Image forming apparatus, control method, and storage medium

A control method for an image forming apparatus that cooperates with a management service which receives a document via a network and stores the document and a blockchain service which manages document information about the document on a block-by-block basis and, upon defining association of each block with a previous and/or subsequent block, manages a plurality of blocks with a plurality of nodes, the control method comprising:

• in printing a document stored in the management service, generating an embedded image from document information about the document;
• acquiring an embedding setting for use in embedding the embedded image in the document;
• outputting a printed product with the document information recorded thereon by performing printing of the document with the embedded image embedded therein based on the embedding setting;
• and
• registering the document information with the blockchain service in conjunction with the printed product being output,
• wherein while the embedding setting includes a setting for embedding a plurality of same embedded images in the document and the printing outputs a printed product with a plurality of embedded images embedded therein, the registering registers the document information with the blockchain service in such a way as to prevent the document information from being registered in an overlapping manner in registering the document information in conjunction with the printed product with a plurality of embedded images embedded therein being output, and
• wherein, in a case where a minimum required number of embedded images that needs to be embedded in the document exceeds a maximum allowable number of embedded images allowed to be embedded in the document, buttons for shifting to a screen for making print settings and a screen for adjusting a number of embedded images are output as an error screen.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a control method for an image forming apparatus that cooperates with a management service which receives a document via a network and stores the document and a blockchain service which manages document information about the document on a block-by-block basis and, upon defining association of each block with a previous and/or subsequent block, manages a plurality of blocks with a plurality of nodes, the control method comprising:

• in printing a document stored in the management service, generating an embedded image from document information about the document;
• acquiring an embedding setting for use in embedding the embedded image in the document;
• outputting a printed product with the document information recorded thereon by performing printing of the document with the embedded image embedded therein based on the embedding setting;
• and
• registering the document information with the blockchain service in conjunction with the printed product being output,
• wherein while the embedding setting includes a setting for embedding a plurality of same embedded images in the document and the printing outputs a printed product with a plurality of embedded images embedded therein, the registering registers the document information with the blockchain service in such a way as to prevent the document information from being registered in an overlapping manner in registering the document information in conjunction with the printed product with a plurality of embedded images embedded therein being output, and
• wherein, in a case where a minimum required number of embedded images that needs to be embedded in the document exceeds a maximum allowable number of embedded images allowed to be embedded in the document, buttons for shifting to a screen for making print settings and a screen for adjusting a number of embedded images are output as an error screen.