Patent ID: 8630002

Claim:
An image forming system comprising: a first image forming apparatus and a second image forming apparatus that are connected to each other via a communication line, the first image forming apparatus including a first image reading unit that reads image data from a document; the second image forming apparatus including a second image reading unit that reads image data from a document, an image storing unit that stores the image data, and a parallel reading controller configured to concurrently make the second image reading unit read second image data from a second document that is set on the second image reading unit, and make the first image reading unit of the first image forming apparatus read first image data from a first document that is set on the first image reading unit, and transfer the first image data to the second image forming apparatus, the parallel reading controller further configured to make the image storing unit sequentially arrange the second image data and the transferred first image data and store the sequentially arranged first and second image data such that the first image data of each page of the first document is collectively stored, independent of a collective storing of the second image data of each page of the second document, wherein the parallel reading controller includes a storing unit that stores image data in a pre-secured memory area of the image storing unit, and wherein the parallel reading controller further includes an area securing unit that secures in advance the pre-secured memory area in the second image storing unit in which image data read by the second image reading unit and image data read by the first image reading unit are stored continuously, wherein the first document and the second document comprise a third document having a predetermined page order, and wherein the parallel reading controller is further configured to make the image storing unit arrange separate pre-secured memory area for the second image data and separate pre-secured memory area for the transferred first image data based on the predetermined page order of the third document, and wherein the separate pre-secured memory areas are arranged such that the predetermined page order is maintained in storage within the image storage unit even while the first image data of the first document is stored independently from the second image data of the second document.