Patent ID: 7130069

Claim:
An image-forming system comprising: a plurality of image-forming apparatuses with printing units, each image-forming apparatus comprising (a) a network communication unit and (b) a storage unit adapted to store image data and operation mode data received through the network communication unit; a data acquisition unit through which a first image-forming apparatus of said plurality of image-forming apparatuses acquires, through the network communication unit, the image data and the operation mode data stored in another image-forming apparatus of said plurality of image-forming apparatuses, according to a request from a user of said first image-forming apparatus, the request being made by the user of said first image-forming apparatus via a user interface that displays to the user information about the image data stored in said another image-forming apparatus, the information being obtained from said another image-forming apparatus in response to use by the user of the user interface; and an operation mode update unit adapted to automatically update the operation mode of the first image-forming apparatus to an operation mode in accordance with the acquired operation mode data.