Patent ID: 8451479

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a display portion, a preview image generating portion that generates a preview image of image data to be output, a display control portion that displays the preview image generated by the preview image generating portion on the display portion, and a setting storage portion that stores, for each user, setting information related to a preview display by the display control portion, wherein the setting information includes forcible execution information showing whether or not the preview image is forcibly displayed by the display control portion, and in which the display control portion performs display control based on the setting information stored in the setting storage portion, wherein the image forming apparatus is capable of printing on sheets and comprises: an upper-limit-number storage portion that stores, for each user, an upper limit number of printed sheets or number of printing every fixed period, and a count portion that counts the number of printed sheets or the number of printing for each user every fixed period, and the setting storage portion sets the forcible execution information so that the preview image is forcibly shown to a user that causes the total number of printed sheets or the number of printing counted by the count portion to exceed the upper-limit-number stored in the upper-limit-number storage portion.