High speed print output is enabled, while eliminating the burden of rearranging printed matter in page order placed on users. A plurality of pages of print job data are divided into groups of a predetermined number of pages, and the divided plurality of pages are assigned to the print job data to generate a plurality of pieces of divided print job data. The pieces of divided print job data are arranged in reverse order of page numbers, expansion processes are administered on the pieces of divided print job data in the order that they are arranged to generate page data for each page. The page data are output for each piece of divided print job data in reverse order of page numbers and in the order that the expansion processes are administered, to a printing section.