Configuring Secure Print Direct

This guide walks you through setting up Secure Print Direct in HP Insights — from establishing your location hierarchy to deploying print queues to user workstations.

If you are new to Direct Print and have a large printer fleet, this guide describes the recommended approach: using CSV imports and Queue Profiles to configure hundreds of printers and queues efficiently, without manual configuration per device.

Before You Start

Direct Print configuration follows a specific order. Each step depends on the previous one being complete:

  • Locations must exist before printers can be assigned to them.

  • Printers must be imported before queues can be created.

  • Queue Profiles should be reviewed and customized before running queue creation — getting them right first avoids having to recreate queues later.

Have the following ready before you begin:

  • A location hierarchy — the Region, Site, Building, Floor, and Area structure for your organization, along with IP ranges, gateways, or Wi-Fi SSIDs for each location.

  • A printer inventory — make, model, and network address (hostname or IP) for each printer, ideally exported from your asset management system or a network scan.

Step 1 — Review Queue Profiles

Queue Profiles are rules that automatically match printers to the right queues. Before importing any printers, review the default profiles and adjust them to match your organization's driver standards and finishing options. This ensures that when you run queue creation later, the right queues are generated automatically.

  1. Navigate to Direct > Direct Printers > Queue Profiles tab.

  2. HP Insights includes seven built-in profiles covering the major printer manufacturers. Each profile matches printers by make/model and creates Windows and macOS queues with default finishing options (A4 Mono Duplex). Review each profile and adjust as needed — for example, change A4 to Letter if your organization uses Letter paper.

  3. If you have specialist devices that need a custom configuration, click Add to create a new profile. Set the Manufacturer/Model match pattern, configure the queue templates, and drag the profile to the correct position in the priority order. More specific profiles should sit above broader ones.

Note: For full details on Queue Profiles including all configuration options, see Queue Profiles.

Step 2 — Import Locations

Establish your location hierarchy before importing printers. Printers imported without a matching location will be placed under Global and need to be moved manually.

1. Prepare a CSV file with your location data. The required columns are Region and Action (Create or Remove). Optional columns are Site, Building, Floor, Area, IP_Ranges, Gateways, and Wifi_SSIDs.

Example:

Region,Site,Building,Floor,Area,IP_Ranges,Gateways,Wifi_SSIDs,Action

NZ,R&D,Auckland,Level 2,,10.0.1.0-10.0.1.254,10.0.99.1,HP-NZ,Create

US,Main,Rochester,Ground,,10.0.3.0-10.0.3.254,10.3.99.1,HP-US,Create

2. Navigate to Direct > Direct Printers. In the Locations pane, click the dropdown arrow next to the Printers button and select CSV Location Import.

3. Upload your CSV, map the columns to the corresponding fields, and click Submit. The import runs asynchronously — review the results when complete.

Note: Location Import is idempotent. You can re-run the same CSV to correct or update locations without creating duplicates. For the full column reference and import behaviour, see CSV Location Import.

Step 3 — Add Printers

Printers can enter Direct Print in two ways. For a new large deployment, Device Import is the recommended path. Device Scout discovery is better suited for ongoing additions after the initial setup.

  • Device Import (CSV) — recommended for large deployments. Upload a CSV with your printer inventory to create all device records at once. See below for details.

  • Device Scout Discovery — Device Scout scans your network via SNMP and discovers printers automatically. Discovered printers appear under the Global location. Best for ongoing discovery of new printers added to the network after the initial setup. Use Discover on Demand for an immediate scan of specific IP addresses without waiting for the next scheduled scan.

Importing Printers via CSV

With locations in place, import your printer inventory using the Device Import CSV. This creates Direct Print device records and links each printer to its location.

1. Prepare a CSV file with your printer data. The required columns are

  • Serial Number
  • MAC Address
  • IPv4 Address
  • Model
  • Manufacturer

Optional columns include Location, Queue Name, and Profile Override.

  • Location — the location path in the format Region/Site/Building/Floor. Must match an existing location. Specifying this assigns the printer to the correct location automatically.

  • Queue Name — overrides the auto-generated queue name for this printer. If not specified, the queue name is constructed as {Make} {Model} — {Network Address}.

  • Profile Override — forces a specific Queue Profile to be used for this printer, bypassing the normal profile matching logic. Useful for specialist devices that would otherwise match a generic profile.

2. Navigate to Direct > Direct Printers > Printers tab and click Device Import.

3. Upload your CSV, map the columns, and click Submit. Devices are created or updated — re-importing updates existing records rather than creating duplicates.

Note: For the full column reference and import behaviour, see Importing Printers for Direct Print.

Step 4 — Create Queues from Profile

With printers imported and Queue Profiles configured, run queue creation to generate print queues in bulk. Queue creation evaluates each printer against your profiles and creates the queues defined in the matching profile.

1. In the Direct > Direct Printers tab, select the printers or location you want to create queues for.

2. Click Create Queues from Profile.

3. Select Dry Run and click Start. The Dry Run previews what queues will be created — showing the matched profile and derived queue name for each printer — without making any changes. Always run a Dry Run first before creating queues on a large selection.

4. Review the results. If any printer matched the wrong profile, or the queue names are not what you expected, close the dialog, adjust your Queue Profiles or Profile Override values, and run the Dry Run again.

5. When the results look correct, click Import in the results view to commit the queue creation.

Note: Queue creation operations that run for more than 10 minutes are automatically aborted. For very large selections, split the operation by location or by smaller batches. For full details on Queue Profiles and the Create Queues from Profile workflow, see Queue Profiles.

Step 5 — Deploy via Print Scout

Once queues are created in Secure Print Direct, Print Scout handles deployment to user workstations. When a user has Print Scout installed, it retrieves the Secure Print Direct queues relevant to their location and installs them automatically (for auto-install queues) or makes them available in the HP Secure Print desktop app (for manual-install queues).

Users do not need to take any action for auto-install queues — they appear in the user's printer list after Print Scout runs its location check. For manual-install queues, users open the HP Secure Print desktop app and install the queues they need.

See Deploy Print Scout for more information.

Step 6 — Invite Users

Send users an invitation email with instructions for activating Secure Print Direct on their workstation.

Navigate to Direct > Invite and use the invitation template to send activation instructions to your Direct Print users.

Note: Print Scout deployment to user workstations is separate from this configuration workflow. Administrators are responsible for deploying Print Scout to workstations using their standard software deployment tools (for example, Group Policy, Intune, or SCCM).

For more information, refer to Invite Direct Print Users.

Adding Printers Manually

For individual printers added after the initial bulk setup, you can add them without a CSV import:

  • Use Discover on Demand to scan specific IP addresses immediately from the web console without waiting for the next scheduled Device Scout scan.

  • To create a queue for a single printer manually, select the printer in the Direct Printers tab, click Create Queue, and configure the queue properties directly. See Print Queues for the full property reference.

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