In an image forming apparatus including a control unit made of a display panel and a touch panel display for providing preview display, the touch panel display includes: a finished state preview controller for displaying the finished state of a hard copy formed by the image forming apparatus, on the display panel; and a confirmatory display controller for displaying preview images for confirmation in a turning manner. The display panel includes a first display area for displaying the finished state of the hard copy, a second display area for displaying a image of the page to be turned for confirmation and a third display area for displaying the images that have been displayed for confirmation, in order in a layered manner.

An image forming apparatus that attaches a consumable including a memory that stores information for indicating use results of a consumable material and that forms an image by using the consumable material accommodated in the consumable, in a case that an obtainment of information from the attached consumable succeeds, creates a record of the attached consumable based on the obtained information, and in a case that the obtainment of the information fails, creates a record of the attached consumable that makes identification information of the attached consumable be predetermined information. Then, in a case that identification information of the consumable included in obtained the information does not match identification information of the consumable obtained previously, changes the identification information of the consumable obtained previously based on the information obtained currently.

An image forming apparatus includes a document reader, a storage for storing image data, an image output unit and a control unit. The control unit includes: a function setup controller for setting up the image output conditions of output images; and a control-unit side controller having a function of displaying a function setup screen corresponding to the function setup controller, on a display panel. The function setup controller has an additional input mode having a function of reading documents a multiple number of times to form multiple sheaves of documents. The additional input mode includes: an individual setup function of setting up individual image output conditions for each sheaf of documents and an all-in setup function of setting up identical image output conditions for all sheaves of documents. When the additional input mode is set up, the control unit-side controller offers a display of a setup change suggestion of the image output conditions for the next input on the display screen at the stage where the first image data input has been completed.

A control unit includes a touch panel display capable of presenting preview display of multiple pages of document images in a scrollable manner on the display panel. The touch panel display controller includes: a commanded position detecting controller that detects a commanded position relative to one of document images being a reference in the preview image displayed on a display panel; a preview layout direction switching controller that switches the layout direction in the preview image in accordance with the commanded position; and a scroll direction switching controller that switches the scrolling direction in the preview image in accordance with the detected commanded position.

A sheet processing apparatus includes a processing unit, a sheet discharge unit, a determination unit, and a control unit. The processing unit performs crease processing on a sheet. The sheet discharge unit discharges a sheet having been subjected to the crease processing by the processing unit. The determination unit determines whether a number of the discharged sheets having been subjected to the crease processing exceeds a predetermined number of sheets. The control unit performs control to cause the discharge unit to discharge a sheet. In a case where the determination unit determines that the number of the discharged sheets having been subjected to the crease processing exceeds the predetermined number of sheets, the control unit performs control to cause the discharge unit to not discharge sheets having been subjected to the crease processing onto the discharge destination.

A charging processing system includes: a receiving unit configured to receive a request to execute a first function which a first device has, from a second device that does not have the first function; a function executing unit configured to execute the first function; and a charging processing unit configured to perform charging processing such that an amount of charge for execution of the first function is larger as there is a larger difference between a performance with regard to the first function and a performance of the second device or a performance with regard to a second function which has a lower performance than the first function and which the second device does not have.

According to an embodiment, an image forming apparatus is connected with a server. The image forming apparatus includes an image forming section and an input section configured to receive, from a user, a job start operation for a requested print job. The image forming apparatus also includes a communication interface that receives a print job from the server, and transmits a request for transmission of a print job. A storage section stores image data corresponding to each received print job. A processor determines whether the image data corresponding to the requested print job is already stored in the storage section when the job start operation was received. In a case that the image data corresponding to the requested print job is already stored in the storage section when the job start operation was received, image data corresponding to the requested print job is printed.

A control device includes a second sub-controller to which second devices are connected, a first sub-controller to which first devices are connected, a master controller that controls the first and second sub-controllers, and so on. The second sub-controller includes a second interruption information memory storing second interruption information output from the second devices, a second interruption controller transmitting an interruption signal upon storing of the second interruption information and transmitting the second interruption information, and a synchronization signal generator transmitting a synchronization signal that is synchronous with the interruption signal. The first sub-controller includes a first interruption information memory storing first interruption information output from the first devices and the second interruption information, a first interruption controller transmitting the interruption signal and transmitting the first and second interruption information, and a synchronization signal controller controlling a storage operation of the first interruption information memory in accordance with the synchronization signal.

A first acquisition unit acquires an event notification from an MFP and updates first device-status information. A transmission unit transmits the event notification and first reference-destination information. A switching unit switches a first access to the first reference-destination information to a second access to second reference-destination information. A second acquisition unit issues an acquisition request at a first interval, issues an acquisition request at a second interval in response to the event notification, acquires the second device-status information, and update the first device-status information.

An image processing apparatus capable of shifting to a power saving mode. The image processing apparatus includes a storing unit configured to store a document in a storage device, a notification unit configured to periodically notify an apparatus of a predetermined destination of information about a document that has been newly stored by the storing unit into the storage device, and a control unit configured to restrict shifting to a power saving mode in which the notification unit cannot make the notification after storage of a document by the storing unit has been completed and until the notification unit notifies at least information about the document.