Printer controlling device, printer controlling method, and computer product

Abstract

A schedule view is displayed in a print server. In the schedule view, print-jobs are displayed with rectangular shapes having lengths corresponding to printing time and color (or pattern) corresponding to its state, and the print-jobs are arranged and displayed in the order of prints to which the print-jobs are allocated. It is possible to intuitively grasp relative magnitude of a load of each printer by the length of a job graph, and an absolute amount of the load of each printer converted into a printing time by a displayed time scale. In addition to this, details of a job which is being processed, details of a selected job, and a state of each printer are also displayed.

What is claimed:  
     
         1 . A printing job controlling device configured to display a queue of printing jobs, comprising: 
 a calculating unit configured to calculate a time required to process a printing job;    a reading unit configured to read out a current status of the printing job; and    a displaying unit configured to display an image having a size proportional to the time required calculated by said calculating unit and having a pattern corresponding to the current status read out by said reading unit.    
     
     
         2 . A printing job controlling device configured to display a queue of printing jobs, comprising: 
 a calculating unit configured to calculate a time required to process each of the printing jobs; and    a displaying unit configured to display images each having a size proportional to the time calculated by said calculating unit continuously on a predetermined displaying area,    wherein said displaying unit is configured to display an image of a current printing job at one end of the displaying area.    
     
     
         3 . A printing job controlling device configured to display a queue of printing jobs, comprising: 
 a calculating unit configured to calculate a time required to process each of the printing jobs; and    a displaying unit configured to display rectangular images each having a size proportional to the time required calculated by said calculating unit continuously on a predetermined displaying area.    
     
     
         4 . A method of displaying a queue of print jobs, comprising: 
 calculating a time required to process a print job;    reading out a current status of the print job; and    displaying an image having a size proportional to the time required and having a pattern corresponding to the current status.    
     
     
         5 . A method of displaying a queue of print jobs, comprising: 
 calculating times required to process print jobs; and    continuously displaying images having sizes proportional to the times required on one end of a displaying area.    
     
     
         6 . A method of displaying a queue of print jobs, comprising: 
 calculating times required to process print jobs; and    continuously displaying rectangular images having sizes proportional to the times required.