US Patent 7489414 Image forming system and image forming apparatus

Real-time printer status information according to the USB standard can be obtained during a print data process. The printing can be forcedly stopped during reception of the print data. Normal data and packet data can be easily handled and PDL data can be also easily handled. An image forming system has: a host having a communication function unit; and an image forming apparatus having first and second communication units and a relay unit, wherein the first communication unit communicates data with the communication function unit via the relay unit and the second communication unit communicates the data with the communication function unit via the relay unit.