Patent ID: 7167262

Claim:
A printing system, comprising: a processing procedure generator; a plurality of processors, at least a first one of the plurality of processors performing at least one of conversion processing or format processing of print data; a printer; and a data server device storing the print data, wherein the processing procedure generator, the plurality of processors, the printer, and the data server device are separate from each other and are connected to each other through a network; wherein the processing procedure generator comprises: a processing procedure generation section for generating processing procedure data indicating a procedure for processing print data to be printed by the printer; and a processing procedure sending section for sending the generated processing procedure data to the data server device; wherein the data server device comprises: a processing procedure receiving section for receiving the processing procedure data; a print data acquisition section for acquiring the print data; and a processing sending section for sending the processing procedure data and the print data to the at least first one of the plurality of processors that first performs at least one of conversion processing or format processing of the print data; wherein at least one of the plurality of processors comprises: a first receiving section for receiving the sent processing procedure data and the print data; a processing section for performing a predetermined processing with respect to the received print data; and a first sending section for sending the processed print data and the received processing procedure data to at least one of the plurality of processors, which next performs at least one of format processing or conversion processing of the print data, and the printer in accordance with the processing procedure data; and wherein the printer receives and prints the processed print data.