Patent ID: 8259096

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a printing part which performs a printing operation on a printing medium according to a printing command; a user interface including an LCD panel employing a touch screen to receive user commands for operating the image forming apparatus, an LED indicator lamp which indicates a state of the image forming apparatus and a plurality of input buttons which receive user input commands; and a controller which controls the printing part and the user interface, wherein, when a printing data is received from an external computer during a power saving mode of the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus transitions from the power saving mode to a printing standby mode, and the controller controls the printing part and the user interface such that the LCD panel is maintained in an off state while the printing part receives power so that the printing part can perform a printing operation according to the received printing data, wherein, during the printing standby mode, if the controller determines that there is no error in the image forming apparatus, the LED indicator lamp is used to indicate a state of the image forming apparatus, while the LCD panel remains in the off state, wherein, when the LCD panel is in the off state during the printing standby mode, at least one of the input buttons provided on the user interface is operable to manually turn on the LCD panel, wherein, during the printing standby mode, if the controller determines that there is an error in the image forming apparatus, the controller communicates the error by automatically turning on the LCD panel and displaying a corresponding error information on the LCD panel.