Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus in a data processing system for printing characters. Data received include glyphs for output on an output device, wherein the glyphs are to be output using a selected device font. A list containing all device font supported glyphs is passed to the operating system. Monitoring for unsupported glyphs in the selected device font is performed by the operating system. In response to detecting a glyph unsupported by the selected device font, a backup system font is used to output the glyph to the output device.

Abstract: The invention provide a method for optimal use of print resource during the preparation a print job for printing. During the creation of a spool file, or similar intermediate file, the invention logs data on print resource usage in a print job in an accounting file. Upon review of this data, it modifies the print resource usage data in the accounting file as necessary to optimize print resource usage. The spool file and the accounting file are then sent to a printer driver. The printer driver knows how to use the print resource data in the accounting file to optimize the print resource usage.