Lexmark International, Inc.

Michael Donald Bender

Martin Geoffrey Rivers

Ning Ren

Raymond Edward Clark

Robert Laurence Cook

Allen P Johnson

Christopher Mark Songer

Gregory John Sherwood

Aaron Charles Yoder

Gail Marie Songer

John K Brown, Iii

Cuong Manh Hoang

Matthew Scott Keith

Methods for processing print jobs include flagging, or not, to-be-printed objects having PDL-specified math or logic functions requiring hard processing operations, such as two or more inputs. The math or logic functions preferably reside in ink attributes of display list objects corresponding to the to-be-printed objects. To-be-printed pages of the print job become divided into bands. Bands with to-be-printed objects therein have band display lists constructed in the event the to-be-printed objects become flagged. On a band-by-band basis, if bands have band display lists flagged with hard processing operations, contone bands become constructed. The contone bands result from color information blending between overlapping pixels of to-be-printed objects or an object and a contone page. A contone page includes color information of the to-be-printed page in a first color space. To-be-printed objects are rendered in a second color space in device specific page(s) of memory.

Processing print jobs

An improved printer is provided which includes a separate hardware compression module and hardware decompression module contained within the ASIC of the print engine. A 'Request Counter' register is decremented each time memory is requested to store a block of bitmap image data. When the Request Counter decreases to a predetermined value, the current size of the remaining 'free memory' space is evaluated. If this free memory is less than another predetermined value (a 'low water mark'), then blocks of data that have already been stored in the printer's memory are sent to the compression module to be compressed before the printer literally runs out of free memory, and the printer can continue storing and processing more incoming print job data. By thus preserving some of the free memory, the printer can continue to process or rasterize more print data while the compression hardware simultaneously operates independently to compress one or more blocks of data. Since the compressor hardware operate independently of the printer's microprocessor, the printer can continue to process further data during the actual compression operations, thereby preventing the printer's microprocessor from becoming idle, which otherwise would become a very inefficient utilization of the printer's processing power. The present invention is especially useful in processing color data, especially in printers containing relatively small quantities of RAM, since color data typically requires four (4) planes of bitmap image data per page to be printed.

Method and apparatus for compressing and decompressing print data in the

Method and apparatus facilitate alignment of a print image to a desired position. The print image includes a set of original linear groupings of pixels. A distortion of the print image is determined as compared to the desired position. Based on the determined distortion, a set of original linear groupings of pixels to warp is identified. A set of warped linear groupings of pixels is then generated, which correspond to the set of original groupings of pixels. A placement location in the print image for the warped linear groupings of pixels so generated is identified, and the print image is printed with the set of warped linear groupings of pixels.

System and method of printer image warping

For a multiprocess application including a plurality of work stations at which the application processes proceed simultaneously, such as a printer including serially aligned laser and inkjet print engines, a method of controlling job throughput includes providing a queue for each work station, providing job data to the queues for a plurality of jobs, and consecutively tracking for the jobs the progress of the process corresponding to the rate-determining step for the application for each of the jobs so that as each job is completed at a particular work station the work station begins the process of the work station for the next job.

Method for controlling the passage of media through mixed speed print

An improved printer is provided that improves the response time before jobs are printer by providing a 'fast data path' for certain print jobs while also storing on a hard disk all incoming print job data. This 'fast data path' is especially useful in situations where the incoming print job lacks an 'end of file' code, which could otherwise hold up the processing of either this print job or later print jobs. Once the printer becomes relatively busy, and begins to accumulate a 'queue' of print jobs waiting to be processed and printed, the printer will automatically store all of the print job data on the non-volatile memory (e.g., a hard disk) before that same data is sent to the processing circuitry. Since it is important to utilize the printer's capabilities efficiently, the printer can allow a 'small' print job to be processed and printed after being received from one input port of the printer, while a much larger print job is still being accumulated from a second input port, even though the larger job began to be received first. Since all print job data received by the printer of the present invention is stored in a non-volatile memory, the capability exists for recovering such print jobs after the occurrence of a power failure. Upon power restoration, a 'Header File' that contains status information about stored print jobs will be inspected, and if a print job was never completely printed, the printer will now begin printing the entire job. In this manner, the printer can guarantee that the entire job will be printed in one intact grouping of sheets of paper.

Growing community of inventors

Lexington, KY, United States of America

Michael Donald Bender