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US 5,630,062 AGranted
Image forming apparatus, image forming system, and image forming method therefor
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorToshihisa Okutsu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
There is disclosed a print system in which one of printers connected to a network is selected in accordance with the attributes of print data without requiring a user to operate a host computer, wherein a printer, which received print data from the host computer via a network cable, checks if the received print data can be printed, and if it is determined that the print data can be printed, the print data is printed; if it is determined that the print data cannot be printed, the print data is transferred to another printer, which can print the print data, via the network cable.
Claims20
An image forming apparatus connected to a network which connects a plurality of image forming apparatuses, said image forming apparatus comprising:
- reception means for receiving image information to be subjected to image formation;
- image forming means for forming an image on the basis of the image information;
- determination means for determining whether or not said image forming means can perform image formation of the image information received by said reception means;
- and
- transfer means for searching by bidirectional communication via the network for a second image forming apparatus which can perform image formation of the received image information in accordance with a determination result of said determination means, and transferring the image information via the network to the second image forming apparatus,
- wherein said determination means comprises:
- a capability generation unit for generating image formation capability information of said image forming means;
- and
- an attribute generation unit for generating data attribute information of the image information by analyzing the image information,
- wherein said determination means determines, based on the image formation capability information and the data attribute information, whether or not image formation of the image information is possible, and
- wherein said transfer means comprises:
- a storage unit for pre-storing identification information to be used for identifying the second image forming apparatus on the network;
- an acquisition unit for acquiring image information capability information of the second image forming apparatus via the network on the basis of the identification information stored in said storage unit;
- a determination unit for determining, based on the image formation capability information acquired from the second image forming apparatus by said acquisition unit and the data attribute information generated by said attribute generation unit, whether or not the second image forming apparatus can perform image formation of the image information;
- and
- transfer means for transferring the image information to the second image forming apparatus in accordance with a determination result of said determination unit.
13 more elements
An image forming system comprising:
- A) a first image forming apparatus which is connected to a network and includes:
- reception means for receiving image information to be subjected to image information;
- image forming means for forming an image corresponding to the image information received by said reception means;
- obtaining means for obtaining an image formation capability of a second image forming apparatus connected to the network by bidirectional communication with the second image forming apparatus through the network;
- and
- transfer means for transferring the image information received by said reception means to the second image forming apparatus on the basis of the image formation capability obtained by said obtaining means;
- and
- B) a second image forming apparatus which is connected to the network and includes:
- reception means for receiving image information to be subjected to image formation;
- and
- image forming means for forming an image corresponds to the image information received by said reception means, wherein said image forming means of said second image forming apparatus forms the image received from said first image forming apparatus.
8 more elements
An image forming apparatus which is connected to a network and is used with a separate apparatus which is connected to the network and includes:
- reception means for receiving image information to be subjected to image information;
- image forming means for forming an image corresponding to the image information received by the reception means;
- obtaining means for obtaining an image formation capability of said image forming apparatus connected to the network by bidirectional communication with said image forming apparatus through the network;
- and
- transfer means for transferring the image information received by said reception means to said image forming apparatus on the basis of the image formation capability obtained by said obtaining means, said image forming apparatus comprising:
- reception means for receiving image information to be subjected to image formation;
- and
- image forming means for forming an image corresponds to the image information received by said reception means, wherein said image forming means of said image forming apparatus forms the image received from the separate apparatus.
5 more elements
An image forming apparatus which is connected to a network and via the network to a second image forming apparatus which includes:
- reception means for receiving image information to be subjected to image formation;
- and
- image forming means for forming an image corresponds to the image information received by the reception means, wherein the image forming means of the second image forming apparatus forms an image received from said image forming apparatus;
- said image forming apparatus comprising:
- reception means for receiving image information to be subjected to image information;
- image forming means for forming an image corresponding to the image information received by said reception means;
- obtaining means for obtaining an image formation capability of the second image forming apparatus connected to the network by bidirectional communication with the second image forming apparatus through the network;
- and
- transfer means for transferring the image information received by said reception means to the second image forming apparatus on the basis of the image formation capability obtained by said obtaining means.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.