Information apparatus and application software supporting printing over air or network are herein disclosed and enabled. The information apparatus may include one or more software components that include (1) a discovery component to discover a supported printer in a local area network (LAN) and to receive device information related to the printer (e.g., capability, language or format supported, identification) from the printer, and (2) a printing component to generate or obtain print data based on the device information received and to transmit the print data to the discovered printer. After establishing the connection to the LAN, application software (e.g., Internet browser, email, photos, documents) in the information apparatus may print digital content by using the discovery component to discover the printer in the LAN, and may use the printing component to obtain and transmit print data in a form that is acceptable to the printer for printing the digital content.

The present disclosure discloses methods and systems for managing multiple scan requests received at a multi-function device. The method includes receiving a scan request from a remote computing device of a remote user. Before executing the scan request, two conditions are checked. It is checked if document is present on a scanning platform of the multi-function device and further it is checked if one or more activities on a user interface of the multi-function device, are being performed. Based on the presence of the document on the scanning platform and the one or more activities on the user interface, the scan request received from the remote user is disallowed. This way, multiple scanned requests are managed at the multi-function device.

Embodiments disclosed include systems and methods for computer automated print services control comprising authenticating a user credential input via a user device. The system and method includes generating, by a printer driver comprised in the user device, a user interface comprising features supported by a plurality of printing devices. Further, it includes receiving via the user device over the network, a print instruction comprising the features supported by the plurality of printing devices connected to the computer system over the network. And based on the print instruction, generating a print job in an embodiment. Further, based on the user authentication at one of the plurality of printing devices, converting via a gateway, the received print instruction into a format compatible with that printing device and releasing the generated print job for printing at that printing device, according to an embodiment.

An authentication system in which an image forming apparatus authenticates a user, the authentication system includes: an obtainer that obtains, from a terminal apparatus, a mail address of, and security information on, the user; a verificator that verifies the security information at a verification point identified with the mail address; and an authenticator that authenticates the user if the security information is able to be verified correctly.

An image forming apparatus operable to accept a login of a user by an input of medium information stored in a storage medium or an input via a user interface is provided. The apparatus comprises a storage to store account information that includes user identification information of a registered user and can further include the medium information associated with the user; a reader to read the medium information from the storage medium; a user interface to display a screen and accept an input; and a controller configured to accept a login by a user, wherein the controller, in a case where, at the time of a login of a user via the user interface, the medium information associated with a corresponding user is not registered, registers, in association with the corresponding user, the medium information inputted by the reader.

An information processing apparatus including an operation panel, the information processing apparatus includes a display control unit configured to display, on the operation panel, a plurality of first display objects to receive authentication information, and a reception unit configured to receive the authentication information, based on first display objects selected from among the plurality of first display objects by an operation of an indicator that touches on the operation panel and moves while maintaining the touching state on the operation panel, wherein, in a case where the display control unit receives the operation, the display control unit performs display indicating receipt of the operation without performing display indicating selection performed on the plurality of first display objects.

To provide a login device including a controller, a storage that stores a user capable of a login, where the user includes a plurality of the users, a display device that displays specific displays corresponding to the users, in a display screen, and a processing device that executes a login process with a user corresponding to a specific display selected from the displayed specific displays. If job data including user information is acquired, the controller provides an identifiable display on a specific display for a user corresponding to the user information.

In accordance with an embodiment, an image forming apparatus comprises a storage section configured to store a setting indicating one of a first condition for permitting start of an application both in a login state and in a logout state and a second condition for permitting start of the application only in the login state; a receiving section configured to receive an instruction to start the application; and a control section configured to start the application if the first condition is set for the application or start the application on condition that the image forming apparatus is in the login state if the second condition is set for the application in response to a start instruction in a logout state.

An image processing apparatus includes a registration unit configured to register a destination of file transmission, a selection unit configured to select whether to require a user to input, at time of transmission, authentication information required for the file transmission for each destination registered by the registration unit, a transfer unit configured to transfer received image data, and a control unit configured to prevent a destination for which it is selected to require the user to input the authentication information at time of transmission from being set as a transfer destination of the image data.

The disclosure discloses methods and systems for securing documents submitted for scanning at a device such as a multi-function device. The method includes scanning a document received from a user. A user interface is provided to the user to define a document type and to further define an access level for accessing the scanned document. Then, scanned data is generated. The scanned data is encoded based on a unique identity of the device and based on the access level such that the scanned data is accessible by the user and/or by one or more other users according to the defined access level. Finally, the scanned document is generated. Later when the scanned document is accessed by any user, details of the user accessing the scanned document is matched with details added in the encoded scanned data. Based on matching, the user is allowed to access the scanned document.