Patent ID: 7532339

Claim:
An interface between two or more devices each having a data store, wherein each device is in communication with one or more of the other devices, said interface being configured to generate a datastream including at least one metavariable, said metavariable being indicative of two or more parameters of at least one of the devices, and said datastream occurring between the data store of one transmitting device and the data store of one or more receiving devices such that the metavariable is transmitted from said one transmitting device to said one or more receiving devices, wherein at least one of the parameters defines one or more rendering characteristics to be applied to a print job, wherein the metavariable is treated as a single variable containing data cumulative of variables for each parameter, and wherein said metavariable is defined by a metavariable table including at least one metavariable setting and two or more variable settings corresponding to each said at least one metavariable setting.