Printing on a PC:
The user's application tells the operating system to redirect all output to
the printer LPT1 port. The operating system gets the job the printer.
The file is spooled to disk. Spooling may be done because the printer is
busy. Spooling is necessary if the printer is not fast enough to take the
whole file at once.
The printer software [.dlls] handles the incoming job. If the printer is
free, the document can be printed immediately. If the printer is busy, the
document is spooled. The file joins the queue, waiting its turn to be sent to
the printer.
The buffer feeds print jobs to the printer at the correct pace. Data waiting
to be printed is stored in the buffer before it is sent. The larger the
buffer, the faster the printing, since fewer disk accesses are necessary to
feed the file to the printer.
In principal, redirection, spooling, and buffering and network printing
should be easy; however, problems occur frequently. Although printer sharing
was an original impetus for installing a network, networks still don't always
share printers gracefully and easily.
Given all the above, you now consider that it is efficient to add another
application into the process to manage a print file. Not a good idea. You
may wish to add an old PC to connect a Printer and use it as the print
server, that would give your PC / CPU freedom to do the work you are doing
and not have to manage a printer and spooler / buffer.
