Patent ID: 8035832

Claim:
A recording system in which an image supply device and a printing device communicate with each other via any one of a plurality of types of communication interfaces and the image supply device transmits image data to the printing device to cause the printing device to record an image based on the image data, the system comprising: assignment means for establishing a communication procedure between the image supply device and the printing device using applications respectively implemented in the image supply device and the printing device, and changing an assignment of each of a plurality of functions serving as the recording system to either the image supply device or the printing device in accordance with a type of communication interface of the plurality of types of communication interfaces used for the communication between the image supply device and the printing device; recording control means for exchanging data and commands between the functions respectively assigned to the image supply device and the printing device and for causing the printing device to record an image based on image data supplied from the image supply device, data request means for requesting partial image data of image data stored in the image supply device, wherein said data request means designates an offset address in an image file and a data amount, and wherein the printing device records based on the partial image data supplied from the image supply device in response to a request by said data request means, wherein the plurality of functions include at least an operation control function that defines a user interface and that receives a user instruction for specifying an image recording job via the user interface, and wherein the assignment means assigns the operation control function to either the-image supply device or the printing device in accordance with the type of communication interface used for the communication between the image supply device and the printing device.