Ricoh Company, Ltd.

International Business Machines Corporation

Infoprintsolutions Company, LLC

Ricoh Production Print Solutions LLC

David Ward

Joan LaVerne Mitchell

Sandra K Johnson

John Thomas Varga

Katie Ashley Eng

Charles D Johnson

Justin James Coulter

Kenneth Stuart Shouldice

Stephen Mandry

Aritra Bandyopadhyay

Walter F Kailey

Lisa A Morgan

Sharad Mishra

Hao-Ting Shih

Neal J Alewine

Arthur Ray Roberts

Ying-Kai Wang

Randell Rivadeneira

Anil Kumar Thiramdas

Simon J Webb

Robert Keeble

Benjamin J Stoor

Donna N Dillenberger

Grant Douglas Miller

Jeffrey C H Liu

Donna N Eng Dillenberger

Samuel Neely Hopper

Stephen Goddard Price

Rose Ellen Visoski

Ronald Earl Van Buskirk, Ii

Jeffrey Ch Liu

Kent S Norgren

Ronald Dean Parrish

Donna Eng Dillenberger

Johnson Y S Chiang

Alexandru-Virgil Panek

Brian Charles Pendleton

Johnson Ys Chiang

Miki Judy Ushijima

Darbha V Kumar

Sampath Kumar Chilukuri

Michael Stewart McDermott

Martin Wirth

Yung-Chung Su

Garadi Shashidhar Hemanth Kumar

Dakota Peck

Thomas Rutkowski

Sanjay Mundergi

Katie Ashely Eng

Iosif Keri

Justin Coulter

Karen Harrison Ferrel

Rivadeneira Randell

Kenneth Shouldice

Justin J Coulter

Michael Su

A system is disclosed. The system includes one or more processors to receive a print job file including page content data, traverse each of a plurality of subset ranges of the page content data to generate page element metadata based on the page content data, wherein the page element metadata comprises identified page elements and the logical pages that correspond to the identified page elements, aggregate the page element metadata to generate print job structure metadata and store the print job structure metadata, wherein the print job structure metadata is stored separately from the print job file.

Print file preprocessing mechanism

Systems and methods are provided for handling print data. One embodiment is a system that includes an interface that receives rasterized print data, a memory that stores the rasterized print data; and a print controller that compresses each scanline of the rasterized print data by culling a region of leading whitespace, culling a region of trailing whitespace, compressing a data region disposed between the leading whitespace and the trailing whitespace, and inserting a tag having whitespace offset information for the data region within the scanline.

Rasterized print job compression

System and methods for efficient sheet map loading for print jobs. In one embodiment, a preflight system processes a print job to build a first sheet mapping for rasterizing and printing the print job, and stores the first sheet mapping. A job controller determines an estimate time to load the first sheet mapping from the memory using job properties as input to estimator logic. In response to determining that the estimate time for loading the first sheet mapping from the memory is shorter than a time threshold, the first sheet mapping is loaded from memory, and provided for rasterizing and printing. Otherwise, if the estimate time is longer than the time threshold, the job controller builds a second sheet mapping, and provides the second sheet mapping in increments for the rasterizing and the printing of the print job as the building of the second sheet mapping is in progress.

Efficient sheet map loading for print jobs

Systems, methods, software for adaptive flushing. In one embodiment, an adaptive flushing system obtains bit plane data from a plurality of bit planes, and arranges the bit plane data into one or more pixel blocks. For a pixel block, the adaptive flushing system identifies a flush record for the pixel block that indicates a flush eligibility status for each of the pixels in the pixel block, and updates the flush record to indicate the flush eligibility status as flush-ineligible for each of the pixels in the pixel block having a jetting symbol specified in the bit planes. The adaptive flushing system selects a candidate pixel(s) from the pixel block as a candidate for flushing, and modifies the bit plane data in one or more of the bit planes to include a flush symbol at the candidate pixel when the candidate pixel has a flush eligibility status that is flush eligible.

Adaptive flushing using bit planes

Systems, methods, software for monitoring usage of a recording medium in an image forming apparatus. In one embodiment, a usage monitor receives a raster image, and identifies thresholds that distinguish different intensity levels reproduced by different drop sizes of the recording material. The usage monitor identifies a set of pixel values for a block of pixels from the raster image, performs a vectorized comparison of the set of pixel values to each of the thresholds to generate sets of comparison bits, determines a number of set bits in each of the sets of comparison bits, and updates a threshold counter for each of the thresholds based on the number of set bits. The usage monitor may then compute drop counts for different drop sizes based on the threshold counter for each of the thresholds.

System and method of monitoring usage of a recording material in an image forming apparatus

Embodiments described herein manage conflicts between media descriptions in a print job, and media descriptions in a job ticket associated with the print job. One embodiment comprises a print controller. The print controller identifies a logical page having an unmodifiable media attribute, directs a Raster Image Processor (RIP) of the print controller to rasterize the logical page based on the unmodifiable media attribute, and modifies the raster data generated by the RIP for the logical page based on a media attribute specified in a job ticket for the logical page.

Job ticket conflict resolution for print jobs

Embodiments herein describe a two-phase printing process that utilizes page-to-resource tracking during the first rip-to-spool phase in order to perform resource scheduling during the second print-from-spool phase. In one embodiment, compute nodes include a RIP and a raster builder. A controller receives a print job, identifies a distribution of logical pages in the print job to the compute nodes, and generates page assignment information that maps the logical pages to the compute nodes based on the distribution. The compute nodes rasterize the logical pages to generate intermediate data using the RIPs, and store the intermediate raster data at a RIP spool. The controller directs a distribution of the intermediate raster data from the RIP spool to the compute nodes based on the page assignment information, and the compute nodes assemble the intermediate raster data into complete raster data using the raster builders.

Data cache synchronization in two-phase printing processes

Systems, methods, software for halftoning. In one embodiment, a halftone system receives a raster image comprising an array of pixels, and performs a multi-level halftoning process on one or more blocks of the pixels. The system identifies thresholds that distinguish different intensity levels. For each block, the system identifies a set of pixel values for the pixels in the block, performs a vectorized comparison of the set of pixel values to each of the thresholds to generate sets of comparison bits, and performs ternary logic operations with three of the sets of comparison bits as input to define a set of low-order bits and a set of higher-order bits for the pixels in the block.

Vectorized multi-level halftoning using ternary logic

A subset of pages in a job are analyzed for page complexity to determine if a repeating complexity pattern is present in the job. If a repeating complexity pattern is found, then the page complexities can be extrapolated to other pages in the job. One embodiment comprises a plurality of Raster Image Processors (RIPs) and a scheduler. The scheduler receives a print job, identifies a subset of logical pages in the print job for complexity analysis, and calculates a page complexity value for logical pages in the subset. The scheduler determines that a repeating pattern of page complexity values is present in the subset, and assigns page complexity values to remaining logical pages in the print job by extrapolating the repeating pattern of page complexity values to the remaining logical pages. The scheduler assigns the logical pages in the print job to the RIPs based on their page complexity value.

Page complexity analysis for print jobs

Embodiments herein describe RIP allocation schemes that consider a number of factors during page scheduling to improve the performance of a print controller. One embodiment comprises an apparatus that includes a plurality of RIPs collectively comprising a total number of RIPs that process logical pages. The apparatus further includes a scheduler. The scheduler receives a print job, determines that a number of available RIPs of the plurality of RIPs to process logical pages in the print job is less than the total number of RIPs, and to iteratively increase a number of the logical pages in the print job that are assigned to each of the available RIPs as the number of available RIPs increases over time.

Raster image processor allocation scheme

A method is disclosed. The method includes generating a set of test case tags that describe attributes included in a test case and store the set of test case tags and the test case, receiving input information, and dynamically generating a test suite of one or more test cases based on input attributes data included in the input information, wherein the input information comprises code change information.

Automated test suite mechanism

System and methods for storing preflight data of a print job based on page ranges. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes an interface and a preflight system. The interface receives a print job and a job ticket. The preflight system processes the print job and the job ticket to determine multiple page ranges in the print job that have a similar print attribute throughout their page range. The preflight system also establishes a sheet object in memory for each page range.

Storing preflight data of a print job based on page ranges

A method is disclosed. The method includes receiving a request for paper properties needed to perform page raster image processing (RIP) of a page and prompting an operator to load a virtual paper without inserting a physical medium.

Medium prompting mechanism

A printing system is disclosed. The printing system includes at least one memory device to store optimization logic and one or more processors, coupled to the at least one memory device, to execute the optimization logic to receive a print job batch including a plurality of print jobs each having starting and ending media length pair values and generate a revised print job order list having a sequence for printing the plurality of print jobs to reduce a number of media length transitions based on a matching of the starting and ending media length pair values of the plurality of print jobs.

Print job order optimization mechanism

System and methods for processing and printing print jobs with a single sheet job model job model. In one embodiment, a print controller includes an interface that receives a print job, and a processing unit that initiates a processing task for a group of pages in the print job. The print controller also includes a sheet controller that establishes a single sheet job model in memory for the processing task, and that iteratively inserts sheet properties of a set of pages of the group into the single sheet job model, provides the single sheet job model with the sheet properties to the processing task, and erases the sheet properties from the single sheet job model.

Processing print jobs with a single sheet job model

Growing community of inventors

Broomfield, CO, United States of America

David Ward