Efficient rasterization system and method

An image processing method in a printing system receiving file data from an external terminal, converting the received file data to bit map image data by a plurality of processors, each processor performing a conversion process of an assigned job to bit map image data, and providing a plurality of pages of bit map image data in order to a printing engine, the printing engine printing the provided page of the bit map image data at a constant speed on a recording medium, the image processing method comprising the steps of:

• receiving a page description language format of data including attribution information from the external terminal, the attribution information indicating at least a data structure of plural pages in the received data and type of objects which constitutes the page description language format data;
• analyzing the attribution information included in the received page description language format data to segment a page into objects defined by the page description language format data;
• independently assigning each object in the received page description language format data to a respective one of the plurality of processors as jobs of conversion processes converting the object into image data to a completion of the conversion processes for one page;
• receiving bit map image data of each job from the plurality of processors without regard to a page order and storing the received bit map image data from the plurality of processors into a memory having a memory capacity for storing plural pages of bit map image data;
• and
• reconstructing the bit map image data stored in the memory in page order to the printing engine.