Patent ID: 8040552

Claim:
A variable data image generating device comprising: a receiving unit; a distributing unit; a plurality of first type image generating units that work in parallel; a first type image memory; and a document image generating unit, wherein the receiving unit receives variable data including an identifier of a rendering program and a plurality of records to which the rendering program is to be applied, the rendering program including a first type rendering instruction to be applied to the plurality of records and a second type rendering instruction different from the first type rendering instruction; the distributing unit distributes the entire variable data to the document image generating unit, and also generates, for each record or each group of records included in the variable data, a divided data piece including the record or records and the identifier, and distributes the generated divided data pieces to the respective first type image generating units; each of the plurality of first type image generating units obtains the rendering program corresponding to the identifier included in the distributed divided data piece, executes the first type rendering instruction included in the obtained rendering program to generate a first type image corresponding to the record included in the divided data piece, and stores the generated first type image in correlation with the record into the first type image memory; the document image generating unit obtains the rendering program corresponding to the identifier included in the variable data, and executes the obtained rendering program for each record in the variable data; and during the execution of the rendering program for each record in the variable data, when the document image generating unit finds the first type rendering instruction within the rendering program, the document image generating unit obtains the first type image corresponding to the record from the first type image memory and lays out the obtained first type image, and when the document image generating unit finds the second type rendering instruction within the rendering program, executes the second type rendering instruction and lays out the resulting rendered image.