Patent ID: 7486412
Filing Date: 2009-02-03
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A printing service system comprising a printing service apparatus for providing a service of printing a composite image generated from an image and characters, and a user terminal connected to the printing service apparatus via a network for using the printing service, the printing service apparatus comprising template storage means for storing templates used for generating the composite image and template sending means for reading one of the templates from the template storage means according to a template transfer request from the user terminal and for sending the template to the user terminal, the user terminal comprising character input means for inputting the characters to be used for generating the composite image according to the template sent thereto, and for sending the characters to the printing service apparatus, the printing service apparatus further comprising composite image generation means for generating the composite image from the characters received from the user terminal and the image according to the template, wherein the composite image generated by said generation means is the composite image used for printing, and image data sending means for generating composite image data and sending the composite image data to the user terminal, where the resolution of the composite image data is lower than that of the composite image, wherein the printing service apparatus further comprises: instruction page data sending means for sending, to the user terminal, data of an instruction page for enabling the user terminal to specify enlargement of only the characters in the composite image, and enlargement sending means for generating enlargement data of the characters specified by the user terminal and for sending the enlargement data to the user terminal.