Image processing apparatus and image processing method
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorKen Achiwa
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image processing method of performing rasterization of a page in units of band area, comprises: generating first data drawing a first group of objects included in the page; storing the generated first data into a first memory area; performing, in units of band areas, rasterization based on the stored first data to generate a first raster data of the page; compressing, in units of predetermined areas, the first raster data; storing the compressed first raster data into a second memory area; deleting the first data from the first memory area; generating second data drawing a second group of objects included in the page; storing second data into the first memory area; performing, in units of band areas, rasterization based on the second data and the compressed first raster data.
Claims11
An image processing method of performing rasterization of a page in units of band area, comprising:
- receiving page description data of the page;
- generating first data drawing a first group of objects included in the page from a piece of the received page description data;
- storing the generated first data into a first memory area;
- performing, in units of band areas, rasterization based on the stored first data to generate a first raster data of the page, wherein the rasterization of a plurality of band areas being performed concurrently;
- compressing, in units of predetermined areas, the first raster data generated by the rasterization of the first data, each predetermined area overlapping a plurality of adjacent band areas;
- storing the compressed raster data into a second memory area;
- deleting the first data from the first memory area;
- generating second data drawing a second group of objects included in the page from another piece of the received page description data;
- storing the generated second data into the first memory area;
- performing, in units of band areas, rasterization based on the second data stored in the first memory area and the compressed raster data stored in the second memory area, wherein the rasterization of a plurality of band areas being performed concurrently,
- wherein the performing of the rasterization based on the second data and the compressed raster data includes:
- selectively decompressing, in units of predetermined areas, a piece of the compressed raster data stored in the second memory area, in accordance with which band areas are to be subject to the rasterization.
An image processing apparatus that performs rasterization of a page in units of band area, comprising:
- a plurality of rasterizers that perform, in units of band areas, rasterization based on first data drawing objects included in the page to generate a first raster data of the page, the plurality of rasterizers being in charge of rasterization of band areas different from one another;
- a compressor that compresses, in units of predetermined areas, the first raster data generated by the rasterization of the first data, each predetermined area overlapping a plurality of adjacent band areas;
- and
- a decompressor that decompresses the compressed raster data, wherein
- the plurality of rasterizers further perform, in units of the band areas, rasterization based on both second data drawing other objects included in the page and the decompressed raster data, the plurality of rasterizers being in charge of rasterization of band areas different from one another.
An image processing apparatus that generates image data in a raster format by dividing intermediate data generated from drawing data into a plurality of band areas and performing drawing processing, comprising:
- a plurality of drawing units configured to perform drawing processing in parallel for each of a plurality of pieces of intermediate data in units of bands, which corresponds to each of the plurality of band areas, a number of pixels in a main scanning direction of the band area being larger than that of a predetermined block area and a number of pixel in a sub scanning direction being smaller than that of a predetermined block area;
- and
- a storage unit configured to store image data in units of bands, which is generated from the intermediate data, by saving the image data in a case where a storage capacity runs short in the drawing processing, wherein
- each of the plurality of drawing units generates the image data in a raster format by combining the saved image data, which is read from the storage unit, with image data generated by newly performing the drawing processing for the intermediate data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.