Information processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, recording medium having recorded operation control program, and image forming system

An information processing apparatus connectable with a plurality of image forming apparatus via a telecommunication line, comprising:

• a group storage portion that stores a group made up of a plurality of image forming apparatus;
• a printing rate storage portion that stores printing rates of the plurality of image forming apparatus in correlation with respective image forming apparatus;
• a job acceptance portion that accepts a user's input of an image formation job to form an image on a recording sheet;
• a dividing portion that divides the image formation job accepted at the job acceptance portion in units of pages for the respective image forming apparatus in the group stored in the group storage portion;
• an acquisition portion that acquires information about a time needed for another image formation job to end from each image forming apparatus when the image forming apparatus is currently executing another image formation job;
• and
• a control portion that distributes respective segments of the image'formation job divided by the dividing portion to the respective image forming apparatus for the image formation job to be executed,
• wherein the dividing portion divides the image formation job in such a manner that a sum of the printing time and the time acquired by the acquisition portion becomes substantially equal for all the image forming apparatus when all the image forming apparatus execute the image formation job at the printing rates stored in the printing rate storage portion.

An image forming apparatus connectable with an information processing apparatus via a telecommunication line, comprising:

• a divided job acceptance portion that accepts one of segments obtained by dividing one image formation job into a plurality of segments in units of pages from the information processing apparatus;
• an execution portion that executes the segment of the image formation job accepted at the divided job acceptance portion;
• a detection portion that detects an end of execution of the segment of the image formation job by the execution portion;
• and
• an end notice transmission portion that transmits an end notice to the information processing apparatus, which is a request sender of the image formation job, when the end of execution of the segment of the image formation job is detected by the detection portion.

A recording medium recorded with an operation control program causing an information processing apparatus connectable with a plurality of image forming apparatus via a telecommunication line to perform:

• a job acceptance function of accepting a user's input of an image formation job to form an image on a recording sheet;
• a dividing function of dividing the image formation job accepted at the job acceptance portion in units of pages for respective image forming apparatus in a group stored in a group storage portion that stores a group made up of a plurality of image forming apparatus;
• and
• a control function of distributing respective segments of the image formation job to the respective image forming apparatus for the image formation job to be executed,
• wherein the dividing function divides the image formation job on a basis of printing rates stored in a printing rate storage portion that stores printing rates of the plurality of image forming apparatus, so that printing times in the respective image forming apparatus become substantially equal.

An image forming system comprising a plurality of image forming apparatus, and an information processing apparatus connected to the plurality of image forming apparatus via a telecommunication line,

• wherein the information processing apparatus comprises:
• a group storage portion that stores a group made up of a plurality of image forming apparatus;
• a printing rate storage portion that stores printing rates of the plurality of image forming apparatus in correlation with respective image forming apparatus;
• a job acceptance portion that accepts a user's input of an image formation job to form an image on a recording sheet;
• a dividing portion that divides the image formation job accepted at the job acceptance portion in units of pages for the respective image forming apparatus in the group stored in the group storage portion;
• and
• a control portion that distributes respective segments of the image formation job divided by the dividing portion to the respective image forming apparatus for the image formation job to be executed,
• the dividing portion dividing the image formation job on a basis of the printing rates stored in the printing rate storage portion so that printing times in the respective image forming apparatus become substantially equal, and
• wherein each of the plurality of image forming apparatus comprises:
• a divided job acceptance portion that accepts one segment of the image formation job distributed to the image forming apparatus from the information processing apparatus;
• an execution portion that executes the segment of the image formation job accepted at the divided job acceptance portion;
• a detection portion that detects an end of execution of the segment of the image formation job by the execution portion;
• and
• an end notice transmission portion that transmits an end notice to the information processing apparatus, which is a request sender of the image formation job, when the end of execution of the segment of the image formation job is detected by the detection portion.