Economic model for printing with a peer network of printing devices

摘要

At least two printing devices receive a print job from a user that has printing data and printing specifications. Each of the printing devices calculates an ability score based on each printing device's ability to meet each of the printing specifications. The printing devices each output their ability score to the user. The printing devices then receive an indication as to which printing device is the selected print device, and instructions to print the print job are thus sent from the user to the selected print device. Then, the selected print device prints the print job on tangible media to produce a tangible output.