Patent ID: 8237964

Claim:
A printing system comprising: at least one marking engine; a user interface for inputting user determinable delay criteria for a print job; a communication link for passing the respective user determinable delay criteria for each print job to a job scheduler; wherein the job scheduler determines a print schedule for processing the print job; wherein the job scheduler determines the print schedule dependent upon the user determinable delay criteria, a job arrival time, and a system model of capabilities of the at least one marking engine; wherein the user determinable delay criteria are selected from the group consisting of a fixed delay time, a number of the user's jobs being held, a job size, a cumulative page count, a job type and a submitting application type; wherein the job scheduler delays printing of all jobs for minimizing powering up and powering down cycles of the printing system; wherein the job scheduler further comprises: determining required printing time for each job, latest starting printing time for each job, and latest finish printing time for each job; determining a printing order by the latest starting printing time for each job, and by job arrival time if a conflict exists; determining an initial job printing time as the latest time that does not cause a delay in any of the latest finish printing time; and, printing all the jobs at said initial job printing time in the determined printing order.