In the related art, an image forming apparatus of one type acquires image data stored in a storage device (which is connected over a network) through the network and performs printing of the image data. Additional information, such as the number of pages in accordance with a file format of the image data, may be attached to a file of the image data (image file). Software compatible with the file format of the image file is executed to convert the image file into print data in order to refer to the additional information attached to the image file. That is, the image forming apparatus that has software compatible with the file format of the image file can refer to the additional information of the acquired image file. In other words, the image forming apparatus may have to acquire the image data stored in the storage device in order to refer to the additional information. In addition, when a setting to restrict the number of printable pages is set in the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus cannot determine whether or not printing of the image data in accordance with the additional information is restricted until the image file is retrieved from the storage device and converted to the print data.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds