Patent ID: 7474445

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an interface which receives a job of requesting an accelerator function, from the outside; a processing path decision section which determines whether a first image processing path to perform image processing in a copy operation overlaps a second image processing path to perform image processing in the execution of the accelerator function, which has a lower priority than the copy operation, in the job received via the interface; a storage section which stores a management table to manage waiting jobs unable to execute the accelerator function; a search section which searches the management table for a job where the first image processing path does not overlap the second image processing path to perform image processing in the execution of the accelerator function in the waiting jobs; and an image processing section which performs image processing in a copy operation and image processing in the execution of the accelerator function at the same time, when the processing path decision section determines that the first image processing path does not overlap the second image processing path, in the case where a request is made for the execution of the accelerator function in the job received via the interface in a copy operation, wherein when the processing path decision section determines that the first image processing path overlaps the second image processing path, the image processing section registers the job received via the interface in the management table as being one of the waiting jobs unable to execute the accelerator function, and executes a job searched for by the search section.