A printer includes a receiving unit configured to receive data for drawing a character at a predetermined drawing position, and a drawing unit configured to, based on the data for drawing the character, draw the character multiple times by varying a drawing position of the character each time. The drawing performed multiple times includes at least drawing at the predetermined drawing position, drawing at a drawing position shifted from the predetermined drawing position only in a horizontal direction, and drawing at a drawing position shifted from the predetermined drawing position only in a vertical direction.

Raster image processing computer devices buffer pages of print-ready bitmaps waiting to be printed by a printing engine. A computer device monitors the printing speed of the printing engine and estimates the processing time for the raster image processing computer devices to produce the print-ready bitmaps, based on the complexity of the pages of the print job. The computer device compares the printing speed to the processing time to predict whether the number of pages of the print-ready bitmaps buffered by the raster image processing computer devices will increase or decrease. The computer device places one or more of the raster image processing computer devices in a reduced-power sleep mode when the number of pages of the print-ready bitmaps buffered is between a buffer minimum and a buffer maximum, and is predicted to not decrease.

An image processing method of performing rasterization of a page in units of band area, comprises: generating first data drawing a first group of objects included in the page; storing the generated first data into a first memory area; performing, in units of band areas, rasterization based on the stored first data to generate a first raster data of the page; compressing, in units of predetermined areas, the first raster data; storing the compressed first raster data into a second memory area; deleting the first data from the first memory area; generating second data drawing a second group of objects included in the page; storing second data into the first memory area; performing, in units of band areas, rasterization based on the second data and the compressed first raster data.

This invention decodes image data without overwriting the decompression result of the first image data by that of the second image data when the first image data compressed by the first method and the second image data compressed by the second method coexist. To do this, when decoding the image data in which the first image data compressed by the first method and the second image data compressed by the second method different from the first method coexist, a lossy-decoding unit decodes the first image data. Based on boundary information indicating a compression region compressed by the second method, a lossless-decoding unit selectively outputs pixel data decoded by the lossy-decoding unit or pixel data obtained by decoding the second image data of the compression region.

A method for generating bitmap image data of a page includes acquiring print data of a page including compressed images, and performing rendering of bands included in the page based on the print data to generate the bitmap image data. The performing of the rendering performs rendering at least two of the bands concurrently. The performing of the rendering includes decompressing the compressed images, and using the decompressed images for corresponding bands of the bands to generate the bitmap image data. The decompressing decompresses, into a same memory area in a decompression buffer, at least two compressed images used for different bands, so that one of the two compressed images is decompressed into the same memory area and another of the two compressed images is decompressed, after rendering of a last band for which the one of the two compressed images is lastly used is finished, into the same memory area.

An image processing apparatus includes: a raster data output that executes a first process of outputting raster data; a data transferer that generates image determination-purpose data, and executes a second process of storing the generated image determination-purpose data in a buffer; and a hardware processor that: executes a third process of determining whether an image presented by the image determination-purpose data contains a specific image, generates schedule information indicating a time schedule of the first, second, and third processes, determines each set of raster data on whether the time schedule satisfies an overflow condition, and performs control to extend the buffer, wherein the overflow condition is a condition that a part of a period of the second process overlaps with a part of a period during which the image determination-purpose data for which the third process has not been completed occupies an entire area of the buffer.

An image processing apparatus for storing, in an intermediate data memory, intermediate data generated from print data, and processing the intermediate data is provided. The image processing apparatus has a configuration in which, in a case where it is determined that a size of a work memory exceeds a block size after processing for creating a first bit map is started, and where the processing for creating the first bit map is switched to processing for creating a second bit map, when the processing for creating the first bit map is started, processing for creating a bit map is started without delay by using a bit map memory in advance from the work memory.

A white-plate graphic erosion process is performed on print data subjected to a RIP process in the following procedure. First, an erosion candidate region which is a candidate for a region in which a white-plate graphic is eroded is determined. Then, a region to be applied with an ink of a color other than white is determined. Then, an application target region is determined. Then, a region other than a region obtained by an erosion process out of the application target region is determined to be an erosion allowed region. Then, a region included in the colored region and the erosion allowed region out of the erosion candidate region is determined to be an erosion target region. Finally, the values of data of pixels included in the erosion target region among white-plate data are rewritten such that the amount of white ink applied to the pixels is reduced.

Methods and systems for defining characters, can involve selectively removing pixels from one or more characters and rendering a character with a user space equivalent to a device space. Multiple abutting non-line pixels can be removed among the pixels from the character(s). Furthermore, the character(s) including the multiple abutting non-line pixels as expected for the character(s) can be created prior to prior to selectively removing the pixels from the character(s). This approach can avoid partially marked pixels by setting user space equal to device space and then selectively removing pixels when printing microtext. Selective pixel removal allows for more white space and better recognition of characters such as, for example, 8 and E.

An image processing apparatus which prevents a printing process from taking long. The image processing apparatus is connected to a printing apparatus having a storage unit and transfers image data to the printing apparatus. A size of predetermined image data when a speed at which the predetermined image data is stored in the storage unit and a speed at which the predetermined image data stored in the storage unit is printed are the same is obtained as a threshold size. A size of the image data stored in the storage unit in a compressed form is estimated. A compression method for use in compressing the transferred image data is selected from a plurality of compression methods based on the threshold size and the estimated size of the image data. The image processing apparatus notifies the printing apparatus of the determined compression method.