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I am trying to monitor the output of a wide-format printer (HP Designjet T120) with SNMP. I have been messing with this sporadically for a few days since I am new to SNMP. I'd like to know the total area printed in square units (possibly in the life of the printer). This is tricky with a wide-format printer since the length of each printed page can vary (as the printer automatically cuts off the paper when the printed page is finished).

I have found prtMarkerCounterUnit, which reads as a value of "7." "7" is apparently equivalent to "impressions." prtMarkerLifeCount is "70," meaning the printer has printed 70 impressions. This seems right since the printer is only a few months old and doesn't get used too often. Unfortunately, "impressions" doesn't tell me anything about square footage since page lengths can vary, as state earlier.

I have searched from T120-specific SNMP commands, but I haven't found anything. Could someone help me figure out how to calculate total area printed? Thank you.

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Try a snmpwalk on OID1.3.6.1.4.1.11.2.3.9.4.2.1.4.1.12.2.5. This will give you the used area for the different paper types. Unit is square inch.

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  • That worked! Thank you. Could you tell me how you discovered that OID? I didn't expect the result to be in square inches, so this would be been hard to find by inspection alone. Thanks. Also, if you found my question useful, would you vote it up please? Someone voted it down a long time ago without giving a reason. By the way, I tried to vote up your answer, but apparently my reputation is not great enough on serverfault.com specifically. Oct 12, 2015 at 17:07
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I have a feeling that you your question is quite unique. Unless your printer provides an SNMP OID in a rhyme of "prtSquareFootPrintedSince" data you'll have to use some very creative maths to get the figure.

When printing, lots of stuff can vary:

  • Some people print mostly text
  • Some people print brochures which are partly text, partly images
  • Some people print photos

So, if I would have to keep an eye on printing, in addition to "how many pages someone has printed", I definitely would take a look at the date about the material they have printed. I can easily print you 2000 pages of almost white paper with 0.0x% ink coverage, and also print some photos with almost 100% coverage.

What is your question, again? Amount of paper coming out from the printer or amount of ink wasted? Something else?

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  • I'm wondering about area of paper used. Ink use is irrelevant right now. I'd like to know how many square feet or square meters of paper have exited the printer in its life. Thank you! Apr 29, 2014 at 16:25
  • Wow. That sounds like you have some interesting math times waiting for you. Or, if there is a way to know this, please tell me! Apr 29, 2014 at 16:29
  • Yeah, I don't mind the math, but I just need to figure out my inputs. By the way, someone decided to down-vote my question, hurting my chances of finding an answer. And he left no explanation as to why in the comments. Would you mind voting my question up if you find it useful or interesting? Thanks. Apr 29, 2014 at 17:12

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