Patent ID: 8549021

Claim:
A confidential document generating system, comprising: an image processing apparatus, including a user interface device to receive from a user a user instruction for generating a confidential document from image data by adding additional information to the image data; a storage device to store administrator setting information set by an administrator of the confidential document generating system, the administrator setting information including administrator on/off information set to “ON” indicating that the additional information is required to be added to the image data to generate the confidential document; an image processor to generate the confidential document by adding the additional information; and a controller to obtain user setting information set by the user from the user instruction, wherein the user interface device of the image processing apparatus is further configured to request the administrator to set a parameter value of at least one of a plurality of setting items, each related to characteristics of the additional information to be added, the plurality of setting items including a deterrent pattern setting item; and the controller of the image processing apparatus is further configured to store administrator setting item information indicating whether the administrator sets the parameter value of the at least one of the plurality of setting items in the storage device; and an information processing apparatus connected to the image processing apparatus through a network and configured to send the user instruction to the image processing apparatus, wherein the information processing apparatus includes an input device to receive user preference information from the user, the user preference information indicating a parameter value of at least one of the plurality of setting items; and a controller configured to send a request for the administrator setting item information stored in the image processing apparatus, to receive over the network in response to the request, the administrator setting item information from the image processing apparatus, to determine which one of the plurality of setting items is allowed for user modification by the administrator using the received administrator setting item information, to generate a determination result before the input device receives the user preference information, wherein, when the parameter value of the deterrent pattern setting item set by the administrator has a value “SET”, the controller is configured to generate the determination result indicating that the deterrent pattern setting item is not allowed for user modification and to prohibit the input device from receiving the user preference information indicating the parameter value of the deterrent pattern setting item.