Patent ID: 7532335

Claim:
A print data providing apparatus for providing an external device with a print document comprised of a plurality of print data files described in different formats, said print data providing apparatus comprising: an archiving unit operable to archive the plurality of the print data files into an archived file; and an output unit operable to output the archived file to the external device, wherein said archiving unit archives the plurality of the print data files into the archived file after changing a name of one print data file of the plurality of the print data files to a specified name, the one print data file being a Top Page print data file, and the specified name being a predetermined name for allowing a printing apparatus to identify a print data file as the Top Page print data file, wherein the Top Page print data file is a predetermined print data file in the print document which is firstly required by the printing apparatus in order to print the print document, and wherein the printing apparatus interprets the Top Page print data file and places bit map data obtained by rasterization based on data of each of the print data files that the Top Page print data file references.