Patent ID: 8896864

Claim:
An image processing system including: an image forming apparatus; and a plurality of image processing servers which cooperatively perform a series of image processing services in a predetermined order on target image data while being connected to the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus comprising: an output portion which outputs the target image data, order information indicating the order of performing a series of image processing services, and specific information to specify each of the image processing servers to each of the image processing servers that performs a first-order image processing service, each of a first group of the image processing servers which performs the first-order image processing service comprising: a transmitter which transmits said target image data, said order information, said specific information, and a server selection information based on which to select one of a plurality of the first group of the image processing servers as the most preferred server to all of a plurality of image processing servers in charge of a second-order image processing service, each of a second group of the image processing servers which performs a n-th-order (n≧2) image processing service comprising: a selection information obtainer which obtains server selection information from all of a plurality of image processing servers in charge of a (n−1)-th-order image processing service; a server selector which selects one of the servers in charge of the (n−1)-th-order image processing service as the most preferred server based on the server selection information obtained by the selection information obtainer; and a transmitter which transmits most preferred server information indicating the image processing server in charge of the (n−1)-th-order image processing service, selected by the server selector; most preferred server information indicating each of the image processing server in charge of the order from the first to a (n−2)-th-order image processing service when the selected image processing server by the server selector is in charge of the order after the second; the target image data; and server selection information based on which to select one of a plurality of image processing servers in charge of a n-th-order image processing service as the most preferred server, to all of a plurality of image processing servers in charge of a (n+1)-th-order image processing service or the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus further comprising: a selection information obtainer which obtains server selection information from all of a plurality of image processing servers in charge of the final image processing service; and a server selector which selects one of the servers in charge of the final image processing service as the most preferred server based on the server selection information obtained by the selection information obtainer.