Patent ID: 6971007

Claim:
A method to control printing of a document file delivered via a computer network comprising the steps of: at a first computer: encrypting at least a first portion of a document file using at least a first encryption key for creating a partially encrypted file; transmitting the partially encrypted file to a second computer via said computer network; at said second computer: printing at least a second portion of said partially encrypted file using a serialized print methodology that includes having the printer generate a unique serialized print number for the document file in the course of printing the document file; returning to said first computer at least the serialized print number, and receiving, in response thereto, said first encryption key; decrypting at the printer said first portion of said partially encrypted file to create a partially decrypted document file; and printing at least a portion of said partially decrypted document file using a guaranteed print methodology that includes sending the first computer information about the number of printed pages and output print quality of the document file.