public final class SheetCollate
extends EnumSyntax
implements DocAttribute, PrintRequestAttribute, PrintJobAttribute

Class SheetCollate is a printing attribute class, an enumeration, that specifies whether or not the media sheets of each copy of each printed document in a job are to be in sequence, when multiple copies of the document are specified by the Copies attribute. When SheetCollate is COLLATED, each copy of each document is printed with the print-stream sheets in sequence. When SheetCollate is UNCOLLATED, each print-stream sheet is printed a number of times equal to the value of the Copies attribute in succession. For example, suppose a document produces two media sheets as output, Copies is 6, and SheetCollate is UNCOLLATED; in this case six copies of the first media sheet are printed followed by six copies of the second media sheet.

Whether the effect of sheet collation is achieved by placing copies of a document in multiple output bins or in the same output bin with implementation defined document separation is implementation dependent. Also whether it is achieved by making multiple passes over the job or by using an output sorter is implementation dependent.

If a printer does not support the SheetCollate attribute (meaning the client cannot specify any particular sheet collation), the printer must behave as though SheetCollate were always set to COLLATED.

The SheetCollate attribute interacts with the MultipleDocumentHandling attribute. The MultipleDocumentHandling attribute describes the collation of entire documents, and the SheetCollate attribute describes the semantics of collating individual pages within a document.

The effect of a SheetCollate attribute on a multidoc print job (a job with multiple documents) depends on whether all the docs have the same sheet collation specified or whether different docs have different sheet collations specified, and on the (perhaps defaulted) value of the MultipleDocumentHandling attribute.

• If all the docs have the same sheet collation specified, then the following combinations of SheetCollate and MultipleDocumentHandling are permitted, and the printer reports an error when the job is submitted if any other combination is specified:
  • SheetCollate = COLLATED, MultipleDocumentHandling = SINGLE_DOCUMENT -- All the input docs will be combined into one output document. Multiple copies of the output document will be produced with pages in collated order, i.e. pages 1, 2, 3, . . ., 1, 2, 3, . . .
  • SheetCollate = COLLATED, MultipleDocumentHandling = SINGLE_DOCUMENT_NEW_SHEET -- All the input docs will be combined into one output document, and the first impression of each input doc will always start on a new media sheet. Multiple copies of the output document will be produced with pages in collated order, i.e. pages 1, 2, 3, . . ., 1, 2, 3, . . .
  • SheetCollate = COLLATED, MultipleDocumentHandling = SEPARATE_DOCUMENTS_UNCOLLATED_COPIES -- Each input doc will remain a separate output document. Multiple copies of each output document (call them A, B, . . .) will be produced with each document's pages in collated order, but the documents themselves in uncollated order, i.e. pages A1, A2, A3, . . ., A1, A2, A3, . . ., B1, B2, B3, . . ., B1, B2, B3, . . .
  • SheetCollate = COLLATED, MultipleDocumentHandling = SEPARATE_DOCUMENTS_COLLATED_COPIES -- Each input doc will remain a separate output document. Multiple copies of each output document (call them A, B, . . .) will be produced with each document's pages in collated order, with the documents themselves also in collated order, i.e. pages A1, A2, A3, . . ., B1, B2, B3, . . ., A1, A2, A3, . . ., B1, B2, B3, . . .
  • SheetCollate = UNCOLLATED, MultipleDocumentHandling = SINGLE_DOCUMENT -- All the input docs will be combined into one output document. Multiple copies of the output document will be produced with pages in uncollated order, i.e. pages 1, 1, . . ., 2, 2, . . ., 3, 3, . . .
  • SheetCollate = UNCOLLATED, MultipleDocumentHandling = SINGLE_DOCUMENT_NEW_SHEET -- All the input docs will be combined into one output document, and the first impression of each input doc will always start on a new media sheet. Multiple copies of the output document will be produced with pages in uncollated order, i.e. pages 1, 1, . . ., 2, 2, . . ., 3, 3, . . .
  • SheetCollate = UNCOLLATED, MultipleDocumentHandling = SEPARATE_DOCUMENTS_UNCOLLATED_COPIES -- Each input doc will remain a separate output document. Multiple copies of each output document (call them A, B, . . .) will be produced with each document's pages in uncollated order, with the documents themselves also in uncollated order, i.e. pages A1, A1, . . ., A2, A2, . . ., A3, A3, . . ., B1, B1, . . ., B2, B2, . . ., B3, B3, . . .
• If different docs have different sheet collations specified, then only one value of MultipleDocumentHandling is permitted, and the printer reports an error when the job is submitted if any other value is specified:
  • MultipleDocumentHandling = SEPARATE_DOCUMENTS_UNCOLLATED_COPIES -- Each input doc will remain a separate output document. Multiple copies of each output document (call them A, B, . . .) will be produced with each document's pages in collated or uncollated order as the corresponding input doc's SheetCollate attribute specifies, and with the documents themselves in uncollated order. If document A had SheetCollate = UNCOLLATED and document B had SheetCollate = COLLATED, the following pages would be produced: A1, A1, . . ., A2, A2, . . ., A3, A3, . . ., B1, B2, B3, . . ., B1, B2, B3, . . .

IPP Compatibility: SheetCollate is not an IPP attribute at present.