Patent ID: 8649038

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a storage operable to store registered user identification information for registered users; a reception unit operable to receive image data with user identification information from information processing apparatus; an image forming unit configured to form images based on the image data; a setting unit operable to set execution limitation information for unregistered users, the execution limitation information relating to limitation on image forming by the image forming unit; a first judging unit operable, when receiving an image data by the reception unit, to determine whether user identification information attached to the image data corresponds to one of the registered user identification information, with reference to the storage; a second judging unit operable, when the first judging unit determines that the user identification information attached to the image data does not correspond to one of the registered user identification information, to determine, based on the execution limitation information that is set for the unregistered users, whether or not to limit execution of image forming of the image data; and a controller operable, when the second judging unit determines to limit execution of image forming of the image data, to limit execution of the image forming by the image forming unit, and operable, when the second judging unit determines not to limit execution of image forming of the image data, to instruct the image forming unit to execute image forming of the image data.