Methods and systems for providing device specific print options to remote printing services

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for enabling remote printing services to consistently obtain and utilize print capabilities of printing devices across a wide variety of connection topologies. A client device retrieves the print capabilities from one or more printing devices selected for printing a document. The document and the print capabilities are transmitted to a web print service for rending the document. The web print service generates a print job based on the document and the print capabilities of the printing device selected for printing the document. The web print service provides the print job to the selected printing device for subsequent printing.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 transmitting, by a client device to a printing device, a request for print capabilities of the printing device;   receiving, by the client device from the printing device, a response from the printing device that includes installable print options for the printing device;   selecting, at the client device, a set of the installable print options;   transmitting, by the client device to a web printing service (WPS), the selected set of the installable print options and document data;   receiving, by the client device from the WPS, a print job based on the document data and the selected set of the installable print options for the printing device; and   transmitting, by the client device to the printing device, the print job for printing the print job based on the selected set of the installable print options.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein:
 the client device and the printing device are communicatively coupled within a first network; 
 the WPS is a web application server on a second network; and 
 the WPS and the printing device are not directly communicatively coupled. 
 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein:
 transmitting the selected set of the installable print options and the document data further comprises:
 transmitting the document data in an encrypted format; and 
 
 transmitting the print job for printing further comprises:
 transmitting the print job in an encrypted format. 
 
 
     
     
         4 . A method comprising:
 receiving, by a web printing service (WPS) from a client device, a selected set of installable print options for a printing device and document data;   generating, by the WPS, a print job based on the selected set of the installable print options for the printing device and the document data;   transmitting, by the WPS to the printing device, the print job for printing the print job based on the selected set of the installable print options.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein:
 the client device and the printing device are communicatively coupled within a first network; 
 the WPS is a web application server on a second network; and 
 the WPS and the printing device are not directly communicatively coupled. 
 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4  wherein:
 receiving the selected set of the installable print options and the document data further comprises:
 receiving the document data from the client device in an encrypted format; and 
 
 transmitting the print job for printing further comprises:
 transmitting the print job to the printer in an encrypted format. 
 
 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 4  wherein:
 the method further comprises:
 determining that a printer driver is not installed at the WPS for the printing device; 
 retrieving the printer driver from a third party driver repository; and 
 installing the printer driver at the WPS; and 
 
 generating the print job further comprises:
 generating the print job at the WPS using the installed printer driver. 
 
 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  wherein retrieving the printer driver from the third party driver repository further comprises:
 identifying at least one of a model name and an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers identification number (IEEE-ID) of the printing device; and 
 transmitting the at least one model name and the IEEE-ID in a driver request to the third party driver repository. 
 
     
     
         9 . A printing system, the system comprising:
 a web print server; and   a client device operable to transmit a request to a printing device for print capabilities of the printing device, to receive a response from the printing device that includes installable print options for the printing device, to receive a selection of the set of the installable print options, and to transmit the selected set of the installable print options and document data to the web print server;   the web print server is further operable to generate a print job for the printing device based on the document data and the selected set of the installable print options for the printing device, and to provide the print job to the printing device for printing the print job based on the selected set of the installable print options.   
     
     
         10 . The printing system of  claim 9  wherein:
 the client device and the printing device reside within a first network; 
 the web print server is a web application server on a second network; and 
 the web print server and the printing device are not directly communicatively coupled. 
 
     
     
         11 . The printing system of  claim 10  wherein:
 the client device is communicatively coupled to the web print server on the second network and communicatively coupled to the printing device on the first network; 
 the web print server is further operable to transmit the print job to the client device over the second network; and 
 the client device is further operable to forward the print job from the web print server to the printing device over the first network. 
 
     
     
         12 . The printing system of  claim 10  further comprising:
 a communication gateway communicatively coupled to the first network and the second network; 
 wherein the client device is further operable to transmit the document data and the selected set of the installable print options to the web print server over the first network to the second network through the communication gateway; 
 wherein the web print server is further operable to transmit the print job to the client device over the second network to the first network through the communication gateway; and 
 wherein the client device is further operable to forward the print job from the web print server to the printing device. 
 
     
     
         13 . The printing system of  claim 9  wherein:
 the web print server is further operable to determine that a printer driver is not installed for the printing device, to retrieve the printer driver from a third party driver repository, to install the printer driver, and to generate the print job using the printer driver. 
 
     
     
         14 . The printing system of  claim 13  wherein:
 the web print server is further operable to identify at least one of a model name and an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers identification number (IEEE-ID) of the printing device, to transmit the at least one model name and the IEEE-ID in a driver request to the third party driver repository, and to receive the printer driver from the third party driver repository responsive to the driver request. 
 
     
     
         15 . The printing system of  claim 9  wherein:
 the client device is further operable to transmit the print data to the web print server in an encrypted format; and 
 the web print server is further operable to transmit the print job in an encrypted format. 
 
     
     
         16 . The printing system of  claim 9  wherein:
 the web print server is further operable to determine that a printer driver is not installed at the web print server for the printing device, to retrieve the printer driver from a third party driver repository, to install the printer driver at the web print server, and to generate the print job using the installed printer driver. 
 
     
     
         17 . The printing system of  claim 16  wherein:
 the web print server is further operable to identify at least one of a model name and an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers identification number (IEEE-ID) of the printing device and to transmit the at least one model name and the IEEE-ID in a driver request to the third party driver repository.