A system and related techniques automatically exercise the output
capabilities of a printer or other output device, and return a log or
record of those capabilities to the print manager of a host operating
system or other destination. According to embodiments, the host, client
or other machine may decide to query a printer, facsimile machine, copy
or multifunction machine or other device to determine its range of output
capabilities such as available fonts, graphical or rending routines,
firmware compatibility or other functions or capabilities. The host may
transmit a composite electronic document, containing various components
including intermediate language objects which may be interpreted to
execute various output processing, such as exercising a set of fonts,
scaling, rotating, or other rendering or output functions. The results
may be captured in the printer or other output device, for instance by
dumping an output buffer or returning execution codes, and returned to
the host machine where the available capabilities may be displayed,
including in embodiments a rendering of the physical output or simulated
physical output on the user interface. The invention offers enhanced
profiling and verification for printers and other output systems,
compared to manual test pages and other test procedures.