Method and apparatus to account for hard copy cost
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of accounting for printing to a sheet of media in a printing device comprising:
- recording a type of media actually used;
determining an amount of pigment used on the sheet of media; and
calculating the cost of printing to the media by adding a cost of the sheet of media actually used and a cost of the pigment used on the sheet of media.
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Abstract
In one embodiment, a method of accounting for printing to a sheet of media in a printing device includes recording the type of media actually used, determining an amount of pigment used on the sheet of media, and calculating the cost of printing to the media by adding the cost of the sheet of media actually used and the cost of the pigment used on the sheet of media. The method also includes determining an amortized cost related to the printing device per sheet of media, and adding it to the cost of the media and the cost of the pigment.
23 Citations
31 Claims
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1. A method of accounting for printing to a sheet of media in a printing device comprising:
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recording a type of media actually used;
determining an amount of pigment used on the sheet of media; and
calculating the cost of printing to the media by adding a cost of the sheet of media actually used and a cost of the pigment used on the sheet of media. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method of accounting costs for use of a printing device comprising:
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identifying an entity to which the costs will be allocated;
recording a type of media actually used for the entity;
recording a number of sheets of the type of media actually used for the entity;
determining an amount of pigment used on each of the sheets of media;
calculating a cost of the media actually used and a cost of the pigment used on all the sheets of media used for the entity; and
allocating the cost of the media actually used and the cost of the pigment used to the entity. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method of accounting for the use of pigment in a printing device comprising:
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separating the print job into a first color pane and a second color pane;
determining a number of dots in the first color pane;
multiplying the number of dots in the first color pane by an average pigment cost per dot of a first color to allocate the cost of a pigment for the first color associated with a page;
determining a number of dots in a second color pane; and
multiplying the number of dots in the second color pane by an average pigment cost per dot of a second color to allocate the cost of a pigment for the second color associated with a page. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21)
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22. A computer program product for use with a computer associated with a printing device, the computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having a set of instructions for causing the computer to:
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determine a number of dots in a first pane of a page of a print job; and
multiply the number of dots in the first pane by an average pigment cost per dot to determine the cost of a pigment associated with the first pane of a page. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25)
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26. A system for allocating costs associated with operation of a printing device comprising:
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a data storage system for storing information regarding a cost per sheet of media associated with the printing device, and a cost of pigment associated with the printing device; and
a data a processing system coupled to said data storage system and operative to receive a print job and to record an actual number of sheets of media used to execute a print job and to record an amount of pigment used on each sheet of media for execution of the print job, the data processing system multiplying the actual number of sheets of media used by the cost per sheet of media and adding the cost of pigment for each of the pages to determine a cost associated with the print job, the data processing system further operative to allocate the cost of the print job to an entity. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A method for determining the costs associated with a print job comprising:
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providing a per page cost of a first media, a per page cost of a second media, a cost of pigment, and a per page amortized cost of a printing device; and
requesting fulfillment of a print job and, after fulfilling at least a portion of the print job, the printing device determining the cost associated with each page based on the actual pigment used and the use of either a first media or the second media and a per page amortized cost for using the printing device.
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Specification