Patent ID: 7791751

Claim:
A printing system comprising: a plurality of printers, at least a first and a second of the plurality of printers printing in a first print modality; a scheduling system for scheduling printing of a set of images by the plurality of printers, the set of images, when assembled, including facing pages, the scheduling system determining which of the printers to employ to complete a print job and including at least two scheduling modes: a first mode, which is a user selected mode, in which a facing image constraint is applied by the scheduling system to the set of images, wherein the system identifies pairs of facing images in the set to be on facing pages and in which each image of a pair is associated with the same print modality, and, based on the identified pairs of images, the first mode applies the facing image constraint such that for each pair of facing images of said first print modality, both images of the pair are printed on the same printer selected from the at least first and second of the plurality of printers which print in the first print modality, such that the facing image constraint provides a level of consistency in image quality characteristics between the facing pages; a second mode, different from said first mode, in which the facing image constraint is not applied by the scheduling system; and wherein the printing system is configured for printing the set of images in accordance with the first mode and in accordance with the second mode.