Patent ID: 8121496

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming section that forms an image in accordance with print data received from an external apparatus; a state detecting section that detects a state of the image forming apparatus; a controller that selectively causes the image forming apparatus to enter into a power saving mode where said controller limits supply of electric power to a predetermined section of the image forming apparatus or into a normal printing mode where printing is performed normally; a data detecting section that detects whether data obtained by processing the print data received from an external apparatus exists within the image forming apparatus; wherein when the image forming apparatus is in the power saving mode, if said data detecting section fails to detect the processed data in the image forming section after said state detecting section has detected a change in the state of the image forming apparatus, said controller maintains the image forming apparatus in the power saving mode; and wherein when the image forming apparatus is in the power saving mode, if said data detecting section detects the processed data in the image forming section after said state detecting section has detected a change in the state of the image forming apparatus, said controller causes the image forming apparatus to enter the normal printing mode, wherein the image forming apparatus further comprises: a receiving section that holds a first item of data received from the external apparatus; and an editing section that edits the first item of data into a second item of data; and a printing section that produces a third item of data from the second item of data; wherein said data detecting section checks for presence or absence of at least one of the first item of data, the second item of data, and the third item of data, wherein said data detecting section detects the third item of data, the second item of data, and the first item of data in this order.