Patent ID: 8456682

Claim:
A print control apparatus for predicting a consumption amount of toner in printing in an image forming apparatus, comprising: a development unit that develops a print job in which the printing in the image forming apparatus has been instructed into image data; a prediction unit that analyzes the image data obtained by being developed by the development unit and predicts the consumption amount of the toner in the printing; and an output unit that outputs a consumption amount of the toner which is consumed by the print job based on the consumption amount of the toner predicted by the prediction unit and a consumption amount of the toner of each page included in the print job, wherein in the case where a variable print is instructed by the print job, the prediction unit examines a fluctuation of a prediction value of the toner consumption amount on a record unit basis with respect to a predetermined number of records, when the fluctuation is smaller than a threshold value, the prediction unit calculates an average of the prediction values of the toner consumption amounts of the records of the predetermined number of records and multiplies a value of the calculated average by the number of records designated by the print job, thereby predicting the consumption amount of the toner which is consumed by the print job.