Methods for calendar-based job management in a printing system

A method for managing printing operations, the method comprising:

• moving a current job indicator along a time period displayed within a user interface for a printing device, wherein the time period includes estimated production times for a plurality of print jobs and an order for the plurality of print jobs within a job queue of a digital front end (DFE) for the printing device;
• indicating a current print job of the plurality of print jobs within the job queue by the current job indicator;
• determining a magnification level for the current print job within the user interface based on the estimated production time for the current print job within the DFE;
• and
• adjusting a visual display for the current print job within the user interface based on the magnification level for the current print job.

A printing device comprising;

• a digital front end (DFE) to process a plurality of print jobs for printing operations;
• a user interface to display information generated by the DFE;
• a processor;
• and
• a memory connected to the processor, the memory storing instructions that, when executed on the processor, configure the printing device to
• define a time period to process the plurality of print jobs within the user interface;
• determine an estimated production time for each print job of the plurality of print jobs, wherein the production time is related to parameters for the respective print job used by the DFE;
• generate a magnification level for each print job of the plurality of print jobs,
• wherein the magnification level is related to the estimated production time for the respective print job;
• display the plurality of print jobs for the time period within the user interface, wherein the magnification level determines how the respective print job is displayed in the time period by the user interface;
• process the plurality of print jobs within the DFE of the printing device;
• move a current job indicator within the user interface for the time period;
• for a current print job of the plurality of print jobs, adjust a visual display within the user interface for the current print job according to the magnification level when the current job indicator reaches the current print job within time period.