Patent ID: 8537411

Claim:
An apparatus for controlling an image forming apparatus having an image forming device therein, the apparatus comprising: an image obtainer to obtain image data to be formed on a continuous roll sheet, the image data including front-side image data to be formed on a front side of the continuous roll sheet and back-side image data to be formed on the back side of the continuous roll sheet; a reverse path length obtainer to obtain information regarding a reverse path length that indicates a length of path in which the continuous roll sheet travels in the image forming device between the time at which the front-side image data is formed on the front side of the continuous roll sheet and the time at which the back-side image data is formed on the back side of the continuous roll sheet; a page allocator to: allocate a first page of the front-side image data and a first page of the back-side image data at respective positions that are parallel with each other in the main scanning direction, wherein the position of the first page of the front-side image data and the position of the first page of the back-side image data are separated from each other in the sub-scanning direction by a length determined based on the reverse path length; and generate page allocation information that indicates to combine a part of the front-side image data and a part of the back-side image data that are overlapped with each other in the main scanning direction into drawing data; and a drawing data generator to generate drawing data of the image data using the page allocation information, wherein the drawing data generator is configured to generate drawing data that contains the front-side image data, using information regarding a position where each page of the front-side image data is separated from the preceding page; generate drawing data that contains the front-side image data and the back-side image data that are overlapped with each other in the main scanning direction, using information regarding a position where each page of the front-side image data is separated from the preceding page; and generate drawing data that contains the back-side image data using information regarding a position where each page of the back-side image data is separated from the preceding page.