In a method for printing a plurality of print jobs on a flat bed printer, each print job specifies an image receiving area with a given shape and given dimensions where an image is to be printed on a recording medium. Each of the print jobs includes a number of sub-jobs specifying image layers to be printed in a predetermined print order, with print settings being individually assigned to each sub-job. The method includes grouping the sub-jobs by their print settings; nesting the image receiving areas of the print jobs on a flat bed of the printer; and printing the sub jobs group by group, with sub-jobs of the same group and from different print jobs being printed in common steps of scanning the flat bed. The scanning steps are performed in a scan order which preserves the print order in each print job.