In a printing system, an information reception apparatus, such as a
printer or the like, is allowed to more assuredly identify a specific
user by using organism information of the user. Fingerprint readers read
a fingerprint pattern of the user as image data. Pointing device
including a keyboard, a mouse and the like is used when forming or
editing print data. The print data and the fingerprint pattern subjected
to encryption are transmitted from a computer to the printer via a data
transmission channel. The fingerprint pattern transmitted from the
computer is decoded. After authenticating the user by performing matching
between the decoded fingerprint pattern and the fingerprint pattern read
by the fingerprint reader, the print data is printed.