Patent ID: 8169631

Claim:
A printing apparatus which prints print data generated based on an electronic file and generates management information about the print data, comprising: a reception unit configured to receive the print data and identification information associated with the electronic file; a determination unit configured to determine whether or not the identification information is registered in a management apparatus; a first comparison unit configured to compare, if the determination unit determined that the identification information is registered in the management apparatus, a first hash value corresponding to the total of received print data received by the reception unit with a second hash value corresponding to the total of registered print data registered in the management apparatus; a second comparison unit configured to compare, if the result of comparison by the first comparison unit indicates that the first and second hash values do not match, a first set of hash values corresponding to each page of the received print data with a second set of hash values corresponding to each page of the registered print data; and a registration unit configured to generate management information relating to the received print data based on at least one of the result of determination by the determination unit, the result of comparison by the first comparison unit, and the result of comparison by the second comparison unit, and register the generated management information to the management apparatus, wherein if the determination unit determines that the identification information is not registered in the management apparatus, the registration unit generates management information including the received print data, the identification information corresponding to the received print data, the first hash value, the first set of hash values, and tracking information of the received print data, and newly registers the generated management information to the management apparatus, and wherein if the result of comparison by the first comparison unit indicates that the first and second hash values match, or if the result of comparison by the second comparison unit indicates that the second set of hash values completely includes the first set of hash values, the registration unit generates management information including at least tracking information of the received print data, but not including the received print data itself, and registers the generated management information to the management apparatus in association with the identification information.