Patent ID: 8300245

Claim:
An image forming apparatus connectable to a host device executing a printer driver, the host device to generate a first document using a first application program and a second document using a second application program, the host device using the printer driver to convert the first document and the second document into a first printing data file and a second printing data file and transmitting the first printing data file and the second printing data file to the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus comprising: a communication interface to receive the first printing data file and the second printing data file from the host device; a storage unit to store image data files corresponding to the first printing data file and the second printing data file and according to print instructions received by the image forming apparatus, each of the image data files containing one or more pages of data to be printed and excluding print control instructions; a display unit to display a list of image data files excluding print control instructions stored in the storage unit; an input unit to receive user input to select a first image data file and a second image data file from the displayed list of image data files excluding the print control instructions, the input unit to receive user input to select a merge option to merge the selected files and to receive user input to designate a page location of the second image data file in order to insert at least one page of the first image data file; a control unit to perform a merging operation to generate a new merged file by merging pages of the selected files in image data format according to the selected merge option; and a print unit to print the new merged file on sheets of printing medium, wherein the merging operation is performed while the selected image data files exist in the image data format that excludes the print control instructions.