A method and apparatus for estimating printer resources

An apparatus 28 for estimating printer resources compares an amount of printer resources required to print a document to an amount of printer resources available at a printer 18, 38 to determine whether sufficient resources are available to successfully print the document. If insufficient resources are available, the apparatus 28 alerts the user so that the user may replenish the resources prior to printing. When used in a computer network 31, the apparatus 28 causes the printer 38 to switch from a client print server mode to a direct printing mode causing the printer to stop responding to print commands issued by a print server and to instead respond to print commands issued by a print driver 16 associated with the apparatus 28.