Abstract:
A license management system includes an image forming apparatus and a license management server. The license management server includes a group management database, a license management database, a time zone information table, a group management unit, and a license management unit. The group management database stores information indicating an organization to which the license is assigned. The information relates to a group to which the image forming apparatus belongs. The license management database stores information on the license for the group. The time zone information table describes information on a working hour in a time zone where the group is present. When the one working hour ends, the license management unit that re-assigns the license from the group in the ended working hour to the group in another working hour based on the time zone information table, the license management database, and a current time.
Abstract:
A license management server manages a license to perform a service of remote maintenance related to one or more image forming apparatuses installed in a customer's site. The maintenance server includes a maintenance unit and a history management unit. If the license management server notified of expiration of an expiration date of the license defined by a contract, the maintenance unit stores history information acquired from the one or more image forming apparatuses corresponding to the expired license into a storage unit, and stops the service. If the license management server notified of grant of the license by a re-contract, the history management unit obtains the history information about the one or more image forming apparatuses corresponding to the granted license from the storage unit, and passes the obtained history information to the maintenance unit. By using the passed history information, the maintenance unit resumes the service.
Abstract:
In an image processing apparatus, a data handling unit (a) estimates a size of the intermediate data on the basis of the image data, and (b) selects one of a first rendering mode and a second rendering mode on the basis of a size of the image data and the estimated size of the intermediate data. In the first rendering mode, the data handling unit makes a copy of the image data and stores the copy in the storage device and causes a rendering unit to generate bitmap image data from the image data stored in the storage device. In the second rendering mode, the data handling unit causes the rendering unit to generate the bitmap image data from the image data stored in the removable drive.