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:
Jan. 29, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 27, 1997
David Chura, Redondo Beach, CA (US);
Peerless Systems Corporation, , CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for the compression of complex bi-level images created from gray scale images. The invention has particular application when used with continuous raster scan output devices such as laser printers where the invention enables the printing of images using a smaller amount of memory than would be needed without the invention. To practice the invention, a bi-level gray scale image is produced by any desired technique. The gray scale image is then rendered thereby converting it to a bi-level image. The bi-level image is compressed in portions The compressed portions are then decompressed and the decompressed portions are sent to a print engine of a continuous raster scan device at the speed required by the print engine so that it is never necessary to have the entire image stored in the printer's memory at the same time.