Printing apparatus and method for saving printing material
AssigneeOce-Industries Inc.
InventorsMichael Lyons, Yifeng Wu, Stephane Berche
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for printing rasterized images while economizing printing resources, on the basis of input image data corresponding to a predetermined original format, are provided. The method includes reducing the input image relative to the original format; on the basis of the reduced-scale image, forming a raster of image points each defining either a point to be printed or a blank point of the rasterized image; enlarging the raster of points to return to the original format by inserting blank image points in the reduced raster by a predetermined filling procedure; and printing the image on the basis of the point raster enlarged to the original format.
Claims29
A method of printing raster images while economizing printing resources, starting from input image corresponding to a predetermined original format, the method comprising the steps of:
- reducing the input image relative to the original format;
- on the basis of the reduced image, forming a reduced raster of image points each defining either a point to be printed or a blank point of the image;
- enlarging said reduced raster of image points to return to the original format by inserting blank image points in the reduced raster by a predetermined filling procedure;
- and
- printing an image on the basis of the raster of image points enlarged to the original format.
An apparatus for printing rasterized images while economizing printing resources, starting from input image corresponding to a predetermined original format, the apparatus comprising:
- means for reducing the input image relative to the original format;
- means for forming a reduced raster of image points on the basis of the reduced image, each image point defining either a point to be printed or a blank point of the image;
- means for enlarging the reduced raster of image points to return to the original format by inserting blank image points in the reduced raiser by a predetermined filling procedure;
- and
- means for printing an image on the basis of the raster of image points enlarged to the original format.
An apparatus for printing rasterized images while economizing printing resources, starting from input image corresponding to a predetermined original format, the apparatus comprising:
- a first section reducing the input image relative to the original format;
- a second section forming a reduced raser of image points on the basis of the reduced image, each image point defining either a point to be printed or a blank point of the image;
- a third section enlarging the reduced raster of image points to return to the original format by inserting blank image points in the reduced raster by a predetermined filling procedure;
- and
- a fourth section printing an image on the basis of the raster of image points enlarged to the original format.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.