hacking the print option screen

When you print in a Windows environment you typically invoke the print option screen of the associated printer - be that a Canon, Epson etc These options: print double-sided, black/colour etc are typically available (if supported) though you have to look for them which is obviously time consuming. I'm sure a small add-in application could be programmed that would make these options available as part of the initial print option screen thus facilitating ease-of-use for joe bloggs and hopefully saving thousands of wasted pages.

If there are several networked printers and they are different makes, eg: a couple of canons and 10 lexmarks then you'd likely need an option to choose your "nearest" printer and then proceed to select the various options that you suggest for that printer.

I wonder if someone could offer any help in conceiving how this type of application might work. I'm fairly sure the app would need to interface with each individual printer interface rather than just a common microsoft printing interface though I am not sure about this.

Is what I propose even possible?

Thanks for any help.