Granted Patent B2

US 7,869,079 · App. 10/946,232 · Granted Jan 11, 2011

Abstract

Claims (24)

1. A printing system for automatic print job submission comprising:

a printer having an integral print controller comprising a universal serial bus port and a plurality of individually identifiable print queues, wherein said individually identifiable print queues are identified by a name that specifies print order, and wherein the print controller is configured with a peripheral device detection application; and

a universal serial bus memory storage device configured with a plurality of folders, each folder configured for storing at least one electronic file, wherein the at least one electronic file is in a printable format and configured with queue assignment information, wherein the universal serial bus memory storage device is adapted to couple with the universal serial bus port, and wherein each folder is configured with a folder name that substantially corresponds with one or more of said plurality of individually identifiable print queues;

wherein the print controller is configured to automatically copy the at least one electronic file in a printable format from at least one folder from among the plurality of folders to at least one of the corresponding individually identifiable print queues,

and wherein the print controller is configured with an auto-queue application that is invoked by said peripheral device detection application when the universal serial bus memory storage device is physically coupled with the universal serial bus port of the print controller, such that said auto-queue application automatically initiates a print job, whereby automatic initiation of a print job includes such that automatic print job submission of said at least one electronic file from at least one folder with a name that substantially matches the name of at least one identifiable print queue to said matching individually identifiable print queue in an order specified by said print order without any further interaction by an operator of the printing system and printing a print job according to said print order.

2. The printing system for automatic print job submission of claim 1 , wherein the queue assignment information comprises a name associated with the at least one electronic file in a printable format.

3. The printing system for automatic print job submission of claim 1 , wherein:

the queue assignment information comprises a name associated with the at least one electronic file in a printable format; and

the print controller is further adapted to copy the at least one electronic file in a printable format to the at least one print queue whose name substantially matches the at least one electronic file in a printable format name.

4. The printing system for automatic print job submission of claim 1 , wherein the at least one electronic file in a printable format comprises a print job.

5. The printing system for automatic print job submission of claim 4 , wherein the print job comprises a page description language.

6. The printing system for automatic print job submission of claim 4 , wherein the print job comprises at least one of a PostScript, PDF, PCL, TIFF, or JPEG format.

7. The printing system for automatic print job submission of claim 1 , wherein the at least one electronic file in a printable format comprises a first format, and the print controller is further adapted to convert the copy of the at least one electronic file in a printable format to a second format.

8. The printing system for automatic print job submission of claim 7 , wherein the first format comprises at least one of a word processing, spreadsheet, presentation graphics, page layout, computer aided design, image, graphics or markup format.

9. The printing system for automatic print job submission of claim 7 , wherein the second format comprises at least one of a PostScript, PDF, PCL, TIFF, or JPEG format.

10. A method for automatically submitting an electronic document comprising:

providing a printer having an integral print controller comprising having a universal serial bus port and a plurality of individually identifiable print queues, wherein said individually identifiable print queues are identified by a name that specifies print order, and wherein the print controller is configured with a peripheral device detection application;

coupling a universal serial bus memory storage device with the input port of a print controller, the portable media device including a plurality of folders, each folder configured for:

storing at least one electronic file in a printable format,

specifying queue assignment information, and

corresponding with one or more of said plurality of individually identifiable print queues;

wherein the step of coupling said universal serial bus memory storage device with the input port of said print controller further comprises the step of invoking an auto-queue application stored on said universal serial bus memory storage device;

automatically copying the electronic at least one file from at least one folder form among the plurality of folders to at least one of the corresponding individually identifiable print queues, such that automatic print job submission of the at least one electronic file to at least one of the individually identifiable print queues occurs in an order specified by said print order when the portable media device is physically coupled with the input port of the print controller without any further interaction by an operator of the printing system; and

printing a print job according to said print order.

Assignments (11)