Patent ID: 7576874
Filing Date: 2009-08-18
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method for processing a print job including both monochrome pages and color pages, comprising: receiving values at a production manager for characteristic parameters related to printing, non-automated processing and the print job, the characteristic parameters related to printing including per-page process rate and per-page production cost for each of a monochrome printer and a color printer, the characteristic parameters for the print job including a count of monochrome pages, a count of color pages and a count of sets, and the characteristic parameters related to non-automated processing including switching time and switching cost between each of the monochrome printer and the color printer to an interposer, and interposing time and interposing costs to assemble the processed monochrome pages and the processed color pages of the print job into a completed document reproduction; selecting an optimization criterion as at least one of at least a completion time and a process cost of the print job; and automatically determining a process mode that corresponds to a minimum value of the selected criterion using the production manager, wherein when the optimization criterion is the completion time, determining the process mode comprises: when the optimization criterion includes the process cost, determining the process mode comprises: