A banner page is a sheet of paper typically printed by a computer printer after the rest of a printing project. This sheet is often used to identify the rest of the pages beneath it as the printing task of a particular user, as well as convey other information to assist in keeping different printing tasks separate and organized. These pages can be created by the printer itself or generated by a spooling program or printing server, depending on the various software and hardware used with a printer. A banner page is typically not necessary when only a single computer uses a printer, but setups with multiple computers can benefit from these pages.
Also called a burst page or job sheet, a banner page is usually the last page printed as part of a specific printing task so that it is on top of the other printed pages. It will not actually be part of the task itself, which means that no user actually makes an effort to generate the page; it is created by the printer or other software. The information displayed on this type of page can vary depending on the way in which the printer or printing software is setup. Information typically displayed on a banner page includes the name or username of the person who submitted the print job, the date and time it was printed or sent, and the name of the file that was printed.
A banner page can be generated either by hardware or software that is part of a printing setup. This page is often created by the printer that is connected to many computers, though a printing server can also generate banner pages; options to make changes to such pages can typically be accessed via the firmware for the printer or server. A software printing spooler that is installed onto a computer or network can also generate the banner page, and this may be easier to alter than a page created by a printer or server.
In some settings, a banner page can ultimately be wasteful. If only one or a few users are connected to a single printer, then it is often easy for the users to manage their print jobs and retrieve them quickly. When a single printer is being used by more than a dozen users, however, it can often increase productivity to have a banner page that makes identification of print jobs easier. Businesses can also reduce time spent with technical support or reprinting due to lost print jobs through the use of such pages.