An image forming apparatus includes: a communicating unit which communicates with a portable terminal device and an external device; a storage control unit which controls to store transfer destination information of the external device to which information from the portable terminal device is allowed to be transferred in a storage unit; a determining unit which determines whether a request from the portable terminal device is the request to the external device indicated by the transfer destination information stored in the storage unit; and a communication control unit which controls the communicating unit to transfer the request from the portable terminal device to the external device indicated by the transfer destination information when the determining unit determines that the request is the request to the external device indicated by the transfer destination information.

An image output apparatus includes a controller that controls display of a first setting screen including setting items of a system to be used for a setting of operation of the image output apparatus and a second setting screen including setting items of a job to be used in a setting of operation in job execution, and an image outputter that outputs an image by executing a job based on the setting of the operation in the job execution. The controller disables a selection of the setting items of the job that uses a specific function on the second setting screen when use of the specific function is prohibited on the first setting screen.

A method for securing a computer-aided design (CAD)-based shape to prevent shape counterfeiting by unauthorized three-dimensional (3D) printing includes creating and embedding a security element in the CAD-based shape itself. In some embodiments, the method includes splitting (slicing) a first solid of a three-dimensional 3D model into at least two parts, such that the 3D model comprises at least two distinct solids. The shape of the distinct solid(s) may be specified by a plurality of curved surfaces, which are defined by performing a finite element analysis on the CAD-based shape to determine an optimal shape for each curved surface. The method further includes converting the 3D model to a digital surface geometry schema according to a first resolution. The digital surface geometry schema describes the surface geometry of the at least two distinct solids. The first resolution is part of the security controls of the CAD-based shape. The first resolution may be selected based on a shape of the split of the first solid, a location of the split of the first solid, a 3D printer type, an anticipated horizontal print direction, an anticipated vertical print direction, an anticipated slicer software scheme, an anticipated slice thickness, and/or an anticipated slice location.

In a case of a first function of carrying out a cooperative processing in accordance with an instruction from a user of a multifunction peripheral (10), the user is set as an execution user. In a case of a second function of carrying out a cooperative processing in accordance with an instruction from an application, a user instructed by the application is set as an execution user. Further, in a case where an execution user of a cooperative processing carried out using the first function and an execution user of a cooperative processing carried out using the second function are identical, use history information of the execution user is managed as use history information of a single user. This makes it possible to appropriately manage use history information of a cooperative processing.

An image forming apparatus including applications and system side software for providing system side services to the applications is provided, in which the image forming apparatus includes: an authentication module for displaying an authentication screen on an operation panel of the image forming apparatus, wherein the authentication module allows the image forming apparatus to display a screen for using the image forming apparatus instead of the authentication screen if authentication data input from the authentication screen satisfies an authentication condition, and wherein the authentication module is provided in the image forming apparatus separately from the system side software.

According to an embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes a read image processor, a write image processor, an image path selector, and a communication controller. The read image processor is configured to execute an image processing module corresponding to read of image data. The write image processor is configured to execute an image processing module corresponding to write of image data. The image path selector is configured to select a path for transmitting image data output from the image processing modules corresponding to read and write of image data to an external apparatus, and select a path for inputting image data processed by the external apparatus to an image processing module in a subsequent stage. The communication controller is configured to control transmission and reception of image data to and from the external apparatus.

An image can be formed by using a developer containing a luminescent substance, without impairing the finish of the area in which the image is formed. An image forming device 100 includes a print function section 124 which forms a first image included in a plurality of images to be formed on a single page, based on image formation data indicating the image to be formed, on a medium by using a first developer, and forms a second image included in the plurality of images, based on the image formation data, in a non-image-forming area in which the first image is not formed on the medium, by using a second developer containing a luminescent substance.

There is described a new coding approach for printed document authentication, one objective of which is to increase the difficulty of copying. In addition, this new coding approach provides better performance compared to other 2D coding technologies under certain constraints. The new coding technique requires less print space in comparison to other coding techniques. This is achieved by optimizing some of the features which are used in standard 2D-codes for stabilization and which are necessary for e.g. mobile applications. Furthermore, the code can be decomposed in elementary units, or byte-units which can be widely spread over a text document. Such byte-units can in particular be used for integration in text symbols. If a document protected with such a coding is copied, at least some of these symbols will be extensively degraded by the copying process. Therefore, copy detection is intrinsically achieved thanks to the new coding technique.

A method, non-transitory computer readable medium and apparatus for generating a multi-layer correlation mark via a monochrome printer are disclosed. For example, the method includes setting a first scalar value of a channel of the monochrome printer, setting a second scalar value of the channel of the monochrome printer, generating a first layer of the multi-layer correlation mark at the first scalar value of the channel, generating a second layer of the multi-layer correlation mark at the second scalar value of the channel and printing the multi-layer correlation mark comprising the first layer at the first scalar value of the channel and the second layer at the second scalar value of the channel.

In a case of a first function of carrying out a cooperative processing in accordance with an instruction from a user of a multifunction peripheral (10), the user is set as an execution user. In a case of a second function of carrying out a cooperative processing in accordance with an instruction from an application, a user instructed by the application is set as an execution user. Further, in a case where an execution user of a cooperative processing carried out using the first function and an execution user of a cooperative processing carried out using the second function are identical, use history information of the execution user is managed as use history information of a single user. This makes it possible to appropriately manage use history information of a cooperative processing.