Patent ID: 7454163

Claim:
A bookbinding system comprising: an image forming device; and a bookbinding device which is coupled to the image forming device so as to be in serial communication with the image forming device; wherein the image forming device comprises: a book content data input section into which book content data regarding a content of a book is entered; a cover sheet data input section into which cover sheet data regarding a cover sheet display is entered; a common image formation section for both: (i) forming images on recording sheets based on the book content data entered through the book content data input section, and (ii) forming an image on a case cover based on the cover sheet data entered through the cover sheet data input section, wherein the case cover has a front cover sheet area, a spine area, and a back cover sheet area; recording sheet housing means for housing the recording sheets; recording sheet feeding means for feeding the recording sheets to the image formation section; case cover housing means for housing the case cover; case cover feeding means for feeding the case cover to the image formation section; and recording sheet thickness registration means for registering thickness data corresponding to a thickness of one recording sheet for each kind of paper; wherein the bookbinding device comprises: collected sheet number counting means for counting a number of the recording sheets on which the images have been formed for a book; back-gluing means for back-gluing the recording sheets on which the images have been formed; casing means for casing the back-glued recording sheets with the case cover to bond the back-glued recording sheets; and spine area thickness calculation means for calculating a thickness necessary for the spine area based on the thickness data registered by the recording sheet thickness registration means and data of the number of recording sheets counted by the collected sheet counting means; and wherein the image forming device further comprises: cover sheet image formation positioning means for, when the image is formed on the case cover, positioning the image to be formed on the case cover based on the thickness necessary for the spine area, such that any extra portion of the case cover is identified.