In a printing system connecting a print requester host and a single or a
plurality of print requestee printer by way of a network, the host
abstractly defines an output port to an actual printer as the print
requestee printer, for printing. The host makes a print request to the
abstractly defined output port so that between the host and the printer
on the network there are made in sequence for printing a retrieval
request from the host, a retrieval response from the printer, a print
request from the host, and a response to the print request from the
printer.