A data state manager may include a production intent module to define a production intent, a capability module to identify a number of capabilities of a plurality of media printing devices to which the data state manager is coupled, and a data stream module to, through a plurality of communication links to the media printing devices, stream a plurality of data streams to the plurality of media printing devices in a synchronized manner based on a number of characteristics of the streamed data and the identified capabilities of the media printing devices, with the data streams defining the production intent.

If a sheet type of a sheet used for printing a print job is a predetermined sheet type (e.g., thick sheet) for which printing at a normal speed is impossible, a job control unit of an image forming apparatus sets the printing speed to a low speed and prints the print job with a printing resolution as high resolution.

An information processing apparatus includes a selector and a sender. The selector receives plural print jobs and selects, from among templates applicable to a printer, a template to which each of the plural print jobs is allocated in accordance with a paper size specified in a corresponding print job and a size of continuous-form paper set in the printer. The sender allocates the plural print jobs to the corresponding templates selected by the selector, integrates some of the print jobs together, and then sends an integrated print job to the printer.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium stores a set of program instructions installed on and executed by a computer provided in a terminal device. The set of program instructions includes receiving a print start operation to start printing images represented by first and second sets of print data. The first set of print data represents a first print image correlated with a first print medium type. The second set of print data represents a second print image correlated with a second print medium type. The set of program instructions include transmitting the first set of print data, and transmitting the second set of print data to the printer. The second print image is to be printed after the first print image is printed. The transmitting the second set of print data is performed before the printer complete printing the first print image.

An image forming apparatus capable of coping with speedup of a printing operation without requiring a design change of a controller is provided. The image forming apparatus includes an image generating unit configured to generate image data, an image forming unit configured to control image formation based on the image data, a storage unit that is provided between the image generating unit and the image forming unit and temporarily stores the image data, a first connecting unit that connects the image generating unit and the storage unit and performs transferring of the image data at a first operating frequency, and a second connecting unit that connects the storage unit and the image forming unit and performs transferring of the image data at a second operating frequency higher than the first operating frequency. When a predetermined data amount is accumulated in the storage unit, the accumulated image data is transferred to the image forming unit.

A printing system including a printer that sends a printed print medium to a post-processing machine is provided with: a job sorting unit that sorts a plurality of jobs into a plurality of groups; a required printing time calculation unit that calculates a required printing time per set required for printing for each job; a short job determination unit that determines, as a short job, a job for which the required printing time is shorter than a minimum processing time that is a minimum time required for processing for one set in the post-processing machine; and a job group generation unit that generates, on the basis of a plurality of jobs sorted into the same group, a job group obtained by grouping standard jobs (jobs not determined as short jobs) and a job group obtained by grouping short jobs.

An image printing method and printer is provided. The method comprises obtaining an original data file of an image to be printed from a database; dividing the original data file into a plurality of first data files and storing the first data files in a plurality of first memory blocks correspondingly; receiving an image printing request, the image printing request carrying first position information of the image to be printed; determining from its position information of the image to be printed second position information contained in the first position information, and filling a first data file corresponding to the second position information to a second memory block from the first memory block where the first data file is located through memory mapping mechanism to form a second data file to be printed; and printing and outputting the second data file in the second memory block.

Systems for providing efficient manufacturing of paper, sheet, and/or box products of varying size and structure, often with pre-applied print (“pre-print”), are provided herein. One or more controllers can be used to aggregate orders and information to prepare one or more control plans (e.g., reel maps, reel plans, etc.) for processing a roll of web product through the manufacturing process. The control plan may include a set of instructions for operating one or more systems within the manufacturing process to form the desired finished paper-based product. In such a regard, efficient manufacturing of various paper-based products, including corrugated boxes, folded carton, labels, flexible paper, industrial bags, plates, cups, décor, and many others, can be achieved. Further, efficient customer ordering/tracking, job aggregation, print imposition, corrugator planning, and tracking and adjustments throughout the manufacturing process are contemplated.

A system and method of printing involves the use of mixed paper sizes in which the orientation of printing media can be selected to avoid a mixture of paper sheet orientations in the output document when auto tray selection has been selected by a user.

Provided are: a main memory 14 that stores image data, a peripheral region 44 being set to a certain value; and a CPU 12 that performs tonal steps conversion processing on the image data. The CPU 12 includes: a plurality of cores 16 that have a parallel processing function due to a plurality of threads 18 and that execute the tonal steps conversion processing in parallel; and a data cache memory 22 and program cache memory 20 that are provided corresponding to each of the plurality of threads 18. The core 16 specifies a region smaller than a size of the data cache memory 22, of the image data as an operand region 48, and causes the image data corresponding to said operand region 48 to be acquired from the main memory 14 into the data cache memory 22 and executes the tonal steps conversion processing on said operand region 48 without distinction of a central region 42 and the peripheral region 44.