Patent ID: 8488139

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: a memory that stores a plurality of items of print job information registered in advance, each item of print job information including a corresponding plurality of items of sub-information, and each item of the plurality of items of sub-information being assigned a corresponding print restriction level; a printing format storing section that stores a first printing format in which printing is not restricted, a second printing format in which a print job is printed at a print restriction level assigned to the print job, and a third printing format assigned to a corresponding combination of print restriction levels, each of the print restriction levels being one of the print restriction levels assigned to a corresponding item of sub-information; an interface that receives a print job from an external apparatus, the print job including print data and selected ones of the plurality of items of sub-information; a restriction level selecting section configured to obtain the selected ones of the plurality of items of sub-information from the received print job, wherein the restriction level selecting section searches the memory to read print restriction levels from the memory by using the selected ones of the plurality of items of sub-information obtained from the print job; an alternative printing format informing section that reads the third printing format from the printing format storing section, wherein if a highest one of the print restriction levels read from the memory by the restriction level selecting section indicates that the print job is restricted, then the alternative printing format informing section advises the user of the third printing format; and a printing section that prints the print data contained in the print job either in the second printing format under the selected highest one of the print restriction levels or in the third printing format if the user accepts the advised third printing format.