Patent ID: 7242877

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a generation section configured to analyze image pattern data corresponding to an image of a document to thereby generate image data Y indicating a yellow image, image data M indicating a magenta image, image data C indicating a cyan image, and image data K indicating a black image; a first control section configured to permit monochrome printing corresponding to the image data K when the generation section generates only the image data K; a determination section configured to determine whether the image data items Y, M and C each correspond to a white image, when the generation section generates the image data items Y, M, C and K; a second control section configured to delete the image data items Y, M and C included in the image data items Y, M, C and K generated by the generation section, and to permit monochrome printing corresponding to the remaining image data K, when a determination result of the determination section is an affirmative result; and a third control section configured to permit color printing corresponding to the image data items Y, M, C and K generated by the generation section, when the determination result of the determination section is a negative result.