Patent ID: 7161707

Claim:
A printer system comprising: data reading means for reading compressed image data from a storage medium; setting means for setting printing parameters; a plurality of printers; a plurality of image processing circuits located within said plurality of printers, wherein said image processing circuits are configured to expand said compressed image data for use by said plurality of printers, respectively; printer selection means for selecting which of the plurality of printers to use, wherein the printer selection means comprise: a scheduling function configured: to calculate a number of prints per printer by dividing a number of prints by a number of the plurality of printers; to send the number of prints per printer plus one to an I-th printer with a number less than a remainder number of printers; and to send the number of prints per printer to an I-th printer with a number not less than a remainder number of printers, wherein at a beginning of a print cycle the I-th printer is initialized as a next printer after a last I-th printer of a previous print cycle; and a controller for a) sending a specific control signal to the printer selection means and for b) sending said compressed image data to a selected one of said printers based on information provided by the setting means.