IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND PRINT CONTROL METHOD, AND PROGRAM PRODUCT

摘要

A printer includes a first receiving unit that receives a print job containing a printing requirement, where the printing requirement is set as either an indispensable requirement that is indispensable for executing the print job or a desired requirement that is desirable for executing the print job; a second receiving unit that receives, from each of external image forming apparatuses connected to the image forming apparatus via a network, a printability level indicating whether the external image forming apparatus has a printing function satisfying the indispensable requirement or a printing function satisfying the desired requirement; a selecting unit that selects an image forming apparatus that executes the print job from the external image forming apparatuses by checking the printability level; and a print-operation control unit that sends the print job to the selected image forming apparatus and causes the selected image forming apparatus to execute the print job.