Patent ID: 8817303

Claim:
A control device comprising: a generating unit that generates, upon receiving a print instruction, which includes attribute information representing an attribute of a printed material to be created, from a terminal device, processing information by using the attribute information included in the print instruction and a rule that is preset regarding the attribute of the printed material and a plurality of processing operations to be executed for creating the printed material having the attribute, the processing information indicating which processing operations are to be executed in which order by which processing devices among a plurality of processing devices that execute different processing operations for creating the printed material, so as to create the printed material to be created; a specifying unit that specifies activation periods of activation operations of activating respective processing devices indicated by the processing information, the activation periods being specified using operation information of the respective processing devices and power state information of the respective processing devices, the operation information and the power state information being obtained from the respective processing devices indicated by the processing information; a calculating unit that calculates processing periods of the processing operations executed to create the printed material by the respective processing devices indicated by the processing information, the processing periods being calculated using the operation information, the power state information, and the attribute information included in the print instruction; a determining unit that determines starting times of the activation operations executed by the respective processing devices indicated by the processing information by using the activation periods, the processing periods, and the order of the processing operations executed by the processing devices indicated by the processing information, so that an end time of a processing operation executed by a certain processing device among the processing devices matches an end time of an activation operation executed by a next processing device among the processing devices, the next processing device executing a processing operation subsequent to the certain processing device; and a controller that controls the respective processing devices indicated by the processing information so that the processing devices start respective activation operations at the starting times determined by the determining unit.