth Smart options on the driver. Of course, your driver may vary depending on the model of the machine and the driver used.

I have also included a video of how to enable and disable the banner sheet on the Xerox B series. As always, the screens may be different on your machine. Please check for a video on banner pages on your support page on the video tab.

So, you decide, are banner pages good or bad for your environment?