What Is the Printer Spool?

The printer spool assists the computer in managing resources needed for printing.

Printing a document from a computer consumes valuable resources such as CPU time and system memory. A printer spool helps minimize the strain on these resources, preventing the computer's performance from suffering, particularly when large or multiple print jobs are created.

Network and Local Spooling

On a stand-alone computer, spooling is handled by the operating system. On a network computer, documents are sent to a print server, where they are spooled before being sent to the designated printer.

Memory and CPU

When a printer spool is in use, the print processing is performed in the background, allowing the computer to focus primarily on the foreground processes. This allows the user to continue using the computer while documents are being printed.

(see Reference 1)

Print Job Management

Printer spools can be configured to give higher priority to a particular user's print jobs. Jobs that are currently in the spool waiting to be printed can be paused, deleted or moved higher or lower in the printer queue.

References

• Techtites: Simplify Clearing the Windows Print Spooler Queue
• FreeBSD: Network Printing Basics