Patent ID: 8295616

Claim:
An image processing device configured to compress image data to be used for printing with a plurality of compression levels having different compression rates, comprising: a former stage compression unit configured to perform a compression process for each of a plurality of areas into which the image data is divided with a latest compression level which is one of the compression levels currently set, the former stage compression unit configured, in the case where a size of the compressed image data of each of the areas is not smaller than a determined value, to repetitively update the latest compression level to a compression level one rank higher so as to compress the image data with the updated latest compression level until the size of the compressed image data becomes smaller than the determined value; a storing unit configured to store the latest compression level and the compression level with which the image data of each of the areas is compressed to a size smaller than the determined value; and a latter stage compression unit configured, after the former stage compression unit finishes compressing all of the areas, to recompress each of the areas of the latest compression level if the compression level is different from the latest compression level stored in the storing unit.