Apparatus and methods for providing downgraded fonts for VDP printing application are described. A server system may be configured to generate and/or select a set of downgraded rasterized fonts for delivery to a client system in order to provide limited client-side WYSIWIG display functionality using the downgraded fonts. A client side application may use the downgraded fonts to provide a display-only or draft print only rendering of a VDP print job.

A printing system is disclosed. The printing system includes an interpreter module to generate Tagged Object Bit-plane data corresponding to drawing objects for each colorant of a device color space during rasterization a print job data and a common buffer to store the Tagged Object Bit-plane data for each colorant.

A printer has a printing mechanism for printing on roll paper; RAM storing font data for multiple languages having at least some character codes in common, and the starting address of the font data for each of the multiple languages; a communicator that receives a command specifying starting addresses and character codes; and a controller that reads font data corresponding to the character codes received by the communicator from RAM based on the starting address specified by the command, and controlling the printing mechanism to print based on the read font data.

A printer has a printing mechanism for printing on roll paper; RAM storing font data for multiple languages having at least some character codes in common, and the starting address of the font data for each of the multiple languages; a communicator that receives a command specifying starting addresses and character codes; and a controller that reads font data corresponding to the character codes received by the communicator from RAM based on the starting address specified by the command, and controlling the printing mechanism to print based on the read font data.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for printing an article. The apparatus includes a data providing device adapted to provide article-specific printing data for the article from product data of the article, and to provide machine-specific printing data for the article in dependence on a printing machine to be used for the printing process. The apparatus also includes a control device adapted to merge the article-specific printing data and the machine-specific printing data, and to control the printing machine for printing the article based thereon.

A printer according to an embodiment includes an interface that receives Arabic character data. A control portion includes an image buffer that stores the Arabic character data and a character generator that stores font data corresponding to the Arabic character data. The control portion retrieves font data from the character generator corresponding to the Arabic character data. The control portion generates at least one Arabic character string corresponding to a line or a word unit by rearranging the Arabic character data. The control portion generates image data of the Arabic character string based on the font data. A printer engine prints the generated image data.

A printer according to an embodiment includes an interface that receives Arabic character data. A control portion includes an image buffer that stores the Arabic character data and a character generator that stores font data corresponding to the Arabic character data. The control portion retrieves font data from the character generator corresponding to the Arabic character data. The control portion generates at least one Arabic character string corresponding to a line or a word unit by rearranging the Arabic character data. The control portion generates image data of the Arabic character string based on the font data. A printer engine prints the generated image data.

Provided is an image processing apparatus for generating bitmap data based on PDL data, including: an obtaining unit configured to obtain the PDL data; an identification unit configured to, in a case where PDL data including a command indicating repetitively drawing of a pattern in a predetermined range in a page is obtained, identifies the pattern defined in the command; and a control unit configured to store image data of the identified pattern in a memory, in which the control unit controls the storage of the image data of the identified pattern such that a single piece of image data is stored for same patterns in the memory.

Media processing methods and devices with multi-format support are provided herein. An example method includes receiving a first document at a thermal printer, determining the first document has a first format from a plurality of possible formats, selecting, based upon the first format, a first interpreter from a plurality of interpreters, the first interpreter configured to render the first document for printing, receiving a second document at the thermal printer, determining the second document has a second format of the plurality of possible formats, selecting, based upon the second format, a second interpreter from the plurality of possible interpreters, the second interpreter configured to render the second document for printing, and printing the first document and the second document.

An image forming apparatus includes a character drawer and a storage device. The character drawer creates a graphic image of a character contained in print data. The storage device stores the graphic image created by the character drawer. When the graphic image of the character is absent in the storage device, the character drawer creates a graphic image of the character and allows the created graphic image to be stored in the storage device.