A method for scheduling a reload of a supply material in a printing system including a print engine capable of printing at a settable print velocity while using the supply material, a control unit for controlling a print job queue comprising at least one print job scheduled to be printed by means of a scheduling scheme while using the supply material, a supply material input holder for holding the supply material, and a user interface for interacting with a user of the printing system. The method includes determining a plurality of moments in time that the supply material input holder is empty, and simultaneously scheduling for each determined moment in time of the plurality of moments in time a reload event of reloading the supply material input holder with the supply material in the scheduling scheme. The plurality of moments in time is determined by taking into account the total planned usage of the supply material from the supply material input holder according to print job specifications of the at least one print job scheduled in the print job queue and a capacity of the supply material input holder with respect to the properties of the supply material, and each of the determined moments in time is established on the basis of the settable print velocity of the printing system with respect to the at least one print job in the print job queue.

A control device includes: a receiving unit that receives a request for processing; a determination unit that determines a processing apparatus to be moved from among a plurality of processing apparatuses based on a predetermined standard in a case where the receiving unit receives a request for processing; and a control unit that controls movement of the processing apparatus based on a result of determination performed by the determination unit.

An image forming apparatus includes a printer, a drawing data generating circuit, and a medium feeding circuit. The drawing data generating circuit generates, from print data, drawing data that causes the printer to execute a print job. The medium feeding circuit feeds the print medium to the printer. The medium feeding circuit executes: a first feeding stage in which the print medium moves to a specific position; and a second feeding stage in which the print medium moves from the specific position to the printer. The medium feeding circuit starts the first feeding stage after the drawing data is generated by the drawing data generating circuit when the image forming apparatus is in specific states, and starts the first feeding stage before the drawing data is generated by the drawing data generating circuit when the image forming apparatus is not in the specific states.

An ink-jet printer includes a conveyor, a carriage, a recording head, an ink receiver, a command receiver, and a controller. The controller executes: determining an ink amount that the recording head should discharge to the ink receiver; executing a flushing process that moves the carriage to an area facing the ink receiver and causes each of a plurality of nozzles to discharge ink of the determined ink amount; and based on the flushing process having finished, executing a recording process. The controller, based on the determined ink amount being less than a first threshold value, causes the recording head to discharge ink of the determined ink amount in a times of the flushing processes, and based on the determined ink amount being the first threshold value or more, causes the recording head to discharge ink of the determined ink amount dispersed in β(β>α) times of the flushing processes.

An image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes an image forming portion configured to form a pattern image for image quality adjustment in a marginal part other than an image forming region of a recording medium, a reading portion configured to read the pattern image for image quality adjustment formed on the recording medium, and a control portion configured to reflect a reading result by the reading portion on image quality adjustment and determine an execution order of jobs corresponding to presence/absence of the image quality adjustment set for each job.

Another apparatus is prevented from being notified of a service which cannot be used, in spite of the service that cannot be used. A communication apparatus includes a receiving unit, a detection unit, and a controller. The receiving unit receives a search signal from a second communication apparatus. The detection unit detects an execution state of a predetermined service. The controller transmits no response signals to the search signal or transmits a signal indicating that it is impossible to provide a service in response to the search signal when the predetermined service is being executed.

This invention provides a data processing apparatus operable to execute processing requested by an application, where the apparatus comprises a processing unit configured to, if there is an instruction for processing, execute the processing in accordance with a command list indicated by the instruction; and a control unit configured to, upon receiving a request for processing from the application, generate a command list corresponding to the request and instruct the processing unit to perform the processing, wherein the processing unit comprises a switching unit configured to, upon receiving, from the control unit, a second instruction during execution of a command list for a first instruction, switch to execution of a command list for the second instruction at a timing of execution of a command that is a control point preset in the command list for the first instruction.

An image forming apparatus that functions as a client of a distributed file system is provided, in which the image forming apparatus includes: a distributed file system process part for mounting a file system of a server apparatus on the image forming apparatus to enable the image forming apparatus to access the file system of the server apparatus as the distributed file system of the image forming apparatus; and a storing process part for accessing the file system of the server apparatus and storing, in the file system, information that is stored in a storage unit used by the image forming apparatus.

An embodiment of the invention has been made to solve a problem that it is impossible to store externally transmitted job information if a printer apparatus is in a hard-off state and it is, therefore, necessary to store the job information in an external apparatus on the transmission side. In the embodiment, a wireless communication unit which can transmit/receive data even if no power is supplied receives job information from an external terminal, and stores it in a non-volatile memory. When an information processing apparatus is supplied with power, and enters a normal activation state, it executes the job stored in the non-volatile memory.

An information processing apparatus comprises: a communication unit which performs short-range wireless communication with an external apparatus configured to provide a predetermined function; a first determination unit which determines, based on information obtained from the external apparatus by the communication unit, whether to perform authentication processing in order to utilize the predetermined function of the external apparatus; and an authentication unit which performs the authentication processing if the first determination unit determines to perform the authentication processing.