JPH0918732A - Image processor and its method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information processor and its method in which a high speed full color output is attached without a multi-value bit map memory in full pages in a color printer receiving color PDL data and reproducing a color of multi-value. SOLUTION: When received color PDL data are capable of rendering in the unit of bands via a band memory 10 having a capacity of two bands less than the capacity of one page of the data, a hard renderer 9 applies rendering to data in color sequence and provides an output in the unit of bands. On the other hand, when rendering is disabled, a resolution conversion section 406 conducts resolution conversion of data or a data quantity of the color PDL data is reduced by halftone processing by referring a dither table 15, the hard renderer 9 applies rendering to color image data for one page and the result is stored once in a band memory 10 or a management RAM 7 and color image data for one page are outputted in the unit of bands.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a method thereof, for example, an information processing apparatus and a method thereof for outputting a color image of high resolution or high gradation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the recent advent of high-performance workstations, personal computers, etc. (hereinafter referred to as host computers), an environment has been established in which full-color characters, figures, image data, etc. can be easily handled. Along with this, documents using color image information,
Color image information is used in a wide range of fields such as OHP, slides, art, and design.

In this way, CAD, CG, color DTP
Applications for handling color information are used in a wide range of fields, and in order to print out the color information created on the host computer side on a recording medium, the color information is output from a printer or other output device. Had to send to. The printer in this case is a so-called dumb printer or video that first develops color information such as characters, images, and graphics into image information matching the resolution of the printer by the CPU on the host computer side, and then sends it to the printer side. The usage form as a printer was general.

This system is characterized in that the mechanism on the printer side is simplified and many processes are executed on the host computer side. However, when the processing target is color information, the amount of data is large, so that a large amount of time is spent in data communication between the host computer and the printer, and overall throughput may drop significantly. is there.

Therefore, for example, in a monochrome printer,
Page Description Language (PDL)
By applying the method, it was possible to reduce the amount of data to be communicated. PDL is linguistic information obtained by encoding image information such as characters, figures, images, etc., and information to be recorded is transmitted from the host computer side as PDL,
The printer side interprets the PDL language, performs rendering, and scan-converts various information into a raster page memory corresponding to the resolution of the printer, thereby generating image information for one page.

Color PDL printers, in which this PDL system is also applied to color printers, have become popular in recent years.

Conventional color PDL printers are roughly classified into binary printers and multi-value printers.

A binary color printer represented by an ink jet type or a thermal transfer type has a page memory for 1 bit per pixel for each color of YMCK, as in a monochrome printer. The dither method is basically used in the processing such as color image, color character, and filling by specifying the color, and when pursuing the color accuracy, the resolution is sacrificed by the pseudo halftone processing such as the error diffusion method. The color gradation was reproduced in a pseudo manner.

On the other hand, in a multi-value color printer represented by a high-performance ink jet printer or a color LBP, a plurality of gradations / density (for example, 256 gradations of each color) can be expressed in each pixel for each color of YMCK. Is. In this printer, it is possible to obtain a high quality output by holding the color designated by the host computer as it is inside the printer and sending it to the printer engine section without performing the above pseudo halftone processing. .

[0010]

However, the above-mentioned conventional multi-value color printer requires a page memory for storing multi-value YMCK color data. This is, for example, a gradation of 8 bits for each color and a resolution of 300DP
I, if the maximum paper size is A4 size, 1M
A page memory capacity of B × 4 (color) × 8 (bit) = 32 MB is required.

That is, a multi-value color printer can output a higher definition image than a binary color printer, but the required page memory capacity is significantly larger. Therefore, the multi-value color printer has a larger physical memory size than the binary color printer, and the cost is much higher.

In the present invention, in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional information processing apparatus, in a color printer capable of multi-value color reproduction, information that enables high-speed full-color output without using a full-page multi-value bitmap memory An object of the present invention is to provide a processing device and a method thereof.

[0013]

As one means for achieving the above object, an information processing apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration.

That is, input means for inputting color PDL data, rendering means for rendering the color PDL data, holding means for holding the rendered color image data, and holding means held by the holding means. In an information processing device having an output means for outputting the rendered color image data, holding the rendered color image data in the holding means, and the rendered color already held in the holding means It is characterized by having a control means for controlling to execute the output of the image data to the output means in parallel.

For example, the holding means includes at least two band areas having a capacity less than one page of the color image data, and the control means implements the color PDL data for one of the band areas. In parallel with rendering in time, a banding process for outputting the rendered color image data already held in the other one of the band areas to the output means is performed.

For example, the color PDL data is color multi-valued image data, and the rendering means and the output means have a color P for each color of the color multi-valued image data.
It is characterized in that DL data is rendered and output. Furthermore, the color PD input by the input means
The rendering unit has a degrading unit that reduces the data amount of the color PDL data so that one unit of the L data can be held by the holding unit, and the rendering unit has one page whose data amount has been reduced by the degrading unit. The color PDL data for one minute is rendered.

For example, the color PDL data is color multi-valued image data, and the control means outputs the rendered color image data after the rendering means completes rendering for all colors of the color image data. It is characterized in that the output means controls to output in band units. Further, the control means has a judgment means for judging whether or not the banding processing is possible, and when the judgment means judges that the banding is impossible, the degrading means determines the color PDL data. It is characterized by reducing the amount of data.

For example, the judgment means judges that banding is impossible when one page of the color PDL data input by the input means cannot be held by the holding means. . Further, the rendering means has a time prediction means for predicting a time required for rendering the color PDL data, and the judging means performs banding when the rendering time predicted by the time prediction time is a predetermined value or more. Characterized by determining that it is impossible.

For example, the degrading means is a resolution converting means for converting the resolution of the color PDL data. For example, the degrading means is
It is characterized in that it is a halftone processing means for performing halftone processing of the color PDL data. For example, the halftone process is a dither process.

For example, the color PDL data input by the input means is data described in a page description language. In addition, in an information processing apparatus that renders and outputs color PDL data, if it is possible to render and output color PDL data in a predetermined band unit that is less than one page, sequentially output each color in the band unit. If not possible, the data amount of the color PDL data is reduced, rendering is performed for the color PDL data for one page, and the color image data for one page is output in the band unit. To do.

Further, as one method for achieving the above-mentioned object, the information processing method of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, in the information processing method of inputting color PDL data, performing rendering, retaining the rendered color image data in a memory, and outputting the color image data in the memory, the rendered color in the memory Holding the image data and outputting the rendered color image data already held in the memory are executed in parallel.

For example, the memory is provided with at least two band areas having a capacity less than one page of the color image data, and the color PDL data is rendered in real time to one of the band areas. In parallel with the above, a banding process for outputting the rendered color image data already held in the other of the band regions is executed.

For example, the color image data is color multi-valued image data, and the color PDL data is rendered and output for each color of the color multi-valued image data. Furthermore, one page of the input color PDL data can be held in the memory,
The data amount of the color PDL data is reduced, and the rendering is performed on the color PDL data for one page in which the data amount is reduced.

For example, the color image data is multi-valued color image data, and the rendered color image data is output in band units after the rendering of all the colors of the color image data is completed. . For example, when it is determined that the banding process is impossible, the data amount of the color PDL data is reduced.

For example, if it is possible to render and output color PDL data in a predetermined band unit that is less than one page, the colors are sequentially output in the band unit, and if it is not possible, the color PDL data is output. Of the color PDL data for one page is reduced and the color image data for one page is output in the band unit.

With the above configuration, it is possible to perform high-speed rendering output of color information by banding processing without providing a large amount of full page bitmap memory. Further, even when the banding process is impossible, by reducing the data amount of the color information, it is possible to obtain a peculiar effect that high-speed rendering output is possible.

[0027]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<First Embodiment> [Outline of Processing] First, the features of the image output apparatus of this embodiment will be described. In the image output device of the present embodiment, multivalued color reproduction is possible, and a multivalued bit map memory (band memory) for a plurality of predetermined bands, which does not fill a full page, is used to develop a color image at high speed. It is characterized by performing. Hereinafter, processing by a plurality of band memories will be referred to as "banding", and a detailed description will be given later.

However, when processing a large amount of data such that color image development cannot be realized in real time,
If print output is not possible due to the limitations of the hard accelerator, for example, by changing the 8-bit gradation expression to 2 bits and decreasing the gradation, or decreasing the resolution, all colors can be fully reproduced. Generates color image data for a page. Hereinafter, lowering gradation and resolution will be referred to as “degrade”. As a result of this degradation, assuming that the resolution is 300 DPI and the maximum paper size is A4 size, since the gradation is represented by 2 bits for each color, the page memory required to store the bitmap for full pages in this case is 1MB x 4 (color) x 2
(Bit) = 8 MB capacity is sufficient.

In the present embodiment, at the time of banding, the rendering of the input YMCK is executed for each color using a band memory having a predetermined capacity. However,
If the banding process cannot be performed due to lack of the storage area of the intermediate processing data, the YMCK data is first degraded. Then, for example, it is necessary to render the once input degraded intermediate data for the time being, and then render and output the remaining intermediate data. However, since it is not possible to collectively acquire the full page memory of each YMCK surface in the band memory, one page of image data is divided into a plurality of band areas, and the YMCK surface rendering is performed for each band area. Reserve memory for Then, the process of sequentially performing rendering for each band, releasing the rendered page object, and obtaining the rendering memory area of the next YMCK plane for one page is repeated to create a full page in the band memory and other memory. It is characterized by acquiring minutes of rendered page objects.

That is, in this embodiment, at least two band memories having a predetermined capacity less than the full page are provided for banding to realize high-speed rendering, but if banding is impossible, the band memory is input. By degrading the PDL data, it is possible to render a full page.

Here, comparing the color reproducibility due to the banding and the degradation described above, for example, A is the r-th power of A
If ^ r is used, banding: (2 ^ 8) ^ 4 = 4.2 × 10 ^ 9 colors can be reproduced. Degrade: (2 ^ 2) ^ 4 = 256 colors can be reproduced.

That is, in banding, a sufficient color gradation according to the color designated by the user can be output, but in the case of degradation, only 256 gradations can be expressed, and there is a high possibility that sufficient gradation expression cannot be achieved. Therefore, if you want to perform high gradation output when applying a degradation,
It is necessary to further apply pseudo halftone processing such as the dither method and the error diffusion method.

The image output processing of this embodiment for performing the banding and the degradation described above will be described in detail below.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the system configuration of the image output apparatus of this embodiment. First, a rough flow of image output processing will be shown with reference to FIG.

[Overall Configuration] In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is a computer such as a host computer (hereinafter referred to as WS), 13 is a printer which is a recording device, and 14 is a printer controller which controls the printer 13.

In WS1, color information is created by a color application, and the created color information is PDL.
The PDL data is converted into a format and sent to the printer controller 14. Here, WS1 and printer 1
Although PDL data flows to and from No. 3, there is no problem in the form of communication such as serial, network, bus connection, etc., but it is desirable to use a high-speed communication path in terms of performance. In the printer controller 14, the sent color PDL data is first stored in the input buffer 2, and the input data in the input buffer 2 is scanned according to the PDL command analysis program in the program ROM 6. A font ROM 3 stores a bit pattern of characters, outline information, and a character baseline and character metric information, and is used when outputting characters. A panel IOP 4 is an I / O processor and firmware that controls the switch input on the operation panel mounted on the printer controller 14 and the display on the LCD, and a low-cost CPU is used. 5
Is an extension interface (I / F), and is a circuit that controls the interface with other extension modules (for example, font ROM, program ROM, RAM, hard disk, etc.) in the printer controller 14.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a program ROM that stores software in this embodiment, and the software is read by the CPU 12 to execute processing. Reference numeral 7 denotes a management area RAM for the software, which stores the data obtained by analyzing the input PDL data and converting it into an intermediate data format (page object), global information and the like, and also serves as a so-called work area of the CPU 12. Also used.

Reference numeral 8 denotes color conversion hardware, which is a general W
It is hardware that performs conversion from the RGB (additive color mixture) color space, which is the color system of the monitor used in S1, to the YMCK (subtractive color mixture) color space used for the color ink of the printer 13. In the color conversion processing, if color accuracy is pursued, it is necessary to perform non-linear log conversion, 3 × 3 matrix calculation, etc., and the processing amount becomes a considerable load, so a hardware lookup is required. By using a table (LUT) or the like, the processing speed is increased. The parameters in this LUT are initially adjusted to the optimum values for the printer 13, but WS1
If there is a request from the side to change the color conversion method, the LUT
It is possible to change the color conversion algorithm as required by the user by changing the value of Also,
If the processing time is sacrificed, it is possible for the CPU 12 to perform calculation by software.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a hard renderer, which executes the color rendering processing in the present embodiment by ASIC hardware to perform real-time rendering processing in synchronization with video transfer to the printer 13 and with a small memory capacity. Banding processing can be realized.

A band memory 10 is an area for storing an output image developed by PDL data. When the banding described above is performed, the capacity of the band memory 10 is such that the capacity for one band is (page width (bit number) × band height (bit number) of about 256 or 512 × color depth (bit number)). ), It is necessary to secure at least two bands of bitmap memory required by (1). or,
If you can not band, that is, when degrading,
For example, if the printer 13 is LBP, it is necessary to transfer the image in synchronization with the LBP, and the resolution and / or
Alternatively, it is necessary to secure a full-color bitmap memory for one page in which the color gradation is dropped. Details of the above memory acquisition algorithm will be described later.

A dither table 15 has a plurality of dither patterns. In order to reproduce color accuracy with a small bit depth when the color depth (bit number indicating the color) allowed in the band memory 10 storing the rendered image is smaller than the color depth of the image to be rendered. , Use this dither pattern.

11 is a printer interface (I / F)
The contents of the band memory 10 are transferred as video information between the printer controller 14 and the printer 13 which is, for example, an LBP in synchronization with the horizontal / vertical synchronization signals on the printer 13 side. When the printer 13 is, for example, an inkjet printer, head control and video information transfer according to the head size of a plurality of lines are performed. The printer I / F 11 also sends commands to the printer 13 and receives status from the printer 13.

The CPU 12 is an arithmetic unit for controlling the processing inside the printer controller, and controls the processing of this embodiment based on the software in the program ROM as described above. A color printer 13 prints and outputs a video signal sent from the printer controller 14 onto a recording medium, and may be a color LBP based on an electrophotographic system or a printer based on an inkjet system.

The band memory 10 and the management RAM 7 shown in FIG. 1 may be independently secured as a memory address space, or may be secured as a continuous area.

Further, in FIG. 1, each arrow indicates the flow of image data from WS1 to the printer 13. The flow of this image data is defined by the software in the program ROM 6, and the flow of this processing will be described below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the image output processing in this embodiment. First, in step S101, PDL data is loaded into the input buffer 2 by interrupt processing or the like, and then in step S102, the input PDL data is analyzed according to the language specification. Then, in step S103, as a result of analyzing the PDL data,
It is determined whether the input data is a drawing command such as a character, straight line, or image drawing command. If the input data is a drawing command, the PDL data is converted into a page object format supported by the hard renderer 9 in step S104. , In the management RAM 7.

[Rendering Model] Here, for understanding of the following description, a rendering model in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the rendering of the present embodiment, the PDL data is used to determine mask information indicating a drawing area, background information indicating color information for a predetermined area indicated by the mask information, and background information for the mask information. And logical drawing information indicating whether to perform logical synthesis.

In the model shown in FIG. 3, reference numeral 151 is geometric information of various drawing data, that is, mask information that can be expressed by 1 bit of ON / OFF indicating which portion is a drawing target, and 152 is mask information. This is color multi-valued background information indicating in what color the dots indicated by 151 are painted.

Here, the background information is information indicating how to add color / shade to the mask information. As the type of background information in the present embodiment, a background pattern that is attached to the mask without repeating the image and a tile pattern that is attached to the mask like a tile by repeating the pattern vertically / horizontally can be specified. Is. Since the printer 13 of this embodiment can perform color printing, both the background pattern and the tile pattern can be designated as color information.

The rendering in this embodiment is performed by the mask information 151, the background information 152, and
How to combine the mask information 151 and the background information 152 (for example, SET, OR, XOR, BLE)
(ND, ADD, etc.) and logical drawing method information indicating the three elements. For example, when performing clipping processing with an arbitrary shape, the shape data indicated by the mask information 151 is first clipped, and only the area remaining after clipping is used as a mask. As a result, the rendered image is as shown at 154.

[Mask Information] Next, the mask information in this embodiment will be described. The mask information supported in this embodiment is specified as a run length (scan line in the main scanning direction (X direction)), a convex polygon with no edges intersecting, a bitmap image, a bitmap font, or the like. The hard renderer 9 of the present embodiment has a structure suitable for high-speed hardware rendering of these mask information. For example, the pentagonal mask information shown in (a) of FIG. It is divided into five non-intersecting triangles (tri1 to tri5) as shown in FIG. 4 (b) and filled in as shown in FIG. 4 (a). In addition, the filling shown in (a) and (b) of FIG. 4 shows an example in which the even-odd rule is applied.

Further, in the line connection processing section as shown in FIG. 4C, the DDA algorithm is applied to the work area in the management RAM 7 and the line connection information (round, m
Iter, triangle) is developed and the final external shape is min_x, max_x for each Y scan line.
Is stored as pair information in the run length method, and is prepared for subsequent high-speed rendering (step S111).

Each mask object finally generated in this way divides the page memory into a plurality of bands in order to perform rendering with a memory capacity smaller than the full page memory, that is, banding in the present embodiment. In addition, it is desirable that one band has a height corresponding to a power of 2 dots, and for example, about 512 dots is optimum. Then, each mask object is sorted for each band, and a linked list as shown in (d) of FIG. 4 is formed in each band. The linked list shown in (d) of FIG. 4 corresponds to the mask information shown in (b) of FIG. 4. For example, in band 2 shown in (b) of FIG. tri1,
It indicates that tri4 is included.

That is, regarding the mask information (polygonal mask information) straddling the bands, the polygonal information is shared by each band.

In step S105 of FIG. 2, the decoding time and the rendering time of the data required at the time of rendering are obtained for each mask information divided for each band and added for each band.

Then, the estimated time information obtained is used for each color (Y
Hold for each band i in the plane P for each MCK),
Pred_decode (Pi) as the decoding time and pred_render (Pi) as the rendering time are held for P × i each.

The decoding time is almost proportional to the data amount of the created object. However, for example, the decoding time of tri1 and tri4 in band 3 shown in FIG. 4 requires extra time to find the offset of the starting point of the polygon in band 3 from the starting point of the immediately preceding band 2.

The rendering time is obtained by (mask area in band) × (color depth of bag ground) × (calculation factor depending on the type of logical drawing).

Generally, the K plane (black) is likely to be included in any mask object, but C
Since the MY plane is not used for black characters or the like, the addition of the prediction time in step S105 is not executed for an object containing only K information (corresponding to CMY object).

Returning to FIG. 2, if the PDL data input in step S103 is not a drawing command,
In step S106, it is determined whether or not the PDL data is a setting command for various attributes (background, logic drawing, etc.). If it is an attribute setting command, step S10.
In step 7, the current state process corresponding to each attribute is executed. In the current state process, when the background information in the PDL data is analyzed and the analysis result is stored in the management RAM, the RGB data sent from WS1 is converted into YMC by the color conversion hardware 8.
It is converted into K color and held as background information. That is, the current state process is to convert PDL data into a data format (object format) that can be read by the hard renderer 9. It is possible to implement the color conversion by software instead of hardware, but it is preferable to use hardware for speeding up the processing.

On the other hand, if the PDL data is not a setting command of various attributes in step S106, step S10
Proceed to 8. In step 108, dump processing of the current state is performed for the purpose of debugging processing, for example. And
The process returns to step S102.

When the time prediction in step S105 or the current state setting process in step S107 is completed, the process proceeds to step S109, it is determined whether the PDL data analysis for one page is completed, and if it is not completed. It returns to step S102. This step S
The processing from 102 to S109 is a data filtering task from PDL data to object data, which is so-called interpreter processing (hereinafter referred to as an interpreter task). Then, the rendering task of performing the rendering process of the present embodiment for drawing on the band memory 10 is started from step S110 and thereafter. Both of these tasks are implemented as separate tasks on the real-time OS, since real-time processing is required particularly in the rendering task. In addition, the rendering task is set to a high priority so that it operates with priority over the interpreter task.

In step S110, as a preprocessing of rendering, it is determined whether the page object can be banded. Hereinafter, rendering by banding is referred to as "band rendering". Here, examples of cases where banding processing is impossible are listed below.

A Flood Fill command (point-designated fill) exists in the page.

By inputting a large amount of image data, information to be stored in the management RAM 7 serving as a work area overflows (memory degradation).

The printer 13 is an electrophotographic LBP or LED.
In the case of a printer, once the recording paper is fed and recording is started, it is necessary to perform the video signal transfer to the printer 13 and the rendering to the band in parallel in the banding process. Rendering time for each band pred_decode (Pi), pred_render
Regarding (Pi), a certain threshold is exceeded in any band of a certain color plane (time degradation).

When it is detected in step S110 that one of the above conditions is met, banding cannot be executed, so the full paint flag (ful-p-flag) is set and the process proceeds to step S112. Then, the resolution and / or the gradation of the output image are forcibly reduced, and full paint rendering in the degraded mode is performed. That is, rendering is performed while generating full paint information in the band memory 10 and the management RAM 7. This full paint rendering will be described later.

In the case where the printer 13 is an ink jet printer or the like in which the movement of the recording head can be controlled by the printer controller 14 side, the moving speed of the recording head is reduced under the above condition (time degradation). By doing so, banding processing becomes possible.

Now, with reference to FIG. 5, the execution of rendering by the banding process and the degradation process of this embodiment will be described. It should be noted that FIG.
The same numbers are given to the same configurations as.

According to FIG. 5, that is, first, the background information obtained as a result of analyzing the PDL data in the input buffer 2 is input to the color conversion section hardware 8 as RGB multi-valued data and converted into YMCK data. . When it is determined in step S110 that banding is possible, the hard renderer 9 refers to the mask information in the input buffer 2 to perform band-by-band rendering, and the band-based video signal is supplied via the band memory 10. Is output to the printer 13.

On the other hand, if banding is not possible, the mask information is degraded by the resolution conversion unit 406, then one page is rendered by the hard renderer 9, and the band memory 10 and the management RAM 7 are used.
At, the video signals for full pages of each color are once generated. At this time, the dither table 15 is referred to for gradation conversion as needed. Then, the video signal for one page is output to the printer 13 in band units.

[Band Rendering] The banding process in this embodiment will be described in detail below with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 6, page object information is first created in the management RAM 7 by an interpreter task that analyzes PDL data. For example, consider a case where triangular mask information is provided across the 0th band and the 1st band of the i-th page as illustrated. Then, the rendering task activates the hard renderer 9 to read the page object information in band units. Then, the scan line information (x_min, x_max) at the Y coordinate is extracted from the mask information, and the corresponding background information is referred to the band memory 1 by referring to the current background information and the logical drawing mode.
Write to 0. Then, by changing the height information at the Y coordinate so as to correspond to all the masks, rendering is performed in band units. When the i-th page is being rendered in the management RAM 7, the i + 1-th page PDL data is simultaneously expanded by the interpreter task.

In FIG. 6, the first memory in the band memory 10 is
The band is a band memory for rendering the object information read in the management RAM 7 as information of the first band, and indicates that the hard renderer 9 is currently rendering. At this time, the raster data of the 0th band that has already been rendered is the printer I / F1.
The video is transferred to the printer 13 via 1. Since the printer 13 is assumed to be a color printer in this embodiment, the band memory 10 has four surfaces, that is, YMCK.
Rendering is performed for each color information item. Although (n + 1) bands are shown in the figure, two bands are actually enough.

Here, there are three types of drawing logic that can be supported by the hard renderer 9 of this embodiment, where S is the source object, M is the mask information, and D is the destination (rendered image information). .

-Overwrite; SET (D = S) -Transmission (do not draw on D); TRANSP (D = S if M = 1, D = D if M ≠ 1) -White; WHITE (D = 0) As can be seen from these three types of examples, in the hard renderer 9 of the present embodiment, for example, both pieces of information are input between S and D, and D is set after calculation is performed between them. Processing (blending) with a relatively large calculation load is not supported. This is for avoiding a degradation when the amount of data calculation becomes very large when each plane expresses a gradation of 4 to 8 bits.

[Hard Renderer 9] The hard renderer 9 in this embodiment will be described below. FIG.
3 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a hard renderer 9. FIG.
In FIG. 7, reference numeral 801 denotes a micro-execution analysis unit, which reads a microcode 807 prepared in advance and analyzes the intermediate information generated by the above-described interpreter task. FIG. 8 shows an example of the generated intermediate information. Then, the background, mask, and destination information necessary for each hardware configuration in FIG. 7 is cut out from the intermediate information, supplied to each configuration, and activated for parallel processing.

In FIG. 7, a mask generation unit 802 receives the input mask information via a FIFO (not shown), details of the mask information (run length, bitmap, etc.) and a logical drawing mode (SET, TRANSP
Etc.) and sends it to the decoding unit for analysis and pays attention to X, Y
Generate coordinates. Then, the X and Y coordinates are converted into the background pattern generation unit 803 and the destination unit 80.
5 and passes the corresponding information to the rendering unit 8
Trigger to send to 06.

The background pattern generation unit 803 calculates the X, Y coordinates (x, y) of the upper leftmost end to be drawn in the band based on the acquired mask information, and uses the multivalued background information corresponding to each coordinate. The memory address in which the data is stored is calculated, and the background pattern for the specified (x, y) position is generated.

For example, if the background information is 32 × 32
If the tile is nbit-pixel deep with the size of
The memory address where the data is stored is calculated by the following formula.

Tile-address = tile-top-addres (C, or M,
or Y) + (y mod 32) * tile-width (byteboundary) + (x mod 3
2) * nbit-pixel (tile) / 8 Further, the destination unit 805 also performs the same processing.

In the rendering unit 806, mask information,
The background information and the destination pattern are collected, the rendering is executed according to the logical drawing mode, and the rendering result is obtained by the destination unit 80.
Store in 5.

A mask generation unit 802, a background pattern generation unit 803, and a destination unit 805.
In (1), the overall processing speed is determined depending on the slowest processing speed among these three structures.

The mask generation and rendering processing described above is continued until the entire area of one mask is completed.

In the hard renderer 9, 1 shown in FIG.
When the rendering of one intermediate information is completed, the rendering of the next intermediate information is attempted by referring to the data of the next pointer 905. If the intermediate information cannot be hard-rendered, that is, if the state flag 901 is determined to be soft rendering (0), the CPU 12 is instructed to specify the interrupt signal and the start address of the intermediate information that cannot be currently processed. To do. As a result, the K, CPU 12 activates the soft renderer, and the software renders the intermediate information.

[Rendering and Shipping] The band rendering and shipping of color information in this embodiment will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in step S951, the color plane to be rendered is determined according to the specifications of the recording order in the printer 13. Next, proceeding to step S952, the first band (band with band number 1) is first rendered according to the mask information, background information, and logical drawing method.

Next, in step S953, rendering is performed on the page object in the i-th band, and in accordance with the horizontal synchronizing signal sent from the printer 13 in step S954, the rendering has already been completed through the printer I / F 11. The band information of the (i-1) th band is sent to the printer 13 as a color video signal. The process of transmitting the color video signal in step S954 will be referred to as "shipping" hereinafter.

Then, in step S955, it is determined whether or not the shipping of all bands of the current color plane is completed. If not completed, the process proceeds to step S956, 1 is added to the band number i, and the process proceeds to step S953. Go back and render / ship the next band.

On the other hand, if all the shipping of the current color plane is completed in step S955, step S95
In step 7, it is determined whether there is a color plane to be rendered next. If not, the process ends, but
If any remain, the process returns to step S951 to execute the same process for the next color plane.

In the band rendering of this embodiment, the above-mentioned three kinds of color drawing logics (SET, WHI) are used.
The page data composed of TE, TRANSP) can be output at a sufficiently high speed by the hard renderer 9 shown in FIG. It should be noted that PostScript, LIPS, which is a page description language that is generally widely used at present.
Etc. are based on the color drawing logic of the present embodiment, so that color PDL data of almost any format can be rendered at high speed in the present embodiment.

The capacity of the band memory 10 is 256 (band height; y size) × 8 (color depth) × 2 ×
4800 (A4 size paper, width at 400 DPI) / 8
= 2.5MB or less, the band rendering of the present embodiment can be realized. Here, for example, if the color depth is 2 bits, the memory capacity can be realized by 1/4.

In addition, in the band memory 10, each color 8
It has a color depth of bits (for example, 2, 4 bits may be used if there is a memory limitation), and PDL data from WS1 is generally 1, 2, 4, 8 bits, so the corresponding Y
It is necessary to first store 1, 2, 4, 8-bit information for each MCK as a page object, and perform bit extension processing via the LUT at the time of rendering. However, this bit expansion processing has a very low calculation cost as compared with dither and error diffusion described later.

In this embodiment, high-speed processing is realized by performing rendering and shipping in parallel on a band-by-band basis using the band memory 10 for at least two bands.

[Degrading Rendering] Next, the degrading process performed when banding cannot be performed in this embodiment will be described in detail.

In the present embodiment, for the source object S and the destination D, the drawing logic capable of banding is SET (D =
S), TRANSP (D = D, or D = S), WHIT
It was E (D = 0). On the contrary, blending is a drawing logic that cannot be banded. This is a process in which both the information between S and D are input, the calculation is performed between both, and then D is set, so that the load of the calculation is relatively large, for example, addition: D = S + D -Subtraction; D = DS-Other blends; D = [alpha] * S + (1- [alpha]) * D ([alpha] value is specified by the user) -Maximum value; D = Max (S, D) -Minimum value; D = Processing such as Min (S, D) may be used. In WS1, logical drawing based on such blend is generally calculated on RGB data. Therefore, in order to perform the same color reproduction as that of WS1 in the printer 13, the R inside the printer 13 as well.
The blend needs to be realized on the GB color model. That is, the management RAM after the color conversion shown in FIG.
The object information stored in the band memory 10 and the rendered video information stored in the band memory 10 are Y
Although stored as an MCK object, it is necessary to temporarily convert these pieces of information into RGB data. Therefore, when degrading, the band height (256, or 5
For each 12), each band of YMCK needs to be rendered simultaneously.

[Main Algorithm for Degrading Rendering] The main algorithm for degrading rendering will be described below with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11.

Basically, the main algorithms of degraded rendering are resolution conversion processing, memory acquisition processing,
It is divided into three phases of rendering.

The degradation in this embodiment is as shown in FIG.
As shown in (a) of FIG.
It is detected as a memory degradation that does not fit in the storage area in AM7 or a time degradation when the estimated rendering time exceeds the threshold value. Note that, in FIG. 11, the band memory 10 and the management RAM 7 are regarded as a continuous memory area, and the band memory 10 is shown in the upper part and the area of the management RAM 7 is shown subsequently. The number in parentheses following each area name indicates the resolution of the image data stored in the area in units of DPI, and the hatched area in the figure is another area for management or unused. For example, according to FIG. 11A, the capacity of two bands for 600 DPI is secured as the band memory 10.
600DP to be rendered in the management RAM 7
The state in which the page object of I is stored is shown.
Of course, the band memory 10 includes a plurality of bands, but for simplicity of description, one band will be described as an example in FIG. 11.

FIG. 10 shows a flowchart of the main algorithm in the degraded rendering. First, in step S551, a thinning process is executed to reduce the resolution of all mask information of the input object to 1/2.
FIG. 11 shows a state in the management RAM 7 at the time of this resolution conversion.
(B) of FIG. That is, the page object is 600D
By converting the resolution from PI to 300 DPI, the area occupied by the page object in the management RAM 7 decreases and an empty area occurs. The details of the resolution conversion process of the mask information will be described later.

When the resolution conversion of the mask information of all the objects is completed in step S551, in step S552, the size of the object is reduced in the thinning process in order to create the bitmap for the full page used in the degrading process. Utilizing this, garbage collection (GC) of objects for organizing a memory space is executed. This state is shown in FIG. As can be seen from FIG. 11C, the memory space is rearranged in the order of the band memory 10, the empty area, and the page object.

Next, in step S553, a memory area of the size (corresponding to 300 DPI in FIG. 11) thinned for each plane of YMCK is obtained in the band memory 10, and in step S554, the corresponding YMK is obtained.
Rendering is performed in band units for each CK plane. This state is shown in FIG.

Then, in step S555, it is determined whether or not the rendering of all bands for one page is completed. If not completed, the process proceeds to step S556.
Delete the rendered page object. Then, the process returns to step S552 and the above process is repeated.
This state is shown in FIG. That is, page objects are rendered in band units and sequentially replaced with raster data.

On the other hand, if the rendering of all bands for each color is completed in step S555, that is, full-page raster data has been generated. Figure 1 shows this situation.
1 (f). 300 DPI generated in this way
The raster data of all the colors for one page is obtained in step S557.
At (1), the data is sequentially sent (shipping) to the printer 13 by the band through the printer I / F 11 in accordance with the horizontal / vertical synchronization signals. Since the full-page raster data in this case is resolution-converted from 600 DPI to 300 DPI, it is interleaved for each YMCK color plane.

As can be seen from FIG. 11, the band memory 10 and the management RAM 7 are used during the degraded rendering.
Does not limit the boundary. That is, in the degraded rendering, the usable memory area can be effectively used in order to generate the raster data for full pages of all colors.

[Resolution conversion of page object] Next, the resolution conversion processing in the degraded rendering will be described. In the case of degraded rendering, since the input object cannot be rendered in real time as it is, a full bitmap (bit depth) corresponding to the band memory 10 in which the resolution and / or gradation of the object is reduced is set. Rendering is performed on 2 or 4 bits).

In this case, since the hard renderer 9 is required to simplify and speed up the processing, it is not possible to perform real-time resolution conversion on mask information such as run length and convex polygon information at the time of rendering. Therefore, it is necessary to execute resolution conversion before rendering by the hard renderer 9. Hereinafter, the pre-rendering process (resolution conversion process) at the time of degrading will be described in detail.

As preprocessing for rendering, for example, 600
When the resolution is reduced from DPI to 300 DPI, two lines are combined into one run length when the mask information consists of run lengths, and the vertex coordinates are recalculated when the mask information consists of convex polygon information. Realize resolution conversion. This process is executed by the interpreter task for the mask information for all page objects in the management RAM 7.

When the mask information consists of run lengths, for example, two lines i, i + 1 of 600 DPI are used.
If the start / end points (leftmost point / rightmost point) of the X coordinate of x are set to xl (i) / xr (i) and xl (i + 1) / xr (i + 1) respectively, the new 300 DPI One start / end point, new_xl (i)
/ New_xr (i) is calculated by the following formula.

New_xl (i) = min (xl (i), xl (i + 1)) new_xr (i) = max (xr (i), xr (i + 1)) Also, the mask information is from the bitmap image. In such a case, the image information itself of the page object does not change, and the scaling factors in the x and y directions are each halved.

On the other hand, even if the gradation of the raster data in the band memory 10 is dropped, the hard renderer 9 still
Background information is different from mask information because it supports rendering with 2, 4 and 8 bit depth.
In particular, no load is applied to the CPU 12.

[Full Paint Rendering] Step S554 in the degraded rendering shown in FIG.
The concept of the rendering process indicated by will be described below. Since this process uses the memory for full pages for each color to render,
This is called rendering.

The algorithm for full paint rendering is shown in the flow chart of FIG. First, step S
At 501, the page object (mask information and background information) whose resolution has been converted by the interpreter task as described above is input. And step S
It is determined whether the object input in 502 is a drawing command, and if it is not a drawing command, step S5
In step 05, the background information and the logic drawing information are assigned to the global variables holding the current information.

On the other hand, if it is determined that the command is a drawing command, the flow advances to step S503 to collect mask information, background information, and logical drawing information, and then to step S50.
At 4, the rendering by the hard renderer 9 is executed.
Here, since the band memory 10 stores raster data having a depth of 2 or 4 bits, if image data corresponding to a depth of 8 bits is input as background information from PDL data, the depth of the raster data becomes 2 or 4 bits. It is necessary to execute pseudo halftone processing such as dither for conversion and error diffusion.

Then, the above process is repeated until it is determined in step S506 that the rendering for one band is completed.

In this way, in the degraded rendering in this embodiment, that is, full paint rendering is performed.

[Dithering Process] The dithering process for performing the gradation conversion in the hard renderer 9 will be described below with reference to FIG. The dither processing in this embodiment is necessary when the number of color gradations of input data is higher than the number of gradations in the band memory 10 as described above.

First, the principle of simple binarization will be described. For example, when 8-bit (256 levels) input is converted to 2 bits (4 levels), as shown in FIG. 13A, if the input value of the pixel of interest is less than “64”, “0”,
If "64" or more and less than "128", then "85", "12"
If "8" or more and less than "192", then "170", "25"
If "5" or less, "255" is output. These are 2 bits each and are (00), (01), (10), (1
Shown as 1). That is, as shown in (a) of FIG. 13, all 256 levels that are input have a threshold value of “85”,
Three areas (areas 0, 1, 1,
It is divided into 2). Then, in any area to which each 8-bit input value belongs, the binarization processing is performed so that the outputs are at both ends of the area according to the threshold value in the area. In FIG. 13A, a thick vertical line indicates an area delimiter, and an 8-bit level output value and a 2-bit level output value are shown in parentheses below the area delimiter. In addition, a thin vertical line indicates a level threshold value of 8 bits in each area.

Next, an example of applying the above-described binarization processing to multi-value dither will be described with reference to FIGS. 13 (b) and 13 (c).

FIG. 13B shows a target pixel block, and FIG. 13C shows a dither matrix corresponding to the target pixel. From these, a threshold value suitable for the target pixel is calculated, and the data of the target pixel is binarized by the threshold value. Here, the dither matrix shown in (c) of FIG. 13 repeats the same pattern on the management RAM 7 as a 4 × 4 pattern. The maximum value in the dither matrix is 255 / (bit level-1). Therefore,
In the example shown in FIG. 13, since four levels of output are performed, the maximum value in the dither matrix is 255/3,
That is, it becomes "85".

When a scaling request such as enlargement / reduction is made to the input data, the resolution in the band memory 10 is converted at the time of scaling before rendering.

The actual dither algorithm will be described below with reference to FIG.

1. First, the pixel of interest in the input data is read to determine which area shown in FIG. For example, in the pixel block shown in (b) of FIG. 13, the pixel value of interest is “180” and therefore belongs to area 2.

[0124] 2. Next, the value of the corresponding dither matrix is read and the matrix value is changed to a threshold value that matches this area. For example, the element value corresponding to the pixel of interest in the dither matrix shown in (c) of FIG. 13 is “74”. This is 74 + 85 × 2 = “244”
Replace with

[0125] 3. If the pixel data of interest is equal to or larger than the threshold value indicated by the dither matrix, the maximum value of the area is set, and if it is less than the threshold value, the minimum value of the area is set as the output value. For example, the pixel of interest “180” shown in FIG.
Is the corresponding replaced dither matrix element "24
Since it is less than 4 ", the minimum value" 170 "of area 2 is output.

4. The next pixel of interest is processed.

Dithering is performed by the above steps 1 to 4 and resolution conversion is performed. This resolution conversion process is LU
By using T, high speed conversion can be performed by hardware. This LUT has an input level of "0" to "2".
55 ”can be realized by storing in advance the dither-converted 2-bit output value at each element position of the 4 × 4 dither matrix. The table size is 256 × 4 × 4 × 2 for each YMCK.
Bit = 1024 bytes are required.

Here, the LUT for resolution conversion shown in FIG.
Here is an example. FIG. 14B is an LUT, which is accessed by the pointer shown in FIG. 14A in accordance with each 2-bit row address and column address corresponding to the input 8-bit level.

As described above, in the present embodiment, since halftone processing such as dithering is performed according to the capacity of the band memory 10, the number of gradations of the output video signal is set to the capacity of the band memory 10 that can be acquired. It turns out that they are proportional.

[Printer] The printer 13 which actually records an image in this embodiment will be described below.
The printer 13 of the present embodiment is a color inkjet printer, and its external view is shown in FIG.

In the figure, the spiral groove 500 of the lead screw 5005 that rotates via the driving force transmission gears 5009 to 5011 in association with the forward and reverse rotations of the drive motor 5013.
The carriage HC engaging with 4 has a pin (not shown), is supported by the guide rail 5003, and reciprocates in the directions of arrows a and b. The carriage HC has a recording head I
An integrated ink jet cartridge IJC having a JH and an ink tank IT is mounted. A paper pressing plate 5002 presses the recording paper P against the platen 5000 in the moving direction of the carriage HC. 500
Reference numeral 7,5008 denotes a photo coupler, which is a lever 5 of the carriage.
006 is a home position detector for confirming the existence in this area and switching the rotation direction of the motor 5013. Reference numeral 5016 denotes a member for supporting a cap member 5022 for capping the front surface of the recording head IJH.
Reference numeral 5 denotes a suction device that suctions the inside of the cap, and performs suction recovery of the recording head through the opening 5023 in the cap. 50
Reference numeral 17 denotes a cleaning blade. Reference numeral 5019 denotes a member that allows the blade to move in the front-rear direction. These members are supported by a main body support plate 5018. It goes without saying that the blade is not limited to this form and a known cleaning blade can be applied to this example. Reference numeral 5021 denotes a lever for starting suction for recovery of suction. The lever 5021 moves with the movement of the cam 5020 that engages with the carriage, and the driving force from the driving motor is controlled by a known transmission mechanism such as clutch switching. Is done.

The capping, cleaning, and suction recovery are configured such that the desired processing can be performed at their corresponding positions by the action of the lead screw 5005 when the carriage comes to the area on the home position side. A desired operation may be performed at a timing.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the color PDL data is printed out, a plurality of bitmap memories which are less than one page are provided as band memories, and rendering and output are performed on the band memories. By performing them in parallel, it is possible to perform printout with the highest throughput according to the printing speed on the printer side.

Further, even when the processing for each band is impossible, the resolution of the color image data is lowered to secure an area for one page on the band memory, and rendering and output can be performed.

Therefore, ordinary high speed printing can be performed with a small memory capacity, and at the same time, complicated data can be printed.

<Other Embodiments> The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments. For example, without performing dither processing at the time of degradation processing, input data may be input as it is, or bits may be converted as in the banding processing. It is also possible to render by truncating. As a result, the quality of the output image is reduced, but especially when software processing is performed, throughput is improved compared to when dither processing is performed, and this can be positioned as a draft mode, for example. That is, in FIG. 5 described above, the processing of the resolution conversion unit 406 is executed at the time of degradation, but the dither table 15 is not referred to by the hard renderer 9.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the dither processing was described as an example of the pseudo gradation processing for obtaining the color accuracy at the time of degrading, but it goes without saying that an error diffusion method, a density diffusion method or the like can be applied. .

Further, the hardware-like rendering process by the hard renderer 9 shown in FIG. 1 can be realized by software.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the resolution conversion processing and the gradation conversion processing at the time of degrading are described as independent processings, but by considering them at the same time, for example, the resolution is lowered and the gradation is reduced. It is also possible to use different types of degradation, such as a dropped degradation, or a degradation that emphasizes any of them depending on the image characteristics.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single device. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied to a case where the present invention is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus. In this case, the storage medium storing the program according to the present invention constitutes the present invention. Then, by reading the program from the storage medium into the system or device, the system or device operates in a predetermined manner.

[0141]

As described above, according to the present invention, when color image data is printed out, a bitmap memory for a plurality of bands less than one page is provided as a band memory, and rendering is performed on the band memory. By performing the output and the output in parallel, the print output can be performed with the maximum throughput according to the printing speed on the printer side.

Even when the processing for each band cannot be performed, the resolution and gradation of the color image data are reduced to secure an area for one page in the memory space including the band memory, and rendering and output are performed. be able to.

Therefore, ordinary high speed printing can be performed with a small memory capacity, and at the same time, complicated data can be printed.

[0144]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of an image output apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an outline of image output processing of the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining rendering in the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining mask information in rendering according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration for performing rendering according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining band rendering according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a hard renderer of this embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an intermediate data format handled by the hard renderer of this embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing full-color band rendering according to this embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a main algorithm of the degraded rendering according to this embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a memory space in the degraded rendering of the present embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing full paint rendering in the degraded rendering according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining the dither processing of this embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of an LUT that realizes the dither processing of this embodiment.

FIG. 15 is an external perspective view of the inkjet printer according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Host Computer 2 Data Input Buffer 3 Font ROM 4 Panel I / O Processor 5 Extended I / F 6 Program ROM 7 Management RAM 8 Color Conversion Hardware 9 Hard Renderer 10 Band Memory 11 Printer Interface 12 CPU 13 Printer 14 Controller 15 Dither table

Claims (20)

[Claims] 1. An input unit for inputting color PDL data, a rendering unit for rendering the color PDL data, a holding unit for holding the rendered color image data, and a holding unit held by the holding unit. In an information processing device having an output means for outputting the rendered color image data, holding the rendered color image data in the holding means, and the rendered color already held in the holding means An information processing apparatus, comprising: a control unit that controls to output the image data to the output unit in parallel. 2. The holding means has at least two band areas each having a capacity less than one page of the color image data.
The control means renders the color PDL data to one of the band areas in real time, and at the same time, the rendered color image already held in the other of the band areas. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a banding process for outputting data to the output means. 3. The color PDL data is color multi-valued image data, and the rendering unit and the output unit render and output the color PDL data for each color of the color multi-valued image data. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2. 4. A degrading unit that reduces the data amount of the color PDL data so that one page of the color PDL data input by the input unit can be held by the holding unit. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the rendering unit renders the color PDL data for one page whose data amount has been reduced by the degrading unit. 5. The color PDL data is color multi-valued image data, and the control unit sets the rendered color image data to the rendered color image data after the rendering unit finishes rendering for all the colors of the color image data. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the output unit controls the output in band units. 6. The control means further comprises a judging means for judging whether or not the banding process is possible, and when the judging means judges that banding is impossible, the degrading means is used. The color PD
The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the amount of L data is reduced. 7. The determining means determines that banding is impossible when one page of color PDL data input by the inputting means cannot be held by the holding means. The information processing device according to claim 6. 8. The method further comprises a time predicting means for predicting a time required for rendering the color PDL data in the rendering means, wherein the judging means determines that the rendering time predicted by the time predicted time is a predetermined value or more. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein it is determined that banding is impossible in a case where there is. 9. The degrading means is the color PD.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, which is a resolution conversion unit that performs resolution conversion of L data. 10. The color P is used for the degrading means.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, which is a halftone processing unit that performs halftone processing of DL data. 11. The information processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the halftone processing is dither processing. 12. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the color PDL data input by the input unit is data described in a page description language. 13. An information processing method for inputting color PDL data for rendering, retaining the rendered color image data in a memory, and outputting the color image data in the memory, wherein the rendering to the memory An information processing method, characterized in that holding of completed color image data and outputting of the rendered color image data already held in the memory are executed in parallel. 14. The memory has at least two band areas each having a capacity less than one page of the color image data.
The color PDL data is rendered to one of the band areas in real time, and at the same time, the rendered color image data already held in the other of the band areas is output. The information processing method according to claim 13, wherein a banding process is executed. 15. The information processing method according to claim 14, wherein the color image data is color multi-valued image data, and color PDL data is rendered and output for each color of the color multi-valued image data. . 16. The color PDL data is reduced in amount so that one page of the input color PDL data can be held in the memory, and the color of one page in which the data amount is reduced is reduced. The rendering is applied to the PDL data.
The information processing method according to any one of 3 and 14. 17. The color image data is multi-valued color image data, and the rendered color image data is output in band units after rendering of all colors of the color image data is completed. The information processing method according to claim 16. 18. The information processing method according to claim 17, wherein a data amount of the color PDL data is reduced when it is determined that the banding process is impossible. 19. In an information processing device for rendering and outputting color PDL data, if it is possible to render and output color PDL data in a predetermined band unit which is less than one page, the respective color units are sequentially arranged in the band unit. Output, and if not possible, reduce the data amount of the color PDL data to render one page of color PDL data, and output the one page of color image data in the band unit. An information processing device characterized by: 20. If the color PDL data can be rendered and output in a predetermined band unit which is less than one page, the colors are sequentially output in the band unit, and if not, the color PDL data is output. Of the color PDL data for one page is reduced and the color image data for one page is output in the band unit.