Patent ID: 8117617

Claim:
A method for processing print jobs in a network of printers, each of a plurality of the printers having a high operational state and a low operational state, wherein in the low operational state the respective printer is less ready for printing than in the high operational state, less energy being required to be input to the printer for printing to commence in the high operational state than in the low operational state, comprising: for each of a plurality of print jobs; receiving a print job to be printed, a job ticket being associated with the print job, the job ticket providing information about the print job that is used to control how the print job is processed, the job ticket designating one of the printers in the network of printers as a target printer for printing the respective print job and including print job parameters related to redirection and delay for the print job, and where the target printer for the print job is in the low operational state: identifying the print job parameters related to redirection and delay for the print job from the job ticket; and based on the identified parameters, scheduling the print job for at least one of: redirection to a redirection printer in the network of printers, where the parameters for redirection permit redirection, and delay of the print job where the parameters for delay permit a delay, whereby by scheduling the print job for at least one of the redirection and delay, the likelihood that the print job is printed sequentially with another print job on one of the target printer and the redirection printer without that one printer entering the low operational state between the printing of the print job and the other print job is increased.