Patent ID: 6597469
Filing Date: 2003-07-22
Classification: H04N,Y10S

Abstract:
An image forming system having a print server for using a composite function image forming apparatus having a composite function of outputting a print job and a copy job, as a common output apparatus for print jobs requested by client users on a network and received from the network, wherein:said composite function image forming apparatus has a copy job output number management function of receiving a copy job related to image data input from a reader unit requested by each client user assigned a specific copy job management identification number, outputting the received copy job, and managing the number of copy outputs of the copy job in correspondence with the copy job management identification number; said print server has a print job output number management function of receiving from the network a print job requested by each client user assigned a specific print job management identification number, instructing said composite function image forming apparatus to print out the received print job, and managing the number of print outputs of the print job in correspondence with the print job management identification number; and a totaling apparatus is provided on the network, the totaling apparatus comprising: storage means for storing user data in a correspondence format of the copy job management identification number and the print job management identification number; and user discriminating means for discriminating same client users having both a specific copy job management identification number and a specific print job management identification number by referring to the user data stored in said storage means, wherein said totaling apparatus fetches via the network the output number managed by the copy job output number management function of said composite function image forming apparatus in correspondence with the copy job management identification number and the output number managed by the print job output number management function of said print server in correspondence with the print job management identification number, and totals the output number of the same user by adding the output number of copy jobs to the output number of print jobs for each client user discriminated as the same user by said user discriminating means.