Printing data generating apparatus, printing data generating method, and printing data generating program

A printing data generating apparatus comprising:

• an image data acquiring unit that acquires image data;
• a pixel classifying unit that classifies, upon causing a printer to execute a printing process for printing a line in an N-th main scanning operation between lines printed in (N−1)-th or earlier main scanning operations and printing a print unit formed with a plurality of lines by performing Nmax main scanning operations wherein N is a natural number equal to or greater than 2 and Nmax is the maximum value of N, pixels on the plurality of lines into groups based on the image data such that each of the groups includes the pixels that are to be printed in a same main scanning operation;
• a group identifying unit that identifies, among the groups, the group with a highest ink usage for printing the pixels belonging to the group based on the image data;
• and
• a printing data generating unit that generates, based on the image data, printing data for causing the printer to print an image represented by the image data by printing the pixels belonging to the group with the highest ink usage in the Nmax-th main scanning operation.