Patent ID: 8139252

Claim:
An image forming system, comprising: a printer controller to parse a print job described in a Page Description Language so as to generate image data; and an image forming apparatus, configured separately from the printer controller, to implement a printing operation based on the image data; wherein the printer controller is provided with: a first processing section to apply a first processing to the print job so as to generate multi-value image data; and a transmitting section to transmit the multi-value image data to the image forming apparatus; and wherein the image forming apparatus is provided with: a receiving section to receive the multi-value image data transmitted by the transmitting section; a second processing section to apply a second processing to the multi-value image data so as to generate processed image data, serving as printable image data based on which a reproduced image can be directly printed; an image outputting section to implement the printing operation based on the processed image data wherein the printer controller is further provided with: a first storage section to store the print job; while the image forming apparatus is further provided with: a second storage section to store the multi-value image data; and a control section to determine whether or not a reapplication of the first processing is necessary for a reprinting operation, based on a changed content of a job ticket correlated to the multi-value image data, when the reprinting operation is instructed; and wherein, when determining that the reapplication of the first processing is not necessary, the control section reads out the multi-value image data from the second storage section, makes the second processing section apply the second processing to the multi-value image data, and then, makes the image outputting section implement the printing operation based on the processed image data generated by the second processing section; and wherein, when determining that the reapplication of the first processing is necessary, the control section sends a request for retransmitting multi-value image data, regenerated corresponding to the changed content of the job ticket, to the printer controller.