Selectively printing documents at a central printing location with or without privacy protection

摘要

Systems and methods are described according to the present invention by which users operating in an arrangement wherein all documents to be printed are sent to a central print station remote from the users and their computers. The invention permits a user in such an environment to determine whether a document desired to be printed may be accorded and maintained as a private document or not. If the job is not "private", the remote printer proceeds to print the job. If the job is "private", a unique privacy token is generated at the user's computer and made available to the user. The print job goes into a special queue and the user goes to the printer at the central print station and checks to see whether his particular job is displayed on the printer panel. If so, the user enters the privacy token PIN on the printer keyboard and the printer initiates processing of the job while the user is present, thus assuring the privacy nature of the document.