International Business Machines Corporation

Timothy L Schneider

Darwin P Rackley

Raymond L Fowler

Milton H Woodward

The apparatus shown herein controls a facsimile system to reduce four source documents and print all four reduced copies on a single copy page. The facsimile system prints one of the source documents in each quadrant of the copy document. The images of the source documents are reduced in the horizontal dimension by discarding every other picture element in the scan image. The images are reduced in the vertical dimension by increasing the scanner speed so that the size of the picture element in the vertical dimension is doubled. At the receiver, two scanned and reduced images will be printed on the left-hand half of the copy document. Subsequently, two additional scanned and reduced images are printed on the right-hand half of the copy document. When printing the right-hand half of the copy document, the printer must be referenced to start printing at the horizontal mid-page of the copy document rather than the left-hand edge of the copy document.

Multiple image facsimile

The method and apparatus shown herein provide for restarting a facsimile operation after a mid-page interrupt without overlapping or splitting the image. Furthermore, this is accomplished in a facsimile system that does not have a one-to-one synchronous relationship between synchronized mechanisms in the system. In operation, a print carriage is synchronized to a false once-around signal related to the motion of a print drum. There is a predetermined cyclic relationship between the false once-around and the real once-around for the drum. If a mid-page interrupt occurs, the line position at the time of interrupt is remembered, and the particular relationship existing between the false once-around and the real once-around at the time of interrupt is remembered. The carriage is backed up to a point prior to the mid-page interrupt and rests until restart. Upon restart, the carriage is accelerated up to speed and resynchronized to the false once-around before it reaches the point of interrupt. The once-around to which the carriage is resynchronized has the same relationship to the real once-around as stored at the time of interrupt. When the carriage reaches the interrupt point, that position is detected, and the facsimile system resumes printing on the next line without splitting or overlapping the image.

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Longmont, CO, United States of America

Timothy L Schneider