Print Job Distribution Program for Printer Format Conversion
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Solution Overview
Problem
In office environments with communal printers, each client computer needs multiple printer drivers for different printers, and print jobs cannot be easily rerouted to alternative printers due to page description language incompatibilities, leading to delays and potential unsatisfactory printing.
Innovation Solution
A print job distribution program that converts print jobs from a device-independent format into multiple device-specific formats before user selection, allowing seamless compatibility with various printers and reducing conversion delays by pre-converting jobs based on printer serial numbers or network addresses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If each client computer installs multiple printer drivers for different printers, then printing capability to multiple printers is achieved, but device complexity and software installation burden increase
Solution Approach 1:
A print job distribution program is introduced as an intermediary component on the server that receives print jobs from clients and automatically distributes them to appropriate printers. This mediator eliminates the need for clients to install multiple printer drivers, as the distribution program handles printer selection and compatibility on the server side, reducing client-side complexity while maintaining multi-printer capability
Solution Approach 2:
The print job distribution program provides universal functionality by supporting multiple printer types and protocols through a single software component. Instead of requiring separate driver installations for each printer, the distribution program is designed to work with various printer models and communication protocols, allowing one program to serve multiple printing functions across different devices
2Reliability
If print jobs are converted at the time of printing, then printer compatibility is ensured, but conversion time delays printing process
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-processing and standardizing print jobs when they are submitted to the server, before actual printing occurs. The print job distribution program prepares jobs in advance by converting them to appropriate formats or storing them in a standardized format that can be quickly processed, reducing the conversion time burden during the actual printing operation while ensuring compatibility
3Adaptability or versatility
If print jobs are converted in advance to multiple formats, then printer compatibility is improved, but processing time and system resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of converting all print jobs to all possible printer formats uniformly, the system applies local quality by converting jobs only to the formats needed for specific target printers. The print job distribution program intelligently determines which converters are needed based on the destination printer characteristics, applying conversion only where necessary rather than universally to all printers, thus reducing unnecessary processing overhead
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a print-job distribution program (20) comprising reception means for receiving, from a printer (3), a request to send a print job to the printer (3), conversion means for converting the print job from a first format to a second format; and sending means for sending the print job to the printer (3) in the second format. The second format is compatible with the printer (3) and the sending means is configured to select the second format from a plurality of different formats in dependence upon the identity of the printer (3) from which the request to send a print job was received.