Cloud Print Server Options Translator for Unified Dialog
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional printers require specific drivers for each operating system and vendor, making it challenging to provide a unified and user-friendly print dialog across different cloud-aware printers in a cloud printing service, which complicates the rendering of various display formats and options.
Innovation Solution
A cloud print server with an application manager and options translator that receives print requests, identifies available printers, determines and translates native printer display formats into a common protocol display format, providing a uniform set of printing options in a print dialog, independent of vendor-specific formats.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If vendor-specific capability files are used to display printing options, then each printer's unique features are accurately represented, but the print dialog becomes inconsistent and complex across different vendors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a capability file parser and normalization layer that acts as an intermediary between vendor-specific capability files and the universal print dialog. This parser extracts printing options from various vendor formats (PPD, XML, JSON, etc.) and converts them into a standardized internal representation, allowing the print dialog to display options uniformly regardless of the underlying vendor format.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal print dialog interface that can handle multiple vendor-specific capability file formats through a common processing architecture. The system defines a standardized set of printing options (resolution, color mode, paper size, etc.) that can be extracted and displayed consistently across different printer vendors, making the print dialog universally applicable while maintaining vendor-specific functionality.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple vendor-specific display formats are supported, then comprehensive printer functionality is available, but user understanding and selection become difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by extracting and displaying only the relevant printing options for each specific printer model in the universal print dialog. Rather than showing all possible options from all vendors, the system selectively presents the subset of options that apply to the selected printer, making the interface cleaner and easier to understand while maintaining comprehensive functionality when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms vendor-specific parameter names and formats into standardized parameters with consistent naming conventions and data types. For example, it normalizes resolution values to a common scale, standardizes color mode representations, and unifies page size specifications, making all printing options uniformly understandable to users regardless of the original vendor format.
3Adaptability or versatility
If cloud print service aggregates printers from multiple vendors, then printing flexibility increases, but integrating different display formats becomes challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the printer integration process into distinct modular components: capability file parsing, option extraction, normalization, and display. Each vendor's printer capabilities are processed through independent parsing modules that convert their specific formats into the standardized internal representation, allowing the cloud print service to aggregate printers from multiple vendors without direct integration complexity between different vendor formats.
Data Source
AI summary
The embodiments provide a print server including a cloud print service. The print server includes an application manager configured to receive a print request for content to be printed, over a network, from a user of an application associated with a device, and provide, over the network, a print dialog to the user. The print dialog is configured to identify at least one available printer associated with the cloud print service. The print server also includes an options translator configured to determine at least one printing option associated with the at least one available printer, and translate a native printer display format of the at least one printing option to a common protocol display format associated with the cloud print service. The options translator is configured to provide the common protocol display format for inclusion in the print dialog.