Patent ID: 7148980

Claim:
An image forming system including a server and client computers and at least one image forming device which communicates with said server, and devices of which one or a plurality can be connected to the server, said system comprising: input means for inputting to the server a job to be printed by an image forming device; rendering means for rendering the job input by said input means into an image; output means for outputting an image rendered by said rendering means to an image forming device specified by the job; setting means for setting the specified image forming device as an output destination at the server; output destination information holding means for holding a number of image forming devices set as output destinations by said setting means; displaying means for setting dialog on a display unit which shows information of said image forming devices; recognizing means for recognizing a presence of devices connected to the server, and a number thereof connected in response to obtaining instruction to add new image forming devices as output destinations, wherein said instruction is input via said display unit; and determination means for determining a number N of the devices connected to the server that have been recognized by said recognizing means, and a number M of image forming devices already set as output destinations by said holding means and said new image forming device, when the specified image forming device is set as an output destination by said setting means, wherein, in an event that said determination means judges M to be less than N, setting of the specified image forming device as the output destination is permitted, and the number of image forming devices set as output destinations held by said holding means is updated, and, in an event that said determination means judges N and M to be equal, setting of the specified image forming device as the output destination is not permitted, and wherein said output means outputs the image rendered by the rendering means via the specified image forming device when setting of the specified image forming device as the output destination is permitted, and said output means does not output the image rendered by the rendering means via the specified image forming device when setting of the specified image forming device as the output destination is not permitted.