Patent ID: 8705064

Claim:
A secure printing method comprising: providing a user terminal with a user interface which enables a user to select a secure printing mode for printing a document, wherein in the secure printing mode, a secure print job stored in the user terminal is releasable through execution of a secure release procedure, comprising a secure release code, for printing at a selected one of a plurality of designated printers; and when a user selects the secure printing mode, generating page description language data for the secure print job in a format compatible with the designated printers; storing the page description language data at the user terminal; if an attempt is made to switch off the user terminal before the secure print job has printed, providing a warning and providing for automatically switching off the user terminal after the user terminal has sent the secure print job page description language to the selected one of the designated printers; communicating a request, which identifies the secure print job, to each of the designated printers, without sending the secure print job page description language data; at each of the designated printers to which the request is communicated, prior to a user's selection of the one of the designated printers, storing information identifying the secure print job in the printer's print job queue, without the secure print job page description language data; and after communicating the request to each of the plurality of designated printers and storing information identifying the secure print job in the print job queue of each of the designated printers, wherein when the predefined secure release procedure is executed at the selected one of the designated printers, the selected one of the designated printers forwards the secure release code to the user terminal, the user terminal responding by releasing the secure print job page description language data only to the selected one of the plurality of designated printers, the designated printers which are not selected receiving a notification causing the designated printers which are not selected to delete the information identifying the secure print job from their print job queues.