Partitioning of sheetside bitmaps for transfer from a print controller to printhead controllers

A method of partitioning sheetside bitmaps for transmission to a plurality of printhead controllers operable to control a plurality of printhead arrays, the method comprising:

• receiving a print job;
• converting at least one image in the print job into a full sheetside bitmap comprised of an array of pixels;
• processing the full sheetside bitmap to identify the pixels in the full sheetside bitmap designated for printing on each of the printhead arrays;
• generating a partitioned sheetside bitmap for each printhead array that contains essentially the pixels designated for printing on the printhead array;
• and
• transmitting the partitioned sheetside bitmaps to the printhead controllers associated with the printhead arrays.

A computer readable medium tangibly embodying programmed instructions which, when executed by a computer system, are operable to execute a method of partitioning sheetside bitmaps for transmission to a plurality of printhead controllers that are operable to control a plurality of printhead arrays, the method comprising:

• receiving a print job;
• converting at least one image in the print job into a full sheetside bitmap comprised of an array of pixels;
• processing the full sheetside bitmap to identify the pixels in the full sheetside bitmap designated for printing on each of the printhead arrays;
• generating a partitioned sheetside bitmap for each printhead array that contains essentially the pixels designated for printing on the printhead array;
• and
• transmitting the partitioned sheetside bitmaps to the printhead controllers associated with the printhead arrays.

A production printing system comprising:

• a plurality of printhead arrays operable to discharge ink on a printable medium;
• a plurality of printhead controllers operable to control the printhead arrays;
• and
• a print controller connected to the printhead controllers over a data interface, the print controller operable to receive a print job, to convert at least one image in the print job into a full sheetside bitmap comprised of an array of pixels, to partition the full sheetside bitmap based on the printing responsibility of each of the printhead arrays to generate partitioned sheetside bitmaps that are each designated for a single printhead array, and to transmit the partitioned sheetside bitmaps to the appropriate printhead controllers that are associated with the printhead arrays.