Patent ID: 7595897

Claim:
A double-side image forming apparatus comprising: a storage unit which stores data, the data including image data; an image forming unit which forms an image on a recording medium on the basis of the data stored in the storage unit; a transporting unit which transports the recording medium and turns upside down the recording medium, a first side of which the image has been formed; an image data compression unit which compresses at least a portion of the image data stored in the storage unit; a determining unit which determines whether the image data will undergo a storage process after a compression process or the image data will undergo the storage process without the compression process; and an image data storage unit which: controls the compression process of the image data compression unit based on a result of the determination of the determining unit, makes the image data compression unit compress image data to be formed on the first side of the recording medium, the image of the first side formed in a forward direction by the image forming unit, the image data compression unit compressing the image data of the first side based on the forward direction of image forming to be performed by the image forming unit, the image data storage unit making the storage unit store the compressed image data; and makes the storage unit store uncompressed image data to be formed on a second side of the recording medium, the image of the second side formed in a reverse direction by the image forming unit, the image data compression unit determining not to compress image data of the second side based on the reverse direction of image forming to be performed by the image forming unit, wherein: when the uncompressed image data is read from the storage unit for forming an image on a recording medium, the uncompressed image data is inverted and the image forming unit forms an image on a recording medium based on the inverted image data; when the compressed image data is read from the storage unit for forming an image on a recording medium, the compressed image data is expanded and the image forming unit forms an image on a recording medium based on the expanded image data.