Patent ID: 7301656

Claim:
An information processing apparatus as a host computer for generating print data including printer control commands to be transmitted to a printing apparatus, comprising: a spooler which is adapted to convert drawing data issued for printing by an application into intermediate code format data different from the print data and from the drawing data, and to temporarily spool the intermediate code format data and print setting information as one print job in a spool file, the print setting information including layout information specified via a user interface of a printer driver for the printing apparatus, wherein said spooler is configured to convert drawing data from multiple applications and is configured to spool a plurality of the intermediate code format data of a plurality of print jobs from multiple applications; a processor which is adapted to compose the plurality of the intermediate code format data of the plurality of print jobs spooled by said spooler and to generate composed print data of one composed job; and a previewer which is adapted to obtain layout information of the plurality of print jobs composed by said processor and to perform a simultaneous display of a preview image of the plurality of the intermediate code format data from the multiple applications before said processor generates the composed print data of the composed job, the preview image being edited in accordance with the respective layout information, wherein the preview image indicates that the respective page layouts of the plurality of print jobs are maintained.