Patent ID: 8514439

Claim:
An image processing system comprising: an image forming apparatus; first and second image processing servers being connected to the image forming apparatus via a network; and a transaction processing apparatus, and allowing: the first and second image processing servers to sequentially perform their own and different image processing operations on target image data originated from the image forming apparatus; and the transaction processing apparatus to process a transaction for all finished image processing operations, the first image processing server comprising: a first image processor which performs a first image processing operation on the target image data received from the image forming apparatus; a first reference information generator which determines a reference value for a reference item based on which to calculate an amount of charge for the first image processing operation of the first image processor, based on the target data, and generates first reference information indicating the determined reference value; a first calculator which calculates an amount of charge for the first image processing operation of the first image processor based on the reference value determined by the first reference information generator and an amount of charge per unit set on the first image processing server, and generates first charge information indicating the calculated amount of charge; and a transmitter which transmits to the next location, the first reference information generated by the first reference information generator and the first charge information generated by the first calculator, separately from the image data to be obtained by the first image processing operation, and the second image processing server comprising: a second image processor which performs a second image processing operation on the target image data after the first image processing server finished the first image processing operation; a second calculator which calculates an amount of charge for the second image processing operation of the second image processor based on the reference value determined by the first image processing server and an amount of charge per unit set on the second image processing server, and generates second charge information indicating the calculated amount of charge; and a transmitter which transmits to the next location, the first reference information and the first charge information both generated by the first image processing server and the second charge information generated by the second calculator, wherein the transaction processing apparatus processes a transaction for the first and second image processing operations of the first and second image processing servers, based on the first and second charge information.