Patent ID: 9384431
Filing Date: 2016-07-05
CPC Classification: G06K,H04N

Claim Text:
1. An apparatus comprising: a memory, serving as a first storage unit configured to store error data; and as ASIC, serving as (i) an image processing circuit configured to perform quantizing processing of image data by an error diffusion method, to generate print data, the image data having a plurality of rasters, each of which is formed with a plurality of pixels, and a predetermined number of rasters arranged into a band, and (ii) a second storage unit configured to store error data that is diffused from one of the plurality of rasters by the image processing circuit, wherein the error data to be diffused to a raster that is subjected to the quantizing processing is read from the second storage unit, and the error data to be diffused from a raster that is subjected to the quantizing processing is written to the second storage unit, wherein the image processing circuit is capable of performing quantizing processing of image data for N colors, and performs the quantizing processing multiple times in image processing of image data for colors more than N colors, wherein, in a case when the image processing circuit terminates quantizing processing for a given band, the error data that is to be diffused to a raster that belongs to a next band is written to the first storage unit, wherein, in a case when the image processing circuit performs the quantizing processing for the next band, the error data that is to be diffused to a raster that belongs to the next band is read from the first storage unit, and wherein, in a case when the image processing circuit performs image processing for image data for colors more than the N colors, the image processing circuit repeatedly performs at least a first image processing for performing image processing of image data of a first color group and a second image processing for performing image processing of image data of a second color group for each band.