Setting Policies

MyQ uses two distinct policy types – print job policies and printer policies – and understanding the difference between them is essential before configuring either. Both types let you define and enforce desired print behavior across users and devices.

Print Job Policies

Print job policies control the attributes of the print job itself, including color, duplex, and stapling. They also control whether the user is permitted to change any of those settings before printing. A policy can enforce duplex while still allowing the user to switch to simplex when needed, or it can enforce duplex and deny any override.

Print job policies apply across all queues and all devices for the assigned users. There is no way to scope a print job policy to a specific printer – if a user has a print job policy enforcing mono, it applies everywhere they print.

Printer Policies

Printer policies control what a user can do on a specific device – whether they can print, copy, scan, or fax, and at what device access level. Unlike print job policies, printer policies are scoped to a combination of user or group and printer or printer group. Use printer policies when access varies by location or device rather than by job attribute.

In most deployments, both types are used together – print job policies set the baseline behavior for all printing, and printer policies handle device-specific access.

Policy Priority

When a print job policy and a printer policy are in conflict for a particular user, the print job policy takes priority, because this policy operates at a more granular level and its settings are more specific to the job being submitted.

Where multiple policies of the same type apply to a user through overlapping group memberships, priority is determined by the order in which they are listed in settings. Policies higher in the list take precedence over those below them. Policies can also be temporarily disabled without being deleted, which is useful during testing or transitional periods.

The Show Effective Policies tool resolves the combined result for any user and printer combination. Before go-live, use it to verify that the policy configuration is producing the intended outcome for representative users across each group.

Practical Examples

Environmentally Friendly and Cost-Conscious Printing

Enforcing sustainable print behavior is most effective when policies do the work rather than relying on user awareness. The recommended approach uses two complementary policies.

The first applies to the majority of users – those with straightforward, day-to-day printing needs. This policy enforces mono, duplex, and toner saving, and denies the ability to change any of those settings. Color printing, single-sided output, and toner saving overrides are simply unavailable.

The second targets users with more complex or demanding print requirements – marketing materials, client-facing documents, legal forms that must be single-sided. This policy relaxes the constraints: color is permitted, duplex can be changed, toner saving can be overridden. These users are still expected to make sustainable choices where appropriate, but are not blocked when their work genuinely requires otherwise.

The same two-policy model applies directly to cost control. The standard policy keeps the majority of users on low-cost output settings; the permissive policy is granted selectively and reviewed periodically as printing needs change.

Differentiating Access by Printer

In some environments, who is printing matters less than where they are printing. A university is a good example – a student printing coursework on a public library printer needs basic access, but the same student working a part-time shift at the library office may need full device access on the office printer behind the counter.

For this model, set the print job policy as permissively as possible – allow all job settings changes, apply no defaults. The printer policy of each device then defines what is actually available. Public printers are configured to allow printing and monochrome copying only. Office printers grant full access including administrator-level device functions.

This approach works well wherever access is naturally defined by physical location rather than by individual identity, and where the same person legitimately occupies different roles in different contexts.