System for identifying a substitute paper stock for unavailable paper stock when printing a job

A process for operating an electronic printer at a job site for printing jobs in accordance with discrete job printing programs using a user interface including a display screen, comprising the steps of:

• displaying a table of programmable stock characteristics on the screen;
• identifying in the table ones of the stock characteristics currently available for use at the job site;
• for others of the stock characteristics that are not available for use at the job site, identifying in the table at least one substitute stock characteristic from the available stock characteristics for each of the unavailable stock characteristics;
• on receipt of a job, accessing the table;
• comparing stock characteristics programmed for the job with the stock characteristics listed in the table;
• and
• for each of the stock characteristics programmed for the job that is unavailable at the job site, substituting the substitute stock characteristic listed in the table.

A process for operating an electronic printer at a job site for printing jobs in accordance with discrete job printing programs including programming information regarding stock characteristics, comprising the steps of:

• determining if a requested stock characteristic programmed for a job is available at the job site;
• where substitution of the programmed stock characteristic with an alternate stock characteristic is allowed and the requested stock characteristic is unavailable at the site, accessing a predetermined stock substitution table, the stock substitution table being generated with a user interface by mapping substitute stock characteristics against requested stock characteristics;
• from the table, identifying at least one substitute stock characteristic for the requested stock characteristic;
• and
• where the substitute stock characteristic is available, substituting the substitute stock characteristic in place of the requested stock characteristic programmed for the job.

A method of controlling paper stock substitution in an electronic printing system at a job site for producing a print job from electronic data in accordance with a job program calling for one or more selected stock characteristics, the system including an interactive user interface enabling a system user to input operating instructions to the system, comprising the steps of:

• identifying in a stock library the different stock characteristics available at the job site;
• and
• where a selected stock characteristic of the job program is not listed in the stock library, using a substitute stock characteristic in place of the selected stock characteristic, the substitute stock characteristic being determined from a programmable look up table mapping unavailable stock characteristics that may be programmed against acceptable substitute stock characteristics currently available in the stock library;
• and
• generating the programmable look up table with the user interface.