Image forming apparatus and image forming method

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a region separating section configured to
• perform region separation to separate image data targeted for security printing into a text region that only contains text characters and one or more picture regions other than the text region, and
• detect, for each of the picture regions, location information defining a location of the picture region in the image data;
• a masking region selection receiving section configured to
• display in a selectable state one or more masking candidate regions corresponding to the one or more picture regions separated through the region separation and
• receive, through a selection of one or more of the masking candidate regions by a user, a selection of one or more picture regions each as a masking region to be masked;
• a masking region replacing section configured to
• replace each of the selected picture regions with a blank region to generate masked image data and
• store each of the selected picture regions along with a corresponding piece of detected location information into a memory;
• a print control section configured to perform printing to produce a masked print based on the masked image data;
• and
• a picture region restoration receiving section configured to, for execution of restoration printing on the masked print,
• prompt a user to place the masked print on a manual feed tray and
• receive, for each of the blank regions in the masked image data, a designation of a picture region corresponding to the blank region, wherein
• the print control section performs printing on the masked print fed from the manual feed tray such that each designated picture region is printed on the corresponding blank region in the masked print based on the designated picture regions and the pieces of location information corresponding to the designated picture regions.