Image forming apparatus, the image data transfer method, and a program

An image forming apparatus includes a storage section to store compressed data obtained by compressing image data, an output image memory having a deployment area in which the compressed data transferred from the storage section are deployed, a transferring control section to control transferring of the compressed data from the storage section to the output image memory, an expansion section to obtain the compressed data deployed in the deployment area of the output image memory to expand the obtained compressed data, and a print engine to which the expanded data are supplied. In the mage forming apparatus, the transferring control section controls the transferring of the compressed data to be transferred from the storage section to the output image memory based on capacity of the deployment area of the output image memory and a size of the compressed data.