Image forming apparatus connected to a plurality of image forming apparatuses, image forming system including a plurality of image forming apparatuses, and image forming method
AssigneeKonica Minolta, Inc.
InventorMasaya Ikuta
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Provided is an image forming system in which a plurality of image forming apparatuses are connected through a network, the image forming system including a control unit that controls the image forming apparatuses, wherein when a plurality of image forming apparatuses output a job requested in an arbitrary image forming apparatus, the control unit compares image quality parameters, such as a tone, a density balance, and a line width, in the image forming apparatuses, selects image forming apparatuses that have image quality parameters similar to each other and that can output the job, and causes the selected image forming apparatuses to output the job.
Claims24
An image forming system in which a plurality of image forming apparatuses are connected through a network, the image forming system comprising:
- a control unit that controls the image forming apparatuses, wherein
- the control unit is configured to, when outputting a job to a plurality of image forming apparatuses, compare image quality parameters of each of the image forming apparatuses to the image quality parameters of one of the image forming apparatuses, select image forming apparatuses that have image quality parameters similar to the image quality parameters of the one of the image forming apparatuses and that can output the job, and cause the selected image forming apparatuses and the one of the image forming apparatuses to output the job.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- an image forming unit that forms an image;
- and
- a communication unit that is connected to a network to perform communication, the image forming apparatus being connected to a plurality of image forming apparatuses through the network, the image forming apparatus comprising:
- a control unit that controls the image forming apparatus, wherein
- the control unit is configured to, when outputting a job to a plurality of image forming apparatuses, compare image quality parameters of each of the image forming apparatuses to the image quality parameters of one of the image forming apparatuses, select image forming apparatuses that have image quality parameters similar to the image quality parameters of the one of the image forming apparatuses and that can output the job, and cause the selected image forming apparatuses and the one of the image forming apparatuses to output the job.
An image forming method of outputting a job by using a plurality of image forming apparatuses in an image forming system in which a plurality of image forming apparatuses are connected through a network, the image forming method comprising:
- accepting a job requested to be output in an arbitrary image forming apparatus;
- comparing image quality parameters of each of the plurality of image forming apparatuses to the image quality parameters of one of the image forming apparatuses;
- selecting image forming apparatuses from the plurality of image forming apparatuses that have the image quality parameters similar to the image quality parameters of the one of the image forming apparatuses and that can output the job;
- and
- outputting the job to the selected image forming apparatuses and the one of the image forming apparatuses.
A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a program for causing an image forming system including a plurality of image forming apparatuses connected through a network to execute a method for outputting a job, the method comprising:
- accepting a job requested to be output in an arbitrary image forming apparatus;
- comparing image quality parameters of each of the plurality of image forming apparatuses to the image quality parameters of one of the image forming apparatuses;
- selecting image forming apparatuses from the plurality of image forming apparatuses that have the image quality parameters similar to the image quality parameters of the one of the image forming apparatuses and that can output the job;
- and
- outputting the job to the selected image forming apparatuses and the one of the image forming apparatuses.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.