Printing control apparatus in page printer

A printing control apparatus in a page printer for making prints based on print data supplied from an external unit page by page, said apparatus comprising:

• first determination means for determining whether or not the page printer is in an idling state which is a state where the page printer is waiting for a first page print data in one print job to be supplied from the external unit;
• first control means, coupled to said first determination means, for controlling the page printer so that a printout corresponding to the print data supplied from said external unit is made when said first determination means determines that the page printer is in the idling state, said first control means comprising conversion means for directly converting the print data supplied from said external unit into dot image information, so that the print is made based on the dot image information;
• and
• second control means, coupled to said first determination means, for controlling said page printer so that a printout corresponding to the print data supplied from said external unit is made when said first determination means determines that said page printer is in the idling state, said second control means comprising first conversion means for converting the print data supplied from said external unit into descriptors while a prior printout is being made by the page printer, said descriptors being intermediate information used for converting the print data to dot image information, and second conversion means for converting the descriptors obtained by said first conversion means into dot image information, so that the printout is made based on the dot image information.