Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.P.

Robert E Pentecost

Kris Randall Livingston

James E Anderson

Rich Forcier

Mark Muguira

Steven L Pline

Methods and arrangements are provided for use in a printer and associated computer(s). The printer is configured to periodically and/or automatically detect when changes are being made to a print media supply tray and output/display the current configuration of the print media supply tray for use by the user and/or programs running on the computer. The current configuration of the print tray is determined using detectable mechanisms that are either hardware and/or software implemented. The configuration of the supply tray is displayed to the user via the printer display, a tray-mounted display, and/or though a graphical user interface (GUI) on the computer. The configuration is defined by at least the size and type of the print media associated with the supply tray.

Methods and arrangements for providing and using printer configuration status information

An apparatus for printing pages of a print job includes a page analyzer, a converting apparatus, an identifying apparatus, an optimizer apparatus, a storage apparatus, and a merging apparatus. The page analyzer is operative to identify static page aspects and variable page aspects from page data within a print job. The converting apparatus communicates with the page analyzer and is operative to convert the static page aspects into static page layout objects and the variable page aspects into variable print data. The identifying apparatus communicates with the converting apparatus and is operative to identify the static page layout objects in the manner allowing for an optimized form to be created, and to allow for appropriate merging with the variable print data. The optimizer apparatus communicates with the identifying apparatus and is operative to convert the static page layout objects to an optimized form. The storage apparatus communicates with the optimizer apparatus and is operative to store at least one instantiation of the static page layout objects in the optimized form. A merging apparatus communicates with the storing apparatus and is operative to merge the static page layout objects with the variable print data to create merged print data. A method is also provided.

Printing performance enhancements for variable data publishing

Methods and arrangement for providing and using printer configuration status information

Methods and arrangements are provided for use in a printer and associated computer(s). The printer is configured to overcome potential print job configuration errors by gathering current printer configuration status data with respect to the available print media and comparing the current print media to the requested print media to make decisions that are likely to provide the user with the appropriate print media. The methods and arrangements provide for additional print media handling capabilities associated with certain types of orientation-dependent print media and simplex and/or duplex printing requirements. The user is only asked to manually intervene when the print media is unavailable or cannot be readily determined from the print job. When this occurs, the additional configuration information that is gathered can be provided to the user to assist with the manual intervention.

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Boise, ID, United States of America

Robert E Pentecost