Establishment at a remote location of an internet/intranet user interface to a copier/printer

A method of operating a copier or printer apparatus having a marking engine with a user interface for providing printed copies in accordance with instructions provided by respective remote users of the apparatus, the method comprising:

• operating a network web server to download software to a workstation computer including a display screen at a remote location to which a remote user has access to provide user interface display software for establishing a user operational interface display on the computer for use in communicating requirements for a print job for printing by the marking engine, the user operational interface display additionally providing user control of the apparatus by placing a complete complement of control functions en the user operational interface display at the remote location;
• operating the marking engine for printing copies of information in accordance with the requirements for the print job;
• providing the network web server with a documents file memory that retains file information for the marking engine and each of the remote locations and the local user interface, such that the records memory is accessible from each the user interface on the marking engine locally and the display screen on the remote location;
• and
• wherein the web server downloads applets for execution by the computer at the remote location and wherein downloaded applets provide a program for the computer at the remote location to process data for a printer interface display screen page for viewing by the remote user.

A method of operating a printer;

• operating a workstation at a remote location from the printer to input an Internet or intranet address of the printer;
• in response to entry of the address, a web browser operating on the workstation makes a connection with a remote web server;
• operating the web server to download an HTML document and a Java applet and Java files, the Java applet being an application program for running in a Java virtual machine of the web browser to establish a communication connection between a user interface supervisor (UIS) operating remotely from the workstation;
• in response to inputs from the workstation by a user, the UIS provides data to the workstation to establish an interface screen to allow input of user input data regarding requirements for a print job, the interface screen additionally providing user control of the printer by placing a complement of control functions on the interface screen at the remote location;
• providing a user interface for the printer and further providing a documents file memory operatively connected to the printer that contains file information and is accessible from the workstation and the printer;
• and
• operating the printer to make prints in accordance with the requirements input by the user at the remote workstation.

A method of operating a copier or printer apparatus having a marking engine for providing printed copies of a job in accordance with instructions provided by a remote user of the apparatus, the apparatus including a temporary memory for storing a document to be transferred to a job image buffer, the job image buffer for receiving the document from the temporary memory and adapted to electronically repetitively output to the marking engine data representing the document to be printed as multiple copies in collated sets, the method comprising:

• operating a network web server to download to a computer workstation at a remote location software applets for execution by the workstation, the workstation including a display screen to which a remote user has access and the applets providing user interface display software for establishing a user operational interface display on the workstation for use in communicating requirements for a print job for printing by the marking engine, the user operational interface display additionally providing user control of the apparatus by placing a complement of control functions on the user operational interface display at the remote location;
• downloading from the workstation at the remote location to the temporary memory a document to be printed by the marking engine;
• downloading from the temporary memory to the job image buffer the document to be printed in collated sets;
• providing a documents file memory containing file information that is accessible from a local user interface for the marking engine or from the remote user interface on the workstation;
• and
• operating the marking engine to print image data stored in the job image buffer and producing plural collated sets of the document.