Patent ID: 8923710

Claim:
A method for managing a printing system having one or more printers comprising: determining at least one printer of the printing system is capable of at least five-color printing, the five-color printing being based on using one or more of a cyan colorant, a magenta colorant, a yellow colorant, a black colorant, and a custom colorant; determining a print job to be processed by the printing system includes using the custom colorant; determining one or more of (1) the at least one printer has the custom colorant ready for use, (2) the at least one printer has another custom colorant ready for use, (3) the at least one printer has neither the custom colorant or the another custom colorant ready for use, (4) the custom colorant is in a predetermined proximity of the at least one printer, (5) the another custom colorant is in the predetermined proximity of the at least one printer, and (6) one or more other custom colorants is in the predetermined proximity of the at least one printer; causing, at least in part, a series of preview options to be displayed associated with generating a preview of an output of the print job, the series of preview options comprising one or more of an option to render the preview using a representation of the custom colorant, an option to render the preview using a representation of the another custom colorant, an option to render the preview using a representation of at least one of the one or more other custom colorants, and an option to render the preview using one or more of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black; and causing, at least in part, the preview of the output of the print job to be rendered and displayed based, at least in part, on a selected preview option; wherein the determination that any of the custom colorant, the another custom colorant, and the one or more other custom colorants is in the predetermined proximity of the at least one printer is based, at least in part, on a communication with one or more radio frequency identification tags respectively associated with the custom colorant, the another custom colorant, and the one or more other custom colorants.