Patent ID: 8270012

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a plurality of printing devices, a print job comprising printing data and printing specifications from a user; calculating, independently by each of said printing devices, an ability score based on an ability to meet each of said printing specifications, said printing specifications comprising an estimated turnaround time, and said calculating of said ability score comprising each of said printing devices calculating said estimated turnaround time as part of said ability score based on printing speed and print jobs currently waiting to be printed in each print queue of each of said printing devices, and said calculating of said estimated turnaround time being further based on a prediction of print jobs expected to be added to each said print queue; outputting said ability score independently from each of said printing devices to said user; receiving, by a selected print device of said printing devices, an instruction to print said print job from said user; and printing, by said selected print device, said print job on tangible media to produce a tangible output.