Patent ID: 7382487

Claim:
A printing system, comprising: a plurality of printers, each of said plurality of printers configured to be connected with a network; a plurality of client devices, each of said plurality of client devices configured to be connected with the network and configured to generate printing data for printing and header information for the printing data, according to an instruction of a user of the system, wherein said header information includes, at least a user ID of user, a printer ID of one of the plurality of printers for printing the printing data, and a printing condition specifying printing functions of the printer used for printing the printing data with the printer; and a print restriction server configured to register, for each user ID, print restriction information including a printer ID of each printer usable by a user of said each user ID, printing functions of the printer usable by the user of said each user ID, to issue a ticket allowing use of the printer of the printer ID included in the header information based on the header information received from each client device, and to transmit said ticket allowing use of the printer of the printer ID included in the header information to the client device, wherein each of the printing functions specified by the printing condition in the header information is included in the print restriction information registered for the user ID included in the header information, wherein upon receipt of the ticket from the print restriction server, each client device is configured to generate a printing request including the printing data, the header information, and the received ticket, wherein each client device is configured to transmit the printing request to the printer of the printer ID included in the header information, and each printer is configured to execute, when the printing request is received and if the ticket is included in the received printing request, a printing operation to print the printing data included in the received printing request.