Patent ID: 8810854

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: a controller to control a first drawing process and a second drawing process, the controller including a page description language (PDL) unit therein, the PDL unit configured to, separate an image drawing command into main image data and pre-set image data, the main image data being image data in a format having a first number of color gradations and the pre-set image data being image data in a format having a second number of color gradations less than the first number of color gradations, and perform, via a first image drawing processor, the first drawing process; and a second image drawing processor configured to perform the second drawing processor, the second image drawing processor being a discrete processor from the first image drawing processor and configured to function as a hardware accelerator (HWA), wherein in the first drawing process, the first image drawing processor processes the main image data to convert the main image data based on the image drawing command, and in the second drawing process, the second drawing processor processes the pre-set image data based on an image drawing command set for the pre-set image data and combines the main image data and the pre-set image as an output image.