Granted Patent B2

US 8,107,122 · App. 12/959,171 · Granted Jan 31, 2012

Abstract

Claims (27)

1. A printing system comprising:

a print controller comprising:

a universal serial bus port;

a plurality of individually identifiable print queues identified by a queue name that specifies one or more print finishing options; and

a processor and a memory device, said processor configured for executing a peripheral device detection application and an auto-queue application;

a printer operatively coupled to said print controller;

a universal serial bus memory storage device configured for storing at least one electronic document in one or more folders having a folder identifier that substantially matches said queue name, wherein the universal serial bus memory storage device adapted to be coupled to the universal serial bus port;

wherein the peripheral device detection application of said print controller is configured to detect when said universal serial bus memory storage device is coupled to said input port;

wherein, upon detection of said universal serial bus memory storage device, said auto-queue application of said print controller is configured to copy the at least one electronic document from said one or more folder to the individually identifiable print queue having a queue name that substantially matches said folder identifier, and

wherein said processor automatically initiates, upon auto-detection, one or more print job of said at least one electronic document, wherein said print job includes print finishing options corresponding to said queue name.

2. The printing system of claim 1 , wherein the universal serial bus memory storage device is adapted to be directly coupled to the universal serial bus port.

3. The printing system of claim 1 , wherein the universal serial bus memory storage device is adapted to be coupled to the universal serial bus port via a universal serial bus memory storage drive device.

4. The printing system of claim 1 , wherein the print controller further comprises a plurality of print queues, each print queue comprising an associated name, wherein: the queue assignment information comprises a name associated with the electronic document; the print controller is further adapted to copy the electronic document to the print queue whose name substantially matches the electronic document name the universal serial bus memory storage device comprises a folder; the queue assignment information comprises a name associated with the folder; and the print controller is further adapted to copy the electronic document to the print queue whose name substantially matches the folder name.

5. The printing system of claim 1 , wherein the print job comprises at least one of a PostScript, PDF, PCL, TIFF, or JPEG format.

6. The printing system of claim 1 , wherein the electronic document comprises a first format and the print controller is further adapted to convert the copy of the electronic document to a second format, 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, and wherein the second format comprises at least one of a PostScript, PDF, PCL, TIFF, or JPEG format.

7. A method for submitting an electronic document to a print controller having a universal serial bus port and a plurality of individually identifiable print queues identified by a queue name that specifies one or more print finishing options, the method comprising:

coupling a printer with a print controller comprising a universal serial bus port, a print queue plurality of individually identifiable print queues identified by a queue name that specifies one or more print finishing options, a processor, and a memory device;

configuring said processor for executing a peripheral device detection application and an auto-queue application;

coupling a universal serial bus memory storage device to the universal serial bus port, the universal serial bus memory storage device configured for storing at least one electronic document in one or more folders having a folder identifier that substantially matches said queue name, and wherein said universal serial bus is configured for storing queue assignment information, wherein the step of coupling causes the processor to perform the steps of:

detecting when said universal serial bus memory storage device is coupled to said universal serial bus port;

copying the electronic document to the print queue based on the queue assignment information; and

automatically initiating a print job on said printer according to said queue assignment information, wherein said print job is printed according to said finishing options.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein coupling step is selected from among a group of coupling steps consisting of directly coupling the universal serial bus memory storage device to the universal serial bus port and coupling the universal serial bus memory storage device to the universal serial bus port via a universal serial bus memory storage drive device.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the print job comprises a page description language.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the electronic document comprises at least one of a PostScript, PDF, PCL, TIFF, or JPEG format.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the electronic document comprises a first format, and the print controller is further adapted to convert the copy of the electronic document to a second format.

12. The method of claim 11 , 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, and wherein the second format comprises at least one of a PostScript, PDF, PCL, TIFF, or JPEG format.

Assignments (11)