Patent ID: 8656278

Claim:
A data converting apparatus, comprising: a display image producing section that receives a file including one or more records each comprising descriptions of print data for one or more pages, and that produces image data for display based on the file; a preview displaying section that displays an image based on the image data produced by the display image producing section, and that receives a designation by a user operation as to a record or page in the file to be printed; and a print image producing section that produces image data for printing with respect to the record or page designated to be printed in the designation received by the preview displaying section, wherein the display image producing section includes: a first PPML interpreter that receives the file described in a PPML data format and produces i) a first page description element data in which an element of the image is described in a page description language data format, and ii) first inside information representing an arrangement position, within a page, of the element expressed by the first element data; a PDF converter that converts the first element data produced by the first PPML interpreter into PDF element data in which the same element as the element expressed by the first element data is expressed in a PDF data format; and a PDF editor that edits the PDF element data obtained by the PDF converter based on the first inside information produced by the first PPML interpreter, and that produces the image data for display, the image data representing the image on a page basis and described in the PDF data format, and wherein the print image producing section includes: a file editor that receives the file described in a PPML data format, that receives from the preview displaying section information on the record or page which is designated to be printed in the designation, and that automatically produces a new file described in a PPML data format by automatically deleting file portions of the received file describing print data for other records or pages in the received file that are not designated to be printed in the designation; a second PPML interpreter that receives the new file produced by the file editor, and that produces second page description element data and second inside information representing an arrangement position, within a page, of the element expressed by the second element data; a raster converter that converts the second element data produced by the second PPML interpreter into raster element data in which a same element as the element expressed by the second element data is expressed in a raster data format; and a raster data editor that edits the raster element data obtained by the raster converter based on the second inside information produced by the second PPML interpreter, and that produces raster page data representing the image in the designated record or page on a page basis.