Patent ID: 8917421

Claim:
A printing apparatus comprising: one or more print execution units each including a plurality of storage units configured to receive and store pieces of image data transferred from a higher level apparatus via a first transfer path, respectively; a plurality of image forming units configured to form an image on a print medium in accordance with the pieces of image data stored in the storage units; and a selection unit configured to select a path for transferring a piece of image data stored in the storage units for each of the image forming units; and a print control unit configured to control the print execution units to print the image data in accordance with control information transferred from the higher level apparatus via a second transfer path, wherein the selection unit selects the path in accordance with configuration information indicating configuration of all of the one or more print execution units, a plurality of pieces of image data corresponding respectively to different colors are transferred from the higher level apparatus via the first transfer path, and if a total number of image forming units in the print execution units is more than the number of colors of the image data, the selection unit selects the path to transfer the pieces of image data corresponding to a same color to at least two image forming units in the one or more print execution units.