Patent ID: 7636757

Claim:
A print driver program stored on a computer-readable medium, accessible by at least one application program which can edit document data, so as to output print data for transmission over the Internet, comprising: receiving a print request from an application program to perform printing via the Internet; generating print data to be transmitted over the Internet into a printer-independent printing definition language and spooling the generated print data; packaging the generated print data with a protocol for transmission over the Internet; a user inputting a search condition to search for a print service provider via a user interface of the print driver; searching for the print service provider by submitting, a search request corresponding to the search condition to an external server via a network; receiving print service provider information related to a print service provider which satisfies the input search condition from the external server in accordance with the search request via the network, the print service provider information representing at least one destination for which the printer-independent print data can be transmitted to over the Internet; displaying the received print service provider information which satisfies the input search condition on the user interface of the print driver; the user selecting, via the user interface of the print driver, a print service provider, which satisfies the input search condition displayed in the displaying step, that the print data is to be transmitted to; generating a job ticket comprising at least a number of pages of the print job to be printed, the number of pages being determined based on the spooling of the generated print data: transmitting the generated job ticket to the selected print service provider; in response to transmitting the generated job ticket, receiving, from the selected service provider, job ticket response information for the requested print job; displaying a message to the user via the user interface regarding the received job ticket response information; and in a case where the message requests that the user confirm that the print job is to be transmitted to the selected print service provider, transmitting the printer-independent print data to the selected print service provider when the user inputs a confirmation, and in a case where the user inputs a cancellation request, or in a case where the message indicates that the print service provider is not able to process the print job, cancelling the print job and deleting the spooled print data.