A print control apparatus for controlling a printing apparatus, comprises a display control unit configured to display, on a display unit, a setting content associated with setting processing of a default printing apparatus that can be used without accepting a selection operation by a user, an acquisition unit configured to acquire information about a function of setting, as the default printing apparatus, a printing apparatus instructed to execute printing, and a restriction unit configured to restrict, if the acquired information indicates enabling of the function, display processing of the setting content so the setting content is not operated.

The printer may receive first user identification information from an external device and receive a registration request including first print setting information from the external device. In a first case where the first user identification information and the registration request are received from the external device and registration related information associated with the first user identification information among the one or more user identification information in a memory is permission information, the printer may register the first print setting information included in the registration request in the memory in association with the first user identification information. In a second case where the first user identification information and the registration request are received from the external device and the registration related information associated with the first user identification information is restriction information, the first print setting information is not registered in the memory.

An image forming apparatus includes a processor configured to: allow execution of printing using registered print information, the registered print information being allowed to be applied to a print job for performing printing, the registered print information being allowed to be recorded in image forming apparatuses individually, and receive an operation for executing a print job, the print job being a job to which the registered print information is applied; when the registered print information is recorded in the image forming apparatus, the registered print information being applied to the print job for which the operation for execution is received, perform printing in the image forming apparatus by using the registered print information; and, when the registered print information is not recorded in the image forming apparatus, the registered print information being applied to the print job for which the operation for execution is received, perform printing by using the registered print information received from at least one different image forming apparatus, the at least one different image forming apparatus recording the registered print information.

A server device receives a request over a network for settings for a printing device having an identifier. The server device determines whether the settings for the printing device were previously received from the printing device and responsively saved by the server device, based on the identifier of the printing device. In response to determining that the settings for the printing device were previously received from the printing device and responsively saved by the server device, the server device transmits the settings over the network to reconfigure the printing device according to the settings.

Ink saturation for a print job varies according to prioritized elements identified within a given document or print job. Elements are prioritized according to pre-defined values according to document type and identified elements within the document type. High priority elements of a document are assigned greater ink saturation than lower priority elements of the same document. Automated prioritization is made possible by a crowd-sourced knowledge corpus including pre-defined document types and corresponding elements of the documents. Historic configurations accepted by a user drive a learning process using a feedback loop for refined decision-making as print jobs are submitted for printing.

A system and method for minimizing customer churn in device service businesses commences with execution of a customer service contract. Ongoing customer data capture is made for each contract. Customer data includes contract events, environmental events, service events, device usage analytics and personnel events. Machine learning is applied to captured customer data, which machine learning is based on a state of customer data at the time of contract determination. Customer data is assigned weights, and aggregate data for each customer is compared to a preselected threshold level. Customers above a threshold are deemed happy and customers below the threshold are deemed to be at risk. Remedial measures relative to at risk customer data generates levels of automated remediation followed by remedial measure suggestions to an administrator when not sufficiently successful.

An image forming system includes: an image forming apparatus having a priority paper feed source setting function and a print server that executes predetermined image processing, transmits image data after the image processing to the image forming apparatus, and causes the image forming apparatus to print an image based on the image data after the image processing. The print server (a) acquires a setting value of a priority paper feed source setting from the image forming apparatus, (b) specifies a print sheet orientation of a paper feed source designated as a priority paper feed source based on the acquired setting value, and (c) generates the image data after the image processing by matching an orientation of the image based on the image data after the image processing with an orientation corresponding to the specified print sheet orientation.

Systems and methods are provided for handling print data. One embodiment is a system that includes an interface that receives rasterized print data, a memory that stores the rasterized print data; and a print controller that compresses each scanline of the rasterized print data by culling a region of leading whitespace, culling a region of trailing whitespace, compressing a data region disposed between the leading whitespace and the trailing whitespace, and inserting a tag having whitespace offset information for the data region within the scanline.

An information processing apparatus receives, from an image forming apparatus, setting values of a first setting item including a first setting value, setting values of a second setting item including a second setting value and a selected first combination without receiving a second combination, causes a display to display a first object for selecting one of the received setting values of the first setting item and a second object for selecting one of the received setting values of the second setting item, and restricts, based on the received first combination, setting a combination of the first setting value and the second setting value among combinations of setting values set by the first object and the second object.

An MFP 1 includes an image forming unit 4 which forms an image on a sheet S1, a USB interface 12 which is to be connected to a PC 101 via a USB and receives a preceding command described in accordance with a control transfer protocol that is a transfer scheme of USB connection, and a CPU 91 which executes a preparation operation of the image forming unit 4, in response to receiving the preceding command by the USB interface 12. The preceding command is described to instruct the preparation operation of the image forming unit 4.