JP2005111671A - Printing apparatus, printing apparatus control method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a user from inadvertently printing a highly confidential document and to prohibit printing of a document that consumes consumables in advance. I will provide a.
Upon receiving a print job from a host computer (user), the printing apparatus 101 extracts job sender information and job ID included in the print job (S603), and extracts the extracted job sender information. From this, the administrator of the job sender is specified (S604). When printing of the designated print job is approved by an e-mail returned from the identified administrator in response to the approval request mail from the host computer 102, the designated print job is printed (S605). ~ S607).
[Selection] Figure 6

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that receives a print job via a network and prints the received print job, a control method for the printing apparatus, and a program.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when printing is performed with a printer connected to a network, there is a printing system that performs authentication at the time of printing and permits printing on the printer only to users who have been permitted in advance (for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2003-196069 A

  However, in the above-described conventional example, once a user is permitted, the user is permitted to print a document that is highly confidential and should not be printed on paper carelessly. Similarly, since a user once authorized can perform unlimited printing, there is a risk of wasteful consumption of consumables such as paper resources and toner. Particularly for color printers with high running costs, there is a problem of minimizing document printing that consumes consumables as much as possible.

  An object of the present invention is to prevent a user from inadvertently printing a highly confidential document and to prohibit printing of a document that consumes consumables in advance. It is to provide a printing apparatus, a printing apparatus control method, and a program.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a printing apparatus that receives a print job via a network and performs print processing of the received print job, the job transmission specifying a job sender of the received print job An approver specifying means; an approver specifying means for specifying an approver corresponding to the job sender specified by the job sender specifying means; and the received print job from the approver specified by the approver specifying means. An answer receiving means for receiving an answer returned in response to the print approval inquiry, and if the answer received by the answer receiving means indicates that the print is approved, the print processing of the received print job is performed. And control means for controlling.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a method for controlling a printing apparatus that receives a print job via a network and performs print processing of the received print job, and specifies a job sender of the received print job. A job sender specifying step, an approver specifying step for specifying an approver corresponding to the job sender specified by the job sender specifying step, and an approver specified by the approver specifying step, An answer receiving step for receiving an answer returned in response to a print approval inquiry for the received print job, and a print process for the received print job if the answer received by the answer receiving step indicates that the print is approved And a control process for controlling to perform the above.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a program executed by a printing apparatus that receives a print job via a network and performs print processing of the received print job, and a job sender of the received print job A job sender specifying module for specifying the approver, an approver specifying module for specifying an approver corresponding to the job sender specified by the job sender specifying module, and an approver specified by the approver specifying module, An answer receiving module for receiving an answer returned in response to a print approval inquiry for the received print job, and an answer received by the answer receiving module indicating that the print is approved; And a control module that controls to perform the printing process.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent a user from inadvertently printing a highly confidential document, and to prohibit the printing of a document that wastes consumables. it can.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a configuration of a printing system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

  In the printing system according to the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, a printing apparatus 101 and a plurality of host computers 102 and 103 are connected so as to be communicable via a network 104 such as a LAN (Local Area Network). Yes. The printing apparatus 101 receives a print job from each of the host computers 102 and 103 using a print protocol such as IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) defined by RFC2911, and performs printing. In addition, the printing apparatus 101 transmits an e-mail addressed to a user who uses each of the host computers 102 and 103 via a mail server (not shown) on the network 104, or receives an e-mail. It is possible to By using this e-mail receiving function, the printing apparatus 101 can receive and print a print job as an attached file of an e-mail without using a print protocol such as IPP.

  Next, the configuration of the printing apparatus 101 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printing apparatus 101 of FIG. Here, the printing apparatus 101 includes a laser beam printer, and the configuration of the laser beam printer will be described.

  The printing apparatus (laser beam printer) 101 includes a CPU 12 as shown in FIG. The CPU 12 generally controls access to various devices connected to the system bus 15 on the basis of a control program stored in the program ROM of the ROM 13 or a control program stored in the external memory 14 to perform printing. An image signal as output information is output to a printer engine 17 connected via the unit interface 16.

  The ROM 13 is provided with a font ROM and a data ROM together with the program ROM. The font ROM stores font data (including outline font data) used when generating the output information, and the data ROM does not include an external storage device 14 such as a hard disk. Information used on the computer is stored.

  The work area of the CPU 12 is provided by the RAM 19. Specifically, the RAM 19 is used as a storage of calculation and processing results, a buffering area for input data, a development area for drawing information for both sides of recording paper, an environment data storage area, an NVRAM, and the like. In addition to the RAM 19, the memory capacity can be expanded by an optional RAM connected to an expansion port (not shown).

  The external storage device 14 includes storage means such as a hard disk (HD) and a floppy (registered trademark) disk (FD), and access to the external storage device 14 is controlled by the DKC 20. The external storage device 14 can also be configured from other storage media such as a memory card. The number of external storage devices 14 is not limited to one, but a plurality of other external storage devices that store option fonts, programs for interpreting printer control languages with different language systems, etc. in addition to built-in fonts are connected. It can also be configured. Further, an NVRAM may be provided to store printer mode setting information from the operation panel 201.

  An instruction to the CPU 12 is given from the operation panel 201. The operation panel 201 includes keys used for setting various modes, an LED display, and the like.

  A nonvolatile memory 24 is provided, and printer mode setting information from the operation panel 201 is stored in the nonvolatile memory 24 for each user and each group.

  Next, in the present embodiment, FIGS. 3 to 7 show processing when the user who uses the host computer 102 receives the approval of the administrator who uses the host computer 103 and prints the print job with the printing apparatus 101. The description will be given with reference. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an approval request setting screen used for settings related to an approval request, FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of an approval request mail transmitted to the administrator, and FIG. Figure showing an example in which a print approval command is written in the area enclosed by <-command start-> and <-command end-> in the approval request email when approving the printing of the selected print job 6 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure when the printing apparatus 101 in FIG. 1 receives a print job, and FIG. 7 is used to specify the administrator of the job sender. It is a figure which shows an example of the described database. Here, the administrator means a user who is associated with the user and has a higher level of authority, such as the user's supervisor.

  First, a user activates a printer driver from an application program on the host computer 102, performs print job finishing settings (double-sided settings, etc.), and then performs settings related to an approval request by e-mail. The approval request setting screen shown in FIG. 3 is used for this setting. In this approval request setting screen, an approval request destination mail address input area 301, an OK button 302, and a Cancel button 303 are displayed. An approval request destination mail address input area 301 is used to input an administrator's e-mail address that receives an approval necessary for printing a print job, and in this example, is an administrator's e-mail address. “Admin1@abcde.co.jp” is entered. When the OK button 302 is pressed after the input of the e-mail address, the document is converted into PDL by the printer driver and transmitted to the printing apparatus 101.

  When the transmission of the document ends normally, an approval request mail is transmitted to the administrator. This approval request e-mail has contents described as shown in FIG. 4, for example. If the Cancel button 303 is pressed, printing is not performed and the screen returns to the printer driver setting screen.

  In the approval request mail transmitted to the administrator, as shown in FIG. 4, the user's mail address is described in the From header, and the administrator's mail address input in FIG. 3 is described in the To header. In the Subject header, an ID (job-id: 123456) assigned to the print job by the printer driver is described. When the administrator replies to the electronic mail, the job can be uniquely specified in the printing apparatus 101 that has received the reply mail using the ID described in the Subject header as a key. In addition, the Reply-To header specifies the e-mail address of the printing apparatus 101, and the administrator who receives this e-mail simply returns a reply mail addressed to the printing apparatus 101. In the body of the approval request email, in addition to a description indicating that the print job sent by the user has been spooled, a job consisting of the job ID assigned to the print job, the time the job was spooled, the name of the job sender, etc. Information 401 and command information 402 that can be transmitted to the printing apparatus 101 are described as a reply to the approval request mail.

  Also, in this approval request mail, a file to be printed by the user is attached as an attached file, and the administrator can check the contents of the file by opening the attached file. The administrator who has received the approval request mail checks the contents of the attached file, and then issues a command indicating whether to approve or reject printing of the print job spooled in the printing apparatus 101 <-command start- Type in the area between> and <-command end->. Here, it is assumed that the command to approve printing is represented by “1”, and the command to reject printing is represented by “2”, and “1” or “2” is written by the administrator. For example, when the administrator approves printing of a print job spooled in the printing apparatus 101, the administrator uses <-command start-> and <-command end-> as shown in FIG. “1” is input in the enclosed area. Then, the approval request mail in which any command is written is returned to the printing apparatus 101 by the administrator. In step S606 of FIG. 6 to be described later, the printing apparatus 101 analyzes the area surrounded by <-command start-> and <-command end->, and thus the command of the reply mail body is described. Anything other than the part may be written.

  Next, processing when the printing apparatus 101 receives a print job will be described with reference to FIG. The procedure in FIG. 6 is executed by the CPU 12 reading and executing the program ROM in the ROM 13 or the corresponding program in the external storage device 14.

  In the printing apparatus 101, as shown in FIG. 6, when the CPU 12 receives a print job from the host computer 102 (user) (step S601), the CPU 12 spools the received print job on the external storage device 14 (step S601). S602). Then, the CPU 12 extracts job sender information and job ID included in the print job (step S603).

  Next, the CPU 12 specifies a manager of the job sender from the extracted job sender information (step S604). For the identification of the manager, a database in which the relationship between the user and the manager is described is used. This database is, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, set in advance by the administrator of the printing apparatus 101 and stored in the external storage device 14. In the database shown in FIG. 7, column 701 is the user name, column 702 is the user's email address, column 703 is the administrator name of each user, and column 704 is the administrator's email address. As shown in FIG. 7, with regard to the relationship between a user and its manager, there may be a case where there are a plurality of managers for one user, and one person for a plurality of users. In some cases, it may be a person. If the job sender is user A1, the user is identified as administrator B1 and the mail address is admin1@abcde.co.jp with respect to A1.

  Next, the CPU 12 waits for reception of an e-mail returned from the identified administrator (step S605). Here, since the e-mail returned from the administrator is stored in a mail server (not shown), the printing apparatus 101 receives an e-mail addressed to itself at the mail server at a preset time interval. Inquire whether or not. When receiving the e-mail from the specified administrator, the CPU 12 analyzes the content of the e-mail and determines whether or not the printing is approved for the print job specified by the ID of the Subject header (step). S606). If the printing of the designated print job is approved, the CPU 12 prints the designated print job, that is, the spooled print job (step S607), and ends this process. If it is determined in step S606 that printing of the designated print job has not been approved, that is, the printing has been rejected, the CPU 12 deletes the designated print job, that is, the spooled print job ( In step S608), this process ends.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, when a user performs printing, approval of an administrator (who has a specific authority) associated with the user is required. Can be prevented from being inadvertently printed, and printing of a document that consumes consumables can be prohibited.

(Second Embodiment)
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure when the printing apparatus in the printing system according to the second embodiment of the present invention receives a print job, and FIG. 9 is transmitted from the printing apparatus to the administrator in step S805 of FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the approval request mail performed.

  The present embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that a database in which the relationship between a user and its manager is described is managed by an external server on the network, and when the printing apparatus receives the print job, This is different in that it makes an inquiry to an external server for an administrator who is an approval destination of printing. The second embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that a print approval request mail to the administrator is transmitted from the printing apparatus. The configuration of the printing system according to the present embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.

  In the present embodiment, when a user using the host computer 102 prints a print job on the printing apparatus 101, the user activates a printer driver from an application program on the host computer 102, and finishes the print job (both sides). Setting and the like, and the print job is transmitted to the printing apparatus 101.

  In the printing apparatus 101, as shown in FIG. 8, when the CPU 12 receives a print job from the host computer 102 (step S801), the CPU 12 spools the received print job on the external storage device 14 (step S802). Then, the CPU 12 extracts job sender information included in the print job (step S803).

  Next, the CPU 12 sends the job sender information extracted in step S803 to an external server (not shown) storing a database describing the relationship between the user and the administrator similar to that in FIG. As the reply, the manager information of the job sender is received (step S804). The administrator information received from the external server includes the administrator name and its e-mail address, thereby identifying the administrator for the job sender. Then, the CPU 12 creates an e-mail for a print approval request and transmits it to the manager included in the received manager information (step S805).

  Here, in the approval request mail transmitted to the administrator, as shown in FIG. 9, the mail address of the printing apparatus 101 is displayed in the From header, and the administrator's mail acquired from the external server in the above-described step S804. Each address is written. In the Subject header, an ID assigned to the print job by the printing apparatus 101 is described. When the administrator replies to this e-mail, the print that received the reply e-mail using the ID described in the Subject header as a key. A job can be uniquely specified in the apparatus. In the body of the e-mail, in addition to a description indicating that the print job sent by the user has been spooled, a job consisting of the job ID assigned to the print job, the time when the job was spooled, the name of the job sender, etc. Information 901 and command information 902 that can be transmitted to the printing apparatus 101 are described as a reply to the approval request mail. Then, as in the first embodiment, the administrator selects print approval / rejection and sends a reply.

  Next, the CPU 12 waits for reception of an e-mail from the identified administrator (step S806). Since the e-mail from this administrator is stored in a mail server (not shown), the CPU 12 inquires whether or not the e-mail addressed to itself has arrived at the mail server at a preset time interval. Do. Here, upon receiving an e-mail from the specified administrator, the CPU 12 analyzes the content of the e-mail and determines whether the printing is approved or rejected for the job specified by the ID of the Subject header. (Step S807). If it is determined that printing has been approved, the CPU 12 prints the spooled print job (step S808), and the process ends. If it is determined in step S807 that printing has been rejected, the CPU 12 deletes the spooled print job (step S809), and the process ends.

(Third embodiment)
Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure when the printing apparatus receives a print job in the printing system according to the third embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is a transmission from the printing apparatus to the administrator in step S1006 of FIG. FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a print job list displayed on the host computer 103 used by the administrator.

  This embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the printing apparatus 101 has a Web server function and generates a Web page for displaying a spooled job list by browser software on the host computer. This is different in that the print approval from the administrator can be received by the HTTP protocol. The configuration of the printing system according to the present embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.

  In the present embodiment, when a user using the host computer 102 prints a print job on the printing apparatus 101, the user activates a printer driver from an application program on the host computer 102, and finishes the print job (both sides). Setting and the like, and the print job is transmitted to the printing apparatus 101.

  In the printing apparatus 101, as shown in FIG. 10, when the CPU 12 receives a print job from the host computer 102 (step S1001), the received print job is spooled on the external storage device 14 (step S1002). Then, the CPU 12 extracts job sender information included in the received print job (step S1003).

  Next, the CPU 12 analyzes the print job, converts the job into an image format such as JPEG or JBIG, and saves it on the external storage device 14 (step S1004). Subsequently, the CPU 12 transmits the job sender information extracted in step S1003 to the external server storing the database describing the relationship between the user and the administrator similar to FIG. The administrator information of the job sender including the administrator name and its address information is received from the external server (step S1005). Then, the CPU 12 creates an e-mail for a print approval request and transmits it to the administrator included in the administrator information that has received the e-mail (step S1006).

  Here, in the approval request mail transmitted to the administrator, the mail address of the printing apparatus 101 is described in the From header, and the mail address of the administrator acquired from the external server in step S1005 is described in the To header. In the Subject header, an ID assigned to the print job by the printing apparatus 101 is described. In the body of the e-mail, in addition to a description indicating that the print job sent by the user has been spooled, a job consisting of the job ID assigned to the print job, the time when the job was spooled, the name of the job sender, etc. Information 1101 and URL 1102 for browsing a job list of the printing apparatus 101 are described. The administrator who has received this approval request mail accesses the URL 1102 using browser software on the host computer 103.

  When there is an access from the host computer 103 (administrator), the CPU 102 authenticates the administrator and waits until the authentication is successful (step S1007). If the authentication is successful, the CPU 102 generates a Web page for displaying a list of print jobs that can be approved by the administrator, and transmits it to the host computer 103 (step S1008).

  In the host computer 103, the print job list indicated by the Web page is displayed by browser software. This print job list is as shown in FIG. 12, for example. In this job list, a column 1201 has a check box for selecting a job, a column 1202 shows the date and time when the print job was spooled, and a column 1203. The job sender name is displayed in column 1204, and the job name is displayed in column 1204. Here, the job names in the column 1204 are linked to the image data stored in the format converted in step S1004, and the corresponding job name is clicked on the host computer 103 by clicking on the print job name in the column 1204. It is possible to preview the image data.

  When approving printing on the print job list display screen, the administrator selects a print job to approve by checking a check box corresponding to the print job to approve printing, and approves it after this selection. A button 1205 is pressed. On the other hand, when rejecting printing, a reject button 1206 is pressed after selecting a print job. When the return button 1207 is pressed, the screen is returned to the previous screen without doing anything.

  When the administrator selects a print job and presses the approval button 1205, the pressing operation is converted into a print approval command for the selected print job by browser software, and is transferred to the printing apparatus 101 using the POST method of the HTTP protocol. Sent. When the reject button 1206 is pressed, the pressing operation is converted into a print reject command for the selected print job by the browser software and transmitted to the printing apparatus 101 using the POST method of the HTTP protocol.

  Next, the CPU 12 waits for reception of a command from the host computer 103 (step S1009). Upon receiving a print approval or rejection command from the administrator, the CPU 12 analyzes the content of the command and prints the job specified by the command. It is determined whether it is approval or rejection (step S1010). If it is determined that the print is approved for the job specified by the command, the CPU 12 prints the specified print job (step S1011), and ends this process.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S1010 that the job specified by the command is to be rejected, the CPU 12 deletes the specified print job (step S1012) and ends this process.

  In the first to third embodiments, the so-called push type printing system in which the document data is directly transmitted from the host computer 102 to the printing apparatus 101 has been described. However, the principle of the present invention is not limited to this, and the pull type printing system is used. Needless to say, the present invention can also be applied to a mold printing system. In the case of a pull type printing system, the print job received from the host computer 102 does not include document data, but includes a URL indicating the storage destination of the document data, and the printing apparatus 101 is designated. The URL is accessed, and the document data is received from the location indicated by the URL, such as a storage server, and printed. At that time, as described in the above embodiment, in the case of the push-type printing system, the administrator of the job sender is specified and printing is executed after receiving the approval from the administrator. The same effect can be obtained.

  An object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium (or recording medium) in which a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is recorded to a system or apparatus, and the computer (or CPU) of the system or apparatus Needless to say, this can also be achieved by reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention. Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an operating system (OS) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that a case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by performing part or all of the actual processing and the processing is included.

  Furthermore, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion card inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function is determined based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that the CPU or the like provided in the expansion card or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

1 is a diagram schematically showing a configuration of a printing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the printing apparatus 101 in FIG. 1. It is a figure which shows an example of the approval request setting screen used for the setting regarding an approval request. It is a figure which shows an example of the approval request mail transmitted to an administrator. When the administrator approves the printing of the print job spooled in the printing apparatus 101, the print approval command is displayed in the area enclosed by <-command start-> and <-command end-> in the approval request mail. It is a figure which shows the example written. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure when the printing apparatus 101 in FIG. 1 receives a print job. It is a figure which shows an example of the database in which the relationship between a user and its manager used by which the manager of a job sender is specified is described. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure when the printing apparatus in the printing system according to the second embodiment of the present invention receives a print job. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of an approval request mail transmitted from the printing apparatus to the administrator in step S805 of FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure when a printing apparatus in a printing system according to a third embodiment of the present invention receives a print job. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of an approval request mail transmitted from the printing apparatus to the administrator in step S1006 of FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a print job list displayed on a host computer 103 used by an administrator. FIG.

Explanation of symbols

12 CPU
13 ROM
14 External storage device 17 Printer engine 19 RAM
101 Printing apparatus 102, 103 Host computer 104 Network

Claims (11)

A printing apparatus that receives a print job via a network and performs print processing of the received print job,
A job sender identifying means for identifying the job sender of the received print job;
Approver specifying means for specifying an approver corresponding to the job sender specified by the job sender specifying means;
An answer receiving means for receiving an answer returned in response to a print approval inquiry of the received print job from an approver specified by the approver specifying means;
And a control unit that controls to perform printing processing of the received print job when the response received by the response receiving unit indicates that printing is approved. Storage means for storing the job sender and the approver in association with each other;
The approver specifying means specifies an approver corresponding to the job sender specified by the job sender specifying means with reference to the contents stored in the storage means. The printing apparatus as described.   2. The approver specifying means specifies an approver of the specified job sender by making an inquiry to an external storage device that stores the job sender and the approver in association with each other. The printing apparatus as described.   4. The response receiving means comprises means for receiving an e-mail in which a response to the print approval inquiry from the specified approver is described. Printing device.   5. The printing according to claim 1, further comprising: a print approval inquiry unit that issues a print approval inquiry for the received print job to the approver specified by the approver specifying unit. apparatus.   The print approval inquiry means comprises means for sending an e-mail for inquiring whether or not to approve printing of the received print job to the approver specified by the approver specifying means, and receiving the answer 6. The printing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the means comprises means for receiving an e-mail in which an answer to the print approval inquiry from the approver specified by the approver specifying means is described.   The print approval inquiry means comprises means for generating a web page for inquiring whether or not to approve printing of the received print job to the approver specified by the approver specifying means, and receiving the response 7. The printing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the means comprises means for receiving an answer input to the inquiry on the web page by the approver specified by the approver specifying means. Having a storage means capable of storing a plurality of print jobs;
8. The print approval inquiry means inquires whether or not to individually approve printing of a plurality of common print jobs to an approver specified by the approver specifying means. The printing apparatus as described in any one. The received print job includes storage location information indicating a storage location of print data,
When the answer received by the answer receiving means indicates that the received print job is approved for printing, the control means receives the reception from the storage location indicated by the storage location information included in the received print job. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein control is performed so as to acquire print data of the printed job and perform printing. A method for controlling a printing apparatus that receives a print job via a network and performs print processing of the received print job,
A job sender identifying step for identifying the job sender of the received print job;
An approver identifying step for identifying an approver corresponding to the job sender identified by the job sender identifying step;
An answer receiving step of receiving an answer returned in response to the print approval inquiry of the received print job from the approver specified by the approver specifying step;
And a control step of controlling the received print job to perform printing processing when the response received by the response receiving step indicates that the print is approved. A program executed by a printing apparatus that receives a print job via a network and performs print processing of the received print job,
A job sender identification module for identifying the job sender of the received print job;
An approver identification module for identifying an approver corresponding to the job sender identified by the job sender identification module;
An answer receiving module for receiving an answer returned in response to a print approval inquiry of the received print job from an approver specified by the approver specifying module;
And a control module that controls to perform print processing of the received print job when the response received by the response reception module indicates that the print is approved.

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