Patent ID: 8289560

Claim:
A printing device, comprising: at least one processor; and memory operatively coupled to the at least one processor and storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause the printing device to provide: a print data receiving unit configured to receive print data, the print data including multiple objects and accompanying information corresponding to at least one of the objects; a transparent property judgment unit configured to judge whether each of the objects is a transparent object having a transparent property using the accompanying information; a transparency processing unit configured to generate transparency-processed data by executing transparency processing on the objects including a transparent object and an object underlying the transparent object; a transparency processing buffer configured to store the transparency-processed data generated in the transparency processing; an image data generating unit configured to generate image data based on at least one of the transparency-processed data and the objects; an image data storage control unit configured to store the image data in a page memory; a print engine which prints an image on a print medium using the image data stored in the page memory; and an object placement judgment unit configured to handle the page memory as a set of bands defined as prescribed areas and to judge in which bands each of the objects is to be placed by use of the accompanying information, wherein a size of the transparency processing buffer corresponds to a size of one band, wherein the transparency processing unit is further configured to judge whether to execute the transparency processing for a band based on whether the band is judged by the object placement judgment unit to have at least a part of a transparent object, wherein the image data generating unit is further configured to: generate, for a band in the page memory corresponding to a transparent object, the image data to be stored in the page memory based on the transparency-processed data stored in the transparency processing buffer, wherein only bands in the page memory having at least part of a transparent object are processed into the transparency processing buffer, and generate, for a band in the page memory not corresponding to a transparent object, the image data to be stored in the page memory directly from one or more of the objects without use of the transparency processing buffer.