Printing method and apparatus and printing system including printing apparatus

Abstract

A printing method and apparatus in which basic image data and information of the printing position of the image data on a recording medium are input from a data source and stored in advance, and the designated image data is bitmapped at the printing position to print an image, thereby increasing the printing speed, and a printing system including the printing apparatus. In this system, image data sent from a host is registered as a basic image, and the image is bitmapped in an image memory on the basis of the information of the printing position, of the stored basic image data on a printing paper sheet, sent from the host. The image data bitmapped in the image memory is then output to a printhead to print the image. When the bitmapped image data is to be copied to a print buffer on the basis of an image copy command, the copy operation is preferably performed concurrently with registering operation for an image management table and bitmapping operation for an image registration buffer which are performed when image data different from the image data to be copied is input. In addition, the registered image data may be stored in one print buffer, and the registered image data may be copied to another print buffer on the basis of another command. Printout operation may be performed on the basis of the copied image data.