[cups-devel] Virtual Printer for page counting (Qt Client Server program

Dear list,

I am in the process of writing a client / server program for managing a
cyber cafe using Qt 5.7 framework.
Now I am stuck on managing the printing accounting, especially there are
some basic questions, I hope someone could give me the right directions:

1. Can I create a fake / virtual printer on the client pc, but redirect the
print internally to an existing network printer which are served by the
server? The server could be based on Windows or Linux OS.
If yes, what is the easiest way to do so?

2. If a "virtual printer" is not possible, how can I hook on an existing
printer on client pc to be able to a) show a custom print preview dialog
with showing up printing costs/ sum to pay etc. Is this possible for any
printer type served by the server?

I just want to be sure that a customer on a client pc are not able to
bypass the (ac-)counting of printjobs as required by my client.

I hope I can describe my problem, if not please ask.

Kind regards,

Jörn-Ingo Weigert