A configurable printer driver, resident on a host (source) computer is enabled to respond to a print job request by manipulating a source bitmap prior to its transmission to a destination printer. The printer driver includes plural, substantially independent, bitmap manipulation procedures which may be linked to provide an image processing pipeline. The method of the invention initially determines which bitmap manipulations should be performed on the source computer, to minimize the quantity of bitmap data to be dispatched to the destination printer or to maximize processing efficiency of the print job request. Based upon the aforesaid determination, a bitmap processor pipeline is assembled from stored bitmap manipulation procedures to perform manipulations of the source bitmap in the source computer. The bitmap manipulations are then performed, using the assembled bitmap processor pipeline. The resulting processed raster bitmap is then transferred to the destination printer.