Patent ID: 8599391

Claim:
A method for printing, comprising: obtaining, by a printer, a print job including a selection for enabling media type substitution and specifying a preferred media type and an alternate media type, wherein the print job comprises a plurality of page descriptor language (PDL) commands comprising a plurality of objects; generating, by the printer, a first page image and a second page image from the print job by rasterizing the plurality of objects; calculating, by the printer, a common printable area (CPA) for the preferred media type and the alternate media type in response to interpreting at least one of the plurality of PDL commands, wherein the first page image and the second page image are modified to match a dimension of the CPA before printing; selecting, by the printer, the preferred media type for printing the first page image; receiving, by the printer, a message associated with the preferred media type after selecting the first media type, wherein the printer receives the selection enabling media type substitution prior to receiving the message; selecting, by the printer, the alternate media type in response to the message and the selection enabling media type substitution; and printing the second page image using the alternate media type, wherein the preferred media type and the alternate media type have different sizes.