Patent ID: 7778416

Claim:
A print system comprising a print control apparatus for generating a print job, a plurality of image forming apparatuses for printing data based on the print job and a management server for managing information of the plurality of image forming apparatuses, which are connected to each other via a network, the print system comprising: at least one processor functioning as: a search request transmission unit, provided in the print control apparatus, configured to transmit to the management server a search request to search the plurality of image forming apparatuses for one image forming apparatus to print data based on a print job, the search request including a necessary condition for the image forming apparatus; a selection unit, provided in the management server, configured to select the image forming apparatus from among the plurality of image forming apparatuses based on the search request transmitted by the search request transmission unit; an informing unit, provided in the management server, configured to inform the print control apparatus of an encryption key which can be decrypted only by the image forming apparatus selected by the selection unit and of an address of the selected image forming apparatus; an image forming apparatus information obtaining unit, provided in the print control apparatus, configured to obtain the encryption key and the address informed by the informing unit; a first encryption unit, provided in the print control apparatus, configured to encrypt print data using the encryption key obtained by the image forming apparatus information obtaining unit; a management server information obtaining unit, provided in the print control apparatus, configured to obtain an encryption key which can be decrypted only by the management server; a second encryption unit, provided in the print control apparatus, configured to encrypt the print data using the encryption key obtained by the management server information obtaining unit; a print job transmission unit, provided in the print control apparatus, configured to transmit the print job including the print data encrypted by the first encryption unit to the address obtained by the image forming apparatus information obtaining unit, and transmit the print job including the print data encrypted by the second encryption unit to the management server; a decryption unit, provided in the management server, configured to decrypt the encrypted print data included in the print job transmitted by the print job transmission unit; a third encryption unit, provided in the management server, configured to encrypt the print data decrypted by the decryption unit using the encryption key of the image forming apparatus selected by the selection unit; and a print data transmission unit, provided in the management server, configured to transmit the print data encrypted by the third encryption unit to the image forming apparatus selected by the selection unit.