Printing system including print server

A printing system having a plurality of terminals and a print server connected via a network to the plurality of terminals such that the print server is shared by the plurality of terminals to print document data including a string of printing commands produced by the terminals, the printing system comprising:

• means, included in each of the plurality of terminals, for adding an identifier to the document data to be supplied to the print server, the identifier identifying a type of printing protocol thereof;
• means, included in the print server, for storing a plurality of command processing programs associated with different printing protocols of the plurality of terminals;
• and
• means, included in the print server, responsive to one of the identifiers, for selecting an associated one of the plurality of command processing programs.

A printing system having a plurality of terminals and a print server connected via a network to the plurality of terminals such that the print server is shared by the plurality of terminals to print document data including a string of printing commands produced by the terminals, the printing system comprising:

• means, included in each of the plurality of terminals, for adding an identifier to the document data to be supplied to the print server, the identifier identifying a type of printing protocol thereof;
• a plurality of command conversion means, included in the print server, for converting command sets associated with different printing protocols of the plurality of terminals into a common command set usable by the print server;
• and
• selection means, included in the print server, for selecting one of the plurality of command conversion means in response to the identifier added to the document data which is received from one of the terminals.