Patent ID: 7184163

Claim:
An image forming system capable of being connected to a plurality of external apparatuses and performing image formations based on data sent from the external apparatuses, said image forming system comprising: a plurality of image forming apparatuses, each having a plurality of paper ejection trays for receiving sheets on which images are formed; and a control unit for, when a respective image forming apparatus receives an ejection instruction from one of the external apparatuses and the number of sheets required to execute said ejection instruction exceeds a capacity of an available one of said paper ejection trays of said respective image forming apparatus, ejecting a part of sheets to said available one of said paper ejection trays of said respective image forming apparatus and continuously ejecting the remaining sheets to another available one of said paper ejection trays of said respective image forming apparatus, and when said respective image forming apparatus receives said ejection instruction from one of the external apparatuses and the number of sheets required to execute said ejection instruction exceeds the capacity of available paper ejection trays of said respective image forming apparatus, ejecting a part of sheets to the available paper ejection trays of said respective image forming apparatus and continuously ejecting the remaining sheets to available paper ejection trays of another of one of the plurality of image forming apparatuses and for notifying a user of the paper ejection trays in the respective image forming apparatus and said another of one of the plurality of image apparatuses where the part of sheets and the remaining sheets are present.