Image forming apparatus configured to generates composite image having same resolution, from images having different resolutions, image forming method, and integrated circuit

An image forming apparatus for forming an image with use of image data items having different resolutions that are input to the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus comprising:

• a controller unit configured to store the image data items having different resolutions, and report image format information of the image data items;
• resolution conversion units configured to convert the image data items having different resolutions acquired from the controller unit to have same resolution, based on the image format information reported from the controller unit;
• an image forming unit configured to form the image with the use of the image data items that have been converted by the resolution conversion units to have the same resolution;
• wherein
• one or more of the resolution conversion units include a smoothing unit that performs a smoothing process when converting the image data items having different resolutions to have the same resolution, and one or more of the resolution conversion units do not include the smoothing unit;
• and
• a smoothing switching unit configured to output, to the one or more resolution conversion units including the smoothing unit, an image data item having a lower resolution than other image data items among the image data items having different resolutions.