Patent ID: 7804610

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a receiving section which receives a print data; a storage which stores the received print data; a print data judging section which judges whether the received print data is a structured document data or not; an image converting section which converts the stored print data to image data; a printing section which prints the image data to a predetermined recording medium; and a controlling section which selectively executes a first operation in the case where the print data is judged as non-structured document data or a second operation in the case where the print data is judged as structured document data; wherein in the first operation, whether a data receiving process for receiving the print data is executable or not is judged, whether an image data forming process for converting the stored print data to the image data is executable or not is judged, and whether an output process for outputting the image data to the printing section is executable or not is judged, and each executable process is executed; and in the second operation, the data receiving process is executed without judging whether each of the image data forming process and the output process is executable or not until the whole of the structured document data is received, and after the whole of the structured document data is received, it is judged whether the image data forming process and the output process are executable or not.