Determining capability and affect of upstream and downstream image forming devices and restricting operation accordingly

摘要

An image forming apparatus includes a determination unit and a restriction unit. The determination unit determines an image forming capability of each of the image forming apparatus and a different image forming apparatus, an image being formed on a printing medium that is transported between the image forming apparatus and the different image forming apparatus. The restriction unit restricts an image forming operation of the image forming apparatus when the determination unit determines that the image forming capability of any one of the image forming apparatus and the different image forming apparatus is to be lower than an image forming capability of the other one of the image forming apparatus and the different image forming apparatus when independently performing an operation to form an image on the printing medium.