Image forming apparatus and method for printing a report with digital watermark

摘要

An image forming apparatus includes a receiving unit, a dividing unit, and an output controller. The receiving unit receives an output instruction for a report. The dividing unit divides, when the output instruction for the report is received, report items to be output into a main-report item to be output as characters on a recording sheet and a sub-report item to be output as a digital watermark on the recording sheet in such a manner that the report items to be output are formed within a predetermined number of recording sheets or a predetermined number of pages. The output controller causes an output mechanism to output the main-report item as characters on the recording sheet and output the sub-report item as a digital watermark on the recording sheet, based on a division result by the dividing unit.

主权项

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:
a receiving unit that receives an output instruction for a report; a dividing unit that divides, when the output instruction for the report is received, report items to be output into a main-report item to be output as characters on a recording sheet and a sub-report item to be output as a digital watermark on the recording sheet in such a manner that the report items to be output are formed within a predetermined number of recording sheets or a predetermined number of pages; and an output controller that causes an output mechanism to output the main-report item as characters on the recording sheet and output the sub-report item as a digital watermark on the recording sheet, based on a division result by the dividing unit, wherein when it is determined that the amount of information of the sub-report item does not fall within the digital watermark for the predetermined number of recording sheets or the predetermined number of pages. the output controller stores sub-report item information on the sub-report item into a storing device and causes the output mechanism to output as a digital watermark a place where the sub-report item information is stored on the recording sheet.