1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing system and an image processing method in which an image forming apparatus is connected with an information processing apparatus via a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, multifunction peripherals in each of which a scanner function and a printer function are implemented inside one housing, an image is read using the scanner function, and the read image is formed on a sheet of paper using the printer function has wide spread. A system in which the multifunctional peripheral is connected with a computer via a network, and setting for reading by the scanner function or setting for printing by the printer function in the multifunction peripheral is performed using the computer is being developed.
In this system, a technique of determining a layout of image data (contents), which is read from an original document by the scanner function of the multifunction peripheral, on a sheet of paper through the computer connected with the multifunction peripheral via the network has been proposed.
That is, the image data obtained by reading an image through the scanner function in the multifunction peripheral is transmitted to the computer via the network, and the layout on a sheet of paper is determined at the computer side by using a layout technique. As an algorithm for arranging a plurality of contents having different sizes on a sheet of paper (a page), for example, a first-fit decreasing-height (FFDH) disclosed in E. G. Coffman, JR., M. R. Garey, D. S. Johonson, R. E. Tarjan (Bell Lab. & Stanford Univ.) “Performance bounds for level-oriented two-dimensional packing algorithms,” SIAM J. Comput., vol. 9, pp 808-826, No. 4, 1980, may be used. The computer generates drawing data using, for example, a page description language (PDL) according to the determined layout and transmits the drawing data to the multifunction peripheral via the network. The multifunction peripheral performs image formation based on the received drawing data.
In the conventional system described above, the image data obtained by reading the original document through the scanner function of the multifunction peripheral is transmitted, and the process of extracting contents from the received image data or the process of determining the layout of the extracted contents is performed at the compute side. That is, the computer deals with the image data whose size corresponds to the size of the original document and whose resolution is the read resolution that is set by the scanner function. Therefore, there is a problem in that a load of the computer side increases.