Multifunctional printing system with queue management

A method of managing the processing of a plurality of jobs in a queue of a multifunctional printing system in which a first job, second job and third job are stored in the queue for processing, the multifunctional printing system including a controller for facilitating placement of the jobs into the queue, the first job being developed at a first service, the second job being developed at a second service and the third job being developed at a third service, comprising:

• a) determining, with the controller, that the first job was developed at the first service, the second job was developed at the second service and the third job was developed at the third service;
• b) in response to said determining of (a), assigning a first value to the first job, a second value to the second job and a third value to the third job, the first, second and third values varying respectively in magnitude as a function of the first, second and third services;
• c) placing the first job and the second job at a first selected location in the queue and a second location in the queue, respectively;
• d) processing at least a portion of the first job;
• and
• e) interrupting processing of the first job to process the third job when the magnitude of the third value is greater than the magnitude of either of the first value or the second value, and (ii) a preselected condition is met.

A method of managing the processing of a plurality of jobs in a queue of a multifunctional printing system in which a first job and a second job are stored in the queue for processing, the multifunctional printing system including a job memory for storing a first set of image data corresponding with the first job and a second set of image data corresponding with the second job, the multifunctional printing system further including a controller for facilitating placement of the jobs into the queue, the first job being developed at a first service and the second job being developed at a second service, comprising:

• a) placing the first job in the queue and processing a portion of the first job, the first portion being less than all of the first job;
• b) prior to storing the second set of image data in the job memory, determining whether said storing would reduce an amount of available memory in the job memory below a selected threshold;
• and
• c) when it is determined, with said (b), that the amount of available memory would be reduced below the selected threshold, processing the second job ahead of the first job so that a second portion of the first job remains unprocessed and all of the second job is processed prior to the processing of the first job second portion.