Rendering apparatus and method, printing apparatus, printing control apparatus, and control method therefor

A printing apparatus for simultaneously outputting images to a printing medium using a plurality of image output sections, comprising:

• a rendering processing section for bitmapping object data into bitmap image data in accordance with a process list to generate rendering data;
• address designation means for designating addresses of a plurality of process lists to be processed by said rendering processing section;
• rendering control means for causing said rendering processing section to alternately execute rendering processing for the process lists at the plurality of addresses designated by said address designation means;
• and
• a plurality of image output sections for parallelly outputting a plurality of rendering data corresponding to the process lists obtained by said rendering control means to the printing medium.

A printing control apparatus for outputting image data to a plurality of image output sections for simultaneously outputting images to a printing medium, comprising:

• a rendering processing section for bitmapping object data into bitmap image data in accordance with a process list to generate rendering data;
• address designation means for designating addresses of a plurality of process lists to be processed by said rendering processing section;
• rendering control means for causing said rendering processing section to alternately execute rendering processing for the process lists at the plurality of addresses designated by said address designation means;
• and
• output control means for outputting the plurality of rendering data corresponding to the plurality of process lists obtained by said rendering control means to a printing apparatus to make the plurality of image output sections simultaneously output the rendering data.

A rendering method of bitmapping object data into bitmap image data in accordance with a process list to generate rendering data, comprising:

• the address designation step of designating a plurality of addresses to the process list;
• the selection step of sequentially selecting one of the plurality of addresses designated in the address designation step;
• and
• the rendering step of bitmapping object data into bitmap image data in accordance with the process list designated by the selected address to generate rendering data.

A control method for a printing apparatus for simultaneously outputting images to a printing medium using a plurality of image output sections, comprising:

• the rendering step of bitmapping object data into bitmap image data in accordance with a process list to generate rendering data;
• the address designation step of designating addresses of a plurality of process lists to be processed in the rendering step;
• and
• the rendering control step of causing the rendering step to alternately execute rendering processing for the process lists at the plurality of addresses designated in the address designation step,
• wherein the plurality of image output sections parallelly output a plurality of rendering data corresponding to the process lists obtained in the rendering step to the printing medium.

A control method for a printing control apparatus for outputting image data to a plurality of image output sections for simultaneously outputting images to a printing medium, comprising:

• the rendering processing step of bitmapping object data into bitmap image data in accordance with a process list to generate rendering data;
• the address designation step of designating addresses of a plurality of process lists to be processed in the rendering processing step;
• the rendering control step of causing the rendering processing step to alternately execute rendering processing for the process lists at the plurality of addresses designated in the address designation step;
• and
• the output control step of outputting the plurality of rendering data corresponding to the plurality of process lists obtained in the rendering control step to a printing apparatus to make the plurality of image output sections simultaneously output the rendering data.

A program causing a computer to realize:

• an address designation function of designating a plurality of addresses to a process list;
• a selection function of sequentially selecting one of the plurality of addresses designated by the address designation function;
• and
• a rendering function of bitmapping object data into bitmap image data in accordance with the process list designated by the selected address to generate rendering data.

A program of a control method for a printing apparatus for simultaneously outputting images to a printing medium using a plurality of image output sections, the program causing a computer to realize:

• a rendering function of bitmapping object data into bitmap image data in accordance with a process list to generate rendering data;
• an address designation function of designating addresses of a plurality of process lists to be processed by the rendering function;
• and
• a rendering control function of causing the rendering function to alternately execute rendering processing for the process lists at the plurality of addresses designated by the address designation function,
• wherein the plurality of image output sections parallelly output a plurality of rendering data corresponding to the process lists obtained by the rendering function to the printing medium.

A program of a control method for a printing control apparatus for outputting image data to a plurality of image output sections for simultaneously outputting images to a printing medium, the program causing a computer to realize:

• a rendering processing function of bitmapping object data into bitmap image data in accordance with a process list to generate rendering data;
• an address designation function of designating addresses of a plurality of process lists to be processed by the rendering processing function;
• a rendering control function of causing the rendering processing function to alternately execute rendering processing for the process lists at the plurality of addresses designated by the address designation function;
• and
• an output control function of outputting the plurality of rendering data corresponding to the plurality of process lists obtained by the rendering control function to a printing apparatus to make the plurality of image output sections simultaneously output the rendering data.