Patent ID: 8780365

Claim:
In a printing system having a plurality of output trays, a method for generating sample pages comprising: a) after commencement of a print job, causing to be displayed on a user interface device a sample page user interface during an execution of the print job, the execution including delivering the print job to a first output tray; b) in response to a sampling mode indicated by user-input made during the execution, activating a preview for a sample page representative of an actual page of the print job being printed; c) obtaining image data corresponding to a candidate sample page corresponding to a page being processed for the execution; d) formatting the image data; e) displaying the formatted image data; f) soliciting user input for printing the candidate sample page; g) in response to receiving input for not printing the candidate sample page, replacing the candidate sample page with a subsequent page as the next candidate sample page, and returning to step c); h) in response to receiving the user input for printing and while continuing the execution, printing and delivering to a predetermined output tray, different from the first output tray, at least one sample page corresponding to the candidate sample page, the printing and delivering occurring during the execution of the print job for providing the user with a current image quality of the system; and, i) repeating c) to i).