Patent ID: 7124094

Claim:
A book copying system for copying a book based on electronic image data obtained through a network, comprising: a data service system connected to the network to supply electronic image data of a book through the network, the data service system comprising: a data storage section in which image data of a plurality of different books are stored, and a data managing section to manage the stored image data; and an image forming apparatus remote from the data service system, being connected to the data service system through the network and having a copy mode and a book publishing mode, the image forming apparatus comprising: an input section to select one of the copy mode and the book publishing mode, an image reading section to read an image of a document, an image forming section apparatus internal to the image forming apparatus, and a control section, wherein in the copy mode, the control section controls the image reading section to read an image of a document so as to generate image data of the document and the image forming section makes a copy of the document based on the generated image data, and when in the book publishing mode, the control section controls the input section so as to input a print order to print a copy of an ordered book, the control section communicates with the data service system so as to obtain image data of the ordered book from the data storage section through the network and the image forming section prints a copy of the ordered book based on the obtained image data through the network.