Universal printing system
View Patent ↗A method and system for printing content from a computing device is provided. Content from the computing device is converted to a device independent format and printed in the device independent format. The content is converted using a mark-up language, which also defines the style of the content. The converted content description format is preloaded in the computing device and is provided to the printing device. The mark-up language may be XML and the description format may be in the is in the extensible Style sheet language (“XSL”) or extensible Style sheet language Transformation (“XSLT”) format.
1. A method for printing content from a computing device at a printing device, comprising:
receiving the content at a printer router;
determining if the printing device is auto-queryable, wherein determining if the printing device is auto-queryable includes:
determining, via the printer router, if the printing device is responsive based on previous records;
determining if the printing device is queryable if the printing device is responsive;
determining if ability of the printing device has been acquired;
selecting a set of tags, for setting detail level for printing the content, if the ability has been acquired:
determining if a conventional driver is available;
loading style sheets if the conventional driver is not available;
converting the content into a device independent format based on the style sheets; and
printing the content in the device independent format.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content is converted using a mark-up language.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the mark-up language defines the content from the computing device.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the markup language defines the style of the content from the computing device.
5. The method of claim 3 , wherein a content description format is preloaded in the computing device.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the content description format is provided to the printing device.
7. The method of claim 2 , wherein the mark-up language is eXtensible Markup Language (XML).
8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the content description format is in the extensible Style sheet language (“XSL”) or extensible Style sheet language Transformation (“XSLT”) format.
9. A computer-readable medium storing computer executable process steps of a printing process for printing content from a computing device at a printing device, comprising of:
receiving the content at a printer router;
determining if the printing device is auto-queryable, wherein determining if the printing device is auto-queryable includes:
determining via the printer router, if the printing device is responsive based on previous records;
determining if the printing device is queryable if the printing device is responsive;
determining if ability of the printing device has been acquired;
selecting a set of tags if the ability has been acquired;
determining if a conventional driver is available;
loading style sheets if the conventional driver is not available;
converting the content into a device independent format based on the style sheets; and
printing the content in the device independent format.
10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the content is converted using a mark-up language.
11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the mark-up language defines the content from the computing device.
12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the mark-up language defines the style of the content from the computing device.
13. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein a content description format is preloaded in the computing device.
14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the content description format is provided to the printing device.
15. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the mark-up language is eXtensible Markup Language (XML).
16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the content description format is in the extensible Style sheet language (“XSL”) or extensible Style sheet language Transformation (“XSLT”) format.
17. A system for printing content at a printing device from a computing device comprising:
a computing device;
a printer router, connected to the computing device, for receiving the content from an application, and determining if the printing device is auto-queryable, wherein determining if the printing device is auto-queryable includes:
determining, via the printer router, if the printing device is responsive based on previous records;
determining if the printing device is queryable if the printing device is responsive;
determining if ability of the printing device has been acquired;
selecting a set of tags, for setting detail level for printing the content, if the ability has been acquired;
determining if a conventional driver is available;
loading style sheets if the conventional driver is not available; and
converting the content from the computing device into a device independent format based on the style sheets; and
a universal engine for receiving the content from the printer router, wherein the universal engine converts the content from the application to a mark-up language format; and
a plurality of style sheets, wherein the style sheets define the format of the content that is converted by the universal engine.
18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the style sheets are based on a mark-up language.
19. The system of claim 17 , wherein the mark-up language is eXtensible Markup Language (XML).
20. The system of claim 17 , wherein the style sheets are in the extensible Style sheet language (“XSL”) or extensible Style sheet language Transformation (“XSLT”) format.
21. A method for printing content from a computing device at a printing device, comprising:
receiving the content at a printer router;
determining if a universal printing system is available;
storing a basic set of tags, if available, for printing;
storing an extended set of tags, if available, for printing;
storing a printer driver, if the universal printing system is unavailable; and
determining if the printing device is auto-queryable, wherein determining if the printing device is auto-queryable includes:
determining, via the printer router, if the printing device is responsive based on previous records;
determining if the printing device is queryable if the printing device is responsive;
determining if ability of the printing device has been acquired;
selecting a set of tags, for setting detail level for printing the content, if the ability has been acquired;
determining if a conventional driver is available;
loading style sheets if the conventional driver is not available;
converting the content into a device independent format based on the style sheets; and
printing the content in the device independent format.
22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the content is converted using a mark-up language and the mark-up language is eXtensible Markup Language (XML).
23. The method of claim 21 , wherein the style sheets are in the extensible Style sheet language (“XSL”) or extensible Style sheet language Transformation (“XSLT”) format.