A printing apparatus includes an image former which forms a tone pattern image on a sheet conveyed from a sheet feeding deck, a color measurer which performs color measurement by reading the tone pattern image formed by the image former, and one or more controllers including one or more processors and one or more memories. The one or more controllers are configured to generate tone correction data based on a difference between color measurement results by the color measurer and a reference value, and perform tone correction for print target image data by using the generated tone correction data. The reference value is registered in association with a type of sheet that is accommodated in the sheet feeding deck, and in a case where the type of sheet that is accommodated in the sheet feeding deck is changed, the reference value is cleared.

Systems and methods are described that facilitate parallel processing of PDF documents for printing, wherein the PDF documents comprise transparency effects. Transparent objects in the PDF document are identified, and the document is divided into subgroups of pages. The transparency objects are then flattened to enable conversion to PostScript format. The PostScript pages are processed and rendered to raster for printing.

A non-transitory computer readable medium stores a program causing a computer to execute a process including: generating plural page description language (PDL) files written in plural types of PDLs for one portion of data; and performing control such that the generated plural PDL files and a different portion of the data other than the one portion are stored in an internal or external storage device in association with each other.

A printing apparatus includes an image forming portion which forms a chart image on a sheet conveyed from a sheet feeding deck, a color measure portion which performs color measurement by reading the chart image formed by the image forming portion, and one or more controllers including one or more processors and one or more memories. The one or more controllers are configured to generate correction data based on color measurement results by the color measurer portion and a reference value, and perform correction for target image data by using the generated correction data. The reference value is obtained by performing color measurement by the color measure portion and is registered in association with a type of sheet on which the chart image is formed, and in a case where the type of sheet on which the chart image is formed is changed, the reference value is updated.

A method of processing linearized and non-linearized Portable Document Format (PDF) files for printing comprises: determining by printer firmware if a printer driver detected that the PDF file is linearized; saving stream data of the PDF file by the printer firmware when the printer firmware determines the printer driver detected that the PDF file is linearized; and determining by the printer firmware if the PDF file is linearized when the PDF file is unidentified as being linearized by the printer driver, wherein the printer firmware identifies real and false linearization error during linearized processing and identifies and processes printing errors in a parallel manner during saving and interpreting stream data.

In a printer, when a storage print job is a print job for execution of carbon-copy printing, a controller performs: creating a plurality of bit map data by rasterizing page-description-language data contained in the storage print job a plurality of times; storing the created bit map data; and controlling an image former to print images based on the stored bit map data when a print instruction for the storage print job is received. When the storage print job is a print job not for execution of the carbon-copy printing, the controller performs: storing the page-description-language data contained in the storage print job; when the print instruction for the storage print job is received, rasterizing the stored page-description-language data to create bit map data; and controlling the image former to print an image based on the created bit map data.

A print control apparatus for controlling a printing apparatus that calculates the amount of change between a designated color and a color measured, and is capable of executing a color accuracy verification, and a color correction includes: a job management unit that analyzes a print job and acquires a required color accuracy level, and calculates and manages a required time of the print job; an apparatus management unit that acquires a result of the color accuracy verification, predicts the degradation of the color accuracy, and calculates and manages a color correction effective time; and an output management unit that sets the output order of print jobs waiting to be output and the execution timing of the color correction, the required time of the print job, and the color correction effective time, and instructs the printing apparatus to execute the processing of the print job and the color correction.

An image forming apparatus which is capable of efficiently executing print jobs. The image forming apparatus receives a second print job after receiving a first print job and prints a plurality of copies of print data corresponding to the first print job. Whether or not the print data is to be printed by sort printing is determined, and when the print data is to be printed by sort printing, reception of the second print job is restricted until printing of the print data is completed, and when the print data is not to be printed by sort printing, reception of the second print job is not restricted even before printing of the print data is completed.

An image processing apparatus includes a reception unit configured to receive PDL data, an intermediate data generation unit configured to generate intermediate data on a basis of the received PDL data, a determination unit configured to determine units of generation for the intermediate data, and a transmission unit configured to transmit the intermediate data to a raster image generation unit configured to generate a raster image from the intermediate data each time the intermediate data is generated. The intermediate data includes edge information and filling information corresponding to an area surrounded by respective edges. The determination unit determines units of generation for the edge information and units of generation for the filling information. When the intermediate data generated by the generation unit is large, the units for the generation of the filling information are set to be larger than the units for the generation of the intermediate data.

Methods and apparatus for processing a page description language (“PDL”) data stream are provided. The methods and apparatus divide the PDL data stream to provide a plurality of PDL segments, create associated first and second data files for each of the PDL segments, and assign the first data file or the second data file associated with each of the PDL segments to at least one of a plurality of PDL processors.