A printing system is provided having interactive sample page preview and selection capabilities. An operator or user of a printing system, such as a xerographic copier, laser printer, or multi-function device, may visually confirm the print quality of pages printed by the system by requesting that a sample page, i.e., an extra copy of a page being printed within a print job, be printed and delivered to an alternate output tray for inspection. The present disclosure provides the ability to print the sample and show what was printed as a preview on the screen. The present disclosure additionally provides a preview of the sample page prior to its printing and delivery to an alternate tray. Based upon the previewed image, an operator may choose to print a sample page corresponding to that image, or choose another page. Additionally or alternatively, sample pages may be printed based on temporal criteria and system parameters.