1.3.1 Print Spoolers

A print spooler that is running on a print client exposes local printing APIs to applications, receives the print output of an application, and sends it to a shared print queue on a print server. The print output is either a printer-specific data stream or a generic metafile that can be converted into a printer-specific format.

A print spooler that is running on a print server shares print queues to expose them to print clients. The print server is responsible for the conversion of a print client output data stream before the print spooler buffers the data stream and sends it to a target printer.

On both a print server and a print client, the print spooler manages printer driver components and other components that help create the application print output and translate metafiles, and enable applications to obtain metrics and status information about printers.

The Windows implementations of the print client and print server roles are provided by the print spooler component. Every Windows operating system that can run a print spooler can act as both print client and print server.<1>