Patent ID: 8867081

Claim:
A method of managing plural print jobs, the method comprising: receiving two or more print jobs on an image forming apparatus; dividing each of the two or more print jobs into a plurality of sub-print jobs for printing by a single print engine of the image forming apparatus; determining an estimated processing time, an estimated delay to print time, and an estimated print duration for printing of the sub-print job for each of the sub-print jobs; managing the printing of each of the two or more print jobs based on the estimated processing time, the estimated delay to print time, and the estimated print duration for printing of the sub-print job for each of the sub-print jobs by determining a printing priority for the two or more print jobs based on a printing sequence, which reduces down time of the single print engine of the image forming apparatus; and printing the two or more print jobs on the single print engine of the image forming apparatus based on the determined printing priority.