A printing process management apparatus includes a first display controller that controls a display to display, in association with printing information, a first graphical object in which plural step-representing graphical objects corresponding to plural processing steps for the printing information are arrayed in a sequence identical to a sequence of the processing steps, a second display controller that acquires status information indicating a processing status of the printing information in each of the processing steps and controls the display to display a first step-representing graphical object corresponding to a first processing step whose status information indicates that processing is in progress while changing a format of the first step-representing graphical object to a format different from formats of other step-representing graphical objects, and a third display controller that controls the display to display information indicating details of the processing performed in the first processing step while juxtaposing the information with the first graphical object.

An information processing apparatus includes a generation unit, an adding unit, and an association unit. The generation unit generates, in a case where additional processing needs to be performed on input information in a workflow, unique information for uniquely identifying the information. The adding unit adds the unique information generated by the generation unit to identification information for identifying the information to generate new identification information of the information. The association unit associates the new identification information generated by the adding unit with the information.

An object is to use a post processing apparatus effectively and to shorten execution waiting time of a print job of a user due to moving of a self-traveling post processing apparatus. In an image forming system including a self-traveling post processing apparatus which separably connects with each of a plurality of image forming apparatuses, in a case of having received a print job which is executed by any of the plurality of image forming apparatuses and performs the post processing by the post processing apparatus, the post processing apparatus is made to self-travel by a traveling section such that the post processing apparatus moves toward an image forming apparatus which has received a print job which performs post processing.

The present invention relates to a printing system, comprising a print job receiving section permitting a user to submit a print job to the printing system, the print job comprising a plurality of print job settings, a print job queue section comprising a print job queue for print jobs submitted to the printing system and scheduled to be printed, and a proof print repository section comprising a proof print repository for proof print jobs submitted to the printing system. The printing system comprises a continuous monitoring section configured to compare print job settings of a proof print job residing in the proof print repository or scheduled in the print job queue with current resources available in the printing system according to a proof print policy. The proof print policy is attached to the proof print job and comprises a comparison criterion. Upon a match of the print job settings of the proof print job with the current resources according to the comparison criterion, the proof print job is scheduled in the print job queue.

An image forming system of an embodiment includes a terminal device that transmits first print data to print an image in monochrome, second print data to print the image in color and a user ID; a print data storage section that stores the first print data, the second print data and the user ID transmitted from the terminal device in an associated manner; an authentication section that authenticates a user; a list acquisition section that acquires a list including the first and second print data associated with the user ID of the user authenticated by the authentication section; a print data acquisition section that acquires one print data selected from the acquired list by the list acquisition section; and an image forming section that prints an image formed with the print data acquired by the print data acquisition section.

A printing system including a first printer and a second printer is provided with: a job group creation unit that creates a job group defining a plurality of jobs to be grouped and a print order thereof; a job group storage unit that stores information on the print order of the plurality of jobs; a job group updating unit that updates the information on the print order stored in the job group storage unit based on information on an output order when printing is executed by the second printer; and a print instruction unit that instructs the first printer to execute printing based on the plurality of jobs in the print order stored in the job group storage unit.

When a job processing apparatus receives an execution instruction of a job including group identification information used for identifying a group, the job processing apparatus continuously processes a plurality of jobs that belong to the group identified by the group identification information such that the plurality of jobs are not interrupted by a job that belongs to a different group, and further notifies a state of each of the plurality of processed jobs.

A method implemented in a server computer for producing a package of printed documents from multiple original digital documents. A user specifies the multiple original digital documents, their order in the package, and print settings for each original digital document. The user further specifies additional print settings for the package. The server generates a combined digital document by combining contents of the plurality of original digital documents in the specified order, and generates a package job ticket that specifies print settings for the combined digital document in accordance with the print settings for the plurality of original digital documents. The server submits the combined digital document and the package job ticket as a print job to a printer. The printer executes the package print job to produce the multiple documents in the specified order which form a package of printer materials.

When an image formation apparatus included in an image processing system including a plurality of apparatus groups each consisting of a plurality of image formation apparatuses accepts a request for an inquiry about an image formation apparatus which has stored a print job associated with a designated user from another image formation apparatus belonging to an apparatus group to which the image formation apparatus belongs, the image formation apparatus requests, in response to the request, of an image formation apparatus which belongs to another apparatus group and is saved in advance, for the inquiry. When the request originates from another image formation apparatus belonging to another apparatus group, the image formation apparatus inquires of a management image formation apparatus within that apparatus group.

Systems and methods associated with resource provisioning are disclosed. One example method includes dividing a set of printing resources into a first partition and a second partition. The example method also includes provisioning the first partition to handle print jobs from a print queue that have a specified attribute. The first partition may be provisioned when print jobs having the specified attribute exceed a first predefined threshold.