What must print jobs pass through before being sent to a printer?

Print jobs must pass through the Print Spooler before being sent to a printer. The Print Spooler is a service that manages the printing process; it queues print jobs, allowing multiple documents to be sent to the printer without requiring them to be printed one at a time.

Once a user sends a print job, the spooling service temporarily holds the job in the queue until the printer is ready to process it. This capacity to manage multiple print requests efficiently is crucial in environments where many users or applications are sending jobs to the printer simultaneously. The Print Spooler ensures that the data is sent to the printer in an organized manner, preventing potential conflicts and improving overall workflow.

Other choices may relate to aspects of printing, but they do not specifically refer to the staging of print jobs before printing occurs. For instance, while printing configuration settings are important for ensuring that a printer is set up correctly, they do not handle the management of print jobs. Similarly, the user authentication system controls access but does not manage print jobs directly, and the network gateway typically serves as a point for data transfer rather than the management of print processes.