Eastman-Kodak Company

Daniel W Kuchta

Robert Fredric Mindler

John Emmanuel Wright

Peter J Sucy

Gary W Anderson

A method for operating more than one thermal printer adapted to print images by transferring donor material from patches of donor material from a donor ribbon onto a receiver medium, each printer being operable to print images in a manner that exhausts a full donor patch or a fractional donor patch during printing. In accordance with the method, a print order is received and it is determined whether a fractional donor patch set is available for printing at each printer. Portions of the print order are directed to the printers in a pattern that minimizes the number of printers having donor ribbon with a fractional donor patch set available after the printing order has been executed.

System and method for efficient donor material use

An improved printer control interface, for use with computer printing system of the type having a central processor, an operating system, a host application, a printer, and a plug in module which receives image export application programming interface (API) calls from the host application for driving the printer, include an extended suite of API calls, having, API support calls, custom user interface calls, printer calls and calibration calls an extended host application for executing the extended suite of API calls; and an extended plug-in module responsive to the extended suite of API calls for controlling the printer.

Extended printer control interface

An electronic still camera employs digital processing of image signals corresponding to a still image and storage of the processed image signals in a removable static random access memory card. An image sensor is exposed to image light and the resultant analog image information is converted to digital image signals. A control processor controls the exposure section and the A/D converter, delivering digital signals to a multi-image buffer at a rate commensurate with normal operation of the camera. A digital processor operates on the stored digital signals, transforming blocks of the digital signals and encoding the signals into a compressed stream of processed image signals, which are downloaded to the memory card. The digital processor operates at a throughput rate different than the input rate for better image capture and optimum utilization of the camera.

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Brockport, NY, United States of America

Daniel W Kuchta