Patent ID: 8270025

Claim:
An image forming apparatus for printing out one or more pages in an electronic file having color information in the form of at least one of character information and image information, comprising: an information acquiring unit configured to acquire at least one of the character information and the image information from the electronic file; a target region determining unit configured to determine whether a target region includes the acquired at least one of the character information and the image information from the electronic file, the target region being a portion of a page to be printed; a color information acquiring unit configured to acquire color information of at least one of the character information and the image information, if the target region determines unit determines that the target region includes the acquired at least one of the character information and the image information from the electronic file; and a blank page determining unit configured to determine whether a page in the electronic file is a blank page based on the color information acquired by the color information acquiring unit, wherein a page that is determined as being the blank page by the blank page determining unit is cancelled from being printed out, wherein if a printing color of the image forming apparatus is set to be a particular color, the blank page determining unit determines that the page is the blank page if all values of the color information are not a value expressing the particular color.