In a system including first and second image forming apparatuses, a hardware processor of the first image forming apparatus guides a user by voice on information about execution of a job, and sets the job based on voice input from the user. When the job cannot be executed by a printer, the hardware processor of the first image forming apparatus transfers the set job to the takeover-destination second image forming apparatus through a network. A hardware processor of the second image forming apparatus that has received the set job takes over and performs the guidance for the user by voice.

An image forming apparatus includes: a reception unit that receives a print job in which setting information indicating print settings for printing print data is incorporated as part of the print data, and a control unit that performs printing according to the print settings indicated by the setting information incorporated in the print data of the print job.

An information processing apparatus includes an extraction section that extracts delayed processing having a waiting time which is longer than a predetermined time, from a use history of each of plural users using plural processing devices, the waiting time being a time from performing of an instruction to perform processing to starting of performing the processing, an analysis section that analyzes a cause of the delayed processing, and a notification section that notifies the user who has performed an instruction to perform the delayed processing, of at least one of an analysis result obtained by the analysis section or a countermeasure based on the analysis result.

System, method, and software of providing a printing service. In one embodiment, a printing system comprises a cloud printing service that stores device capability information for different types of printers supervised by a print server. The cloud printing service receives a print job, identifies a plurality of the printers that are capable of printing the print job based on the device capability information, and transforms printable content and control data of the print job into a plurality of printer-specific print streams. Each of the printer-specific print streams is in a printable output format for one of the plurality of the printers. The cloud printing service provides one or more of the printer-specific print streams to the print server.

A monitoring control apparatus is provided. The apparatus comprises a saving unit configured to save identification information of target devices as monitoring targets and areas in corresponding screens for each image capturing unit; a holding unit configured to hold a state of a device used for each job; and a control unit configured to make the image capturing unit capture videos including the target devices and monitor the areas corresponding to the target devices as target areas in a predetermined order, wherein the control unit specifies a next target device in accordance with the predetermined order, and, if there is no job in which a state of the target device is a waiting state, specifies a device next to the target device as a target device in accordance with the predetermined order.

A printing system includes a plurality of image forming apparatuses capable of mutually communicating with a portable terminal device and a client terminal device. The client terminal device generates a print job that includes print data and job information. The portable terminal device stores job information transmitted from the client terminal device. The image forming apparatus acquires the job information from the portable terminal device, acquires the print data corresponding to the job information from the client terminal device, and execute image output the print data.

An information processing apparatus configured to communicate with a cloud print service includes at least one memory that stores a set of instructions, and at least one processor that executes the instructions, the instructions, when executed, causing the information processing apparatus to perform operations including determining whether transmission of a print job to a printer associated with a cloud printer not via the cloud print service is allowed in a case where the cloud printer on the cloud print service is selected as an output destination, and transmitting the print job to the printer associated with the cloud printer through a path not via the cloud print service in a case where it is determined that transmission of the print job to the printer associated with the cloud printer not via the cloud print service is allowed.

An image forming apparatus includes a processor configured to, in a case where a print instruction to form an image by plural image forming apparatuses is received from a terminal apparatus and a pre-confirmation image of a print result is requested and in a case where an image forming apparatus is not possible to execute a printing process according to setting content designated in the print instruction, generate a pre-confirmation image corresponding to an image, which is obtained in a case where the printing process is executed in a state in which the setting content designated in the received print instruction is changed to setting content that is executable in the image forming apparatus to transmit the generated pre-confirmation image to the terminal apparatus that has transmitted the print instruction, and change the setting content of the received print instruction to the setting content that is executable in the image forming apparatus to transmit the changed setting content to another image forming apparatus that executes a next printing process.

A print job management device includes: a management unit causing a printing device to execute a print job; a holding unit causing a storage medium to hold color information associated with a color gamut of a printing device that is an execution agent of the print job that is interrupted, when the print job is interrupted; and a selection unit selecting, as a candidate, a printing device that can print a color used in the print job that is interrupted, based on the color information.

According to one or more embodiments, an image forming apparatus comprises a communication interface, an image forming unit, and a processor. The communication interface communicates with a plurality of information processing apparatuses via a network and receives print jobs from the information processing apparatuses. The image forming unit executes printing according to a first print job. The processor determines a presence of a user associated with a second print job near the image forming apparatus, and then determines, based on the presence of the user, whether to execute the first print job or to transmit or forward the first print job to another image forming apparatus.