printing to specific network printer

First, let me admit I may be missing something....
I'm developing a web application. I want the authenticated user to be able to submit a form that triggers a printout to a printer that is stored in the database and associated with the user. The printer wont be installed as a printer on the server, so it would be a direct network printer. I've done all the google searching and haven't come up with much which usually means I'm missing something or coming at this wrong. I've seen the examples of getting all the Printer services and then iterating thru the services to find the matching printer, but on a large corporate network that seems to be a lot of processing to first discover everything and then sort thru them for the intended printer. Even if I were to initiate the printing from the client machine, I still have the issue that the printer wouldn't be install on the local machine.
Thanks for any suggestions

Welcome to JavaRanch.

What you can do is -instead of retrieving all available printers through PrintServiceLookup.getPrintServices()- use something like this:

AttributeSet attrSet = new HashPrintServiceAttributeSet(new PrinterName(theUserPrinterName, null));
PrintService ps = PrintServiceLookup.lookupPrintServices(null, attrSet);

substituting "theUserPrinterName" by the printer designation stored for that user. That should return exactly one printer (possibly none, if the printer is not available).

Thanks..... that worked perfectly