Image forming apparatus, image forming system, and information processing apparatus

A printing system in which users are restricted in use of a printer, the printing system comprising:

• a printing section configured to perform printing in accordance with print data;
• a cancellation requesting section configured to issue a request for cancellation of a print restriction placed on a user, the request being accompanied by an operation mode in which the print data should be printed and information that identifies the user;
• a restriction canceling section configured to make a decision based on the request to determine whether said printing section should print the print data in the operation mode, said restriction canceling section canceling the print restriction if said restriction canceling section determines that said printing section should print the print data in the operation mode, said restriction canceling section comprising:
• a cancellation information managing section configured to encode restriction cancellation information inputted by the user into a first cancellation code and manages the first cancellation code, the restriction cancellation information including information on the print restriction placed on the user, said cancellation information managing section sending the first cancellation code to the user upon a request from the user, and
• a user information database server configured to store a print setting for the user, said user information database server reproducing the restriction cancellation information based on the print setting and the first cancellation code received from the user;
• and
• wherein said cancellation requesting section comprises:
• a print setting processing section configured to set the print setting when said print setting processing section receives a print command from the user, the print setting being set based on the reproduced restriction cancellation information.

A printing system in which users are restricted in use of a printer, the printing system comprising:

• (i) a printing section configured to perform printing in accordance with print data;
• (ii) a cancellation requesting section configured to issue a request for cancellation of a print restriction placed on a user, the request being accompanied by an operation mode in which the print data should be printed and information that identifies the user;
• and
• (iii) a restriction canceling section configured to make a decision based on the request to determine whether said printing section should print the print data in the operation mode, said restriction canceling section canceling the print restriction if said restriction canceling section determines that said printing section should print the print data in the operation mode, said restriction canceling section comprising:
• (a) a data analyzing section configured to
• identify a name of the user and the state of an operation mode from the print data, the state of the operation mode indicating whether the user requests to perform printing in a temporary permit mode where print restriction on the user is temporarily canceled,
• identify a document title for the print data, and
• determine a time-of-day of printing for the print data, the time-of-day being a time at which the print data is received from said cancellation requesting section,
• (b) a print restriction information storing section configured to
• store print restriction information indicative of whether the print restriction has been placed on the user,
• store the identified document title,
• prevent a counting up of the number of printing operations performed in the temporary permit mode if the document title for print data coincides with a document title stored in said print restriction information storing section, and
• store a reference amount of time and the time-of-day of printing,
• (c) a print restriction determining section configured to
• make a decision based on the name of the user information and the state of the operation mode to determine whether said printing section should print the print data and counts a number of printing operations performed in the temporary permit mode, wherein when the number of printing operations reaches a value, said print restriction determining section determines that said printing section should not print the print data, and
• permit a following one of two consecutive printing operations only when the following one of the two consecutive printing operations begins within a reference amount of time from the time-of-day of printing for a preceding one of the two consecutive printing operations, and
• wherein if said data analyzing section determines that the state of the operation mode is the temporary permit mode, said print restriction determining section determines that said printing section should print the print data.