Abstract:
An information processing apparatus which outputs data to an electronic device. Information indicating a data processing ability of the electronic device is first obtained, whereupon data processing means is controlled so as to process the data output to the electronic device depending on the data processing ability indicated by the information so obtained.

Description:
This application is a continuation, of application Ser. No. 08/076,860 filed Jun. 15, 1993, now abandoned. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for sending data to an output apparatus such as a printer connected through a bilateral interface, and an output apparatus for receiving data from an information processing apparatus such as a host computer and outputs data in accordance with the input data. 
     2. Related Background Art 
     In a recent recording apparatus of this type, output information inputted from a host computer is analyzed to develop bit map data as an output data of a printer engine such as a laser beam printer, and a laser beam modulated in accordance with the developed data is scanned and exposed to a photo-conductor drum to record an image. 
     A recording apparatus which can output data WYSIWYG-processed (What You See Is What You Get) by a host computer in accordance with page edit data has also been put into practice. 
     In this case, the recording apparatus may be of a type which develops the bit map data WYSIWYG-processed by the host computer to a bit map memory to output it, or a type which receives data to be rasterized from the host computer, generates output bit map data by a rasterization function of the recording apparatus and develops it in the bit map memory for outputting it. 
     In the prior art recording apparatus of the type which develops the bit map data WYSIWYG-processed by the host computer to the bit map for outputting it, a time from the start of the bit map development of the output information by the host computer to the start of printing by the printer engine is determined by a rasterization time of the host computer. 
     Further, in the type which receives the data to be rasterized from the host computer, generates the output bit map data by the rasterization function of the recording apparatus and develops it to the bit map memory for outputting it, the time required for the host computer to transfer the output information to the printer is short but the rasterization time of the recording apparatus itself is long so that information received out of image writing synchronization with the printer engine cannot be correctly recorded. 
     In the recording apparatus in the field of DTP for page editing by fully utilizing graphics, images and outline font, a demand to shorten the outputting time has been increasing and improvements of a printer control method and a printer control system to meet such a demand has been desired. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing apparatus for grasping a capability of a printer connected thereto through a bilateral interface and determining a ratio of share to output data, and an output apparatus for processing data in accordance with the ratio information of the share to the data processing received from the information processing apparatus connected thereto through the bilateral interface. 
     In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an information processing apparatus comprising acquiring means for acquiring resource information of a printer connected through a bilateral interface, and determination means for determining a ratio of share to rasterization of information in the data outputted to the printer, to be shared by a rasterizer in the printer. 
     Further, in order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an output apparatus comprising receiving means for receiving ratio information of share to rasterize rasterization information in data outputted from an information processing apparatus connected through a bilateral interface, and control means for causing a rasterizer to rasterize the information in accordance with the ratio of share of the rasterization. 
     Accordingly, the information processing apparatus and the output apparatus can render uniform the resources and the share of the processing capabilities so that a higher processing performance and an efficient operation of the resources are attained. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 shows a sectional view of a construction of a first recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied; 
     FIG. 2 shows an external view of a construction of a second recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied; 
     FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a control unit of the second recording apparatus shown in FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a printer control system in one embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 5 shows a diagram of a data processing path between a printer and a host computer; 
     FIG. 6 shows a flow chart of font rasterization parallel processing of the printer and the host computer in one embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 7 shows a flow chart of detailed procedure of a font rasterization analysis and classification routine; and 
     FIG. 8 shows a ratio of share of rasterization of the printer and the host computer. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Before describing a construction of an embodiment, constructions of a laser beam printer and an ink jet printer to which the embodiment is to be applied are explained with reference to FIGS. 1 to  3 . A printer in the embodiment is not to be limited to the laser beam printer or the ink jet printer but it may be other type of printer. 
     FIG. 1 shows a sectional view of a construction of a first recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied. It may be a laser beam printer (LBP). 
     In FIG. 1, numeral  1500  denotes an LBP main unit which receives print information supplied from an externally connected host computer, stores it, generates a bit map image in accordance with the stored information, and forms an image on a record,sheet which is a recording medium. Numeral  1501  denotes a console panel having console switches and LED displays arranged thereon, and numeral  1000  denotes a printer control unit for controlling the overall LBP main unit  1500  and analyzing the print information supplied from the host computer. The printer control unit  1000  converts the print information to a video signal of the corresponding bit pattern and supplies it to a laser driver  1502 , which drives a semiconductor laser  1503 , and it turns on and off a laser beam  1504  emitted from a semiconductor laser  1503  in accordance with the input video signal. The laser beam  1504  is laterally swung by a rotating polygon mirror  1505  to scan and expose to an electrostatic drum  1506 . Thus, an electrostatic latent image of a character pattern is formed on the electrostatic drum  1506 . The latent image is developed by a developing unit  1507  arranged around the electrostatic drum  1506  and then transferred to a record sheet. The record sheet may be a cut sheet, and cut sheet recording sheets are contained in a sheet cassette  1508  mounted in the LBP  1500 , and the sheet is taken into the apparatus by a sheet feed roller  1509  and a transport roller  1511 , and it is supplied to the electrostatic drum  1506 . 
     FIG. 2 shows an external view of a second recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied. It may be an ink jet recording apparatus (IJRA). 
     In FIG. 2, a carriage HC which engages with a helical groove  5004  of a lead screw  5005  rotated by the forward or backward rotation of a drive motor  5013  through drive force transmission gears  5011  and  5009  has a pin (not shown) and it is reciprocally driven in the directions of arrows a and b. An ink jet cartridge IJC is mounted on the carriage HC. Numeral  5002  denotes a sheet retainer plate which presses a sheet to a platen  5000  over the range of movement of the carriage. Numerals  5007  and  5008  denotes photo-couplers which serves as home position detection means for detecting the presence of a lever  5006  of the carriage in the range to switch the direction of rotation of a motor  5013 . Numeral  5016  denote a member for supporting a capping member  5022  which caps the entire surface of a recording head, and numeral  5015  denotes suction means for sucking the interior of the cap and it suction-recovers the recording head through an aperture  5023  in the cap. Numeral  5017  denotes a cleaning blade which is movable back and forth by a member  5019 . Numeral  5018  denotes a main unit support plate which supports  5017  and  5019 . Numeral  5012  denotes a lever for starting the suction of the suction recovery, and it is moved with the movement of a cam  5020  which is engaged with the carriage so that a drive force from the drive motor is controlled by known transmission means such as a clutch. 
     The capping, cleaning and suction recovery are conducted at the corresponding positions by the action of the lead screw  5005  when the carriage is brought to the home position. It may conduct desired operations at a desired timing. 
     FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a control unit of the second recording apparatus shown in FIG.  2 . 
     In FIG. 3, numeral  1700  denotes an interface to which a record signal is applied, numeral  1701  denotes an MPU, numeral  1702  denotes a program ROM for storing a control program to be executed by the MPU  1701 , and numeral  1703  denotes a DRAM which stores various data (including the record signal record data to be supplied to a head). Numeral  1704  denotes a gate array for controlling the supply of the record data to a recording head  1708 , and it also controls the transfer of data among the interface  1700 , the MPU  1701  and the DRAM  1703 . Numeral  1710  denotes a carrier motor for carrying the recording head  1708 , numeral  1709  denotes a transport motor for transporting a record sheet, numeral  1705  denotes a head driver for driving the recording head, numeral  1706  denotes a motor driver for driving the transport motor  1709 , and numeral  1707  denotes a motor driver for driving the carrier motor  1710 . 
     In the recording apparatus of the present embodiment, when a record signal is applied from the host computer through the interface  1700 , the record signal is converted to print record data by the gate array  1704  and the MPU  1701 . The motor drivers  1706  and  1707  are driven and the recording head is driven in accordance with the record data sent to the head driver  1705  to print it out. 
     FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a configuration of a printer control system in one embodiment of the present invention. A laser beam printer (see FIG. 1) is used in the present embodiment. 
     The present invention may be applied to any system in which process is made through a network such as a LAN, whether it is a single unit system or a multi-unit system. 
     In FIG. 4, numeral  100  denotes a host computer which has a CPU  1  for processing a document having mixture of graphics, images, characters and tables (including spread sheets) in accordance with a document processing program stored in a ROM  2 , and the CPU  1  centrally controls devices connected to a system bus  4 . A control program for the CPU  1  shown in flow charts of FIGS. 6 and 7 is stored in the ROM  2 . 
     Numeral  3  denotes a RAM which functions as a main memory and a work area of the CPU  1 . Numeral  5  denotes a keyboard controller (KBC) which controls the key entry from a keyboard  9 . Numeral  6  denotes a CRT controller (CRTC) which controls the display of a CRT display (CRT)  10 . Numeral  7  denotes a disk controller (DKC) which controls the access of a hard disk (HD)  11  which stores a boot program, various application programs, font data, a user file and an edit file, and a floppy disk (FD)  12 . Numeral  8  denotes a printer controller (PRTC) which is connected to the printer  1500  through an interface (bilateral interface)  13  to control the communication with the printer  1500 . The CPU  1  may develop (rasterize) an outline font to a display information RAM set on the RAM  3  to permit the WYSIWYG processing on the CRT  10 . Further, the CPU  1  may open various registered windows in accordance with a command indicated by a mouse cursor, not shown, to process various data. 
     The document processing program may be stored in the hard disk  11  or the floppy disk  12  and loaded to the RAM  3  through the DKC  7  for execution. 
     In the printer  1500 , numeral  14  denotes a CPU which centrally controls the access to various devices connected to a system bus  17  in accordance with a control program stored in a ROM  15  and outputs an image signal as print data to a print unit (printer engine)  20  connected through a printer interface  19 . 
     Numeral  16  denoted a RAM which is used as a work area of the CPU  14  and a storage for record information. The RAM  16  may be constructed to be expanded in the memory capacity by an optional RAM connected to an expansion port, not shown. 
     The printer interface  19  converts the print data to a format compatible to the mechanism of the print unit  20  and outputs it. It may convert parallel data to serial data. A plurality of dot fonts of different sizes and outline font data may be stored in the ROM  15  as printer fonts. A rasterization program for developing outline font or vector graphics data commanded by the host computer  100  to share to a bit map on a rasterization area of the RAM  16 , in parallel with the rasterization on the host computer  100  is stored in the ROM  15 . 
     As a result, a ratio of share of the rasterization is dynamically switched in accordance with the analysis of the rasterization information in the output information which is outputted to the printer  1500  by the host computer  100 . Depending on the analysis of the rasterization information, one of the printer  1500  and the host computer  100  may conduct the rasterization. 
     At least one card slot, not shown, may be provided to permit the connection of a build-in font as well as an optional card and a card containing a program for interpreting a different printer control language (an emulation card). An NVRAM which stores printer mode setting information from a console unit, not shown, may be provided. 
     In the printer control system of the present embodiment, the host computer  100  acquires the resource date from the printer  1500 , and when a print job occurs, the CPU  1  analyzes the print job in accordance with the resource data of the printer  1500  to dynamically determine the ratio of share of the parallel processing between the first rasterizer (the function of the CPU  1 ) and the second rasterizer (the function of the CPU  14 ), and the second rasterizer or the first rasterizer parallelly processes the rasterization information in the print job in accordance with the determined ratio of share of the parallel processing so that the print job is efficiently processed while the shares to the data processing of the printer and the host computer are rendered uniform. 
     The CPU  1  analyzes the font size in the print job based on the resource data of the printer to dynamically determine the ratio of share of the parallel processing by the first rasterizer and the second rasterizer so that the host computer and the printer functionally share the rasterization for the specific types of fonts. 
     The CPU  1  further analyzes the quantity of outline interpolation information in the print job based on the resource data of the printer to dynamically determine the ratio of,share of the parallel processing of the first rasterizer and the second rasterizer so that the rasterization corresponding to the number of interpolations in the outline information is functionally shared by the host computer and the printer. 
     In the present embodiment, the resource data include resource/processing capability information such as an inquiry to the printer  1500 , the presence or absence of a draw function to each draw unit of a line or a circle of the printer by the reference to a definition file on the host computer  100 , a draw process time, the presence or absence of the rasterization function of the outline font and a rasterization time, and they are stored in a memory such as the RAM  16 . The CPU  1  analyzes all or a portion of those information to dynamically determine the ratio of share of the parallel processing of the first rasterizer and the second rasterizer. The CPU  1  dynamically switches the ratio of share of the parallel processing for each page of the output edit information (characters, graphics, tables and images). 
     As an example of the analysis of the resource data by the host computer  100 , time data required for the printer  1500  to rasterize a predetermined size of outline font is stored in the memory such as the RAM  16  as table data, and when the size of the outline font of the record data is equal to the stored size, the table data is used, and when they are not equal, the table data of the outline font of the record data is corrected to accumulate the rasterization times of the respective characters to determine the ratio of share of the rasterization of the host computer  100  and the printer  1500 . In the calculation of the rasterization time, the number of interpolation points (for example, the interpolation by a bezie curve) may be taken into consideration to attain more accurate calculation of the processing time. Further, in the calculation of the rasterization time, where a plurality of languages which can be interpreted by the printer  1500  are provided or the printer has a plurality of resolution powers to record, a plurality of tables for rasterization may be provided in the memory such as the RAM  16  so that the rasterization time is more accurately calculated by taking the differences in the languages and the resolution power into account. 
     Thus, where there is a font rasterizer (the function of the CPU  14  in the present embodiment) in the printer  1500 , the rasterization of the font may be distributed to the host computer  100  and the printer  1500  in accordance with the performances thereof. One font may be transferred to the printer  1500  in the form of bit map to conduct the rasterization by the host computer  100  and the remaining fonts may be transferred to the printer  1500  in the form of outline for the rasterization by the CPU  14 . 
     On the other hand, where the printer  1500  has the data in the form of outline in, for example, the ROM  15 , the host computer  100  transfers only the character codes and the attributes thereof to the printer  1500  and quickly terminates the data transfer from the host computer to shorten the time to release the host computer. 
     In the banding by the printer  1500  in which an overrun may take place if all data are banded by the printer  1500  when the banding of the print data is to be executed in a predetermined memory capacity, a portion or all of the band may be assigned to the host computer  100  to prevent a print error of the printer  1500  due to the variation of the share of the record information processing. 
     A flow of a print job process of the printer control system of the present invention is now explained with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. 
     FIG. 5 shows a diagram of a data process path between the printer  1500  and the host computer  100  shown in FIG.  4 . 
     In FIG. 5, numeral  101  denotes an application being executed, which may be a DTP processing program. Numeral  102  denotes a data analyzer which analyzes a print job for each page, classifies it to an outline font or the like (see FIG. 7 to be explained later), determines the share of the rasterization, and directs data to be processed to the font  103 , a font rasterizer (which functions as a first rasterizer)  104 , a graphics rasterizer (which functions as the first rasterizer)  105  and a page data generator  106 , which combines output data from the data analyzer  102 , the graphics rasterizer  105 , the font  103  and the font rasterizer  104 . 
     Numerals  107  and  201  denote input/output handlers which control the input/output of the printer  1500  and the host computer  100 . Numeral  202  denotes a rasterizer which develops the rasterized data to a bit map. Numeral  203  denotes a rasterizer which rasterizes a font by referring a memory  204  which stores the outline data by referring the received outline font or based on the received character codes. Numeral  205  denotes a print control unit which controls the transfer of the bit map data outputted from the rasterizer  202  to the print unit  20  (see FIG.  4 ). A-N denote data process paths. 
     As shown in FIG. 5, where it is determined by the print job by the data analyzer  102  that there are rasterizer  202  and font rasterizer  203  in the printer  1500 , the rasterization of the font may be distributed in accordance with the performances of the host computer  100  and the printer  1500 , and one font may be processed by the rasterization by the host computer  100  and transferred to the printer  1500  (paths C-H-J-K) in the form of bit map and the remaining fonts may be transferred (paths D-G-J-K) to the printer  1500  in the form of outline for the rasterization by the font rasterizer  203 . 
     FIG. 6 shows a flow chart of a rasterization parallel process of the printer  1500  and the host computer  100  shown in FIG.  4 . Numerals ( 1 ) to ( 6 ) denote steps of the host computer  100 , and numerals ( 11 ) to ( 14 ) denote steps of the printer  1500 . When the rasterization is assigned to the printer  1500  by the step ( 3 ), the shift to the step ( 3 ) and the steps ( 11 ) to ( 14 ) are parallelly processed to parallelly process the font rasterization. 
     Analysis and classification routine of the font data in the print job is executed ( 1 ) in accordance with the flow chart shown in FIG. 6 to determine the share of processing in accordance with the processing capability ( 2 ). Where the rasterization to the printer  1500  has been decided, the outline data of the font or the character code of the outline font is sent to the printer  1500  ( 3 ). As a result, the process of the step ( 11 ) is parallelly started. The process by the host computer  100  is described below. 
     The rasterization (scaling) on the font data assigned to the host computer  100  is executed ( 4 ), and the developed bit map font is sent to the printer  1500  ( 5 ). As a result, the process of the step ( 12 ) is simultaneously started. 
     The page data is then sent to the printer- 1500  ( 6 ), and the process is terminated. 
     On the other hand, when the font data assigned from the host computer  100  is received in the step ( 3 ), the received font is scaled (rasterized) and it is registered in the RAM  16  ( 11 ). 
     On the other hand, when the bit map data is received from the host computer  100  in the step ( 5 ), the received bit map data is registered in the RAM  16  ( 12 ). 
     On the other hand, when the page data is received from the host computer  100  in the step ( 6 ), the received page data is stored in the RAM  16  ( 13 ), and the rasterizer  202  page-rasterizes it by referring the data in the RAM  16  and transfers the page-rasterized printer data to the print control unit  205  ( 14 ), and the process is terminated. 
     In this manner, the host computer acquires the resource data of the printer, analyzes the print job in accordance with the resource data, and determines the ratio of share of the rasterization of the printer and the host computer to the rasterization information of the print job, and the host computer and/or the printer parallelly rasterizes the information extracted from the print job in accordance with the determined ratio of share of the rasterization so that the shares of the rasterization of the information by the printer and the host computer are rendered uniform. The resource data processing program which the host computer  100  analyzes need not be stored in the ROM  2  if it is stored in the hard disk  11  of the host computer  100  or by the floppy disk  12  and can be executed by the print driver. 
     FIG. 7 shows a flow chart of a detail of the font rasterization/analysis/classification routine shown in FIG.  6 . Numerals ( 1 ) to ( 11 ) denote steps. 
     When a print job is generated by an application program, the data analyzer  102  searches the font data of the print job ( 1 ) to determine whether the data still exists or not ( 2 ), and if the decision is NO, the process is terminated, and if the decision is YES, whether the searched data matches to the bit map font of the printer  1500  or not is determined ( 3 ). If the decision is YES, the font is classified to the bit map code of the printer  1500  ( 8 ), and the process returns to the step ( 1 ). 
     On the other hand, if the decision in the step ( 3 ) is NO, whether the searched data matches to the outline font in the printer  1500  or not is determined, ( 4 ), and if the decision is YES, the font is classified to the outline code of the printer  1500  ( 9 ), and the process returns to the step ( 1 ). 
     On the other hand, if the decision in step ( 4 ) is NO, it is determined whether scaling is possible in printer  1500 . If scaling is possible in printer  1500 , the font is classified into printer outline data ( 10 ), and the process returns to step ( 1 ). 
     On the other hand, if the decision in the step ( 5 ) is NO, whether the searched data is the outline font or not is determined ( 6 ), and if the decision is YES, the data is separated to the host computer scaling for the rasterization by the host computer  100  ( 11 ), and the process returns to the step ( 1 ). If the decision is NO, the searched data is classified to the bit map data ( 7 ) and the process returns to the step ( 1 ). 
     The font data in the print job is classified into one of the following five types by a flow chart of FIG.  7 . 
     The font data classified to the bit map code in the step ( 8 ) has the bit map font data in the printer  1500 . The character codes and the attributes are sent from the data analyzer  102  to the printer  1500  and they are processed by the rasterizer  202  (paths B-J-K). 
     The font data classified to the outline code in the step ( 9 ) has the outline font data in the printer  1500 . Thus, the character codes and the attributes are sent from the data analyzer  102  to the printer  1500  and they are converted to the bit map font data by the font rasterizer on the printer  1500  and processed by the rasterizer  202  (paths B-J-K-M-N), or they are converted to the bit map font data by the font rasterizer  104  on the host computer  100  and the converted bit map font data is sent to the printer  1500  and processed by the rasterizer  202  (paths C-H-J-K). 
     The font data classified to the outline data in the step ( 10 ) has the font rasterizer  203  on the printer  1500  but does not have the outline font data. Thus, the character codes and the attributes are delivered from the data analyzer  102  to the font  103  and the corresponding outline font data is sent to the printer  1500 , and they are converted to the bit map font data by the font rasterizer  203  on the printer  1500  and processed by the rasterizer  202  (paths D-G-K-M), or they are converted to the bit map font data by the font rasterizer  104  on the host computer  100  and the converted bit map font data is sent to the printer  1500  and processed by the rasterizer  202  (paths C-H-J-K). 
     The font data classified to the host scaling in the step ( 11 ) does not have the font rasterizer in the printer  1500 . Accordingly, the font data is converted to the bit map data by the font rasterizer  104  on the host computer  100  and the converted bit map data is sent to the printer  1500  and processed by the rasterizer (paths C-H-J-K). 
     The font data classified to the bit map data in the step ( 7 ) does not have the bit map font data in the printer  1500 . Accordingly, the bit map font data on the host computer  100  is sent to the printer  1500  and processed by the rasterizer  202 . 
     When the font rasterization of the outline font is to be shared, the font data classified to the host scaling (step ( 11 )) of the five types of the classified font data is font-rasterized by the host computer  100 , and the font data classified to the outline code (step ( 9 )) and the outline data (step ( 10 )) are font-rasterized by the host computer  100  or the printer  1500  in accordance with the font rasterization resource (capability) of the host computer  100  and the printer  1500 . 
     FIG. 8 shows a diagram of a ratio of share of the rasterization of the printer  1500  and the host computer  100  shown in FIG.  4 . It shows a share status of the rasterization when the printer  1500  has the rasterizer  202  which can process the rasterized data and the font rasterizer  203  which can execute the font rasterization in accordance with the outline font data. 
     In FIG. 8, numeral  30  denotes a font rasterization process in the print job, which comprises host computer scaling  31  which the host computer  100  scales, outline data  32  (including graphics and font) which the printer  1500  can rasterize, and outline code  33 . 
     In the status shown in FIG. 8, the outline data  32  is divided to outline data  32 -H which is processed by the host computer  100  and outline data  32 -P which is processed by the printer  1500 , and the outline code  33  is directly processed by the font rasterizer  203  of the printer  1500 . 
     In the font rasterization  30  in the print job, the host scaling  31  is first processed and the remaining outline data  32  and the outline code  33  are divided into the host scaling process and the printer scaling process including the host scaling  31  in accordance with the host processing capability and the printer processing capability. 
     In FIG. 8, the outline data is divided. When the outline data  32  is small in amount and the outline code  33  is large, the outline code may be divided. 
     Where the font rasterizer  203  which can process the outline font data on the host computer  100  is not provided in the printer  1500 , the font information is classified to the host scaling  31  and the outline code  33 , and when there is no outline font data in the printer  1500  and the font rasterizer  203  which can process the outline font data on the host computer  100  is provided, the font data is classified to the host scaling  31  and the outline data  32 . In any case, it is divided to the host scaling process and the printer scaling process including the host scaling  31  in accordance with the host processing capability and the printer processing capability. 
     In this manner, the host computer  100  acquires the resource data of the printer  1500  and dynamically determines the ratio of share of the rasterization for each printer job so that the share of the data processing of the host computer  100  and the printer  1500  is rendered uniform and the time from the input of the print command to the start of the sheet feed from the printer  1500  is shortened. 
     In the present embodiment, the font rasterization of the outline font is shared by the host computer and the printer although the rasterization of other than font such as the rasterization of the vector graphics or the expansion and the compaction of the bit image may also be shared. 
     In the present embodiment, the timing to acquire the resource data (for example, the table data) is not referred although the host computer  100  may store the resource data in the hard disk  11  as a temporary file at a timing communicatable with the printer  1500 , or the resource data may be read from the printer  1500  at the time of the print command and stored as a temporary file, or it may be previously stored in the HD  11  of the host computer  100 . 
     In the present embodiment, the host computer acquires the resource data of the printer, analyzes the print job based on the resource data, and determines the ratio of share of the rasterization of the printer and the host computer to the rasterization information of the print job, and the host computer and/or the printer parallelly rasterize the information extracted from the print job in accordance with the determined ratio of share of the rasterization so that the share of the rasterization of the printer and the host computer is rendered uniform. 
     Further, the rasterization information including the font data and the vector graphics data is parallelly rasterized by the host computer and/or the printer so that the share of the rasterization of the host computer and the printer is rendered uniform. 
     The host computer acquires the resource data of the printer, and when the print job is generated, it analyzes the print job based on the resource data of the printer to dynamically determine the ratio of share of the parallel processing of the first rasterizer and the second rasterizer, and the second rasterizer or the first rasterizer parallelly share the rasterization of the information in accordance with the determined ratio of share of the parallel processing so that the print job is efficiently processed while the share of the data processing of the printer and the host computer is rendered uniform. 
     Since the rasterization information including the font data and the vector graphics data is parallelly processed in a shared manner, the print job is efficiently processed while the share of the data processing of the printer and the host computer is rendered uniform. 
     Since the font size in the print job is analyzed based on the resource data of the printer to dynamically determine the ratio of share of the parallel processing of the first rasterizer and the second rasterizer, the rasterization of the specific types of font can be functionally shared by the host computer and the printer. 
     Further, since the amount of outline interpolation information in the print job is analyzed based on the resource data of the printer to dynamically determine the ratio of share of the parallel processing of the first rasterizer and the second rasterizer, the rasterization process corresponding to the number of interpolations in the outline information can be functionally shared by the host computer and the printer.