Patent ID: 7599079

Claim:
A printer control apparatus comprising: a real-time decoding unit which decodes band coded data, converts decoded data into video signals and transmits the video signals to a printer engine, without temporarily storing the decoded data in a band raster area of memory; a non real-time decoding unit which decodes the band coded data, stores the decoded data into a first area of the band raster area of the memory, converts data stored in a second area of the band raster area of the memory into video signals and transmits the video signals to a printer engine; a setting unit which sets a band height at a higher value if the real-time decoding unit is to be used, and sets a band height at a lower value if the non-real-time decoding unit is to be used; a rendering unit which renders bitmap data having the band height at the higher value into a band raster area of the memory when the band height is set to the higher value by the setting unit, and renders bitmap data having the band height at the lower value into a band raster area of the memory when the band height is set to the lower value by the setting unit; and an encoding unit which encodes the bitmap data rendered by the rendering unit into the band coded data, wherein the real-time decoding unit is activated after the bitmap data having the band height at the higher value is encoded by the encoding unit, and the non-real-time decoding unit is activated after the bitmap data having the band height at the lower value is encoded by the encoding unit.