Provided is an image processing method and apparatus in which drawing objects are collected on a group-by-group basis and rendering is switched between YMCK rendering and RGB rendering to thereby raise the image quality of a YMCK output image and mitigate a decline in processing speed. To achieve this, PDL (401) is input to an interpreter (402), which translates the PDL to drawing objects. It is then determined whether the rendering of the drawing objects is to be performed in the RGB format or YMCK format. As a result, drawing objects obtained by translation are rendered in the RGB format by an RGB renderer (407), whereby an RGB image is created, and drawing objects obtained by translation are rendered in the YMCK format by a YMCK renderer (404), whereby a YMCK image is created. The RGB image is color-converted to a YMCK image by color conversion and HT processing (409), and the YMCK image is output together with the YMCK image created by the RGB renderer (404).