Patent ID: 7386790

Claim:
A printing apparatus comprising: storage means for storing document data received via a network and described in a predetermined structured description language; analysis means for analyzing the document data stored by said storage means and recognizing font sizes contained in the document data, and for recognizing characters contained in the document data to which the font sizes are applied; display means for displaying a first font size to be selected from among a group consisting of (i) a smallest size, (ii) a most frequently used size and (iii) all sizes on an operation panel of said printing apparatus; instruction input means for selecting the first font size from among the smallest size, the most frequently used size and the all sizes displayed on the operation panel by said display means, and entering a second font size to be used for formatting the document data for printing on at least one print page, the second font size being different from the first font size; discrimination means for discriminating whether the first font size selected by said instruction input means indicates the smallest size, the most frequently used size or the all sizes; scaling means for scaling all the characters contained in the document data (a) such that a smallest font size in the document data becomes equal to the second font size entered by said instruction input means, if said discrimination means discriminates that the first font size indicates the smallest size, (b) such that a most frequently used font size in the document data becomes equal to the entered second font size, if said discrimination means discriminates that the first font size indicates the most frequently used size, and (c) such that all font sizes in the document become equal to the entered second font size, if said discrimination means discriminates that the first font size indicates the all sizes; image forming means for executing an image forming process such that data representing the character recognized by said analysis means is outputted for printing on the at least one print page on which contents of the document data are laid out in accordance with the scaling by said scaling means; and printing means for printing data based on print data formed in the image forming process executed by said image forming means, wherein the document data does not include a concept of page.