Image forming apparatus and image forming method

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a virus check setter that accepts a setting on whether or not to perform virus check;
• a data inputter that receives job data pertaining to a print job;
• a memory that stores received job data;
• a job controller that stores job data in the memory as partial data to sequentially print received portions of the job data when the virus check is disabled or unnecessary and that stores the job data as a single file when the virus check is enabled;
• a data analyzer that analyzes the job data to generate data for image formation;
• a printer that performs printing using the data for image formation;
• and
• a virus checker that performs virus check on the job data stored as the single file,
• wherein the job controller causes the printer to perform printing based on the job data when the virus checker determines that a computer virus is not embedded in the job data.