Patent ID: 8248427

Claim:
A screen display method for a screen display system in which an image forming apparatus is connected to an information processing apparatus via a communication network, the screen display method comprising: displaying, on the image forming apparatus, a setting screen containing setting information for forming an image; storing, in the image forming apparatus, screen setting information containing the setting information and information on a configuration of the setting screen; obtaining, by the image forming apparatus, the screen setting information stored by the storing in the image forming apparatus and updating the screen setting information with customized screen setting information for configuring a setting display containing customized setting information that is obtained by customizing the setting information contained in the setting display; and transmitting from the image forming apparatus, the screen setting information to the information processing apparatus and receiving, in the image forming apparatus, the customized screen setting information from the information processing apparatus; receiving, in the information processing apparatus, the screen setting information from the image forming apparatus and transmitting, from the information processing apparatus, the customized screen setting information to the image forming apparatus; storing, in the information processing apparatus, default screen setting information containing default setting information that is to be referred to when the screen setting information is customized and information on a configuration of a setting screen containing the default setting information; detecting, by the information processing apparatus, whether there is a difference between the setting information contained in the screen setting information received by the receiving and the default setting information contained in the default screen setting information stored by the storing in the information processing apparatus by comparison with each other; generating, in the information processing apparatus, upon detecting a difference between the setting information contained in the screen setting information received by the receiving and the default setting information contained in the default screen setting information stored by the storing in the information processing apparatus by comparison with each other, customized screen setting information by updating the default setting information with the setting information; displaying, on the information processing apparatus and in response to the generating, a customized setting screen containing the customized screen setting information generated by the generating; and causing the displaying on the information processing apparatus to display the customized setting screen based on the customized screen setting information generated by the generating.