Industrial printing system, print server, and processing management method that print peer-to-peer according to attribute of printing apparatus at distributed destination in production printing

A print server that performs distributed processing of a job in an industrial printing system for production printing, comprising:

• an attribute acquisition unit configured to acquire other attribute information supported by another printing apparatus controlled by another print server, wherein the other attribute information indicates a supported attribute and a corresponding instructing specification;
• a table generation unit configured to compare the other attribute information acquired by the attribute acquisition unit with own attribute information supported by own printing apparatus to generate a conversion table that is set with a conversion rule for when a mismatch exists between the other attribute information and the own attribute information;
• and
• a processing management unit configured to send the job to the other print server to request for processing based on the conversion table generated by the table generation unit so that the job is to be printed by the other printing apparatus wherein
• the table generation unit is configured to map the supported attribute and the instructing specification of the other attribute information to the conversion table on an attribute-by-attribute basis and sets the conversion rule if the mismatch exists and does not set the conversion rule if the mismatch does not exist;
• the table generation unit is configured to generate the conversion table based on another conversion rule that has already been set when the other conversion rule that has already been set is for another other printing apparatus of the same manufacturer and not the same model relative to the other printing apparatus;
• the table generation unit is configured to generate a conversion rule from a second model to a third model from:
• a conversion rule from a first model to the second model and a conversion rule from the first model to the third model.

A processing management method executed by an industrial printing system for production printing having a plurality of print servers that performs distributed processing of a job, comprising the steps of:

• acquiring other attribute information supported by another printing apparatus controlled by another print server, wherein the other attribute information indicates a supported attribute and a corresponding instructing specification;
• comparing the acquired other attribute information with own attribute information supported by an own printing apparatus to generate a conversion table that is set with conversion rules when a mismatch exists between the other attribute information and the own attribute information;
• and
• sending the job to the other print server to request for processing based on the generated conversion table so that the job is to be printed by the other printing apparatus;
• wherein the step of
• comparing the acquired other attribute information with own attribute information supported by the own printing apparatus to generate a conversion table that is set with conversion rules when a mismatch exists between the other attribute information and the own attribute information comprises
• mapping the supported attribute and the instructing specification of the other attribute information to the conversion table on an attribute-by-attribute basis and setting the conversion rules if the mismatch exists and does not set the conversion rule if the mismatch does not exist;
• generating the conversion table based on another conversion rule that has already been set when the other conversion rule that has already been set is for a printing apparatus of the same manufacturer and not the same model relative to the other printing apparatus, wherein
• the other conversion rule is a conversion rule from a second model to a third model, and wherein the other conversion rule is generated by a step comprising generating the other conversion rule from:
• a conversion rule from a first model to the second model and a conversion rule from the first model to the third model.