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:
May. 25, 2004
Filed:
Mar. 28, 2000
Takeo Watanabe, Musashimurayama, JP;
Other;
Abstract
A PC supplies previously compressed print data to a printer. In the printer, image data are generated based on the supplied print data, and the generated image data are developed in an image memory. Since the print data are compressed, a compressor/decompressor decompresses the print data. If available free area in the image memory is insufficient for developing the image data, the compressor/decompressor compresses the image data previously stored in the image memory, and the image memory is refreshed with the compressed image data. The compressed image data are decompressed by the compressor/decompressor before output to a printer engine. The compressor/decompressor is available for decompressing the print data during a period since the data reception from the PC until a sheet of paper onto which an image is formed reaches a predetermined position. When the sheet of the paper reaches the predetermined position, the compressor/decompressor is switched to decompress only the image data in the image memory.