Patent ID: 7366757

Claim:
A communication apparatus for transmitting electronic mail data by connecting to the Internet, the apparatus comprising: designation means for designating a destination address for transmission of the electronic mail; determination means for determining a format of image data in correspondence with the designated destination address by referring to a database for storing functional information of destination devices, in a case where transmission of the electronic mail data with the image data attached thereto is performed; communication means for, before the transmission of the electronic mail data is performed, and in a case where the determination means determines that the functional information of the format of the image data for the destination device corresponding to the designated destination address is not stored in the database, initiating communication with a destination device corresponding to the designated destination address to obtain functional information of the format of the image data for the destination device; converting means for i) converting the image data into the format determined by said determination means in a case where the functional information of the format of the image data for the destination device corresponding to the designated destination address is stored in the database, ii) in a case where the determination means determines that the functional information of the format of the image data for the destination device corresponding to the designated destination address is not stored in the database and where said communication means obtains the functional information of the format of the image data in the communication initiated with the destination device, converting the image data into the format of the image data based on the functional information obtained from the destination device by said communication means, and iii) in a case where the determination means determines that the functional information of the format of the image data for the destination device corresponding to the destination address is not stored in the database, and where said communication means does not obtain the functional information of the format of the image data in the communication initiated with the destination device, converting the image data into a predetermined standard image format; and transmission means for transmitting the electronic mail data with the image data which is converted by said converting means to the destination device corresponding to the designated destination address.