Patent ID: 7536480

Claim:
A method in a computer system for transferring a compressed data file from a software application running within the computer system to a printer in communication with the computer system, said method comprising: receiving a request to transfer a compressed data file to the printer from the software application, the request including a pointer to the compressed data file; determining whether the printer is configured to decompress the compressed data file, and determining whether a device driver of the printer is configured to decompress the compressed data file by the device driver inspecting the compressed data file using the pointer, wherein the device driver determines from a data structure whether the printer is configured to decompress the data file; if determined that the printer or the device driver is configured to decompress the compressed data file, obtaining the compressed data file from the software application and transferring the data file to the printer via a device driver interface; and if determined that neither the printer nor the device driver is configured to decompress the compressed data file, then transferring the data file to the printer in an uncompressed format.