Patent ID: 8830518

Claim:
An image forming apparatus connected to an image data management apparatus, said image forming apparatus and said image data management apparatus forming a virtual sub-network, said image data management apparatus comprising: a data storage section; a connecting section to said image forming apparatus; and a marking section for, when image data which are expected to be printed at said image forming apparatus connected via the connecting section are stored in the data storage section, marking the image data stored in the data storage section with a pull-print mark, by means of which the image data are distinguished from other image data stored in the data storage section; and said image forming apparatus comprising; a searching section for searching the data storage section for image data marked with the pull-print mark; a notifying section for, when there are image data marked with the pull-print mark in said image data management apparatus, notifying the user of the existence of the image data; a display section; an operation section for receiving inputs from a user; and a designated data display section for, when the operation section receives an input from a user in response to the notification made by the notifying section, commanding the display section to display the result of the search.