system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why is it so hard to cancel a print job?

I'm not sure about on a Mac, but with Windows, why do print jobs either fail to cancel, or require cancelling at both the computer *and* the printer, or only print half a page but only after initiating a cancel?
gpt
Print spoolers are based on really early tech, and was never really implemented well. Over the years, instead of improving printing functionality, manufactures focused on compatibility. This is also why there is a “driver hell” for printers. Everyone needs their own translation layer to work with it. As to why cancellation fails, could be that the message is lost or ignored, the command isn’t implemented for your specific driver, or any multitude of things. 

It’s no coincidence that several critical CVEs have been released recently around print spools, they can be quite shitty to work with.