Patent ID: 8320018

Claim:
An output device which outputs quantized data, corresponding to a color material used by a printing unit, to the printing unit, the output device comprising: a registration unit configured to register the color information of pixel data in a dictionary; an encoding unit configured to encode image data by generating a code which indicates the length of a plurality of contiguous pixel data having identical color information and a dictionary index at which said color information is registered; an extraction unit configured to extract the color information as the index of the dictionary from the encoded image data; a conversion unit configured to convert each of the extracted color information registered in the dictionary into a color space of the printing unit by using a look-up table; a decoding unit configured to decode the encoded image data having the converted color information based on the code; and a quantization unit configured to convert a part of the decoded image data into quantized data corresponding to a resolution of the printing unit and output the quantized data to the printing unit.