Apparatus, method and program for image receipt, processing, conversion, and delivery to and from a plurality of external apparatuses

A method of communicating image data between at least a first image sending apparatus and a second image sending apparatus, and a plurality of image requesting apparatuses which are separate apparatuses connected by a network, comprising:

• receiving at least first and second image data respectively from the first image sending apparatus and second image sending apparatus, the first image data and the second image data each having an image format, the image format of the first image data being different from the image format of the second image data;
• storing the at least first image data and second image data respectively received from the first image sending apparatus and the second image sending apparatus, in a storing unit for access by any of the plurality of image requesting apparatuses;
• receiving at a request receiving unit a request from at least one image requesting-apparatus, a request for selecting image data among the at least first and second image data which have different image formats and are stored in the storing unit, and a format indication for the selected image data;
• converting the image format of the selected image data to an image format indicated by the format indication received by the request receiving unit;
• and,
• sending converted image data to the at least one image requesting apparatus which sent the request and the format indication.

A multi-function image apparatus connectable through a network to a plurality of client devices, each capable of sending first image data in a first format, and further connectable to an image sending device capable of sending image data in a second format different from the first, the apparatus comprising:

• an image data receiving unit configured to receive the first image data from any one of the client devices through the network and the second image data from the image sending device;
• a storing unit configured to store the first image data and the second image data for access through the network by any of the plurality of client devices;
• a request receiving unit configured to receive, from any one of the client devices as a requesting client device, a request for selecting image data among the first and second image data stored in the storing unit and a format indication for the selected image data;
• an image data format converter configured to convert the image format of the selected image data to an image format indicated by the format indication received by the request receiving unit;
• and,
• a sending unit configured to send the converted image data in the format indicated by the format indication to the requesting client device.