JP5393819B2 - Information processing apparatus and image processing apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming process using gradation.

  There is a process of forming an image from an electronic document and PDL data composed of a plurality of image objects (for example, characters, images, and graphics).

  The expression effect in which the color and density change step by step is called gradation.

  As a method of describing gradation using an image object, there is a method of designating a plurality of objects for which a filled area and its filled color are designated.

  The fill color is a method of expressing gradation by changing the fill color step by step and making the fill area adjacent.

  This representation method has a problem that the number of objects increases and the data size of the electronic document or PDL data increases.

  For this reason, there is a process for converting an object group expressing a gradation changing vertically or horizontally into image data of one line.

  The filled areas are combined into one filled area. (Patent Document 1).

  By painting the combined fill area while enlarging (repeating) one line of image data vertically or horizontally, an expression similar to a gradation expression using a plurality of objects is realized.

  FIG. 1 shows an example in which image formation is performed while horizontally expanding and halftone processing one line of image data.

  One-pixel data is acquired from the image data 101 of one line by the enlargement processing 102.

  The extracted 1-pixel data is subjected to halftone processing by the halftone processing 103 and written to the image forming destination memory 104.

  The above process is executed for all pixels in the filled area.

  In this way, if enlargement processing and halftone processing are performed for each pixel, it takes much time to form an image.

JP 2003-050683 A

  In the prior art, it is possible to reduce the data size of an electronic document or PDL data by expressing gradation with a filled area and one line of image data, but there is a problem that it takes time to form an image. It was.

In order to solve the above problems, an image forming system according to an aspect of the present invention is an image forming system including a host device and an image forming device, and the host device includes data indicating a plurality of filled areas ; data indicating a gradation consisting of data representing a plurality of fill color respectively corresponding to the plurality of filled area, and data indicating the that the plurality of fill area fill is coupled to one region, said plurality of fill color means for converting into a 1-line image data indicating a color change in, that sends to the image forming apparatus the data and the one-line image data representing a filled area filled area of said plurality of coupled to one and a hand stage, the image forming apparatus, showing a filled area filled area of said plurality of coupled to one Means for receiving the data and the one-line image data, the received data indicating the filled area in which the plurality of filled areas are combined into one, and the one-line image data, the data indicating the plurality of filled areas; Characterized in that it comprises means for converting to data indicating gradation consisting of data indicating the fill color in each of the plurality of fill areas, and means for rendering based on the data obtained by the means for conversion. To do.

  According to the present invention, gradation image formation represented by a filled area and one line of image data can be executed at high speed.

  In addition, since the electronic document and PDL data can be held as a filled area and one line of image data, the data size is reduced.

It is a figure which shows a mode that a gradation is expressed with a several filling area | region and a filling color. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a flow of overall processing in the image forming system according to Embodiment 1. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example in which the gradation according to the first exemplary embodiment is expressed by a method of specifying a plurality of filled areas and a filled color. FIG. It is a schematic diagram which shows a mode that a process speeds up by each process of Embodiment 1. FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a state in which an image forming apparatus processes a gradation expressed by a method for designating a plurality of paint areas and paint colors according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a state in which the image forming apparatus processes a gradation expressed by a painted area and one line image data according to the first exemplary embodiment. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a detailed flow of a drawing processing unit according to the first embodiment. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a detailed flow of a bitmap formation processing unit in a case where a gradation represented by a painted area and one line image data according to the first embodiment is drawn. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an outline of a process for forming a bitmap at a high speed with a plurality of fill areas and fill colors according to the first exemplary embodiment. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a detailed flow of processing in which the bitmap formation processing unit of Embodiment 1 forms a bitmap at a high speed with a plurality of fill areas and fill colors. FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an overall processing flow of the second embodiment.

(Embodiment 1)
In the present embodiment, an example will be described in which a user creates an electronic document including gradation expression using an application on a host host computer, which is a host device, and transmits the electronic document to an image forming apparatus to perform printing processing.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the overall processing flow in the image forming system according to the present embodiment.

  The user creates an electronic document including gradation expression using the application 201 on the host computer 200.

  The gradation expression by the application 201 is based on a method of designating a plurality of fill areas and fill colors.

  When the user executes printing with the application 201, electronic data including gradation expression is sent to the print processing command receiving unit 202.

  The print processing command receiving unit 202 calls the gradation determination processing unit 203 in order to determine whether or not there is a gradation expressed by a method of designating a plurality of fill areas and fill colors in the sent electronic data.

  The gradation determination processing unit 203 returns to the print processing command receiving unit 202 which data represents the gradation expression when there is a gradation expressed by a method of designating a plurality of filled areas and a filled color. .

  The print processing command receiving unit 202 passes the data constituting the gradation expression expressed by a method of designating a plurality of fill areas and fill colors to the gradation conversion processing unit 204.

  Further, the print processing command receiving unit 202 passes data other than data constituting the gradation expressed by a method of designating a plurality of filled areas and filled colors to the PDL data generation processing unit 205. The PDL data generation processing unit 205 converts this data into PDL data that can be interpreted by the image forming apparatus 210.

  The gradation conversion processing unit 204 generates a one-line image in which a plurality of fill areas are combined into one and the fill colors are combined for a gradation expressed by a method of designating a plurality of fill areas and a fill color. The gradation conversion processing unit 204 passes the converted painted area and 1-line image data to the PDL data generation processing unit 205.

  The PDL data generation processing unit 205 converts the combined fill area and 1-line image data into PDL data that can be interpreted by the image forming apparatus 210. The PDL data generation processing unit 205 passes the converted PDL data to the data transmission processing unit 206.

  The electronic data by the application 201 may include a plurality of gradation expressions. In this case, a plurality of filled areas and one-line image data combined in the PDL data are generated.

  The data transmission processing unit 206 transfers the PDL data to the image forming apparatus 210 by a data transfer method (connection using a network, Centronics, or USB). In this transfer, gradation expression is expressed by a filled area and one-line image data. Therefore, the data size of the PDL data to be transferred can be reduced, and the transfer process can be performed more quickly and efficiently.

  The PDL data transferred from the host computer 200 by the data transmission processing unit 206 is received and processed by the data receiving unit 211 of the image forming apparatus 210. The data receiving unit 211 passes the received PDL data to the PDL interpretation processing unit 212. The PDL interpretation processing unit 212 interprets the PDL data and passes the information to the display list generation processing unit 213.

  When gradation is expressed by specifying a plurality of fill areas and fill colors, the PDL interpretation processing unit 212 takes time to interpret PDL data unless the conversion processing by the gradation conversion processing unit 204 is performed. This is because the PDL interpretation processing unit 212 needs to interpret a plurality of PDL data for one gradation expression. However, according to the present embodiment in which the conversion processing by the gradation conversion processing unit 204 is performed, the gradation expression can be expressed by a solid region combined with one and one line image data, so the processing by the PDL interpretation processing unit 212 is shortened. Can be done in time.

  The display list generation processing unit 213 converts the data interpreted by the PDL interpretation processing unit 212 into a data format that can be interpreted by the drawing processing unit 220, and stores it as a display list 214.

  The drawing processing unit 220 includes a display list interpretation processing unit 215, a gradation reverse determination processing unit 216, a gradation reverse conversion processing unit 217, and a bitmap formation processing unit 218.

  The display list 214 generated and stored by the display list generation processing unit 213 is interpreted by the display list interpretation processing unit 215.

  The display list interpretation processing unit 215 interprets the display list 214 and calls the gradation reverse determination processing unit 216 in order to determine whether or not the data representing the gradation by the combined fill area and 1-line image data is included.

  The gradation reverse determination processing unit 216 returns to the display list interpretation processing unit 215 which data represents the gradation when there is a gradation expressed by the combined fill region and one line image data.

  The display list interpretation processing unit 215 passes the data constituting the gradation expressed by the combined paint area and 1-line image data to the gradation inverse conversion processing unit 217. On the other hand, data other than the data constituting the gradation expressed by the combined filled area and 1-line image data is transferred to the bitmap formation processing unit 218, and an image is formed on the bitmap memory 219 by this data.

  The gradation reverse conversion processing unit 217 converts the gradation expressed by the combined fill area and the one-line image data from the interpretation processing unit 215 into a gradation expression expressed by a method of designating a plurality of fill areas and fill colors. Convert. This gradation expression is passed to the bitmap formation processing unit 218. The bitmap formation processing unit 218 forms an image on the bitmap memory 219, which is obtained by inverse conversion and expressed by a method of designating a plurality of paint areas and paint colors.

  By performing such processing according to the present embodiment, it is possible to handle the PDL data in the intermediate process with a small data size and a small amount of processing, and further, it is possible to perform processing at the time of expanding into a bitmap at high speed. It becomes.

  Here, the bit map indicates a page or band memory having CMYK 1, 2, and 4 bits as a pixel format.

  An example in which gradation is expressed by a method of designating a plurality of filled areas and a filled color will be described with reference to FIG.

  Reference numeral 301 indicates an image formation result of gradation expression in which the color changes in the vertical direction. The gradation-formed image formation result 301 includes a plurality of objects 302 when expressed by a method of designating a plurality of fill areas and fill colors.

  In the case of a gradation in which the color changes in the vertical direction, the plurality of objects 302 includes a plurality of filled areas that are a plurality of rectangular areas divided in the height direction.

  Since the gradation of the image formation result 301 becomes higher as it goes from the top to the bottom in the figure, for each rectangular area of the plurality of objects 302, the filled area drawn in the lower part in the figure has a higher luminance fill. A color is specified.

  Processing according to the present embodiment, which converts a gradation expressed by a method of designating a plurality of filled areas and a filled color into a gradation expressed by a combined filled area and one line image data, using FIGS. The advantages will be described.

  A gradation expressed by a method of designating a plurality of filled areas 401 and filled colors on the host computer 200 is converted into a gradation 402 expressed by the combined filled area and one line image data (FIG. 4). By this conversion, the object including the gradation can be made one. For the gradation 402 obtained by conversion, an enlargement ratio can be designated and transferred to the image forming apparatus 210.

  By performing such processing, the data size transferred from the host computer 200 to the image forming apparatus 210 can be reduced, and the transfer speed can be improved.

  The plurality of filled areas 401 are expressed by five rectangular objects. However, in the present embodiment, the gradation expressed by a method of designating a plurality of filled areas and fill colors is limited to five objects. It is not a thing. In order to actually draw a beautiful gradation, it is necessary to divide into more objects, and the data size in that case becomes large.

  The image forming apparatus 210 interprets data of the gradation expression 403 expressed by the combined fill area and one-line image data sent from the host computer 200 as PDL data. This process can also be speeded up because the object is composed of one object. In the image forming apparatus 210, after data interpretation, the image forming apparatus 210 performs inverse conversion into gradation expressed by a method of designating a plurality of filled areas and filled colors, and performs drawing.

  Details of processing by the image forming apparatus will be described by comparing the flowcharts of FIGS. 5 and 6.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a flow in which the image forming apparatus processes a gradation expressed by a method of designating a plurality of filled areas and a filled color as usual.

  The processing subject in step S501 is the data reception processing unit 211, the processing subject in steps S502 to S505 and S508 is the PDL processing interpretation processing unit 212, and the processing subject in steps S506 to S507 is the display list generation processing unit 213.

  The data reception processing unit 211 receives the PDL data and passes it to the PDL interpretation processing unit 212 (S501). The PDL interpretation processing unit 212 interprets the PDL data (S502), extracts the drawing position (S503), the drawing width (S504), and the fill color (S505) as the drawing color, and passes them to the display list generation processing unit 213.

  The display list generation processing unit 213 secures a display list generation memory (S506), and generates a display list based on the information passed from the PDL interpretation processing unit 212 (S507).

  Up to this point, the processing from PDL interpretation to display list generation for one filled area and filled color object is completed.

  Since a gradation is composed of a plurality of fill areas and fill colors, the PDL interpretation processing unit 212 determines in step S508, and sequentially processes the next fill area and the fill color.

  The image forming apparatus 210 repeats the processes in steps S502 to S507 until all the filled areas and the filled colors constituting the gradation are processed.

  As described above, when the gradation is expressed by a plurality of objects without performing the conversion process according to the present embodiment on the host computer 200 side, it is necessary to repeat the process every time the command is analyzed. Accordingly, the PDL interpretation process and the display list generation process of the image forming apparatus 210 are delayed.

  FIG. 6 shows an image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment that processes the gradation represented by the combined fill area and one-line image data obtained by performing the conversion process according to the present embodiment on the host computer 200 side. It is a flowchart which shows the flow to do.

  The processing subject in step S601 is the data reception processing unit 211, the processing subject in steps S602 to S605 is the PDL processing interpretation processing unit 212, and the processing subject in steps S606 and S607 is the display list generation processing unit 213.

  The data reception processing unit 211 receives the PDL data and passes it to the PDL interpretation processing unit 212 (S601).

  The PDL interpretation processing unit 212 interprets the PDL data (S602), extracts the drawing position and drawing width (S603, S604), acquires the image size (S605), and passes it to the display list generation processing unit 213.

  The display list generation processing unit 213 secures a display list generation memory (DL memory) (S606), and generates a display list (DL) based on the information passed from the PDL interpretation processing unit 212 (S607).

  Up to this point, the processing in the image forming apparatus 210 from the PDL interpretation to the display area generation to the PDL interpretation of the combined solid area and the five solid color objects is completed.

  In this way, when the gradation is expressed by the combined fill area and the one-line image data, the command analysis needs to be performed once, so there is no need for repeated processing, and the PDL interpretation processing and display list generation processing are further accelerated. be able to.

  The flow of processing of the drawing processing unit 220 will be described using the flowchart of FIG.

  The processing subject of steps S701 to S702 is the display list interpretation processing unit 215, and the processing subject of steps S703 to S704 is the gradation reverse determination processing unit 216. The processing subject in step S705 is the gradation inverse transformation processing unit 217, and the processing subject in step S706 is the bitmap formation processing unit 706.

  The display list interpretation processing unit 215 interprets the contents of the display list 214 and passes the object information to the gradation reverse determination processing unit 216 (S701). Next, the display list interpretation processing unit 215 determines whether there is a next object in order to interpret all the objects included in the display list 214 (S702).

  The gradation reverse determination processing unit 216 determines whether the passed object is image data having a width of 1 and an arbitrary height (S703), and returns the determination result to the display list interpretation processing unit 215. The process proceeds to the gradation reverse conversion process in step S705. Otherwise, it is determined whether the image has an arbitrary width and a height of 1 (S704), and the determination result is returned to the display list interpretation processing unit 215. If so, the process proceeds to step S705. Otherwise, the process proceeds to the bitmap development process in step S706.

  If an affirmative determination is made in step S703 or S704, it can be determined that the image data is to be used to express gradation. Accordingly, in step S705, the display list interpretation process 215 passes the object information to the gradation reverse conversion processing unit 217, and executes the gradation reverse conversion process.

  The object information other than the object representing the gradation determined to be negative in step S704 and the object information subjected to the inverse gradation conversion process in step S705 are passed to the bitmap formation processing unit 218 in step S706, and an image is formed in the bitmap memory 219.

  8 to 10, the rendering process is performed by the process of the present embodiment in which the gradation expressed by the filled area and the one-line image data is inversely converted into the gradation expressed by the method of designating the plurality of filled areas and the filled color. Explain that speeding up.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the processing of the bitmap formation processing unit 218 in the case of rendering the gradation expressed by the filled area and the one-line image data.

  The bitmap formation processing unit 218 receives the filled area and 1-line image data, and performs enlargement ratio calculation (S801), corresponding pixel value acquisition (S802), halftone processing (S803), and bitmap memory writing (S804) in units of pixels. Perform (S805).

  Here, the enlargement ratio calculation in step S801 can be performed using, for example, affine transformation based on the designation of the enlargement ratio received from the host computer 200. Affine transformation is used for geometric transformation of images such as translation, rotation, enlargement / reduction, and the like.

  If the coordinates of the bitmap memory are (X, Y) and the coordinates of one-line image data are (X ', Y') in the two-dimensional conversion, the conversion is expressed by the following matrix conversion formula.

When the matrix is expanded, the enlargement ratio can be calculated by the following conversion formula.
X ′ = aX + bY + e
Y ′ = cX + dY + f
In the enlargement ratio calculation (S801), the above formula is calculated for each pixel.
In addition, if only parallel and vertical enlargement is used, the conversion formula can be simplified as follows.
X ′ = aX
Y ′ = dY
In this way, if processing is performed as an image, it is necessary to repeat S801 to S805 in units of pixels to perform enlargement processing and halftone processing for all pixels, so that it takes much time to form a bitmap.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an outline of processing according to the present embodiment in which the bitmap formation processing unit 218 forms a bitmap at a high speed with a plurality of fill areas and fill colors.

  When processing with a halftone dither matrix having a height of 8 and a width of 8 with reference numeral 910, the area 901 designated by the fill area and the fill color is an 8 × 8 rectangular area as indicated by reference numerals 902 and 903. The same drawing result is repeated every time.

  For this reason, dither processing is performed on one 8 × 8 rectangular area 911 to generate tile data that has been subjected to halftone processing. Thereafter, copying can be repeated on the page to perform high-speed processing.

Assuming that the width formed on the bitmap memory is W and the height is H, when copying rectangular tile data of a fixed size of 8 × 8, the number of copies is given by the following equation.
Number of copies = (W ÷ 8) × H
In addition, 8 × 8 fixed-size rectangular tile data is copied in byte units, but if 32 × 8 fixed-size tile data 912 is created, copying is performed in word units, thereby processing at higher speed. it can.

  Each object composed of a plurality of fill areas and fill colors indicated by reference numeral 920 is subjected to bitmap formation processing according to the following processing procedure.

The bitmap formation processing unit 218 creates a halftone-finished tile 922 in an 8 × 8 (or 32 × 8) region corresponding to the fill color by the process indicated by (1) 921 (902 and 903).
(2) The halftone tile created in (1) is simply copied to the entire filled area by the process indicated by 923 (924).

  By performing the above processing, a gradation expressed by a method of designating a plurality of fill areas and fill colors is formed on the bitmap memory 219.

  In the processing of the present invention, processing in units of pixels such as enlargement ratio calculation, acquisition of corresponding pixel values, and halftone processing is performed only on the 8 × 8 (or 32 × 8) region to form tiles of a certain size. After forming the halftone-finished tile, the bitmap formation processing unit 218 is copied by copying in byte units (8 pixels for 1 pixel and 1 bit are simultaneously processed) or in word units (32 pixels for 1 pixel and 1 bit). Can perform bitmap formation processing at high speed.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing details of processing by the bitmap formation processing unit 218 described with reference to FIG.

  First, in order to perform processing for a plurality of filled areas, it is determined whether the processing has been completed for all filled areas (S1001). If completed, this process is terminated.

  If not completed, the process advances to step S1002, and the bitmap formation processing unit 218 acquires a fill color. Next, only a certain size (8 × 8 or 32 × 8) region of the halftone matrix is halftoned and written in the work memory to generate halftone-finished tile data (S1003 to S1005). In this loop, time-consuming halftone processing is performed only for the (8 × 8 or 32 × 8) area.

  The subsequent loop of steps S1006 and S1007 can be processed at high speed by a simple iterative process. That is, the bitmap formation processing unit 218 copies and pastes the created halftone-finished tiles in byte units or word units in the filled area, and determines whether copying has been completed in all of the plurality of filled areas (S1006). S1007).

(Embodiment 2)
The present invention can also be applied when gradation conversion and gradation reverse conversion are processed on one apparatus.

  The present embodiment when gradation conversion and gradation reverse conversion are performed as described above will be described with reference to FIG.

  When the host computer or the image forming apparatus 1100 repeatedly handles electronic documents and PDL data, primary storage may be performed.

  When primary storage is performed, the electronic document or PDL data having a smaller size can be stored efficiently.

  Data received by the data reception processing unit 1101 is interpreted by an electronic document or PDL interpretation processing unit 1102.

  The interpretation result is passed to the gradation determination processing unit 1103, and it is determined whether the data is expressed in gradation by a plurality of filled areas and filled colors.

  Data expressed by gradation with a plurality of filled areas and filled colors is converted into a filled area and 1-line image data by a gradation conversion processing unit 1104.

  The converted data is transferred to the electronic document or PDL data storage unit 1105 and stored in the electronic document or PDL data spool 1106.

  When reprinting is designated by the user, the electronic document or PDL interpretation processing unit 1102 acquires the electronic document or PDL data in the PDL data spool 1106 through the electronic document or PDL data read processing unit 1107.

  The electronic document or PDL interpretation processing unit 1102 interprets the electronic document or PDL data and passes it to the display list generation processing unit 1108.

  Thereafter, drawing processing including gradation reverse conversion processing is executed as in the first embodiment.

(Embodiment 3)
The present embodiment uses a method of drawing a gradation by designating a plurality of coordinate points and the color of the coordinate points, calculating a pixel color between the coordinate points from the coordinate points and the color of the coordinate points. The above gradation method can be applied to the present invention instead of the gradation expression method for designating a plurality of filled areas and filled colors.

  In the present embodiment, the gradation data is converted into a filled area and one line of image data, and the gradation expressed by the filled area and the one line of image data is converted into a plurality of filled areas and filled color data during the image forming process. Image formation.

  Even if the present invention is applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), it is applied to an apparatus (for example, a copier, a facsimile machine, etc.) composed of a single device. It may be applied.

  In addition, a recording medium in which a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is recorded is supplied to the system or apparatus, and the computer (CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus stores the program code stored in the recording medium. Read and execute. It goes without saying that the object of the present invention can also be achieved by this.

  In this case, the program code itself read from the recording medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the recording medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

  As a recording medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like is used. be able to.

  In addition, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also the following cases are included. That is, based on the instruction of the program code, an OS (operating system) running on the computer performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing. .

  Further, the program code read from the recording medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer. After that, based on the instruction of the program code, the CPU of the function expansion board or function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by the processing. Needless to say.

200 Host Computer 201 Application 202 Print Processing Command Receiving Unit 203 Gradation Determination Processing Unit 204 Gradation Conversion Processing Unit 205 PDL Data Generation Processing Unit 206 Data Transmission Processing Unit 210 Image Forming Apparatus 211 Data Reception Unit 212 PDL Interpretation Processing Unit 213 Display List Generation Processing Unit 214 display list 215 display list interpretation processing unit 216 gradation reverse determination processing unit 217 gradation reverse conversion processing unit 218 bitmap formation processing unit 219 bitmap memory 220 drawing processing unit

Claims (5)

An image forming system including a host device and an image forming apparatus,
The host device is
And data indicating a plurality of filled regions, data indicating a gradation consisting of data representing a plurality of fill color respectively corresponding to the plurality of filled regions, a fill area filled area of said plurality of coupled to one It means for converting the data shown, in 1 and line image data representing a color change in said plurality of fill color,
And a hand stage filled area of said plurality of that sends the data and the one-line image data representing a filled area coupled to one in the image forming apparatus,
The image forming apparatus includes:
Means for receiving data indicating a filled area in which the plurality of filled areas are combined together and the one-line image data;
The received data indicating the fill area in which the plurality of fill areas are combined into the one-line image data, the data indicating the plurality of fill areas, and the data indicating the fill color in each of the plurality of fill areas. Means for converting the data into gradation data comprising :
Means for performing drawing based on the data obtained by the means for converting.
An image forming system. And data indicating a paint Ritsubushi region, means for receiving a 1 and the line image data indicating the fill color change in the color of in the filled area,
Means for converting the data indicating the filled area and the one-line image data into data indicating gradation composed of data indicating a plurality of filled areas and data indicating the fill color in each of the plurality of filled areas;
Means for drawing based on the data obtained by the means for converting;
An image forming apparatus comprising: An image forming method using a host device and an image forming apparatus,
  In the host device,
  Data indicating a gradation composed of data indicating a plurality of fill areas and data indicating a plurality of fill colors respectively corresponding to the plurality of fill areas, a fill area in which the plurality of fill areas are combined into one Converting the data into one line image data representing color changes in the plurality of fill colors;
  Executing the step of transmitting the data indicating the filled area in which the plurality of filled areas are combined into the one-line image data to the image forming apparatus;
  In the image forming apparatus,
  Receiving data indicating a filled area in which the plurality of filled areas are combined and the one-line image data;
  The received data indicating the fill area in which the plurality of fill areas are combined into the one-line image data, the data indicating the plurality of fill areas, and the data indicating the fill color in each of the plurality of fill areas. A step of converting the data into gradation data comprising:
  And performing drawing based on the data obtained in the converting step.
An image forming method.   Receiving data indicating a filled area and one-line image data indicating a change in color of a filled color in the filled area;
  Converting the data indicating the filled area and the one-line image data into data indicating a gradation composed of data indicating a plurality of filled areas and data indicating the filled color in each of the plurality of filled areas;
  Drawing based on the data obtained in the converting step;
An image forming method in an image forming apparatus. A program for causing a computer to execute the image forming method according to claim 3 or 4 .

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