Patent ID: 8374515

Claim:
An image forming system, comprising: a plurality of image forming apparatuses that communicate with each other via a network; wherein operation states of respective image forming apparatuses are switched in the network such that one image forming apparatus acts as a main apparatus and other image forming apparatuses act as subordinate apparatuses, and wherein each of the image forming apparatuses includes: a network controller that controls a communication with another image forming apparatus; a power saving controller that applies a power saving control in a first power saving mode in which a supply of power to a printing function portion that forms an image on a sheet is stopped and a power is fed to the network controller when the apparatus acts as the main apparatus, and applying a power saving control in a second power saving mode in which a supply of power to the printing function portion and the network controller is stopped when the apparatus acts as the subordinate apparatus; and a main apparatus deciding unit that decides the image forming apparatus to act next as the main apparatus, out of the plurality of image forming apparatuses based on a calculation of power consumption of the plurality of image forming apparatuses when a power state of any image forming apparatus of the plurality of image forming apparatuses shifts from either the first power saving mode or the second power saving mode to a non-power saving mode in which a power is fed to the printing function portion and the network controller or when a power state of any image forming apparatus of the plurality of image forming apparatuses shifts from the non-power saving mode to either the first power saving mode or the second power saving mode, and wherein the image forming apparatus decided by the main apparatus deciding unit acts as the main apparatus after the image forming apparatus to act as the main apparatus is decided by the main apparatus deciding unit.