A printing system includes a printing device, a color management server, and a client device. An estimated ink use is determined for a print job within printing system. After printing operations, a baseline average ink use is determined for a set of printed pages of the print job. If the baseline average ink use varies from the estimated ink use, then a corrective action is taken to adjust ink use to be closer to the estimated ink use. The corrective action is a global corrective action for the entire document of the print job or a targeted action that adjusts only specified features or pages of the document.

A printing system receives print jobs having pages that are separated by different levels of ink use to print the pages. The number of pages for different ink use levels are determined as well as the cost estimation to print the different pages. Ink use and cost estimates are provided on a granular level as opposed to overall ink use and costs for printing a print job. Modifications are made to one or more pages to lower ink use for those specific pages as opposed to the print job as a whole. The printing system displays the different ink use levels as well as the cost estimates.

Examples of a user interface (UI) for depletion level selection are described herein. In some examples, a control element is displayed in a UI to select a color depletion level for a color printing substance of a printing device. A predicted cost-per-page to print is displayed in the UI based on based on a selected color depletion level. A color map for the printing device is determined based on the selected color depletion level and a separate black depletion level.

A charging application to be executed by a terminal processor of a terminal device causes the terminal processor to store a print queue associated with a server to which charging information is transmitted, to monitor a spooler receiving a print job, when the spooler receives the print job specifying the print queue, to obtain charging information based on the print job, and to transmit the obtained charging information to the server associated with the print queue.

Examples for cost generation for a common print substance supply are described herein. In some examples, signals indicative of an amount of print substance consumed by a plurality of printing devices are received at a computing device. Signals indicative of a cost corresponding to the amount of print substance consumed by each printing device of the plurality of printing devices are generated at a processor of the computing device based on the received signals. The cost is also generated based on a device identifier, a customer identifier, a print media identifier, or a combination thereof. The signals indicative of the cost for each printing device are transmitted.

A method of producing printed products uses at least one computer and at least one input device for controlling at least one machine for processing printing substrates. The input device receives technical and economic data of at least one print shop and the computer receives customer preferences relating to print jobs by using the input device. Based on the technical and economic data of the print shop, the computer calculates a simulation of possible print jobs producible in the print shop. The computer takes into account the results of the simulation and the customer preference inputs and generates matching offers for print jobs. The computer compares the generated offers with customer print jobs and, if a match is found between an offer and a customer's print job, the print job is processed by the machine for processing printing substrates.

A computer-implemented method according to an example of the present disclosure includes obtaining, for each of a plurality of PPMs of an organization, a profile that indicates operating parameters of the PPM. IECs for a plurality of print-related tasks are stored in a database, the IECs including material costs and labor costs for the print-related tasks. For each print job received, an optimal PPM set is determined that includes one or a combination of the eligible PPMs to use for the print job based on the PPM profiles, the print-related tasks needed for the print job, and the itemized estimated costs of the print-related tasks. IACs are determined for received print jobs based on shop floor data from the organization. A notification that proposes a change to a particular IEC is transmitted based on a difference between the IEC and its corresponding IAC differing by more than a predefined threshold.

Examples disclosed herein relate to identifying a pool of printing devices, wherein each of the printing devices is associated with one of a plurality of owner entities, receiving a print job from a user, selecting a printing device from the pool of printing devices for the print job, causing the print job to be printed by the selected printing device, and crediting an account of the owner entity associated with the selected printing device.

A computer-implemented method according to an example of the present disclosure includes obtaining, for each of a plurality of PPMs of an organization, a profile that indicates operating parameters of the PPM. IECs for a plurality of print-related tasks are stored in a database, the IECs including material costs and labor costs for the print-related tasks. For each print job received, an optimal PPM set is determined that includes one or a combination of the eligible PPMs to use for the print job based on the PPM profiles, the print-related tasks needed for the print job, and the itemized estimated costs of the print-related tasks. IACs are determined for received print jobs based on shop floor data from the organization. A notification that proposes a change to a particular IEC is transmitted based on a difference between the IEC and its corresponding IAC differing by more than a predefined threshold.

An image forming apparatus includes a short-range wireless communication unit, an acquisition unit that acquires a plurality of pieces of identification information from a plurality of mobile terminals located in a wireless communication area, a display unit that displays the acquired pieces of identification information, an operation input unit that identifies a mobile terminal by using a piece of identification information selected from among the pieces of identification information displayed on the display unit, a data communication unit that receives data only from the selected mobile terminal, and a printing unit. The operation input unit accepts designation, by an operator, of whether to print the received data for each selected mobile terminal. The printing unit prints data in accordance with the designation.