An independent hardware pixel counter counts bits of print data in regions of interest. The independent pixel counter can be an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and is separate from a control processor. The independent hardware pixel counter selectively monitors a data bus carrying image data to or from a memory. Once the pixels of the image data have been counted, the count data can be sent to the control processor in order to implement a print strategy. The pixel counter counts the print data at a point when image data is being sent to the memory, since at that point the image data is both uncompressed and in a raster format, and thus can be easily analyzed. Additionally, because the image data is stored in the memory until enough print data has accumulated for printing, the processor is provided with sufficient time to gather and use print information before the counted image data is printed.
A printing apparatus, a printing system, and a prediction method of the usage of a printing agent can be configured to predict, prior to a processing for developing a printing image, the usage of a printing agent required for the printing. In order to do so, layout information is firstly analyzed prior to a processing for developing a printing image, thereby calculating an area in which object information arranged based on the layout information is printed. Then, based on the calculated printing area, the usage of the printing agent required for printing the object information is predicted.
