The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 28, 2000
Filed:
Dec. 08, 1997
Mark D Lund, Vancouver, WA (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A printing system that adjusts to drop volume characteristics of pens installed within an associated printer. Each pen has a characteristic drop volume representing the typical volume of ink expelled by the pen in forming ink drops used to form output pixels. Up to a maximum of N drops are used to form each pixel. A printer driver receives print data for the printer indicating saturation values for pixel data to be printed. Based on an expected pen drop volume, each saturation value maps to a corresponding number of ink drops for that value. To reduce data volume sent to the printer, the range of zero to N drops is subdivided into levels, each level representing some number of drops per pixel, and this level data is sent to the printer. If the characteristic drop volume of the pen is different from the expected volume, the subdivision of levels can be adjusted to compensate for differences in drop volumes. A related method includes the steps of defining at least first, second, and third levels of printing saturation, where in the first, second, and third level are respectively ejected N1, N2, and N3 droplets of ink per pixel. This method includes receiving data related to a characteristic drop volume associated with the printing system, and setting the value of at least one of {N1, N2, or N3}0 in accordance with the received data. The characteristic drop volume may be stored within a memory associated with each pen.