Image forming apparatus, printing method, and non-transitory recording medium

A printing method in an image forming apparatus that includes:

• a receiver that receives print data including image information and page setting information that specifies a paper feed tray of sheets on which the image information is printed from an external apparatus;
• a first memory that stores the image information;
• a second memory that stores the page setting information, wherein a page capacity of the second memory is larger than a page capacity of the first memory;
• an image forming device that forms an image on each of the sheets based on the image information read from the first memory;
• a plurality of paper feed trays that accommodate the sheets;
• and
• a conveyer that conveys the sheets from the paper feed tray to the image forming device in a side-by-side aligned manner in a conveyance direction between the image forming device and the paper feed tray that is farthest away from the image forming device,
• the printing method comprising:
• receiving the page setting information in the print data of a next page;
• storing the page setting information in the second memory at a time of receiving the print data of the next page from the external apparatus when the first memory has no area to store the image information of the next page;
• and
• controlling the conveyer to feed out the sheets from the paper feed tray specified by the page setting information to the conveyance path of the conveyer and to convey the sheets when the page setting information for a next sheet is in the second memory, regardless of whether the image information corresponding to the page setting information is in the first memory.

A non-transitory recording medium storing a computer readable program executed by an image forming apparatus including:

• a receiver that receives print data including image information and page setting information that specifies a paper feed tray of sheets on which the image information is to be printed from an external apparatus;
• a first memory that stores the image information;
• a second memory that stores the page setting information, wherein a page capacity of the second memory is larger than a page capacity of the first memory;
• an image forming device that forms an image on each of the sheets based on the image information read from the first memory;
• a plurality of paper feed trays that accommodate the sheets;
• and
• a conveyer that conveys the sheets from the paper feed tray to the image former forming device in a side-by-side aligned manner in a conveyance direction, between the image forming device and the paper feed tray that is farthest away from the image forming device,
• the computer readable program causing a computer to perform:
• receiving the page setting information in the print data of a next page;
• storing the page setting information in the second memory at a time of receiving the print data of the next page from the external apparatus when the first memory has no area to store the image information of the next page;
• and
• controlling the conveyer to feed out the sheets from the paper feed tray specified by the page setting information to the conveyance path of the conveyer and to convey the sheets when the page setting information for a next sheet is in the second memory, regardless of whether the image information corresponding to the page setting information is in the first memory.