JPH10226137A - System and method for processing image - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system and method for processing images in which costs are not increased, processing efficiency of font cache is improved, incorrect gathering at the printing can be eliminated, and efficient character processing can be performed. SOLUTION: The priority level of the kinds of letters of data for font caching is determined based on the kinds of identified application soft, and data of the kind of determined priority level is preferentially stored in a cache memory 120. And data separated to characters belonging to the highest layer in a character control table 103a and data comprising characters in a layer other than the highest layer in a page buffer 103b and graphic object other than character are transferred to a printer 107 to perform a printing successively from a lower layer to a higher layer.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an image processing system and an image processing method for generating print information and image data in a host computer, transferring these data to a printer, and performing printing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a printing system in which image data generated by a printer driver in a host computer is transferred to a printer for printing, font caching simply caches characters in a cache memory. , I do not care about the character type.

Conventionally, as one of the techniques for speeding up an image driver, there is a method in which only characters are separated from other graphic objects and a font cache is performed.

[0004] Here, the "image driver" is a form of a printer driver, in which all graphic objects are developed by a rasterizer provided by the OS, or developed by a rasterizer of the user's own, and converted into bitmap data to a printer. Printer driver to send. The term "separation of characters" as used herein means that the image driver handles only character data separately from other graphic objects.

[0005]

However, the above conventional example has the following problems.

First, the conventional font caching has a problem in terms of processing efficiency because characters are simply cached in a cache memory.

Further, in the conventional printing system, characters are uniformly separated, divided into characters and other graphic objects and transferred to a printer, and the characters and other graphic objects are separated at the final stage in the printer. By overlapping, a final print result was obtained.

FIG. 11 is a specific example showing a general overlapping relationship during printing. The drawing order in a hierarchical document in which graphics and characters are mixed is shown in FIG.
Watermark 300 (DRAFT) shown in FIG.
Are drawn, and the graphics 310 shown in FIG. 11B are drawn on the middle layer above it.
Further, a normal character 320 shown in FIG. 11A is generally drawn on the upper layer. As a result, FIG.
(Ie, the lower-layer character ET
Is usually obtained in such a manner that a part of the image is missing).

However, if only the characters are uniformly separated and superimposed at the final stage of printing by the printer as in the above-described conventional example, the watermark 300, which is originally at the lowermost layer, is not obtained.
Will be drawn on the graphics 310,
In other words, the graphics 310 of the middle layer are printed first, the watermark 300 of the lower layer is printed thereon, and the normal characters 320 of the upper layer are further printed. There is a problem that such an incorrect printing result (a result in which a part of the character ET of the watermark 300 is drawn on the graphics 310) occurs.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to determine the type of application (here, the type refers to the type of each genre such as word processing and spreadsheet). The font cache can be prioritized in font caching based on the frequency of character types used, and the font cache hit rate can be improved compared to the conventional font cache. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image processing system and an image processing method capable of improving the processing efficiency of the image processing.

Another object of the present invention is to examine the overlapping of data having a hierarchical structure in which characters and graphics are mixed, thereby eliminating improper duplication at the time of printing and improving the processing efficiency accompanying data separation. An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing system and an image processing method that can be improved.

[0012]

The present invention relates to an image processing system for generating image data in a printer driver in a host computer and transferring the generated image data to a printer for printing. A font storage means for storing image data to be transferred, an identification means provided in the printer driver for identifying a type of application software, and a font storage means for storing the font data based on the identified type of application software. An image processing system is configured by including character type priority determining means for determining the priority of the character type of the image data stored in the storage means.

Further, the present invention is an image processing system for generating image data in a printer driver in a host computer and transferring the generated image data to a printer for printing. Font storage means for storing the transferred image data, identification means provided in the printer driver for identifying the type of application software, and storage of the font storage means based on the identified type of application software An image processing system is configured by including a storage capacity changing unit that changes the size of the capacity.

Further, the present invention is an image processing system for generating image data in a printer driver in a host computer and transferring the generated image data to a printer for printing. The image processing system is provided in the printer driver. A font storage unit for storing the transferred image data, an identification unit for identifying the type of the application software, and a character type of the image data stored in the font storage unit based on the identified type of the application software. An image processing system is configured by including character type priority determining means for determining priority.

Further, the present invention is an image processing system for generating image data in a printer driver in a host computer and transferring the generated image data to a printer for printing, provided in the printer driver. A font storage unit for storing image data to be transferred, an identification unit for identifying the type of application software, and changing the storage capacity of the font storage unit based on the identified type of application software. An image processing system is configured by providing a storage capacity changing unit that performs the processing.

Here, the identification means has a database in which the type of the application software is associated with the name of the application software, and the type of the application software can be identified with reference to the database.

If the database does not include the name of the application software, the type of the application software can be identified from the character string in the name of the application software.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image processing system for generating image data in a printer driver in a host computer and transferring the generated image data to a printer for printing.
Identification means for identifying whether image data composed of a graphic object having a hierarchical structure is a character, first storage means for expanding the graphic object into a bitmap and storing the graphic object when the graphic object is a character, When the object is not a character,
Overlapping region determining means for comparing a regional positional relationship between a graphic object other than the character and a character in the first storage means to determine whether or not there is a region overlapping; When there is, in the characters in the first storage means, the uppermost layer separating means for separating only the characters belonging to the uppermost layer, and when there is no area overlapping, the characters in the layers other than the uppermost layer A second storage unit that expands and stores a graphic object other than a character into a bitmap and stores the image data, and transfers the image data separated into only the characters belonging to the uppermost layer in the first storage unit to the printer A first transfer unit, and a second transfer unit that transfers, to the printer, image data composed of characters and graphic objects other than characters in layers other than the highest layer in the second storage unit. Wherein provided in the printer, the image data transferred from the host computer, by comprising a print control means for performing printing by sequentially output toward the upper layer from the lower layer, constituting the image processing system.

Here, when comparing the area positional relationship between the character in the first storage means and the graphic object other than the character, the overlapping area determination means counts the number of times of comparison for each character. If it is determined that the count value is equal to or greater than the predetermined value, the comparison process can be terminated and the process can proceed to the next process.

The uppermost layer separating means includes a dividing means for dividing the first storage means into a plurality of areas, a comparing means for performing a comparing process for each of the divided areas, and a graphic object other than a character. Means for performing a process of developing the character into a bitmap together with the graphic object without performing character separation.

The present invention also relates to an image processing method for generating image data in a printer driver in a host computer and transferring the generated image data to a printer for printing. The type of software is identified, the priority of the character type of the image data stored in the font storage unit is determined based on the type of the identified application software, and the image data of the character type having the determined higher priority is given priority. The image processing method is provided by storing in the font storage means.

The present invention also relates to an image processing method for generating image data in a printer driver in a host computer and transferring the generated image data to a printer for printing. By changing the size of the storage capacity of the font storage means based on the type of the identified application software, and storing the image data in the font storage means having the changed storage capacity. And an image processing method.

Here, the identification means has a database that associates the type of the application software with the name of the application software, and can identify the type of the application software by referring to the database.

When there is no corresponding application software name in the database, the type of the application software can be identified from a character string in the name of the application software.

The present invention also relates to an image processing method for generating image data in a printer driver in a host computer and transferring the generated image data to a printer for printing. Identifying whether the graphic object is a character or not, and when the graphic object is a character, expands the graphic object into a bitmap and stores it in the first storage means. Graphic objects other than the first
Comparing the regional positional relationship with the character in the storage means, and determining whether there is a part that overlaps in the area. When there is a part that overlaps in the area, when the part in the first storage means,
Only the characters belonging to the uppermost layer are separated, and when there is no overlapping area, the characters of the layers other than the uppermost layer and the graphic objects other than the characters are developed into a bitmap and stored in the second storage means. Image data stored and separated only into characters belonging to the highest layer in the first storage means;
And transferring image data composed of characters and graphic objects other than characters in layers other than the highest layer in the second storage means to the printer, and transferring the transferred image data from the lower layer to the upper layer. The image processing method is provided by sequentially outputting the image data and performing printing.

Here, when comparing the regional positional relationship between the character in the first storage means and the graphic object other than the character, the number of times of comparison is counted for each character, and the count value is set to a predetermined value. If it is determined that the above is the case, the comparison process is terminated and the process can proceed to the next process.

The first storage means is divided into a plurality of areas, a comparison process is performed for each of the divided areas, and in an area where a graphic object other than a character exists, the character is separated without performing character separation. Can be expanded into a bitmap with the graphic object.

[0028]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

First, the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a printing system according to the present invention. 1. Host computer 100 of FIG.
Indicates mainly the configuration of the printer driver. The printer driver in this example includes a print information analysis unit 102, an image information generation unit 103, a print instruction generation unit 104, a print environment detection unit 105, a screen display control unit 106, and the like.

At the same time when the host computer 100 is started, the print information analysis unit 102 in the host computer 100
The print environment detection unit 105 and the print command generation unit 104 are activated.

When the user executes a printing process while using the application, the application 101 sends print information to the print information analysis unit 102, and the print information analysis unit 102 generates image information from the print information to generate image information. Send to section 103. Further, the image information analysis unit 102 generates a print command and sends it to the print command generation unit 104. Further, the image information generation unit 103 converts the image information into bitmap data and sends it to the print command generation unit 104. The print command generation unit 104 sends image data to the laser beam printer 107 according to a print command signal. At this time,
The transferred image data is stored in the cache memory 120 of the RAM 110. The processing of the image data will be described later.

A print command signal sent from the host computer 100 is sent to the printer engine 111 through the print information control unit 108 and the printer engine control unit 109 in the printer controller 112. And
The printer engine control unit 109 controls the printer engine 11
1 when a data transfer enabled notification is detected from RAM 1
10 transfers the image data to the printer engine 111.

The print environment signal of the printer engine 111 is sent to the printer engine controller 109 and the print controller 108.
Is transferred to the host computer 100.

Then, the printing environment detecting unit 105 receives the printing environment signal from the laser beam printer 107, and notifies the printing environment to the printing information analyzing unit 102 and the screen display control unit 106.

The printer engine 111 is a printer unit that performs printing by an electrophotographic system. In this example, although not specifically shown, printing can be performed by an electrophotographic process including a known recording medium transport mechanism, a semiconductor laser unit, a photosensitive drum, a developing unit, a fixing unit, a drum cleaning unit, a separation unit, and the like. it can.

The printer is not limited to a laser beam printer, but may be another type such as a bubble jet printer. Further, in this example, the cache memory 120 is provided on the printer side, but may be provided on the image information generating unit 103 on the host side.

Processing in the printing system having such a configuration will be described.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing processing in the printer driver. FIG. 3 shows the application 1
This is a database showing the correspondence between the application name 101a and the type 101b included in 01. FIG.
Is called when determining the priority of the font cache.

First, the application name 101a is changed to O
Obtained from S (step S11). Then, a database in which the application name 101a and the type 101b are written as shown in FIG.
2). As a result, the application software type 101
b is determined (step S13).

If the type 101b is determined to be a spreadsheet (step S14), the priority of the font cache is set to 1. Numbers, 2. Alphabet, 3. 3. Hiragana; The order is kanji. This is considered to be the highest use of numbers due to the nature of spreadsheets,
The priority order of the numbers is the highest (this order can be changed according to the type 101b of the application software and its characteristics).

If the type 101b is determined to be a word processor (step S15), the priority of the font cache is set to 1. Hiragana, 2. 2. Kanji, Numbers,
4. (Also, this order can be changed according to the type 101b of the application software and its characteristics.)

Thus, the type of application 1
By determining the priority of caching in the cache memory 120 in accordance with 01b, it is not necessary to cache all fonts having a low priority, that is, a font that is not frequently used. As a result, the hit rate of the font cache can be improved, so that the processing efficiency of the font cache can be improved, and the processing speed of the printing system can be improved.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In this embodiment, instead of determining the priority of the font cache described above, the memory size secured for the font cache is optimized.

FIG. 4 shows a process for optimizing the memory size. The processing up to the determination of the type 101b of the application software up to step S13 is the same as that of FIG. 2 described above. In this example, in step S24, optimization is performed by setting the memory size of the cache memory 120 according to the determined type 101b.

For example, if it is determined that the application is a paint-based application, the number of appearances of characters is expected to be smaller than that of a word processor or the like. Therefore, the memory size of the cache memory 120 for the font cache is reduced. This allows efficient use of the memory.

As another example, it is also possible to combine the determination of the priority of the font cache with the optimization of the memory size reserved for the font cache.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In this example, the application name 101a
It is a flowchart which shows the process which determines the type 101b by the character string in a middle. The processing up to step S11 is the same as in FIGS. 2 and 4 described above. Step S
At 32, if there is no application name 101a of the corresponding application software in the database, the type 101b is determined based on the character string existing in the application name 101a.

For example, if there are character strings "write" and "word", it is determined that the word is a word processor, and "calc"
If there is a character string "
If there is a character string "t", it is determined to be paint, and "d"
If there is a character string "raw", it is determined to be a draw.
Note that these character strings are only examples.

The type of application software 10
If 1b cannot be determined, it can be processed by providing a default value for application software that cannot be determined in advance. It is also possible to ask the user about the type 101b of the application software.

After the type 101b is determined based on the character string, a similar effect can be obtained by performing processing (step S33) such as setting the priority order and memory size of the font cache as described above.

Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
A description will be given based on FIGS.

In this example, a description will be given of a process for examining the overlap of image data in which characters and graphics are mixed, and eliminating the improper overlap during printing.

The flowchart of FIG. 6 will be described.
6 is mainly performed by the print information analyzer 102 in the print driver (also referred to as an image driver in this example) of the host computer 100, and is mainly performed by the printer controller 112 in the laser beam printer 107. It is.

When the print command is converted into print information and image data to be sent to the laser beam printer 107 in the host computer 100, the process of FIG. 6 is performed for each page. First, it is determined whether the graphic object to be drawn is a character or not (step S120).
The method of checking depends on the OS, but in the case of Windows, it is possible to determine whether or not a character is a character by checking whether an API for drawing a character is called.

In the case of a character, the character is registered in the character management table 103a (step S170).
3a means a management table for separating characters belonging to the uppermost layer. This table contains a character pattern and a recognition ID for recognizing each character.
And information necessary for character printing such as a drawing start position, a drawing area, and a character type corresponding thereto. If it is determined that the character overlaps with another graphic object, the character is processed as a bitmap similarly to other graphic objects, so that the entry is deleted from this management table. ).

If it is not a character, it is checked whether there is a character that overlaps with the graphic object in area using the information on the drawing area included in the character management table 103a (step S13).
In addition, as a method of judging the overlap of the areas, in a simple method, the judging of the overlap can be made by judging the positional relationship of the x and y coordinates of the four points representing the two rectangular areas. Various other methods are possible.

If there is an overlapping character (step S140), the character is drawn in the page buffer 103b (step S150) (step S150).
b means a drawing memory area of the printer driver. ). Then, the character management table 103
Delete the record corresponding to that character from a. Further, the graphic object is stored in the page buffer 103.
b (step S160). For this drawing, a drawing engine of the OS may be used, or an original rasterizer may be used.

The processing of steps S120 to S160 is repeated, and the processing of the print command for one page is completed (step S110). At this point, the character management table 103a
Can be determined as characters belonging to the highest layer. Therefore, the characters registered in the character management table 103a are transferred to the laser beam printer 107 (step S180), and then the contents of the page buffer 103b are transferred to the laser beam printer 107 (step S19).
0).

In step S180, as shown in FIG. 7, first, a character pattern in the character management table 103a is stored in the RAM 110 of the laser beam printer 107 by a character registration command (tentative name). At that time, the registered character pattern is registered together with an ID # that uniquely indicates the registered character pattern.
After that, a character printing command (tentative name) along with the drawing position corresponding to each ID # is sent to the laser beam printer 10.
7, the laser beam printer 107
Performs a printing process based on the information.

After the transfer in step S190, the laser beam printer 107 performs printing in the order of the lower layer, the middle layer, and the upper layer, for example, in FIG. Some of the characters FT of DRAFT indicating 300 are graphics 310
Will be present underneath. As a result, it is possible to eliminate improper overlapping at the time of printing as shown in FIG.

Next, a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

This example is a modification of the above-described fourth embodiment. Hereinafter, the flowchart of FIG. 8 will be described.

In this example, a comparison counter for storing the number of times each character is compared is further provided in the character management table 103a in the flowchart shown in FIG. When a character is registered in the character management table 103a, it is initialized to 0, and is incremented by one each time a graphic object other than a character is compared with a drawing position (step S240). Step S
In 250, if the character and the graphic object other than the character overlap or the comparison number counter exceeds a certain value, the corresponding character is drawn in the page buffer 103b (step S260). The other processes are the same as those in FIG. 6, and the description thereof will be omitted.

In the case where characters are drawn on oblique lines as shown in FIG. 9, the drawing positions of each line and the characters are compared. In such a case, the processing speed decreases due to an increase in the number of comparisons between the character and the other graphic object (in this case, a line). In such cases, don't worry about separating characters,
All should be processed as an image. Therefore,
By using the comparison counter as described above,
It is possible to prevent the processing for comparing the drawing positions from expanding, and to improve the overall processing speed.

Next, a sixth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
It will be described based on.

This example is a modification of the fourth and fifth embodiments. As a method for comparing the drawing positions of characters and other graphic objects, as shown in FIG.
The page is divided into a plurality of areas A, B, and C (here,
Each divided area is called a band). The character management table 103a manages the character information of all pages. However, by dividing the range in which the drawing positions are compared to a specific size, the number of graphic objects to be compared is reduced. Efficiency can be improved.

In the state where the graphic objects other than the characters are present in the state of being divided into the bands A, B, and C, all the bands are processed as bitmaps without performing character separation from the beginning. By doing so, as shown in FIG. 10, in data in which graphic objects other than characters collectively exist, it is possible to reduce the number of times of comparing the positions of graphic objects as described above. Processing efficiency can be improved.

It should be noted that a method for determining which band contains a graphic object other than a character can be determined by once examining data for one page during the preprocessing of the printer driver. In particular, this is effective when graphic objects other than characters are gathered in one place as shown in FIG.

[0072]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Based on the type of application that was identified, image data of high-priority character types was prioritized for font caching, so font cache processing efficiency was improved and processing speed of the printing system was improved without increasing costs. Can be improved. Further, since the memory size for the font cache is optimized based on the type of the identified application, the same effect can be obtained.

Further, according to the present invention, when characters are separated in data in which characters and graphics are mixed,
Check the overlap between the character and other graphic objects, separate only the characters that belong to the highest layer as characters, process the other characters as bitmap data in the same way as other graphic objects, and move from the lower layer to the upper layer. Since the printing is performed sequentially, it is possible to provide a printing system that can eliminate the illegality of the overlap and can perform the character processing efficiently by separating the characters from the printer driver without increasing the cost. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a process for setting a font cache priority.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram illustrating an example of a database.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a process for setting the size of a font cache area according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a character print command sequence.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of data in which characters and graphics are mixed.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a structure of a band-divided memory according to a sixth embodiment.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an overlapping relationship of data from a lower layer to an upper layer.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing a standard print result in which there is no improper overlap.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a print result when there is an illegal overlap;

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 100 Host computer 102 to 106 Printer driver 103a Character management table (first storage unit) 103b Page buffer (second storage unit) 120 Cache memory (font storage unit)

Claims (16)

[Claims] 1. An image processing system for generating image data in a printer driver in a host computer and transferring the generated image data to a printer for printing, the image processing system being provided in the printer and transmitting the image data Font storage means for storing data; identification means provided in the printer driver for identifying the type of application software; and image data to be stored in the font storage means based on the identified type of application software. An image processing system comprising: character type priority determining means for determining a priority of a character type, wherein image data of a character type having a higher priority is stored in the font storage means with priority. 2. An image processing system for generating image data in a printer driver in a host computer and transferring the generated image data to a printer for printing, the image processing system being provided in the printer and transmitting the image data Font storage means for storing data; identification means provided in the printer driver for identifying the type of application software; and the size of the storage capacity of the font storage means based on the identified type of application software. An image processing system comprising: a storage capacity changing unit that changes the storage capacity; and storing the image data in the font storage unit whose storage capacity has been changed. 3. An image processing system which generates image data in a printer driver in a host computer and transfers the generated image data to a printer for printing. The image processing system is provided in the printer driver and transferred. Font storage means for storing image data; identification means for identifying the type of application software; priority of character type of image data stored in the font storage means is determined based on the identified type of application software. An image processing system, comprising: a character type priority order determining unit for storing image data of a character type having a higher priority in the font storage unit. 4. An image processing system for generating image data in a printer driver in a host computer and transferring the generated image data to a printer for printing, provided in the printer driver. Font storage means for storing image data; identification means for identifying the type of application software; storage capacity change for changing the storage capacity of the font storage means based on the identified type of application software Means for storing image data in a font storage means having a changed storage capacity. 5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the identification unit has a database that associates the type of the application software with the name of the application software, and identifies the type of the application software with reference to the database. The image processing system according to claim 1. 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein when there is no corresponding application software name in the database, the type of the application software is identified from a character string in the name of the application software. Image processing system. 7. An image processing system for generating image data in a printer driver in a host computer and transferring the generated image data to a printer for printing, wherein the image processing system is provided in the printer driver and has a hierarchical structure. Identification means for identifying whether or not image data composed of graphic objects are characters; first storage means for expanding the graphic objects into bitmaps when the graphic objects are characters; and storing the graphic objects other than characters In this case, overlapping region discriminating means for comparing a regional positional relationship between a graphic object other than the character and the character in the first storage means to determine whether or not there is an area overlapping region, When there is a portion that overlaps with the uppermost layer in the characters in the first storage means, The uppermost layer separating unit that separates only characters that do not overlap with each other. 2 storage means, first transfer means for transferring image data separated into only characters belonging to the highest layer in the first storage means to the printer, and other than the top layer in the second storage means Second transfer means for transferring image data comprising a layer of characters and graphic objects other than characters to the printer; and image data provided in the printer and transferred from the host computer, from a lower layer to an upper layer. An image processing system, comprising: a print control unit that sequentially outputs data to perform printing. 8. When comparing an area positional relationship between a character in the first storage means and a graphic object other than the character, the overlapping area determination means counts the number of times of comparison for each character, 8. The image processing system according to claim 7, wherein when the count value is determined to be equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the comparison process is terminated and the process proceeds to the next process. 9. A division unit for dividing the first storage unit into a plurality of regions, a comparison unit for performing a comparison process for each of the divided regions, a graphic object other than a character. 9. The image processing system according to claim 7, further comprising: means for developing a character and a graphic object into a bitmap without performing character separation in an area where the image exists. 10. An image processing method in which image data is generated by a printer driver in a host computer, and the generated image data is transferred to a printer for printing. Identifying, based on the type of the identified application software,
An image processing method comprising: determining a priority order of character types of image data stored in a font storage unit; and storing the determined image data of a character type having a higher priority order in the font storage unit. . 11. An image processing method for generating image data in a printer driver in a host computer and transferring the generated image data to a printer for printing, wherein the printer driver identifies a type of application software. And, based on the type of the identified application software,
An image processing method comprising: changing a storage capacity of a font storage unit; and storing image data in the font storage unit having the changed storage capacity. 12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the identification unit has a database in which types of the application software are associated with names of the application software, and identifies the type of the application software by referring to the database. The image processing method according to claim 10. 13. The method according to claim 12, wherein when there is no corresponding application software name in the database, the type of the application software is identified from a character string in the name of the application software. Image processing method. 14. An image processing method for generating image data in a printer driver in a host computer and transferring the generated image data to a printer for printing, the image data comprising a graphic object having a hierarchical structure. Is a character or not. When the graphic object is a character, the graphic object is expanded into a bitmap and stored in a first storage unit. When the graphic object is a character, the graphic object other than the character is Is compared with a character in the first storage means in a region, and it is determined whether or not there is a region overlapping in a region. Only characters belonging to the top layer of a character are separated, and if there is no area overlapping, other than the top layer Image data separated into only characters belonging to the uppermost layer in the first storage means, wherein the character of the layer and the graphic object other than the character are developed into a bitmap and stored in the second storage means; Transferring image data composed of characters and graphic objects other than characters in layers other than the highest layer in the second storage means to the printer, and transferring the transferred image data from the lower layer to the upper layer. An image processing method characterized by sequentially outputting and printing. 15. When comparing a regional positional relationship between a character in the first storage means and a graphic object other than the character, the number of times of comparison is counted for each character, and the count value is equal to or greater than a predetermined value. 15. The image processing method according to claim 14, wherein when it is determined that the comparison process has been completed, the process proceeds to the next process. 16. The first storage means is divided into a plurality of regions, a comparison process is performed for each of the divided regions, and character separation is not performed in a region where a graphic object other than a character exists. 16. The image processing method according to claim 14, wherein the character is developed into a bitmap together with a graphic object.