Compressed merging of raster images for high speed digital printing
AssigneeBarco Graphics N.V.
InventorsPaul H. Notredame, Eddy H. Debaere, Lieven W. Depuydt, Jan J. Vlietinck
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Abstract
This invention relates to high speed digital printing of pages each obtained by merging one or more page elements. A method is disclosed for merging page elements which are stored in a compressed format, the merging substantially in compressed domain to enable the an implementation of the method to perform the merge rapidly, keeping up with a fast printing device. The merging occurs according to a page layout script which specifies the positions and printing order of selected page elements on each page. An apparatus for merging also is disclosed.
Claims45
A method for merging a first page element with a second page element into a merged page for printing, the merging according to a pre-specified order and positioning, the first and second page elements stored in a page element store in a format, said format for each page element including compressed raster image data of the page element, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) reading the compressed raster image data of the first and second page elements from the page element store into a memory;
- (b) merging the compressed raster image data of the first page element with the compressed raster image data of the second page element to form compressed merged raster image data, the comprising merged raster image data describing the printed appearance of the merged page, the merging according to the pre-specified order and relative positioning, the merging merging substantially without decompressing the compressed raster image data of the page elements
- (c) decompressing the compressed merged raster image data into printing data;
- and
- (d) printing the printing data.
A method of generating a page for an output printing device, the method including the steps of
- (a) preparing a plurality of page elements to be combined on the page, each page element in the form of a corresponding page element description;
- (b) RIPing and compressing the page element description of the page elements to form compressed rasterized page elements;
- (c) storing the compressed rasterized page elements in a page element store;
- (d) specifying the positioning and order of merging and type of merging for the page elements on the page, the specifying generating a page layout script;
- (e) merging the page elements according to the page layout script, the merging generating compressed image data that represents the page, the merging occurring substantially in the compressed domain;
- (f) decompressing the compressed image data into raster image data;
- and
- (g) printing the raster image data on the output printing device.
An apparatus for merging a plurality of page elements into compressed merged image data, the apparatus comprising
- (a) a first storage device where a set of page elements including the plurality of page elements are stored in a compressed format;
- (b) a second storage device in which is stored a page composition script, the page composition script specifying the positioning and order of merging and type of merging for the page elements on the page;
- and
- (c) a merge system including:
- (i) means for retrieving the compressed data of the individual page elements stored in the first storage device according to the page composition script, and
- (ii) means for merging the retrieved page elements according to the page composition script into the compressed merged data, the merging substantially in the compressed domain so that substantially no decompression takes place.
A system for merging page elements onto a page to form merged page data and for printing the merged data on an output printing device, the output printing device including print heads operating at a print rate, the system including
- (a) a RIP to form compressed rasterized page element data from page element data;
- (b) a page element store for storing the compressed rasterized page element data;
- (c) a merge system for running a page layout script, the page layout script specifying the positioning and order of merging and type of merging for the page elements on each of a set of pages, the merge system including:
- (i) a read subsystem for retrieving compressed rasterized page element data from the page element store according to the page layout script, and
- (ii) a merger for merging the retrieved compressed data according to the page layout script, the merging substantially in the compressed domain and forming merged compressed data;
- and
- (d) a decompressor to form decompressed page data from the merged compressed data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.