An information processing apparatus includes a communication interface to communicate data including image data with an image forming apparatus, a data storage device to store background pattern data, and circuitry. The circuitry causes the communication interface to transmit the background pattern data and a registration request command to the image forming apparatus, generates synthesis information, generates a background pattern synthesis drawing command for instructing the image forming apparatus to synthesize the background pattern data with each page data of the image data, based on the synthesis information of the page data, generates a printing command for printing the image data, generates print request information for requesting the image forming apparatus to print the image data, and causes the communication interface to transmit the print request information to the image forming apparatus.