Patent ID: 8848204

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: a medium storage unit configured to store a recording medium; a manual medium feeding unit configured to have the recording medium set for manual feed; a manual feed detecting unit configured to detect if the recording medium is set in the manual medium feeding unit; a printing device configured to print an image on the recording medium fed from either the medium storage unit or the manual medium feeding unit; a print data receiving unit configured to receive print data; a medium orientation setting unit configured to: (1) receive a first instruction for an orientation of the recording medium to be fed from the manual medium feeding unit to the printing device, and based at least on the first instruction, (2) set the orientation of the recording medium; a printing control unit configured to: control the printing device to print the image based on the print data on the recording medium; and execute a manual feed forcing operation that forces the recording medium to be fed from the manual medium feeding unit to the printing device if the manual feed detecting unit has detected that the recording medium is set in the manual medium feeding unit; an image generating unit configured to: generate the image based on the print data; and determine an orientation of the image based on the orientation of the recording medium; and a priority manual feed setting unit configured to receive a second instruction for a priority manual feed, wherein the second instruction indicates placing a higher priority on the manual medium feeding unit than the medium storage unit and sets the priority manual feed, and wherein if the recording medium is set in the manual medium feeding unit, the printing control unit is further configured to execute the manual feed forcing operation.