Any success using threads to isolate printing functions?

Hello everyone-
This is my first post in this particular forum because I've just recently been tasked with some presentation-side stuff, and I'm getting a crash course in Swing/AWT (mostly AWT due to client restrictions)!
I've got a rather large problem with printing speed, and was wondering if anyone has had any success with threading print operations to allow GUI interaction to continue for the user while a print job is spooling/printing? I tried to thread my print method, and set the priority to Thread.MIN_PRIORITY but to no avail. My printing is still tying up almost all of the bandwidth.
Thanks for any input or alternate strategies you can offer.
John

Okay-
So I was able to get my question answered somewhat on the thread, but now I have a strictly AWT question (I think):
I want to send a cloned ImagePanel to the printer, then allow the user to change the original to whatever they want by opening a new file.
My question: Can I successfully clone the ImagePanel (or the entire Frame) and hide it from the user, and keep printing the cloned panel behind the scenes in memory? I have to display pages on the new cloned(printed) panel too because this would be a multipage document.
Also, are there any other gotchas I should look out for in AWT with that approach?
I realize this may be a long-winded answer (as was the question), but I would really be grateful for an answer... and committed too!
thanks-
John