Patent ID: 6912058

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a controller for determining whether or not document data given have a capacity larger than a first predetermined value; a first code pattern creating portion for creating code patterns by encoding the document data, if the controller determines that the document data have a greater capacity than the first predetermined value; a reducing portion for reducing the document data by a second predetermined value, if the controller determines that the document data have a greater capacity than the first predetermined value; a second code pattern creating portion for encoding the document data reduced by the reducing portion to create code patterns; a print function for forming images on a recording medium based on the code patterns created by at least one of the first code pattern creating portion and the second code pattern creating portion; a scanner for reading the code patterns on the recording medium formed by the print function; a creating portion for recognizing the code patterns read by the scanner, and creating temporary document data based on the code patterns; a controller for determining whether or not there exist data deleted by the reducing portion based on the code patterns recognized by the creating portion; a controller for determining the temporary document data as final document data, if the controller determines that no data has been deleted from the code patterns; and a supplementing portion for acquiring predetermined data from data other than the code patterns and incorporating the predetermined data into the temporary document data created by the creating portion, if the controller determines that the predetermined data have been deleted from the code patterns to restore the final document data.