Patent · US Expired

Printing system and method

US5150454A · kind A · utility

53Cited by
2References
41Claims
0Family size

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 16, 1991
Grant dateSep 22, 1992
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 16, 2011

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06K2215/0077
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A image is printed from a source of drawing instructions. The image is reducible to pixels arranged in a plurality of ranked image lines. The system employs a storage device having compressed and uncompressed regions. Each region has a designated capacity and each is arranged to store pixels of one or more of the plurality of image lines. A drawing processor is coupled to the storage device and can be coupled to the source of drawing instructions for responding thereto. This drawing processor can store new pixels in the storage device for successively selected ones of the image lines. The drawing processor has a conditional device, a decompression device and an insertion device. The conditional device can compressively encode and move from the uncompressed region to the compressed region, a remote one of the image lines, if: a) the selected one of the image lines is in the compressed region, and b) the uncompressed region has reached its designated capacity. The decompression device can expansively decode the selected one of the image lines, if located in the compressed region. The insertion device can insert one or more new pixels according to the drawing instructions into the sel…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.