Method and apparatus for executing load distributed printing

Abstract

This invention provides a load distributed printing technique which efficiently uses a plurality of printing apparatuses by using small resources. To accomplish this, an information processing apparatus, which can transmit a print job to a plurality of printing apparatuses, is provided. The information processing apparatus comprises print queue setting means for setting one of a plurality of print queues corresponding to the plurality of printing apparatuses as a basic print queue and setting remaining print queues other than the basic print queue as backup print queues, print job registration means for registering print job information in the basic print queue, backup job registration means for generating backup job information corresponding to the print job information registered in the basic print queue and registering the backup job information in the backup print queue, and job control means for, when the print job information is registered in each of the basic print queue and the backup print queue, preferentially outputting a print job corresponding to the print job information to a corresponding printing apparatus, and when no print job information is registered, and a print job corresponding to the backup job information can be output, changing the backup job information to print job information and outputting the print job to a corresponding printing apparatus.