Patent ID: 6908175

Claim:
A printing apparatus which performs printing by driving a printhead on the basis of print data transmitted from a host apparatus, comprising: scanning means for scanning the printhead with respect to a printing medium in a main scanning direction; a print buffer used to store print data transmitted from the host apparatus and transfer the print data to the printhead, and capable of storing print data smaller in amount than a print data amount for performing printing by scanning the printhead by a width scannable by said scanning means; printing means for dividing said print buffer into a plurality of blocks, reading out print data for each divided block, transferring the print data to the printhead, and performing printing while scanning the printhead by said scanning means; sampling means for sampling part of print data stored in a final block of said print buffer; and control means for, as for printing using the print data stored in the final block, performing printing by one scanning of the printhead using the print data stored in all blocks except the final block and the print data sampled by said sampling means, and performing printing by next scanning of the printhead using remaining data sampled by said sampling means and print data newly stored in all the blocks except the final block.