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

Rakesh Pandit

Geoff W Harmon

Toshiro Fujimori

Shigenori Matsubara

Danny Naoshi Kumamoto

Hidetaka Yoshida

Sivaraman Rajalingam

Shigenorl Matsubara

A method for producing packages of printed materials arranged in order based on multiple original digital documents. A user interface is provided to allow the user to specify the order of the original documents to be printed. A print server generates multiple sub-jobs which contain linking information that links them to each other in the specified order to form a job set. The job set can be submitted to a printer in one submission. A printer executes the linked sub-jobs sequentially based on the linking information contained in the sub-jobs to produce the multiple printed documents in the specified order.

Method for producing packages of printed materials by generating and executing a job set containing multiple linked sub-jobs

A method implemented in a server computer for producing a package of printed documents from multiple original digital documents. A user specifies the multiple original digital documents, their order in the package, and print settings for each original digital document. The user further specifies additional print settings for the package. The server generates a combined digital document by combining contents of the plurality of original digital documents in the specified order, and generates a package job ticket that specifies print settings for the combined digital document in accordance with the print settings for the plurality of original digital documents. The server submits the combined digital document and the package job ticket as a print job to a printer. The printer executes the package print job to produce the multiple documents in the specified order which form a package of printer materials.

Method for producing packages of printed materials by printing multiple documents in order as one print job

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 implemented in a print shop management system that includes a data processing apparatus having a non-transitory memory for storing a computer software program and a processor for executing the software program, wherein the program includes a program code configured to cause the data processing apparatus to execute a process for customizing color or black and white (B/W) printing of a document containing color and B/W pages, which process includes the steps of analyzing the document to obtain its original color page data which specifies color pages of the document that are originally set to be printed in color, providing a user interface for editing the color page data of the document by allowing input of individual page numbers designating which color pages of the document will indeed be printed in color, and printing the document according to the edited color page data by printing color pages of the document in color if they are also designated to be printed in color, and printing color pages of the document in black and white if they are not designated to be printed in color.

Print shop management method for customizing color or black and white printing

A method implemented in a print shop management system that includes a data processing apparatus having a non-transitory memory for storing a computer software program and a processor for executing the software program, wherein the program includes a program code configured to cause the data processing apparatus to execute a process for customizing a print-on-demand (POD) driver, which process includes the steps of accessing a configuration file of the POD driver having a plurality of fields with respective values; and modifying values of the configuration file fields to customize available user interfaces and print job settings editing options of the POD driver.

Print shop management method for customizing print-on-demand driver

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

Irvine, CA, United States of America

Rakesh Pandit