Patent ID: 8902441

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, which is one of a plurality of image forming apparatuses connectable to a plurality of host apparatuses via a network, the plurality of host apparatuses capable of generating print data and requesting a print request of the print data to at least one of the plurality of image forming apparatuses, the image forming apparatus capable of printing an image based on the print data and the print request received from at least one of the host apparatuses on a recording medium, and the image forming apparatus having a power save mode to reduce power consumption, the image forming apparatus comprising: an apparatus information collection unit to obtain print history and function information of each of the image forming apparatuses disposed on the network; an apparatus information storing unit to store the print history and function information collected by the apparatus information collection unit as apparatus information; a priority order determination unit to determine a priority order for setting a master image forming apparatus that controls the power save mode of each of the image forming apparatuses currently in operation based on the apparatus information stored in the apparatus information storing unit; a master determination unit to identify an image forming apparatus having the highest priority order among the currently operating image forming apparatuses disposed on the network as the master image forming apparatus; a host information collection unit to collect print history and current print settings for at least one power-ON host apparatus disposed on the network; a host information storage unit to store the print history and current print settings collected by the host information collection unit as host information; a required-printing-capacity computing unit to compute required network printing capacity based on the host information stored in the host information storage unit; and a power save control unit to control the power save mode of each of the image forming apparatuses disposed on the network based on the priority order, the apparatus information of the image forming apparatus corresponding to the priority order, and the required network printing capacity, the power save control unit of the master image forming apparatus, identified by the master determination unit and configured to print an image based on print data, controlling the power save mode of all of the image forming apparatuses disposed on the network.