Patent ID: 8040378

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a receiving unit that receives image data and first color material specification data from a digital camera; a color material specifying unit that generates second color material specification data based on an input from a user; an acquiring unit that acquires the first color material specification data and acquires the second color material specification data from the color material specifying unit, each of the first and second color material specification data specifying at least one color material to be used when forming an image from the image data, the at least one color material including cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, each of the first and second color material specification data including a first field for the black color material, a second field for the cyan color material, a third field for the magenta color material, and a fourth field for the yellow color material, each of the first field, second field, third field, and fourth field being in one of an on state and off state, the on state indicating that the color material is used and the off state indicating that the color material is not used in any portion of the image; a storage unit that stores priority data, the priority data indicating which of the first and second color material specification data is prioritized; and an image output unit that forms the image from the image data based on the color material specification data indicated as prioritized from the priority data.