Method and apparatus for multi-laser printing
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsRandall E. Grohs, Scott C. Clouthier
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a laser printer having a plurality of lasers, each of which effectuates the deposition of toner onto lines of a page to be printed, a method of printing several lines substantially simultaneously comprises storing within a single print data buffer, print data compressed using a predetermined compression methodology. The method also includes decompressing a predetermined segment of said compressed print data by one of a plurality of data de-compressors, each of which is operatively coupled to a laser that effectuates the deposition of toner onto a single line of a media.
Claims26
A method of sending rasterized print data to a plurality of lasers in a laser printer comprising the steps of:
- compressing print data by a single print data compressor, said print data compressor having a compressed print data output;
- storing compressed print data in a single, compressed print data buffer;
- transferring segments of the compressed print data in said compressed print data buffer to individual ones of a plurality of data decompressors;
- and
- at each of said decompressors, decompressing said compressed print data into rasterized print data to control a predetermined one of said plurality of lasers.
In a laser printer having a plurality of lasers, each of which effectuates the deposition of toner onto single lines of a page to be printed, a method of sending rasterized print data to said plurality of lasers comprising the steps of:
- compressing print data using a single data compressor which compresses rasterized print data according to a data compression methodology, said single data compressor having an output from which compressed rasterized print data is output;
- storing said compressed rasterized print data from said single data compressor to a single, compressed rasterized print data buffer;
- transferring predetermined portions of said compressed rasterized print data from said buffer to a plurality of data decompressors;
- at each of said decompressors:
- decompressing said compressed print data into rasterized print data;
- and
- printing a predetermined line of a page to be printed from said print data and discarding other rasterized print data.
A method of sending rasterized print data to said plurality of lasers in a laser printer comprising the steps of:
- compressing rasterized print data from a print data buffer using a single data compressor which compresses rasterized print data according to a data compression methodology, said single data compressor having a compressed data output port from which compressed rasterized print data is output;
- and
- transferring serial compressed rasterized print data from said single data compressor into a single, compressed print data buffer via a data network.
In a laser printer having a plurality of lasers, each of which effectuates the deposition of toner onto lines of a page to be printed, a method of printing several lines substantially simultaneously comprising the steps of:
- storing within a single print data buffer, print data compressed using a predetermined compression methodology;
- and
- decompressing a predetermined segment of said compressed print data by one of a plurality of data de-compressors, each of which is operatively coupled to a laser that effectuates the deposition of toner onto a single line of a media.
An apparatus for controlling the deposition of toner onto a printed page by multiple lasers with improved image quality comprised of:
- a rasterized print data buffer;
- a single data compressor coupled to said rasterized print data buffer and compressing said rasterized image data according to at least one predetermined method;
- and
- a plurality of compressed raster image data decompressors, each decompressor being coupled to said single data compressor and receiving therefrom compressed raster image data, each decompressor controlling a laser that effectuates the deposition of a line of toner onto a printed page according to a predetermined segment of said compressed raster image data.
A laser printer having multiple lasers with improved image quality comprised of:
- a rasterized print data buffer;
- a single data compressor operatively coupled to said rasterized print data buffer, said single data compressor compressing said raster image data according to at least one data compression methodology;
- a compressed raster image data buffer, operatively coupled via a network to said single data compressor output and storing compressed raster image data received from said single data compressor;
- and
- a plurality of compressed raster image data decompressors, each being operatively coupled to said compressed raster image data buffer, each decompressor decompressing only a segment of said compressed raster image data, thereby effectuating the deposition of only a single line of toner onto a media according to a predetermined segment of said compressed raster image data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.