An image forming device includes a communication unit to transmit data to and receive data from an external device, an image forming job unit to perform printing, and a controller to control warming up of the image forming job unit to perform the printing, such that the image forming job unit performs the printing after the warming up is completed. The controller is to receive a print execution request to perform the printing and a predicted value of a print preparation time for the image forming device to create output image data, to perform the printing, from the external device via the communication unit, determine a warm-up start time of when to start the warming up of the image forming job unit by using the received predicted value of the print preparation time, and control the image forming job unit to start the warming up at the determined warm-up start time.

A control device that is communicable with a plurality of image forming apparatuses, comprises: an information obtaining part that obtains history information from the plurality of image forming apparatuses; a spool destination deciding part that decides two or more image forming apparatuses as spool destinations of an accepted job from the plurality of image forming apparatuses based on plural pieces of history information obtained by the information obtaining part; and a job transmitter that transmits a job to the two or more image forming apparatuses decided by the spool destination deciding part.

A printing computing device connects to a multi-function printing (MFP) device to enable additional functionality and capabilities not offered by the MFP device. The printing computing device connects to a network to receive print jobs from external devices within the network. The printing computing device processes the print jobs according to rules such that print jobs are processed accordingly. The printing computing device also includes firmware not available on the MFP device such that print jobs not supported by the MFP device still may be processed. The printing computing device also includes an engine that determines whether an incoming print job is a PDL print job or a command to perform a function not available on the MFP device.

An image forming apparatus includes a main memory device, an auxiliary storage device, a print request receiving unit, and a print processing unit. The print request receiving unit is configured to (a) receive from an external device a print request that includes the number of printing pages and print image data, (b) select one of the main memory device and the auxiliary storage device as a device to which the print image data is to be written on the basis of the number of printing pages, and (c) write the print image data in the selected main memory device or auxiliary storage device. The print processing unit is configured to read the print image data from the main memory device or the auxiliary storage device and perform a print process based on the print image data.

An image forming apparatus and a control method of an image forming apparatus having high convenience are provided. The image forming apparatus includes an image transfer system and a processor. The image transfer system is configured to be switchable between a first position, where printing is performed in a first mode, and a second position, where printing is performed in a second mode. The processor, when executing a print job by switching a position of the image transfer system to a position set in advance as a home position at a waiting time for printing, switches the position of the image transfer system to a position corresponding to the print job and sets the home position based on a result of comparison between a print history in a first mode and a print history in a second mode.

A relay apparatus that is connected to a forming apparatus which forms a three-dimensional object and receives a forming request for the forming apparatus from a client terminal performs a registration process to a message service providing apparatus, in response to a reception of a forming request including user information from the client terminal, so that a group, which includes the user information, user information of other users and an account of the relay apparatus, is managed by the message service providing apparatus, and distributes a message concerning the forming apparatus and the forming request for the group.

An image processing method includes: obtaining first raster line data as data of a first raster line including a plurality of pixels arranged in a first direction from raster data; generating raster line segment data as data of a raster line segment including a plurality of pixels arranged in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction from the received N number of the first raster lines; determining whether the plurality of pixels have an identical pixel value, the plurality of pixels constituting the raster line segment; encoding the raster line segment where the plurality of pixels have the identical pixel value; storing second raster line data as data of the second raster line including a plurality of pixels arranged in the second direction, which is produced by connecting the plurality of raster line segments; and rendering the second raster lines while decoding the encoded raster line segment.

Apparatus determines whether a number-of-sheet(s) of the paper required to form an image based on the printable data is equal to or larger than a threshold or smaller than the threshold, if it is determined that the number-of-sheet(s) of the paper is smaller than the threshold, determines whether a distance from the user is equal to or larger than a first distance or smaller than the first distance, if it is determined that the distance from the user is smaller than the first distance, controls the printer to form the image on the paper, and if it is determined that the distance from the user is equal to or larger than the first distance, if it is determined that the distance from the user is changed such that the distance from the user is smaller than the first distance, controls the printer to form the image on the paper.

The printing apparatus of the present invention includes: a memory storing a program; at least one processor configured to execute the program and function as: an interpretation unit configured to interpret print data of the page to obtain objects contained in the page; an optimization prediction unit configured to check each of the obtained objects to identify the at least one object to be subject to the predetermined conversion process, and to predict, in accordance with the identified object, characteristics of the new objects which are to be obtained by the predetermined conversion process without performing the predetermined conversion process; and an estimation unit configured to estimate a time required for the rendering process of the page, based on at least parameter values corresponding to the predicted characteristics.

A job storage unit stores a print job. An image forming unit forms a toner image on a sheet. A fixing unit fixes the toner image on the sheet by heating the toner image. A first authentication unit communicates with a communication medium in a first communication range. A second authentication unit communicates with the communication medium in a second communication range. A control unit controls the fixing unit to be heated if the print job associated with user information is stored in the job storage unit when the first authentication unit acquires the user information, and controls the fixing unit to be heated if the print job associated with the acquired user information is not stored in the job storage unit when the second authentication unit acquires the user information.