REMOTE PRINTING

摘要

A system and method are disclosed for remotely printing documents from computer applications that generate printable data. In one form, printable data is transferred from a local computer (20) to a remote computer (24) or printer (26) in a data format native to the application (42,62). In another form, a relay server (28) provides a store-and-forward buffer between the local computer (20) and remote computer (24) or printer (26). In another form, a computer-readable medium (53) is encoded with a program to facilitate the transfer of remote print jobs. In still another form, a local computer (20) maintains a list of local and remote printers (22,26) (respectively) that can be used. When a print request is received, the system automatically traverses the list to find the first available printer and sends the print job to it.