Field
Aspects of the present invention generally relate to an image processing apparatus that performs processing on a print job.
Description of the Related Art
Some printing systems have functions of applying various types of processing to a print job. One of such functions is a function of storing a print job, on which a series of processing has been completed, in the printing system mainly for the reprinting to be performed later (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-305331). Various settings related to printing are specified for a print job as print attributes. For example, user information, printing sheet settings, image processing settings, and finishing settings are specified as the print attributes. The printing system performs print processing based on such print attributes. After completing the entire print processing, the print job is stored into the printing system along with the print attributes.
Some printing systems have a function of performing authentication on a print job and applying processing according to the result of the authentication (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-18654). Such a printing system performs user authentication during print processing of a print job, for example, by using user information set in the print job. The print processing is continued only if the user information set in the print job matches user information set in the printing system in advance. If they do not match each other, the print processing is aborted.
A printing system may have both the function of storing a print job, on which a series of processing has been completed, into the printing system and the function of applying processing according to an authentication result to a print job. Such a printing system stores a print job therein in a state at a time point at which the last processing on the print job is completed. In other words, the print job holds all the print attributes at the time point at which the print job is finally stored. Such print attributes include the user information used for the authentication (for example, a username and a password required for the authentication of the print job in the printing system).
However, when the print job is subsequently reprinted, the user information is not necessarily the same as that of the user who gives an instruction to perform reprinting. For example, suppose that a print job stored in the printing system was instructed to be printed by a user A in the past. Then, for example, a user B gives an instruction to reprint the print job without changing at least the user information among the print attributes stored in the print job.
In such a case, even if the print job is instructed to be executed by the user B, the printing system determines that the user information about the user A stored in the print job matches the user information about the user A set in the printing system in advance. Thus, the printing system authenticates the print job as one instructed to be executed by the user A. As a result, authentication based on the user (user information) who actually gives the instruction to execute the print job and various types of counting related to printing may fail to be performed properly.
As described above, if there is a mismatch between the user who actually gives an instruction to execute the print job and the user who is authenticated by the printing system, the presence of the function of storing the print job can reduce the reliability and security of the authentication function in the printing system.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds