Abstract: A network system for printing digital print files, including personal workstations of users and a plurality of printers. The system further includes a print service and a print file storage service, that may be implemented in several ways. A user may submit a print file without specifying a particular printer on which the file must be printed. Then, he can walk up to any of the printers and start the print process for his print file there. In operation, the print service receives the print file, extracts metadata specifying job information from the file, and stores the file in the print file storage service. The metadata of the file are transmitted to the printers, which include the metadata in local print selection mechanisms resident in said printers. The user may select his print file at the operating panel of any one of the printers and start the printing process. In response, that printer fetches the print image data of the selected file from the print file storage service and prints the file.

Abstract: A method of operating a printing system comprising at least one printer (PR) and at least two user terminals (WS) connected to the at least one printer through a network (N), each said printer having a control unit (14) which receives print jobs from the user terminals and controls processing of these print jobs, the method comprising: sending upon a disturbance of said processing of a print job, a warning message relating to said disturbance to one or more of the user terminals; providing, upon receipt of the warning message, an alerting signal relating to said disturbance at a predetermined first one of said user terminals (WS); waiting for a user response to be performed upon the printers; and, if no user response is detected within a predetermined delay time, providing an alerting signal relating to the same disturbance at a predetermined other one of the user terminals (WS).

Abstract: A network system for printing digital print files, including personal workstations of users and a plurality of printers. The system further includes a print service and a print file storage service, that may be implemented in several ways. A user may submit a print file without specifying a particular printer on which the file must be printed. Then, he can walk up to any of the printers and start the print process for his print file there. In operation, the print service receives the print file, extracts metadata specifying job information from the file, and stores the file in the print file storage service. The metadata of the file are transmitted to the printers, which include the metadata in local print selection mechanisms resident in said printers. The user may select his print file at the operating panel of any one of the printers and start the printing process. In response, that printer fetches the print image data of the selected file from the print file storage service and prints the file.