Abstract: A system for printing a print job includes a plurality of printers and a print job distribution system which distributes the print job among a number of printers of the plurality of printers. The print job distribution system distributes the print job such that the number of printers complete the print job at substantially one time.

Abstract: A system for assembling the various pieces of a complex document that may be created in different formats and/or by different document generating application programs, while preserving the integrity of those individual file formats, and printing the fully assembled complex document. The invention may be generally characterized as (1) arranging individual document files created by different document generating application programs , MSWord®, MSExcel®, and Adobe Acrobat® for example, in different file formats (*.doc, *.xlc, *.pdf) in the order that they will appear in the compound document and then (2) launching the corresponding document generating application program to print each file in the arranged order and thereby print the compound document.

Abstract: A method for managing document production over a computer network. It is envisioned that the method will be implemented in a computer program product distributed across two or more computing devices. The product includes computer readable instructions for capturing a document production request and generating a user interface having user accessible controls for associating selected services and related options with the production request. The product merges the production request, the selected services, and related options into a production plan and delivers that plan to one or more selected document production devices. In varying embodiments, the product also generates user interfaces for choosing production devices for providing the selected services and for managing production plans.