System and method for optimising halftoning printer performance

An apparatus for creating an image, said image being formed by rendering a plurality of graphical objects on a scanline basis, where each scanline comprises at least one run of pixels, said apparatus comprising:

• array forming means for forming an array representing said graphical objects of said image, said array being sorted in an order from a top-most graphical object to a bottom-most graphical object;
• traversing means for traversing said array to determine objects contributing to a run of pixels of a scanline;
• and
• compositing means for compositing data associated with one or more of said contributing objects and halftoning the composited data to generate said run of pixels.

A computer program for creating an image, said image being formed by rendering a plurality of graphical objects on a scanline basis, wherein each scanline comprises at least one run of pixels, said program comprising code for executing the following steps:

• (I) forming an array representing said graphical objects of said image, said array being sorted in an order from a top-most graphical object to a bottom-most graphical object;
• and
• (II) for each scanline of said image and for each run of pixels of said scanline:
• (II) (i) traversing said array to determine objects contributing to said run of pixels;
• and
• (II)(ii) compositing data associated with one or more of said contributing objects and halftoning the composited data to generate said run of pixels.

A computer readable medium, having a program recorded thereon, where the program is configured for creating an image, said image being formed by rendering a plurality of graphical objects on a scanline basis, wherein each scanline comprises at least one run of pixels, said program comprising code for executing the following steps:

• (I) forming an array representing said graphical objects of said image, said array being sorted in an order from a top-most graphical object to a bottom-most graphical object;
• and
• (II) for each scanline of said image and for each run of pixels of said scanline:
• (II) (i) traversing said array to determine objects contributing to said run of pixels;
• and
• (II)(ii) compositing data associated with one or more of said contributing objects and halftoning the composited data to generate said run of pixels.