Image forming system

Abstract

A plurality of devices for reading document images are connected through a network. A master device and slave devices are set among the devices. Read conditions and image forming conditions are respectively notified to the slave devices by the master device. Each slave device reads an original document based on the read condition, and outputs the read image data attached with the image forming condition, to the print device. The print device prints image data from various read devices under the image forming conditions attached thereto, thereby to print image data from the plurality of read devices, integrated with each other.

1 - 22 . (canceled)  
   
   
       23 . An image forming method, comprising: 
 providing a first device;    providing a second device communicatively coupled to the first device;    reading, by a read function, an original document image;    setting, by a setting function, a processing condition with respect to the read original document image;    processing and transmitting, by a transmission function, the read original document image read under the processing condition set by the setting function;    changing, by a change setting function, the set processing condition set by the setting function, of the original document image received by the other of the first and second devices, upon receipt of the original document image transmitted from the one of the first and second devices;    performing, by an image output function, processing on the original document image under the processing condition changed by the change setting function; and    outputting an image that has been processed under the processing condition changed by the change setting function,    wherein each of the first and second devices has a read function, a setting function, a transmission function, a receive function, a change setting function, an image output function, and a specification function to specify one of the first and second devices as a master, and the other one of the first and second devices as a slave, and if one of the first and second devices is specified as a master, the read function, setting function, and transmission function are assigned to the device specified as the master, and the receive function, change setting function, and image output function are assigned to the other one of the first and second devices.    
   
   
       24 . An image read method in which a plurality of first devices each having at least a read function to read at least an original document image, and a second device having at least a setting function to set a read condition for each of the first devices, are connected through a communication channel, wherein each of the first and second devices has the setting function and the read function, the method comprising: 
 setting, by the second device using the setting function, a respective read condition for at least one of the first devices;    outputting, by way of an interface, the respective read condition from the second device to the at least one of the first devices;    reading, by the at least one of the first devices using its read function, the original document, based on the read condition supplied from the second device;    specifying a master by any one of the first and second devices, thereby to specify other devices as slaves;    setting individual read conditions respectively with respect to the devices specified as the slaves, by the setting function of the device specified as the master; and    displaying the read conditions set by the device specified as the master in a form of a list in the devices specified as the slaves.    
   
   
       25 . An image read method using a plurality of first devices having at least a read function to read at least a original document image, a second device having at least a setting function to set a read condition for each of the first devices, and a third device having at least an image forming function to form an image based on image data, on a medium where an image is to be formed, are connected through a communication channel, wherein each of the first and second devices has the setting function and the read function, the method comprising: 
 setting, by the second device, a read condition for the read function of at least one of the first devices, and individual image forming conditions for image data, respectively corresponding to the at least one of the first devices;    outputting from the second device, by way of a second interface, the read condition to the at least one of the first devices;    reading, by a scanner of the at least one of the first devices, the original document image, based on the read condition supplied from the second device;    outputting from the at least one of the first devices to the third device, by way of a first interface, the original document image read by the scanner, together with an image forming condition of the image data supplied from the second device;    forming, using the third device, an image based on image data supplied from the at least one of the first devices, on an image forming medium, based on the image forming condition supplied together with the image data;    specifying a master by any one of the first and second devices, thereby to specify other devices as slaves;    setting read conditions and image forming conditions with respect to the devices specified as the slaves, by the setting function of the device specified as the master; and    displaying the read conditions and image forming conditions set by the device specified as the master in form of a list in the devices specified as the slaves.    
   
   
       26 . The method according to  claim 25 , wherein the read condition is at least one of density information, original document type information such as a photographic original document, a text original document, or the like, image attribute information such as adjustment value information for correcting gamma, and the like.  
   
   
       27 . The method according to  claim 25 , wherein each of the image forming conditions specifies an image formation on one surface of the image forming medium, image formation on both surfaces of the image forming medium, rotation of image data, reversal of image data, and image forming style expressing descending or ascending order of a plurality of pages of image data.  
   
   
       28 . The method according to  claim 25 , wherein each of the image forming conditions specifies the type of the image forming medium.  
   
   
       29 . The method according to  claim 25 , wherein a condition specifying a type of the image forming medium is output medium information including a thick paper, color-dedicated paper, normal paper or OHP.  
   
   
       30 . The method according to  claim 25 , further comprising changing the read conditions and the image forming conditions displayed in a form of the list.  
   
   
       31 . An image-processing method for a system comprising a plurality of devices, each having a function of reading an original image and inputting image data, or a function of printing on an output medium an image represented by the image data, or both functions, the method comprising: 
 designating one of the devices as a master;    informing, by the one of the devices, the other devices that the one of the devices has been designated as the master and the other devices that have been designated as slaves;    designating by the one of the devices, after performing the informing step, any other device that is capable of printing images;    receiving by the one of the devices, by a first receiver, printer-performance information from the other devices capable of printing images that have been designated;    storing, in a memory in the one of the devices, the printer-performance information received by the first receiver;    designating by the one of the devices, after performing the informing step, a plurality of other devices that have an input function;    supplying, by the one of the devices, image-inputting parameters and the printer-performance information to the other devices having the input function and that have been designated, the image-inputting parameters being operating conditions;    receiving, by the one of the devices, the image-inputting parameters and printer-performance information from any other device that has the input function, that has been designated as a slave and that has received the image-inputting parameters and printer-performance information;    updating, by the one of the devices, the image-inputting parameters and printer-performance information received in the receiving step, for any other device that has the input function and that has been designated as a slave;    processing, by the one of the devices, one-page image data that has been input to the memory for any other device that has the input function and has been designated as a slave in accordance the image-inputting parameters and printer-performance information updated in the updating step; and    transferring, by the one of the devices, all data to be printed to any other device capable of printing images, when the processing step finishes processing the one-page image data for any other device that has the input function and has been designated as a slave,    wherein, for each of the devices having the input function and designated as slaves, performing the following steps: 
 receiving, by each of the devices designated as slaves, image-inputting parameters and printer-performance information from the master;  
 registering, by each of the devices designated as slaves, the image-inputting parameters and the printer-performance information which have been received by each of the devices designated as slaves;  
 changing, by each of the devices designated as slaves, the image-inputting parameters and the printer-performance information which have been registered in the registering step;  
 supplying to the master, by each of the devices designated as slaves, the image-inputting parameters and the printer-performance information which have been changed by the changing step;  
 inputting, by each of the devices designated as slaves, one-page image data in accordance with the image-inputting parameters changed by the changing step;  
 transferring to the master, by each of the devices designated as slaves, all one-page image data input by the inputting step;  
 receiving, by each of the devices designated as slaves, printer-performance information supplied from the master; and  
 printing, by each of the devices designated as slaves, all data which is to be printed and which has been transferred from the master, in accordance with the printer-performance information received in the receiving step.  
   
   
   
       32 . The method according to  claim 31 , wherein the image-inputting parameters include image-attribute data, medium data and output formats, 
 the image-attribute data includes an input-device number, a job ID, a file name, the number of pages, original size, magnification, color-or-black, format, density-adjusting mode, color-adjusting mode, editing mode, photographing mode and character mode,    wherein the medium data includes thick-sheet data and ordinary-sheet data, and the output formats include rotation output, double-side output, finishing and sorting mode.    
   
   
       33 . The method according to  claim 31 , wherein the printer-performance information includes performance data, operating condition data, error data or output-medium data.