Patent attributes
Systems and methods are provided for ink estimation. One embodiment is a system for dynamically revising ink estimation models. The system includes a memory storing a virtual machine for instantiating virtual printers that estimate amounts of ink used by a printer for print jobs, and a controller able, for each print job, to: identify estimated amounts of ink determined by the virtual printers according to each of multiple configurations for the printer, and identify a chosen configuration and a corresponding actual amount of ink used by the printer. The controller selects a configuration, determines that estimated amounts of ink for the selected configuration have less than a threshold difference from actual amounts of ink for each of multiple print jobs, and updates an ink estimation model at the virtual machine based on the estimated amounts of ink and corresponding print job data for the selected configuration.
