Abstract: In a maintenance management system in which communications control devices of electronic photocopiers are connected through public telephone lines or the like with a host computer of a maintenance company that manages the photocopiers, preventive-maintenance-oriented, omission-free instructions for maintenance work are obtained by determining items of work to be performed based on how many times maintenance has been performed or based on a count of copies produced. For example, in the case where maintenance work to be performed on a first occasion includes items of work belonging to a work item setting area of a second order of precedence within a maintenance table, if items of work that need to be performed do not agree with those specified in the table, items of work of a first order of precedence are added.

Abstract: In a copier, to execute renewal of a maintenance contract with ease and without fail, a current date is compared with a contract expiry date, and a current total count of copies is compared with a count prescribed by the contract. As long as the contract is valid, the copier is operated in a normal copying mode. Meanwhile, the difference between the current count and the contract count is monitored every time a copying operation takes place. When the contract count is exceeded, the copier displays a message indicating expiry of the contract and requesting renewal of the contract in order to notify its user that the contract count has been exceeded. The copier then switches to a restricted copying operation mode. If the user chooses to renew the contract, the user contacts a service provider, so that the service provider checks the state of the contract for the copier and performs a procedure for renewing the contract.

Abstract: A method of controlling the reception of data comprising a step for storing 1-page units of data which may be one or more times read out, in a receive buffer capable of storing a plurality of the 1-page units; a step for establishing a page pointer for indicating a starting address of the 1-page unit, when it is read out from the receive buffer; a step for erasing the page pointer of the 1-page units which are not required to be read out for a second time; and a step for rereading out the 1-page unit whose starting address is indicated by the page pointer, when rereading-out is required, wherein the page pointers are erased in order of the 1-page units having been established thereof.

Abstract: A laser recording apparatus has an image control circuit which allows for vertical or horizontal straight lines to be printed in spaces between lines without increasing the capacity of the memory region of the memory means of the apparatus. The image control circuit includes memory for storing character data, character patterning circuitry for converting the character data into character patterns which have memory regions for storing character data, control circuitry for reading character data stored in the peripheral portions of the memory regions to read such character data as straight lines in the spaces between character patterns and a central processing unit to control the various circuitry.