Patent ID: 7812973
Filing Date: 2010-10-12
Classification: G06F,G06K,H04N

Abstract:
1. A printing system comprising a print management apparatus and an image forming apparatus, the print management apparatus producing and outputting print data based on original data produced as a result of execution of an application program, the image forming apparatus receiving the print data from the print management apparatus and forming an image using the received print data, the printing system being configured to allow a downloading of downloadable font data for forming a downloadable font for use in a printing operation by the image forming apparatus using the print data, from the print management apparatus to the image forming apparatus, the print management apparatus comprising: a need determination section configured to make a determination, based on a single print command issued from a user for printing a single document in the form of a plurality of successive print pages, as to whether there is a modification need for modifying a printing sequence in which the successive print pages represented by the print data are to be printed, from an original sequence in which a plurality of successive original pages are arranged that are represented by the original data; a sequence modifier operable when the need determination section determines the modification need, the sequence modifier modifying into the printing sequence a sequence in which the print management apparatus outputs the print data to the image forming apparatus, within a sequence-modification range selected to at least include a non-correspondence range over which the original sequence and the printing sequence do not coincide in numerical number of pages with each other; a position determining device determining a font data position at which the downloadable font data is used in the print data; a redundant-range detector detecting a redundant range over which an identical downloadable font is redundantly used within the selected sequence-modification range, based on the font data position specified by the position determining device; and a print-data producing device configured to output the print data to the image forming apparatus in the printing sequence, without a redundant output of at least one portion of data identical to the downloadable font data previously outputted to the image forming apparatus, over the detected redundant-range, wherein the position determining device does not determine the font data position when the need determination section does not determine the modification need, and the print management apparatus is processing the plurality of successive print pages using the print data of the single print command throughout the entire printing process of the single document.