PRINTING SYSTEM AND CONTROL METHOD FOR PRINTING IMAGES HAVING A CIRCLE SEGMENT DISPLAY ELEMENT FOR VISUALIZING PRINT JOB PROCESSING TIMES AND MANAGING PRINT JOBS

摘要

A printing system including at least one printer for printing images on sheets in accordance with electrical image signals fed to the printer, a controller for feeding electrical image signals to the at least one printer and an input unit for receiving and feeding electrical image signals to the controller. The controller includes an operating unit for inputting print orders relating to the electrical image signals to be fed to the at least one printer and a display adapted to display operating information. Order processing time signals are generated that relate to the estimated processing time for printing print orders by the at least one printer. The display also displays a circle segment having an aperture angle whose value is determined by the order processing time signals. As an alternative, an angular position of the circle segment is adjustable and its value is determined by a time signal corresponding to the actual time. Several circle segments may be displayed corresponding to multiple print jobs in the queue or to the estimated processing time of various printers executing a print job. Two circle segments may also be utilized to separately display the number of hours and the number of minutes in the estimated processing time. The circle segments may also be utilized to manipulate the sequence in the print queue by simply selecting and dragging a circle segment to a desired position in the queue.