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Deferred printing

  • US 5,960,168 A
  • Filed: 12/03/1998
  • Issued: 09/28/1999
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/05/1994
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A method in a computer system for deferring the printing of a print job directed to an unavailable printer, the method comprising the steps of:

  • under the control of a program, issuing printing commands to the operating system identifying a printer by calling a printing interface of the operating system to invoke a device driver to print the print job, the printing commands being issued by the program to print a print job immediately on the identified printer;

    under the control of the operating system;

    receiving the issued printing commands;

    determining that the identified printer is presently unavailable;

    in response to determining that the identified printer is presently unavailable;

    persistently storing information from the printing commands, such that the stored information may be used to invoke the device driver to print the print job on the identified printer at a later time; and

    though the print job was not actually printed, returning to the program an indication that the issued printing commands were successfully completed and the print job was printed.

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