Patent ID: 7876459

Claim:
A printing apparatus connected to a plurality of terminal apparatuses, each of the plurality of terminal apparatuses storing file format information, the file format information including a file format that each of the plurality of terminal apparatuses can process and a load status of each of the plurality of terminal apparatuses, the printing apparatus comprising: a memory configured to store file format information obtained from each of the plurality of terminal apparatuses; an input device configured to input a plurality of print files; a controller configured to: determine whether the printing apparatus can process a file format of each of the plurality of print files; select, when it is determined that the printing apparatus cannot process a file format of a predetermined print file of the plurality of print files, a terminal apparatus for the predetermined print file from the plurality of terminal apparatuses based on the file format information stored in the memory, the selected terminal apparatus being able to process the file format of the predetermined print file; instruct the selected terminal apparatus to generate print data from the print file; and obtain the generated print data from the selected terminal apparatus; and a printer configured to print the generated print data obtained from the selected terminal apparatus, wherein, when the controller determines that the printing apparatus cannot process the file format of the predetermined print file of the plurality of print files and a predetermined plurality of terminal apparatuses are able to process the file format of the predetermined print file, the controller determines whether a further print file of the plurality of print files, which has been input immediately previous to the predetermined print file, is input by a same user as the user who input the predetermined print file, and selects a same terminal apparatus for processing the predetermined and further print files if it is determined that the predetermined and further print files are input by the same user, and wherein, when the controller determines that the printing apparatus cannot process the file format of the predetermined print file and a predetermined plurality of terminal apparatuses are able to process the file format of the predetermined print file, the controller selects a terminal apparatus from the predetermined plurality of terminal apparatuses as the selected terminal apparatus, based on the load status of each of the predetermined plurality of terminal apparatuses.