Patent ID: 7684070

Claim:
A printing system including an information processing apparatus which outputs print data and a printing apparatus which receives the print data from said information processing apparatus and prints a color image on a sheet, wherein said information processing apparatus comprises: a storage unit configured to store a plurality of tables for defining a set of dither matrix patterns used for character/line image and halftone image for each color component; a designation unit configured to designate a table among the plurality of tables; a generation unit configured to generate image data for respective printing color components of an image based on data to be print-outputted delivered from higher processing and quantizing the generated image data for respective printing color components using dither matrixes specified by the table designated by said designation unit; a coding unit configured to compress-encode the quantized image data for the respective printing color components generated by said generation unit; a notification unit configured to predict coded color data amounts for the respective printing color components based on the table designated by said designation unit and the sizes of halftone image areas and character/line image areas included in the respective printing color components, generating memory allocation ratio information based on a ratio of the predicted coded color data amounts for the respective printing color components coded by said coding unit and notifying said printing apparatus of the memory allocation ratio information so that said printing apparatus allocates memory areas for respective color components; and an output unit configured to, after said notification unit notifies said printing apparatus of the memory allocation ratio information, output the coded image data of the respective printing color components coded by said coding unit to said printing apparatus, and wherein said printing apparatus comprises: a reception buffer; a memory allocation unit configured to receive the memory allocation information notified by said notification unit and allocating, in accordance with the received memory allocation ratio information, memory areas for respective color components in the reception buffer so that the memory sizes of each memory areas correspond to ratios of the predicted coded color data amounts for the respective printing color components; a receiving unit configured to, after said memory allocation unit allocates memory areas, receive coded image data for respective color components and storing the received coded image data of respective color components into respective allocated memory areas; plural decoding units, independently provided for the respective printing color components, configured to decode coded color data stored in the memory areas to image data; and a printing unit configured to print the image data for respective color components decoded by said plural decoding units on a sheet.