System and method for network-based document delivery

A system for delivering an electronic document over a network and for printing in hard copy at a destination, comprising:

• a client computer on said network for sending the electronic document, wherein the electronic document is in an application format;
• a server computer system on said network operable to:
• receive the electronic document from the client computer,
• convert the electronic document from the application format to a printable format, referred to as a printable electronic document, and
• convert the electronic document from the application format or printable format to a graphical view format that replicates in electronic form how the electronic document will print in hard copy form;
• a print spooler server on said network and connected to a printer, wherein the server computer system is operable to transmit the printable electronic document to the print spooler server, and wherein the print spooler server is operable to print a hard copy of the printable electronic document on said printer;
• and
• a database of fonts that is accessible by the server computer system to facilitate the conversion of the electronic document to the printable electronic document.

A system for delivering an electronic document over a network and for printing in hard copy at a destination, comprising:

• a client computer on said network, wherein the client computer is operable to convert the electronic document to a metafile having a graphical view format, and to send the metafile;
• a server computer system on said network operable to:
• receive the metafile from the client computer,
• convert the metafile to a printable form, referred to as a printable electronic document, and
• transmit the printable electronic document to a printing system on said network;
• and
• a print spooler server on said network and connected to a printer, wherein the server computer system is operable to transmit the printable electronic document to the print spooler server, and the print spooler server is operable to print a hard copy of the printable electronic document that corresponds to the graphical view format of said electronic document on said printer;
• and
• a database of fonts that is accessible by the server computer system to facilitate the conversion of the electronic document to the printable electronic document.

A system for transmitting an electronic document over a network and delivering a hard copy of the electronic document created in a client computer application to a recipient, comprising a computer program stored in computer-readable form on a server, the computer program comprising:

• a conversion program executable by the server to convert the electronic document to a printable format;
• a print preview program executable by the server to convert the electronic document from the printable format to a graphical view format;
• and
• a delivery program executable by a processor to transmit the printable version of the electronic document from the server to a printing system.

A method for transmitting an electronic document over a network and delivering a hard copy of the electronic document to a recipient at a remote location, comprising:

• sending the electronic document from a client computer to a server computer system over a network;
• converting the electronic document to a printable format, referred to as a printable electronic document;
• converting the electronic document to a graphical view format that replicates in electronic form how the electronic document will print in hard copy form;
• printing a hard copy document of the printable electronic document that corresponds to the graphical view format of said electronic document;
• and
• delivering the hard copy document to the recipient.