In an image forming apparatus outputting a document, a copy condition of the output document and the order of priority among the set copy condition, a condition on the part of the machine, and a condition input by the user to be actually decided on as a copy condition are set. The information is then embedded and output. In an image forming apparatus making a copy, the output printed material is scanned and the embedded copy condition and order of priority are extracted and restored. Then, for each item of the copy conditions, a condition having a higher priority among the aforementioned conditions is decided on as a copy condition of the printed material, so that the printed material is copied under the decided condition.