Konica Minolta Laboratory U.s.a., Inc.

Geoff W Harmon

Rakesh Pandit

Toshiro Fujimori

Shigenori Matsubara

Sivaraman Rajalingam

Shigenorl Matsubara

Disclosed is a print solution that provides efficient managing, routing and processing of print jobs in a print shop. Particularly, the print solution applies a customized algorithm that analyzes the job complexity of all print jobs and based on the job complexity analysis, routes print jobs to the correct printers for printing.

Customized print job analysis to identify job complexity

A method implemented in a print job management apparatus for processing print jobs in a multiple-printer print shop environment is described. When an operator manually assigns a print job to a printer, the print job requirements are compared with capabilities of the printer to detect any constraints (i.e. incompatibilities between printer capabilities and print job requirements). The job is printed if no constraint is detected. If a constraint of a first category is detected (e.g. incompatible color capabilities, paper size and type, layout, etc.), printing will not proceed and an error message is displayed. If a constraint of a second category is detected (e.g. inadequate finishing capabilities), a warning message is displayed with a request for operator instruction regarding whether to proceed with printing. If the operator chooses to proceed, the job will be printed, and a banner page containing instructions regarding uncompleted job requirements is generated.

Multi-tiered constraint checking for managing print jobs

A method for managing printers, implemented in a print job management apparatus, is provided. The method includes displaying a list of the printers and a list of one or more virtual printing devices on a display monitor, each virtual printing device being defined by designating one or more of the printers together with pre-defined rules for processing a print job, receiving a command from a user to select a virtual printing device, and in response to said command, visually distinguishing the one or more of the printers designated by the selected virtual printing device among the printers listed on the display monitor.

Print management method and apparatus with destination panel

A method for managing a plurality of pint jobs is implemented in a print job management apparatus connected to printers. The method includes receiving print job, and visually presenting a display screen to a user, the display screen including first, second and third panels for classifying the received print jobs according to processing phase thereof, the first panel being provided for listing print jobs that are awaiting assignment of printers thereto for processing the print jobs, the second panel being provided for listing print jobs that have been assigned to printers and that have not been completed by the assigned printers, the third panel being provided for listing at least one of first and second categories of print jobs, the first category including print jobs that have been completed, the second category including print jobs that have been cancelled.

Print management method and apparatus with multiple views

A useful method for analyzing a print job in a multiple-printer environment is provided. The method includes receiving a print job, the print job specifying values of job parameters, reading out values of the job parameters specified in the print job, determining whether the printer settings of the plurality of printers conform to said read out values of the job parameters of the print job, and communicating a result of the conformity determination to a user.

Print job analyzing method and apparatus with print device recommendation functions

Print management apparatus and method for managing a print shop system are described. A server defines one or more virtual queues as a virtual printing device to which print jobs may be submitted. Each virtual queue designates a physical printer and has a set of pre-defined job parameters (parameters that define how a print job will be printed) associated with it. Each print job managed by the server also has a set of job parameters associated with it to define how the print job is to be printed. When a print job is submitted to a virtual queue for printing, the server overrides the job parameters of the submitted print job, and prints the job on the printer designated by the virtual queue using the job parameters associated with the virtual queue. A warning message may be displayed before the server proceeds with the printing to alert the operator.

Print job management method and apparatus using virtual queues for handling print jobs using pre-defined job parameters

An efficient and effective method for managing a plurality of print jobs is implemented on a print job management apparatus (e.g. a server) which is connected to a plurality of printing devices. The print job management apparatus groups the received print jobs into a number of groups based on various criteria, such as customer information, print priority, color settings, the number of copies, paper size, paper type, finishing options, etc., and submits each group of print jobs to one printing device for printing. Different groups of print jobs can be submitted to different printing devices, and each printing device prints the print jobs submitted to it. The print job management apparatus can also display the grouping result to an operator. The method allows the print job management apparatus and the operator to more efficiently manage the print jobs.

Print job management method and apparatus with grouping function to group print jobs and submit groups of print jobs to printing devices

A method for managing a plurality of print jobs is implemented in a print job management apparatus connected to printers. The method includes receiving print job, and visually presenting a display screen to a user, the display screen including first, second and third panels for classifying the received print jobs according to processing phase thereof, the first panel being provided for listing print jobs that are awaiting assignment of printers thereto for processing the print jobs, the second panel being provided for listing print jobs that have been assigned to printers and that have not been completed by the assigned printers, the third panel being provided for listing at least one of first and second categories of print jobs, the first category including print jobs that have been completed, the second category including print jobs that have been cancelled.

A method implemented in a print job management apparatus for processing print jobs in a multiple-printer print shop environment is described. Each print job specifies job ticket parameters representing printing requirements. Each received job is processed by comparing the printing requirements of the job with capabilities of the printers. If a printer cannot satisfy all printing requirements of the job, it is eliminated as a candidate printer. Then, from all printers that can satisfy all printing requirements of the job, one printer is selected based on a pre-defined priority preference and the job is submitted to the selected printer. The printer priority preference is created by the operator based on cost and other factors. The operator can also select an alternative execution mode where, among all printers that can satisfy all requirements of the job, the one with minimum wait time is selected.

Print job assignment method allowing user-prioritization

A method is described for managing a print shop system in which a plurality of printers are connected to and managed by a server. When a document to be printed contains both color and black and white pages, the server splits the print job into a color and a black and white sub-job. Each print job includes a job ticket containing a plurality of parameters and the document to be printed. The server splits the original print job by generating a color sub-document and a black and white sub-document based the color characteristics of the pages of the original document, and generating a color sub-job ticket and a black and white sub-job ticket based on the original job-ticket parameters, by suitably retaining some original parameters, overriding some, deleting some, retaining some with page shifting, and adding some parameters. The two sub-jobs are printed by two different printers and then merged.

Method for printing mixed color and black and white documents

A method is described for managing a print shop system in which a plurality of printers are connected to and managed by a server. The server receives a print job including a job ticket and source document to be printed, and generates two or more sub-jobs each including a sub-job ticket and a sub-document by analyzing the job ticket and the content of the source document. The two or more sub-jobs are submitted to a plurality of printers and/or finishing devices in accordance with the sub-job tickets. One particular example is color split printing where black and white pages and color pages of a source document are split into two sub-jobs to be printed by a black and white printer and a color printer, respectively.

Growing community of inventors

Mission Viejo, CA, United States of America

Geoff W Harmon