Method and apparatus for displaying a page with graphics information on a continuous synchronous raster output device

A method for creating an image which includes graphics information for display on a continuous synchronous raster output device, said method comprising the steps of:

• a) receiving and interpreting commands in a high level graphics language which define the page image to be output;
• b) generating a set of graphics orders from the interpreted high level graphics language commands, wherein a graphics order is a graphics function represented as a low level primitive such that:
• i) said graphics orders are processed into bands of bitmap images which are delivered to the output device at a speed required by the output device, said graphics orders representing a complete page image and using an amount of memory which is less than the amount of memory which would be needed to store the complete page image as a bitmap image;
• and
• ii) while the graphics information in a first one of said band is being output by said output device, the bitmap images for a second one of said bands are being generated;
• c) generating said bands of bitmap images from said graphic orders;
• d) outputting said generated bands of bitmap images to said output device;
• e) declaring a band fault if one of said graphics orders produces only a partial bitmap image within one of said bands:
• f) modifying said one graphics order for processing in a next of said bands so as to produce only a remaining part of said partial bitmap image.

A method for creating an image which includes graphics information for display on a continuous synchronous raster output device, said method comprising the steps of:

• a) receiving and interpreting commands in a high level graphics language which define the image to be output;
• b) generating a set of graphics orders from the interpreted high level graphics language commands, wherein a graphics order is a graphics function represented as a low level primitive, wherein said graphics orders are processed into bands of bitmap images for delivery to the output device at a speed required by the output device, said graphics orders representing a complete page image and using an amount of memory which is less than the amount of memory which would be needed to store the complete page image as a bitmap image, wherein said set of graphics orders comprises initialization orders, flow control orders, bitmap transfer orders, and scanline orders;
• c) generating said bitmap image from said graphic orders;
• d) outputting said bitmap image to said output device;
• e) declaring a band fault if one of said graphics orders produces only a partial bitmap image within one of said bands:
• f) modifying said one graphics order for processing in a next of said bands so as to produce only a remaining part of said partial bitmap image.