Patent ID: 8891110

Claim:
A method for scheduling printing times for print jobs at least one printing device, the method comprising: determining, at a processing device operably connected to a printing device, at least one non-peak time period, wherein the at least one non-peak time period comprises a time period when energy costs used for powering the at least one printing device are at a minimum; receiving, at a printer queue stored on a computer readable medium operably connected to the printing device, a first plurality of print jobs; determining a first subset of the plurality of print jobs to be printed during the non-peak time period, wherein the determining is based upon an assigned role of a user submitting each print job and whether the user's assigned role has permission to print their print job during a peak time period; determining, at the printing device, a second subset of the plurality of print jobs to be printed immediately upon receipt, wherein the determining is based upon the assigned role of the user submitting each print job and whether the user's assigned role has permission to immediately print their print job; storing, at the printer queue, the first subset of the plurality of print jobs until the non-peak time period; raster image processing each of the stored print jobs during the non-peak time period; and printing, at the printing device, each of the stored print jobs during the non-peak time period.