The use of multifunctional devices (MFDs) has become more widespread in the recent years. While the origin of MFDs was essentially for large corporate setups, the devices are now being used in small business settings and even at homes. Typically, an MFD provides multiple functionalities, such as printing, scanning, copying, faxing—all incorporated in a single device. Employees or home users use the functionalities singularly or in combination. Examples of combination include, but are not limited to, copying a document and then faxing it, printing a document and finishing it (such as sorting, collating, stacking, stapling, binding, stitching, folding, cutting, and hole punching), and the like. For use of each functionality, a user provides individual requests corresponding to which separate job instructions are created. For example, in case of combining a copy request and a fax request for a document, the user provides a copy instruction on the MFD. The copy instruction may specify whether the document should be copied in color, grayscale or black and white, the number of copies to be created, the page layout, and the like. Next, the user provides a fax instruction (such as a fax number) on the MFD. For each case, the MFD creates two separate jobs: a first job to copy the document and a second job to fax it.
Similarly, if the user wants to print a document, make manual edits to it, and then scan it, he/she enters multiple instructions. First, the user provides a print request from a user device connected to the MFD over a wired or a wireless medium. The MFD creates a print job for the request and then prints the document. Next, the user collects the printed document, makes one or more edits to the printed document, and provides a scan request indicating one or more scan instructions. This scan request is either sent from the user device or is provided on the MFD itself (via a user interface of the MFD). The MFD creates a scan job for the scan request, such that the scan job is separate from the print job. Hence, there is no correlation between the print and scan jobs of same document. The correlation becomes necessary when the user or an administrator wants to track the MFD related activities. For example, in the current scenario, the administrator cannot monitor what activities are performed on which documents unless the activities are tracked and tied together. Further, the user needs to provide individual instructions (print/scan/copy) at separate instances and this activity is time consuming. Consider a scenario where a user has to send a completed official document (such as a visa request document, a tax related document, a passport related document, and the like) to a concerned authority over an email. In a soft copy of a standard unfilled official document, the user first digitally inputs all the required fields (using a user device), and then initiates a print request by specifying one or more print settings. Next, he/she collects the print of the filled document, provides his signature or thumb impression, and manually scans the signed document using the MFD. The user may also take print of the unfilled document, write all details by hand, provide a signature/thumb impression, and then scan the document. The user needs to provide the scan settings on the MFD itself and also needs to provide the email address of the concerned authority to whom the scanned document is to be emailed. In other words, the user must memorize the email address (i.e., any email address other than his own) and also the required scan settings in order to manually provide instructions on the MFD prior to initiating a document scan. This process is time consuming and not user friendly.
Therefore, there exists a need for integrating a print request and a scan request such that print and scan operations are mutually related at the MFD.