Patent ID: 7167260
Filing Date: 2007-01-23
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A distributed printing control apparatus connecting with a plurality of printers, said distributed printing control apparatus distributing print data of interest, which is generated by an application program and is to be printed, into said plurality of printers, and transmitting the distributed print data to each of said printers, said distributed printing control apparatus comprising: a printer driver storage module that stores a plurality of printer drivers provided for a type of each of said printers; a virtual printer driver execute module that collects information with regard to performances of all available printers as destinations of distribution from said printer drivers, decides performance information with regard to a virtual printer driver from the collected information of performances of all said available printers, makes the application program execute a data conversion process based on the decided performance information, and obtains intermediate print data adequate for a virtual printer from said application program; a distribute module that distributes the intermediate print data to said plurality of printers; and an output control module that converts the distributed intermediate print data into final print data suitable for each of said printers by executing a data conversion process based on information regarding performance of each printer obtained by each of said printer drivers, and transmits the final print data to each of said printers via said printer drivers.