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

Konica Minolta Systems Laboratory, Inc.

Konica Minolta Systems Lab., Inc.

Shigenori Matsubara

Rakesh Pandit

Toshiro Fujimori

Geoff W Harmon

A stream printing method implemented in a print server and a printer for handling printing of large files. The print server divides the input data file into a plurality of data chunks, and transfers them sequentially to the printer. The printer sequentially rips the data chunks and prints them. The print server dynamically monitors the system performance factors to measure, for each data chunk, the time required to extract the data chunk from the data file, the time required to transfer the data chunk to the printer, the time required to rip the data chunk, and the time required to print the data chunk. The sizes of the data chunks are calculated using these performance factors and the chunk size of a previous data chunk.

Stream printing method for handling large print jobs to achieve reduced first-page-out time

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

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 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.

Print shop management method and apparatus for printing documents using a plurality of devices

A method is described for managing a print shop system in which a plurality of printers are connected to and managed by a server. To print a document having both color and black and white pages using N-up and/or duplex printing, the server determines whether to print the entire document on a color printer or to split the document into two sub-jobs and print them on a color printer and a black and white printer, respectively. To achieve this, pages of the document are grouped into groups each to be printed on sheet of paper. If different paper attributes are present within any group, the document is not split. If all groups of pages have identical paper attributes within the group, each group is examined to determine its color designation (e.g. color, black and white), so that the sheets can be printed on appropriate printers.

Print shop management method and apparatus for printing mixed color and black and white documents

A method for recovering from an interruption while executing color split printing is described. The document is split into two sub-documents. N sets of the first sub-document are printed on a first printer, and N sets of the second sub-document are printed on a second printer while merging sheets of the first sub-document using a paper inserter unit. When an interruption occurs when printing and merging the nset, the nset is skipped and the remaining sets are finished first. Then, the second printer instructs the user to place the printed sheets of the nset of the first sub-document starting from the first sheet after the point of interruption in the paper inserter unit. The second printer prints the nset of the second sub-document starting from the point of interruption while merging sheets of the first sub-document using the paper inserter unit to complete the nset.

Growing community of inventors

Irvine, CA, United States of America

Shigenori Matsubara