JP2001191550A - Recorder and printer driver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recorder capable of performing high speed printing by decreasing restriction due to a kind of an image to be recorded. SOLUTION: This recorder comprises a paper supplying cassette 4A for supplying a paper sheet 3 in a condition that a paper feeding direction and a longitudinal direction of the paper sheet are parallel with each other and a paper supplying cassette 4B for supplying the paper sheet 3 in a condition that the paper feeding direction is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the paper sheet. The paper sheet orientation is selected corresponding to the kind of the image.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording apparatus, and more particularly to a recording apparatus having a plurality of recording heads.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an image recording apparatus (image forming apparatus) such as a printer, a facsimile, a copying apparatus, and a plotter,
In order to obtain high-quality images, high resolution is being promoted, but in particular, in inkjet printers and the like, there is a problem that the printing speed is low.

Therefore, conventionally, Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. Hei. 5-2958, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei.
As described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 616, for example, there is known a recording apparatus which includes a plurality of recording heads and independently drives each recording head to improve a printing speed.

[0004]

In a recording apparatus having a plurality of recording heads and reciprocating scanning thereof to improve the recording speed, when the image to be recorded is only a character image, the recording head By dividing the recording area by each recording head in a direction orthogonal to the scanning direction and with a boundary between characters as a boundary, an image without color shift or position shift can be printed.

However, when an image to be recorded includes a continuous solid image such as a picture or a photograph, if the recording area is divided in a direction perpendicular to the scanning direction of the recording head, the continuous The image quality is deteriorated, for example, the image quality is deteriorated, resulting in misregistration or color misregistration in color images. In order to avoid this, recording must be performed by one recording head, and there is a problem that the effect of improving the printing speed is reduced by half.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus capable of performing higher-speed printing by reducing restrictions depending on the type of a recorded image.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a recording apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a first supply unit in which a feeding direction of a recording medium is parallel to a longitudinal direction of the recording medium; Second supply means whose direction is orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the recording medium.

Here, it is preferable that a means for selecting one of the first supply means and the second supply means for each page is provided.

In this case, storage means for storing print data for one page, parallel recording area extraction means for extracting areas recordable simultaneously by a plurality of print heads based on the stored print data, It is preferable to include means for selecting one of the first supply means and the second supply means based on the extraction result of the area extraction means.

Further, the area of the area recorded by each recording head is calculated based on the extraction result of the parallel recording area extracting means,
It is preferable to include a unit that selects the first supply unit or the second supply unit based on the area of each recording area.

Further, the present invention is preferably applied to an ink jet recording apparatus which is an ink jet head for recording an image by ejecting ink droplets from the recording head.

A printer driver according to the present invention is a printer driver for driving and controlling a printing apparatus capable of providing two kinds of supply means having different feeding directions of a printing medium. It comprises means for analyzing and extracting areas recordable simultaneously by a plurality of recording heads, and means for transmitting selection information for selecting a supply means corresponding to the boundary of each recording area.

Here, it is preferable to include means for calculating the area of each recording area and transmitting selection information for selecting a supply means based on the area of each recording area. Further, it is possible to provide a unit for adding the selection information to the image data of each recording area and transmitting the image data.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective explanatory view of a mechanism of an ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side explanatory view of the mechanism.

This ink jet recording apparatus includes a carriage movable in the main scanning direction inside the recording apparatus main body 1, a plurality of recording heads including an ink jet head mounted on the carriage, an ink cartridge for supplying ink to the recording head, and the like. To house the printing mechanism 2 and the like
In the lower part of the apparatus main body 1, a large number of sheets
The upper and lower two-stage paper feed cassettes (or paper feed trays) 4A and 4B capable of loading paper 3 can be mounted, and the manual feed tray 5 for feeding paper 3 manually is opened. Then, the paper 3 fed from the paper feed cassettes 4A, 4B or the manual feed tray 5 is taken in, a required image is recorded by the printing mechanism unit 2, and then discharged to the paper discharge tray 6 mounted on the rear side. .

Here, the paper feed cassette 4A is a first feeding means for feeding the paper 3 in a state where the paper feed direction and the longitudinal direction of the paper are parallel to each other, and the paper feed cassette 4B is a paper feed direction and the paper feed direction. The second supply means feeds the paper 3 in a state where the longitudinal directions are orthogonal to each other.

The printing mechanism section 2 moves the carriages 13A and 13B in the main scanning direction (the direction perpendicular to the sheet of FIG. 2) by a main guide rod 11 and a sub guide rod 12 which are guide members which are laterally mounted on left and right side plates (not shown). Each of the carriages 13A and 13B is slidably held, and the recording heads 14A and 14B are composed of inkjet heads that eject ink droplets of each color of yellow (Y), cyan (C), magenta (M), and black (Bk). Are mounted so that the ink droplet ejection direction is directed downward, and ink tanks (ink cartridges) 15 for supplying ink of each color to the recording heads 14A and 14B are exchangeably mounted above the carriages 13A and 13B. I have.

Here, the carriages 13A and 13B are slidably fitted on the main guide rod 11 on the rear side (downstream side in the paper transport direction) and slide on the front side (downstream side in the paper transport direction) on the slave guide rod 12. It is mounted movably. Then, in order to move and scan the carriages 13A and 13B in the main scanning direction, the driving pulley 1 rotated and driven by the main scanning motor 17 is used.
8 and a driven pulley 19, a timing belt 20 is stretched, and this timing belt 20 is attached to the carriage 13A,
13B.

Although a plurality of ink jet heads for ejecting ink droplets of each color are used as the recording heads 14A and 14B, a single ink jet head having a nozzle for ejecting ink droplets of each color may be used. further,
The ink jet head is a piezo type in which ink is pressurized through a vibrating plate which forms a liquid chamber (ink flow path) wall by an electromechanical transducer such as a piezoelectric element, or bubbles are generated by film boiling caused by a heating resistor. Such as a bubble type that pressurizes ink by pressure, or an electrostatic type that presses ink by displacing the diaphragm with electrostatic force between a diaphragm that forms the ink flow path wall surface and an electrode that faces the diaphragm. Can be used.

On the other hand, a paper feed roller 21A and a friction pad 22A for separating and feeding the paper 3 set in the paper feed cassette 4A, a guide member 23A for guiding the paper 3,
A paper feed roller 21B and a friction pad 22B for separating and feeding the paper 3 set in the paper feed cassette 4B, a guide member 23B for guiding the paper 3 and a transport roller 24 for inverting and transporting the fed paper 3 A transport roller 25 pressed against the peripheral surface of the transport roller 24 and a tip roller 26 for defining an angle at which the paper 3 is sent out from the transport roller 24 are provided. The transport roller 24 is a sub-scanning motor 2
7 is driven to rotate via a gear train.

An image receiving member 29 is provided in the main scanning direction as a paper guide member for guiding the paper 3 fed from the transport rollers 24 below the recording heads 14A and 14B. On the downstream side of the printing receiving member 29 in the paper transport direction, there are provided a transport roller 31 and a spur 32 that are driven to rotate to transport the paper 3 in the paper discharge direction, and a paper discharge that transports the paper 3 to the paper discharge tray 6. A roller 33 and a spur 34;
Guide members 35 and 36 that form a paper discharge path are provided.

Further, reliability maintenance / recovery mechanisms (hereinafter referred to as "subsystems") 37A and 37B for maintaining and recovering the reliability of the recording heads 14A and 14B are disposed on the left and right ends in the moving direction of the carriage 13. ing. Carriage 1
3A and 13B are subsystems 37 during printing standby.
The recording heads 14A and 14B are capped by capping means and the like.

Next, an outline of a control unit of the ink jet recording apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. The control unit includes a microcomputer (hereinafter, referred to as a “CPU”) 50 that controls the entire recording apparatus, a ROM 51 storing required fixed information, a RAM 52 used as a working memory, and the like. A printer controller 53 that processes the transferred image data, a parallel input / output (PIO) port 54, and a parallel input / output (P
IO) port 56, head drive circuits 57 and 58, drivers 59 and 60, and the like.

Here, the PIO port 54 receives various information such as image data from the host, various instruction information such as reliability recovery instruction information from an operation panel (not shown), and a paper presence / absence sensor for detecting the start and end of the paper. , A signal from various sensors such as a home position sensor for detecting the home position (reference position) of the carriage 13 and the like, and a required signal to the host and the operation panel through the PIO port 54. Information is sent.

The head drive circuit 57 includes a PIO port 56
A drive waveform is applied to the energy generating means corresponding to each nozzle of the recording head 14A based on various data and signals given via. Head drive circuit 58
Applies a drive waveform to the energy generating means corresponding to each nozzle of the recording head 14B based on various data and signals given via the PIO port 56.

Further, the driver 59 is connected to the PIO port 5
By controlling the driving of the main scanning motor 17 and the sub-scanning motor 27 in accordance with the driving data given through
The carriages 13A and 13B are moved and scanned in the main scanning direction, and the transport rollers 24 are rotated to transport the sheet 3 by a predetermined amount. The driver 60 controls the driving of the solenoid 61 to switch the paper feed roller that drives the paper feed to the paper feed roller 21A of the paper feed cassette 4A or the paper feed roller 21B of the paper feed cassette 4B, thereby feeding the paper 3 The cassette is selected.

Therefore, a first embodiment of the portion relating to the present invention of the ink jet recording apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. The write data 70 is provided from the host side (personal computer, scanner) to the data division processing unit 71 of the control unit via a cable or a network. In this embodiment, the write data 70 is
This is data including image data for one page and selection information (paper direction specification data) for specifying the paper direction. In other words, the paper feed cassette (paper direction) used for each page is designated on the host side.

Then, the data division processing section 71 divides the write data 70 into image data and paper direction selection data, and gives the image data to the image recording processing section 72.
The paper direction selection data is provided to the paper feed selection unit 73. The image recording processing unit 72 processes the input image data, controls the driving of the two recording heads 14A and 14B according to the image data, and the paper feed selection unit 73 feeds the paper according to the paper direction selection data. The paper feed cassette is switched to the cassette 4A or the paper feed cassette 4B. Note that in FIG.
Although A and 4B are shown side by side in the horizontal direction, they may be arranged vertically as shown in FIG. 2 or may be arranged horizontally as shown in FIG.

Next, a description will be given, with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6, of parallel and simultaneous printing in the ink jet printing apparatus thus configured. First, as shown in FIG. 5, when the image to be recorded on the paper 3 is only a character image (indicated by a black square in the figure) 80, there is a slight gap between the characters, and therefore, the paper is fed in the paper longitudinal direction. Direction (Y direction)
The middle of one line is divided into left and right recording areas A and B by a boundary line 81 parallel to the sheet feeding direction (Y direction), and the data of the recording area A is recorded by the recording head 14A and the recording area B is recorded by the recording head 14B. Data can be processed in parallel and recorded simultaneously.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 6, when the image to be recorded on the paper 3 includes a solid image 82 (shown by oblique lines in the figure) such as a photograph or a picture together with characters 80, the longitudinal direction of the paper is The paper feed direction (Y direction) is set, the recording area A is divided into left and right recording areas A and B by a boundary line 81 parallel to the paper feeding direction (Y direction), and the data of the recording area A is recorded by the recording head 14A. When the data in the recording area B is processed in parallel and recorded, the continuous data is recorded by different recording heads 14A and 14B in the area of the solid image 82, and a position shift and a color shift occur.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 7, the direction of the paper 3 is rotated by 90 °, the feeding direction (Y direction) of the paper 3 is set to a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction, and the character image area is set along the paper feeding direction. A boundary line 85 is formed between the solid image area 83 and the solid image area 84.
The recording head 14 is divided into left and right recording areas A and B as
The data A in the recording area A can be recorded in parallel with the data in the recording area B by the recording head 14B.

Therefore, in this ink jet recording apparatus, the sheet 3 is set in the sheet feeding cassette 4A and the sheet 3 is fed in a state where the sheet feeding direction is parallel to the longitudinal direction of the sheet, or the sheet 3 is set in the sheet feeding cassette 4A. The write data given by adding paper direction selection data for specifying whether to feed the paper 3 in a state where the paper feeding direction and the longitudinal direction of the paper are parallel to the image data is given to the data division processing unit 71.
To divide into image data and paper direction selection data.

The paper feed selection unit 73 switches the paper feed cassette for feeding the paper 3 to the paper feed cassette 4A or 4B by driving the solenoid 61 in accordance with the paper direction selection data from the data division processing unit 71. . As a result, the paper 3 is fed from the selected paper feed cassette 4A or 4B in a state where the feed direction matches the longitudinal direction or in a state where the feed direction is orthogonal to the longitudinal direction. On the other hand, the image recording processing unit 72
The image data is divided and provided to recording areas A and B where the recording heads 14A and 14B record.

Therefore, the character image 8 shown in FIG.
When recording only 0, the sheet is fed in a state where the sheet feeding cassette 4A is selected and the sheet feeding direction is the longitudinal direction of the sheet.
B can be recorded by the recording heads 14A and 14B, respectively, and the recording speed can be increased.

When recording an image including a character image 80 and a solid image 82 as shown in FIG. 7 and which can be divided by a boundary line 85 in a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the sheet, the sheet feeding cassette 4B is selected. The paper is fed in a state where the paper feeding direction is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the paper.
The recording areas A and B divided into right and left can be recorded by the recording heads 14A and 14B, respectively. In this case as well, the recording speed can be increased.

As described above, when a plurality of recording heads are provided, the first supply means in which the feeding direction of the recording medium is parallel to the longitudinal direction of the recording medium, and the feeding direction of the recording medium is orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the recording medium. By providing the second supply unit in the direction, by selecting the supply unit according to the image to be recorded, it is possible to reduce the limitation on the image type that can improve the recording speed by the parallel writing.

Here, by selecting either the first supply unit or the second supply unit for each page, it is possible to change the paper supply state according to each page even in a document of a plurality of pages in which the paper directions are mixed. And high-speed recording becomes possible.
Note that the present invention can be applied only when all pages can be fed in the same paper direction.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to the functional block diagram of FIG. Here, a page memory 91 which is a storage unit for temporarily storing one page of image data sent from the host side, and one page of image data stored in the page memory 91 are analyzed and parallel writing is possible. Image data analysis unit 92, which is a parallel recording area extraction unit for extracting a suitable area, and the recording heads 14A, 14A based on image data provided from the image data analysis unit 92 and data on the extracted divided areas.
Image data division processing section 9 which divides image data to perform recording by B and gives it to each of recording heads 14A and 14B
3 and a paper direction selection unit 94 that is a paper direction selection unit that selects a paper direction based on the data on the extracted divided region provided from the image data analysis unit 92.

Therefore, by transferring the image data from the host side, the image data for one page is developed in the page memory 91, and the image area which can be written in parallel by the image data analysis unit 92 is analyzed and extracted. Therefore, the paper direction selection unit 94 designates the paper feed cassette 4A or 4B as a cassette for feeding the paper 3 to the paper feed selection unit 73 according to the data on the extracted divided area. On the other hand, the image data division processing unit 93 stores the image data in accordance with the image data and the information on the analyzed and extracted divided areas.
4A, 14B.

In the same manner as in the first embodiment, when only the character image 80 as shown in FIG. 5 is to be recorded, the paper feed cassette 4A is selected, and the paper is fed in the longitudinal direction of the paper. The recording area A, B
Are recorded by the recording heads 14A and 14B, respectively. When recording an image including a character image 80 and a solid image 82 as shown in FIG. 7 and which can be divided by a boundary line 85 in a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the paper, the paper feed cassette 4B is selected and the paper The paper is fed in a state where the feeding direction is orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the paper, and the recording areas A and B are recorded by the recording heads 14A and 14B, respectively.

As described above, the storage means for storing one page of print data, the parallel print area extracting means for extracting an area recordable by a plurality of print heads simultaneously based on the stored print data, By providing a means for selecting either the first supply means or the second supply means based on the extraction result of the recording area extraction means, it is only necessary to provide image data from the host side, and the burden on the host side For example, there is no need for the host to perform processing for extracting each recording area, or for the user to specify the paper direction (paper cassette to be used) on the host.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to the functional block diagram of FIG. Here, a page memory 91 for temporarily storing one page of image data sent from the host side, and one page of image data stored in the page memory 91 are analyzed to extract a parallel writable area. The image data analyzing unit 92 calculates the area of each recording area based on the extracted image data of the divided recording area provided from the image data analyzing unit 92, and determines the divided area based on the area of each recording area. The image data is divided to perform recording by the recording heads 14A and 14B based on the image data and the data related to the determined divided regions, and the recording heads
A and 14B are provided with an image data division processing unit 93 and a paper direction selection unit 94 for selecting a paper direction based on data on the determined divided area.

Therefore, by transferring the image data from the host side, the image data for one page is expanded in the page memory 91, and the image area which can be written in parallel by the image data analysis unit 92 is analyzed and extracted. Therefore, the area calculation unit 95 calculates the area of each recording area obtained by the image data analysis unit 92, and redivides the recording area so that the difference between the areas of each image area is minimized.

That is, for example, as shown in FIG.
When most of the image to be recorded is the character image area 83 and the solid image area 84 such as a picture or a photograph has only a small amount, the boundary is set to the boundary 85 in the direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the paper.
By feeding the sheet 3 in a state where the longitudinal direction of the sheet is orthogonal to the feed direction, the recording heads 14A, 1A
4B, the entire data can be recorded in parallel. However, since the amount of data distributed to the recording heads 14A, 14B is largely different, the effect of parallelization is reduced as a result.

Therefore, a boundary line 81 parallel to the longitudinal direction of the sheet is provided.
If the recording area is divided by and the recording is performed by a single recording head in order to prevent the position shift and the color shift of the solid image area 84, the area of the solid image area 84 itself is small.
Even if recording is performed by a single recording head, the recording speed does not significantly decrease.

Therefore, the image data is analyzed to divide the recording area into a character image area and a solid image area, the area of each recording area is calculated, and when the difference between the areas exceeds a predetermined value. In, the divided areas are set so that the parallel recording is performed only in the character image area and the recording is performed by the single head in the solid image area.

Here, the case where the difference in area exceeds a predetermined value is related to the recording speed of a single head of each recording apparatus. For example, the recording area of a single head is 20% of the whole area. In the case of the following (60% or more in area difference), it is preferable to divide the recording area so that the character image area is recorded in parallel. In this case, depending on the type of solid image, it is also possible to perform parallel recording of a solid image portion instead of single head recording. Further, as can be seen from the above, the area difference and the ratio of the solid image area to the entire image area have the same meaning.

The paper direction selection unit 94 designates the paper feed cassette 4A or 4B as the cassette for feeding the paper 3 to the paper feed selection unit 73 according to the data on the divided area, and the image data division processing unit 93 Giving image data to the recording heads 14A and 14B in accordance with the data and the information on the analyzed and extracted divided regions is the same as in the second embodiment.

As described above, by selecting the paper direction (supply means) based on the area of each divided area, more efficient recording can be performed.

Next, a fourth embodiment for transferring sheet direction selection data from the printer driver on the host side to the recording apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. In this embodiment, as in the third embodiment, one page of image data is developed, and the image data is analyzed to extract a recording area to be divided. Then, the area of each recording area is calculated, the paper direction is selected so that the difference in the area is reduced, and this is added to the image data as paper direction selection data for each page and transferred to the recording apparatus.

In this case, similarly to the second embodiment, it is also possible to extract the recording area to be divided by analyzing the image data, and to select the paper direction according to the extracted recording area. Further, in a case where the supply directions of all pages are made to match without selecting a supply unit for each page, the paper direction selection data may be transferred once.

If the printer driver selects the paper direction in this way, the burden on the recording apparatus is reduced.

In the above embodiment, the present invention is applied to a printer as an ink jet recording apparatus as a recording apparatus. However, the recording apparatus is not limited to this, and various recording apparatuses such as a thermal recording apparatus may be used. The present invention can be applied to a copying machine and a facsimile machine as well as a printer.

[0054]

As described above, according to the recording apparatus of the present invention, there are provided a plurality of recording heads, and the first supply means in which the recording medium feed direction is parallel to the longitudinal direction of the recording medium; Since the second supply means is provided so that the recording medium is fed in a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the recording medium, restrictions on image types that can be recorded in parallel by a plurality of recording heads are reduced.

Here, by providing a means for selecting one of the first supply means and the second supply means for each page, restrictions on image types which can be recorded in parallel by a plurality of recording heads are further reduced.

In this case, an area recordable simultaneously by a plurality of print heads is extracted based on the print data for one page, and one of the first supply means and the second supply means is selected based on the extraction result. By providing the means, the burden on the host is reduced. And a means for calculating an area of an area to be recorded by each recording head based on a result of extracting the parallel recording areas, and selecting a first supply unit or a second supply unit based on a difference between the areas of the recording areas. Thereby, efficient recording can be performed.

Further, by applying the recording apparatus according to the present invention to an ink jet recording apparatus for recording an image by discharging ink droplets from a recording head, a high-speed, high-quality image can be recorded.

A printer driver according to the present invention is a printer driver for driving and controlling a printing apparatus capable of providing two kinds of supply means having different feeding directions of a printing medium. Since the apparatus includes means for analyzing and extracting areas recordable simultaneously by a plurality of recording heads and transmitting selection information for selecting a supply means corresponding to the boundary of each recording area, the burden on the recording apparatus is reduced. .

Here, by providing means for calculating the area of each recording area and transmitting selection information for selecting a supply means based on the difference between the areas of each recording area, more efficient recording is performed. be able to. Further, by providing a unit for adding the selection information to the image data for each recording area and transmitting the image data, more efficient recording can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective explanatory view of an ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a mechanism section of the recording apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an outline of a control unit of the recording apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram functionally illustrating the first embodiment of the present invention in the recording apparatus.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of FIG. 4;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram functionally illustrating a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram functionally illustrating a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

3 paper, 4A, 4B paper feed cassette, 14A, 14B
.., Recording head, 71, data division processing section, 72, image recording processing section, 73, paper feed selection section, 91, page memory, 9
2. Image data analysis unit 93: Image data division processing unit
94: paper direction selection unit; 95: area calculation unit.

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A recording apparatus comprising a plurality of recording heads for recording an image by feeding a recording medium in a direction orthogonal to a scanning direction of the recording head, wherein the feeding direction of the recording medium is parallel to the longitudinal direction of the recording medium. A first supply unit, and a second supply unit in which a feeding direction of the recording medium is orthogonal to a longitudinal direction of the recording medium. 2. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for selecting one of the first supply means and the second supply means for each page. 3. The recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein
Storage means for storing recording data for a page, parallel recording area extraction means for extracting an area recordable simultaneously by a plurality of recording heads based on the stored recording data, and extraction results of the parallel recording area extraction means. Based on the first
A recording apparatus, comprising: means for selecting one of a supply means and a second supply means. 4. The recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein an area of an area recorded by each recording head is calculated based on an extraction result of said parallel recording area extracting means, and based on a difference between areas of each recording area. And a means for selecting the first supply means or the second supply means. 5. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording head is an ink jet head that records an image by discharging ink droplets. 6. A printer driver for driving and controlling a printing apparatus capable of providing two types of supply means having different feeding directions of a printing medium, analyzing one page of image data and using a plurality of printing heads. A printer driver comprising: means for extracting a recordable area at the same time; and means for transmitting selection information for selecting a supply means according to the boundary of each recording area. 7. The printer driver according to claim 6, further comprising means for calculating an area of each recording area and transmitting selection information for selecting a supply means based on a difference between the areas of each recording area. A printer driver, characterized in that: 8. The printer driver according to claim 6, further comprising means for adding selection information to image data for each recording area and transmitting the image data.