Method of estimating cost of printing materials used to print a job on a printing apparatus
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorMichael E. Farrell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
There is provided a method of estimating cost of printing materials used to print a job on a printing apparatus. The method includes the steps of: storing billing rates reflecting the cost of printing materials to be used in printing the job, selecting a first quantity of printing materials to be used in printing the job, and, prior to printing the job, calculating, as a function of the first selected quantity of printing materials and one of the stored billing rates, a first printing materials cost of the job.
Claims13
A method of estimating cost of printing materials used to print a job on a printing apparatus associated with at least one user interface, comprising the steps of:
- storing billing rates reflecting the cost of printing materials to be used in printing the job;
- programming a job ticket, with the user interface, for selecting a quantity of at least one printing material to be used in printing the job;
- prior to printing the job, generating a value based on the quantity of each printing material selected when programming the ticket;
- and
- prior to printing the job, calculating, with each value and its associated billing rate, a total printing material cost of the job wherein an estimated printing material cost is communicated to the user.
A printing apparatus with the capacity to estimate the cost of printing materials used to print a job, comprising:
- a memory section for storing billing rates reflecting the cost of printing materials to be used in printing the job;
- a user interface for programming a job ticket to select a quantity of at least one printing material to be used in printing the job;
- a processor for generating a value based on the quantity of each printing material selected when programming said user interface, each value being programmed prior to the printing of the job;
- and
- prior to printing the job, said processor calculating, with each value and its associated billing rate, a total printing material cost for the job, wherein an estimated printing material cost is communicated to the user.
A method of estimating cost of printing materials used to print a job on a printing apparatus associated with at least one user interface, comprising the steps of:
- storing billing rates reflecting the cost of printing materials to be used in printing the job;
- programming a job ticket, with the user interface, for selecting a quantity of printing materials to be used in printing the job;
- prior to printing the job, generating values based respectively on quantities of printing materials selected when programming the job ticket;
- and
- prior to printing the job, calculating, with the values and their associated billing rates, a total printing material cost of the job wherein an estimated printing material cost is communicated to the user.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.