Image forming apparatus, accelerator and image forming method

An image forming apparatus that forms an image based on image data acquired by applying a rendering operation to depiction commands, which are derived from input data written in a Page Description Language by parsing the input data, the image forming apparatus comprising:

• a converting section to parse the input data written in the Page Description Language so as to convert the input data to the depiction commands;
• a first rendering section that includes a hardware processing unit to apply the rendering operation to a first depiction command, included in the depiction commands;
• a second rendering section that includes a software processing unit to apply the rendering operation to a second depiction command, included in the depiction commands;
• a storage section to store first information including an a flag indicating a type of operation to be applied by the first rendering section based on a processing ability of the first rendering section;
• a reading section to read out the first information in regard to the first depiction command from the storage section;
• a determining section to determine whether the first rendering section or the second rendering section should apply the rendering operation to each of the depiction commands, based on the first information read by the reading section;
• and
• a control section to make either the first rendering section or the second rendering section apply the rendering operation to each of the depiction commands, according to corresponding one of results determined by the determining section.