A core component in many operating systems, this application manages print jobs. It receives documents slated for printing, schedules them, and sends them to the appropriate printer. For example, when a user instructs a word processor to print a document, the document is first sent to this intermediary application before it is actually printed.
Its importance lies in its ability to handle multiple print requests simultaneously without overwhelming the printing device. This ensures that users can continue working on other tasks while documents are queued and printed in the background. Historically, it addressed the limitations of early printing technologies, which were often slow and required dedicated processing time.
