Abstract: A printing system receives a print job. The print job includes parameters such as dimensions and print attributes. A plurality of papers is accessed in a paper catalog available for a printing device within the printing system. A group of papers is formed based on the dimensions. If the dimensions are for a non-standard size paper, then a standard size of available paper is determined. The smallest standard size paper that fits the dimensions of the print job may be a determined size. The group of papers includes paper entries from the paper catalog having the standard size. Subsets of the group of papers is defined using the attributes. The groups and subsets are presented in a recommended list of paper entries from the paper catalog.

Abstract: A printing system includes a printing device having paper trays. Each paper tray includes loaded paper and has one or more paper tray settings. The paper trays may be divided into paper tray groups. A number of job sheets needed to complete a current or subsequent print job is compared to the number of loaded sheets of paper in a paper tray group. If not enough loaded sheets are available, then the operator is prompted to load additional sheets. Further, another paper tray can be added to the paper tray group. A paper queue also may specify a quantity of paper to be loaded onto the printing device.

Abstract: A raster image processor (RIP) system is used in a printing system to process a variety of different jobs. A front end receives the jobs and determines the job type. The job types include a print job, a preview job, and an estimation job. Depending on the type of job, the front end configures the RIPs within RIP system accordingly to process the job. The RIPs may process the job in parallel, with a high performance RIP processing the first page of the job. If the job is not processed in parallel, then the front end assigns the job to a very high performance RIP. The front end also assigns the preview job to a preview RIP and the estimation job to an estimation RIP. The front end configures RIPs as needed.

Abstract: A raster image processor (RIP) system is used in a printing system to process a variety of different jobs. A front end receives the jobs and determines the job type. The job types include a print job, a preview job, and an estimation job. Depending on the type of job, the front end configures the RIPs within RIP system accordingly to process the job. The RIPs may process the job in parallel, with a high performance RIP processing the first page of the job. If the job is not processed in parallel, then the front end assigns the job to a very high performance RIP. The front end also assigns the preview job to a preview RIP and the estimation job to an estimation RIP. The front end configures RIPs as needed.

Abstract: A printing device includes an inspection system that uses variable intervals to inspect printed sheets for a print job. The variable interval sets the inspection points for the inspection process. Once a defect is detected on a printed sheet, the sheets in the paper path are cleared and separated into good and defective sets of sheets. The cleared sheets are sent to an output bin for further review. After addressing the defect, the last good sheet printed is determined and adjusted to resume printing operations.

Abstract: A front end of a raster image processing (RIP) system decides a starting storage location and a storage hierarchy. The hierarchy dictates where the rendered pages of a job will be stored. At least one page of a first set of pages of a job are stored at a memory for the RIP system. At least one page of a second set of pages of the job are stored in a storage drive when the memory is not available. The type of job also dictates that the rendered pages of the job are stored in the storage drive. Complex pages also are stored in the storage drive while simple pages are discarded. The processing operations are managed so that the print engine is running efficiently.

Abstract: Management of spot colors and spot color adjustments includes associating these color printing resources with print conditions, customer accounts, or projects for a printing device. A spot color adjustment is associated with a print condition, a customer account, or a project used for printing operations. A print job is received that specified a selected print condition, a selected customer account, or a selected project. The associated spot color adjustment is determined using these attributes. The spot color adjustment is applied during color printing operations for a document using the spot color. The spot color is printed within the document according to the specified spot color adjustment.

Abstract: An estimation system provides consumable use estimations, such as for ink or toner, in printing operations. The estimation system uses a classification-based consumable use process to estimate the consumable use. A print job is assigned a classification category according to an arbitrary job category selected for the print job and a job property defined for the print job using job settings. An estimate is provided using the classification category and the distribution of the consumable use for print jobs in the category. The estimate is adjusted by a consumable use adjustment factor that reflects the amount of ink or toner disposed of during container replacement or wasted during printing operations.

Abstract: Printing operations may use a hot folder. The hot folder includes printing instructions that are applied to print jobs within the hot folder. A file for the print job is stored in the hot folder. More than one file can be retained. Modifications to the file are made while it is within the hot folder, if allowed. Once processing of the file for printing operations is complete, the file is removed from the hot folder.

Abstract: A color printing system manages ICC profiles by controlling ink use without performing the ICC profile creation operations. To obtain an ink limit for an ICC profile, a table associated with the ICC profile is parsed to determine the ink limit. The ink limit is decreased or increased. For an ink limit decrease, a color over the decreased ink limit is adjusted to meet the new ink limit. The ICC profile is updated accordingly. For an ink limit increase, the combination of primary colors are boosted by a percentage amount. Checks are made with regard to the volume-based ink limit and an quality check operation to accepted the boosted amount. The ICC profile is updated accordingly.

Abstract: A printing system implements a peer to peer network to manage resources between printing devices, such as configuration settings, software programs, or multifunctional printer (MFP) applications. When a printing device is added to the peer to peer network, it queries an existing printing device for information about its resources. Such information includes versions of the software programs. The information is used to compare the resources at the added printing device to those within the peer to peer network, using the existing printing device. Any differences are resolved by upgrading the resources at the added printing device by retrieving them within the peer to peer network.

Abstract: A printing system includes a printing device. The printing system also includes a preflight system that checks incoming print jobs for possible errors or issues before commencing printing operations. The preflight system implements a generative adversarial network to facilitate the identification of possible problems with printing. The generative adversarial network includes a generative neural network and a discriminatory neural network. The generative neural network introduces errors into input data to train the discriminatory neural network in identifying problems with print jobs. The discriminatory neural network backpropagates its output to train the generative neural network.

Abstract: A peer-to-peer network of printing devices is configured to share information and color printing resources, such as TRCs, spot colors, and ICC profiles, as well as paper catalogs within the network without the need for a centralized server or cloud service. The digital front ends (DFEs) of the printing devices manage printing device information which is made available to all printing devices. When an update occurs at a printing device within the peer-to-peer network, its DFE sends a signal to the other printing devices to synchronize their information with the updated information. When a new printing device is added to the peer-to-peer network, its information and color printing resources are merged or replaced with the information within the network.

Abstract: A printing system includes a printing device having paper trays. Each paper tray includes loaded paper and has one or more paper tray settings. The paper tray settings are defined for each paper tray. A paper tray setting is defined to reconfigure an installed paper tray to apply the setting. The reconfiguration of the paper tray is delayed until an action is completed, such as opening the paper tray to load the paper corresponding to the paper tray setting or the current print job is complete. After the action, the paper tray setting is applied to reconfigure the paper tray. Printing operations are enabled using the reconfigured paper tray.

Abstract: A printing system includes an offline estimation device that provides estimates for ink or toner use for a print job at a target printing device. The offline estimation device retrieves digital front end (DFE) version information, configuration setting information, and color printing resources from the target printing device. Using the DFE version information, the offline estimation device selects a raster image processor (RIP) from a plurality of RIPs of software versions available within the printing system. The offline estimation device configures the RIP with configuration settings of the configuration setting information. The color printing resources also are pushed to the RIP. The offline estimation device provides the ink or toner use estimate using the configured RIP.

Abstract: A printing system includes an estimation system that stores the dot count value and a stored consumable use value for a recurring print job. The dot count value relates to the dot count of a rendered image for the print job for use in printing operations using estimate settings of the printing device. For a later instance of the print job, the estimation system retrieves the dot count value. It also obtains the current settings for the printing device and applies these settings to the dot count value to determine a current consumable use value. Based on the current consumable use value, the estimation system determines whether use of the current settings will result in an increase of ink or toner use.

Abstract: Systems and methods manage information relating to paper media to enhance the quality of printing by printers. Systems and methods efficiently maintain color management profiles for different papers and ensure that the most appropriate (e.g., optimal) color management profile is employed for color conversion on a specific paper. In particular, embodiments may employ dynamic management of data stored in paper catalogs of printing systems. As such, a paper catalog of a printer device can effectively associate a paper with a color management profile that provides the best possible color reproduction on that paper.

Abstract: A printing system includes a printing device. The printing device includes a raster image processor (RIP) system that renders pages of a print job for printing. The RIP system processes pages of the print job in parallel. It also processes job is parallel. If an error occurs when processing a page using a standard RIP, then the RIP system activates a failover RIP. The failover RIP uses a different strategy for processing the page than a standard RIP. The failover RIP is configured to implement the strategy. A failover queue is used to store error pages to wait for processing by the failover queue. The processed page is outputted from the failover RIP to a front end of the RIP system.

Abstract: A raster image processor (RIP) system is used in a printing system to process a variety of different jobs. A front end receives the jobs and determines the job type. The job types include a print job, a preview job, and an estimation job. Depending on the type of job, the front end configures the RIPs within RIP system accordingly to process the job. The RIPs may process the job in parallel, with a high performance RIP processing the first page of the job. If the job is not processed in parallel, then the front end assigns the job to a very high performance RIP. The front end also assigns the preview job to a preview RIP and the estimation job to an estimation RIP. The front end configures RIPs as needed.

Abstract: Variable data printing operations use static and variable content to create many different documents. An estimation system for printing operations implements accelerated consumable use estimation for variable data printing operations by tagging reused objects having static content. The static content is rendered within the estimation system once and then stored for use in later estimation operations, as needed. Variable content is rendered for each record. Using this process, the estimation system does not need to render reused content repeatedly in providing consumable use estimates.