Patent ID: 7113728

Claim:
An image forming system comprising: an image forming apparatus that includes a plurality of attach/detach sections to and from each of which a developer container for containing developer can be attached and detached and an image bearing body for bearing a latent image; and a computer that is capable of communicating with said image forming apparatus and that has a driver capable of instructing said image forming apparatus to execute at least either single-color-image formation or color-image formation, wherein: when a developer container is attached to each of said plurality of attach/detach sections, said image forming apparatus is usable as a color image forming apparatus for forming a color image by developing the latent image bore on said image bearing body with the developer contained in each said developer container; when a developer container is attached to only one of said plurality of attach/detach sections, said image forming apparatus is usable as a single-color image forming apparatus for forming a single-color image by developing the latent image bore on said image bearing body with the developer contained in said developer container; a switching of said image forming apparatus between said color image forming apparatus and said single-color-image forming apparatus is executed when a power supply to said image forming apparatus is stopped and then started again; said image forming apparatus forms an image when said driver instructs said image forming apparatus that is being used as said color image forming apparatus to execute said single-color-image formation; and said image forming apparatus does not form an image when said driver instructs said image forming apparatus that is being used as said single-color image forming apparatus to execute said color-image formation.