Patent ID: 8488177

Claim:
An image forming apparatus controller, which is connected via a network to an image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus controller comprising: a display unit; a management software storage unit for storing management software that manages the image forming apparatus; a display controller for displaying on the display unit, a designation screen, for selection of an image forming apparatus that performs image forming, correspondingly with the management software; a transmission unit for transmitting, to the image forming apparatus, an inquiry concerning limitation information and a user identification information for identifying a user when the user is logged in at the image forming apparatus controller; and a designation limiting unit that, when usage limitation information is received from the image forming apparatus in response to the inquiry, limits designation of the image forming apparatus on the designation screen for the user, wherein the designation screen is configured to: display the image forming apparatus to be selectable when the designation limiting unit has not received the usage limitation information from the image forming apparatus, and display the image forming apparatus to be non-selectable when the designation limiting unit has received the usage limitation information from the image forming apparatus.