Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for electronic collation of sheets of a recording medium, such as paper, printed on one or both sides from electrical signals received at a printer. For printing multiple sets on one side only, the signals are written into a memory in the order in which they are received. The first set may be printed in the desired page order on a recording medium fed through the printer as the signals are received. Additional sets are printed in the same page order by writing the contents of the memory into the printer as many times as necessary as the recording medium is fed through the printer. For printing multiple sets on both sides, the signals representative of every other page are written into the memory and organized into two ordered sequences.

Abstract: Minimum elapsed time between successive multiple copy nonoverlapped runs is achieved detecting the last copy as it exits from a paper path in any one of a plurality of exit locations. Means establish a last-copy watch for partially enabling the last-copy detector. Means indicate that the paper path leading to the exit is substantially clear of any copies and, finally, the trailing edge of the exiting document at a given one of said exit positions triggers the last-copy detector to signify that a new copy run condition is "go".