Patent ID: 8233176

Claim:
A printing device which is able to layout print image data according to layout definition data that defines printing layout and print an image based on the print image data, comprising: a processing device configured to function as: a layout acquisition unit which obtains second layout definition data if at least one first layout definition data is included in a print job provided to the printing device; a layout replacement unit which replaces the at least one first layout definition data included in the print job with the second layout definition data obtained by the layout acquisition unit; an image generation unit which lays out and generates print image data according to the second layout definition data replaced by the layout replacement unit; and a print execution unit which executes printing based on the print image data generated by the image generation unit, wherein the layout definition data is arranged between a predetermined pair of tags; wherein the layout acquisition unit comprises: a search key generating unit configured to generate a search key based on the at least one first layout definition data included in the print jobs; a data search and acquisition unit configured to search and acquire the second layout definition data for replacing the at least one first layout definition data using the search key generated by the search key generating unit, wherein the search key generating unit reorders description units in the at least one first layout definition data based on a predetermined rule and generates the search key based on the reordered at least one first layout definition data, wherein the search key generating unit reorders the description units, such that an identical search key is generated for each of the at least one first layout definition data that have identical layouts and different orders of description units.