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US 8,446,602 B2Granted
Lowering the consumption of ink in computer printing
AssigneeSpline Network Inc.
InventorsAnthony William Harris, Peter Kaplan, Bruno Bouby, Jerry Lim
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of printing an image comprises sending a data stream representing the image to a printer driver, generating a stream of print instructions at the printer driver, forwarding the stream of print instructions to a printer, and printing the image in accordance with the print instructions. The data stream or stream of print instructions is intercepted and processed so that the printer uses less ink to print the image than it would if the processing was not performed.
Claims17
A shell driver stored on a storage device, which when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
- intercept a data stream defining an image to be printed sent from an application to a printer driver before receipt by the printer driver;
- process the intercepted data stream to generate a modified data stream which defines a modified image requiring less ink to be printed than the image defined by the intercepted data stream prior to processing;
- forward the modified data stream to the printer driver;
- and
- wherein the shell driver is operable to process the intercepted data stream to generate the modified data stream defining the modified image which requires fewer dots of the ink to be printed by the printer than the intercepted data stream or to process the intercepted data stream to generate the modified data stream by modifying black regions in the image defined by the intercepted data stream to half-tone grey regions in the modified image.
2 more elements
A printing system:
- at least one processor;
- a printer driver executable on the at least one processor and operable to:
- receive a data stream defining an image to be printed;
- process the received data stream to generate a stream of print instructions for causing a printer to print the image defined by the received data stream;
- and
- forwarding a generated stream of the print instructions to the printer;
- and
- a shell driver executable on the at least one processor and operable to:
- intercept the data stream defining the image to be printed sent to the printer driver before receipt by the printer driver;
- process the intercepted data stream to generate a modified data stream which defines a modified image requiring fewer dots of ink to be printed than the image defined by the intercepted data stream prior to processing or to generate the modified data stream by modifying black regions in the image defined by the intercepted data stream to half-tone grey regions in the modified image;
- and
- forward the modified data stream to the printer driver.
9 more elements
A printing method comprising:
- providing a shell driver stored on a storage device and operable to intercept, using at least one processor a data stream defining an image to be printed sent by an application program to a printer driver and process, using the at least one processor, the data stream to generate a modified data stream which defines a modified image requiring less ink to be printed than the image defined by the intercepted data stream prior to processing;
- sending the data stream defining the image to be printed from the application program to a printer driver;
- intercepting the data stream before receipt by the printer driver using the shell driver;
- processing the intercepted data stream using the shell driver to generate the modified data stream which defines the modified image requiring less ink to be printed than the image defined by the intercepted data stream prior to the processing;
- forwarding the modified data stream to the printer driver;
- processing the modified data stream using at the printer driver to generate a stream of print instructions for causing a printer to print the modified image;
- forwarding the stream of print instructions to the printer;
- printing the modified image in accordance with the print instructions;
- and
- wherein the reduction of an amount of ink used by the printer is achieved by the shell driver processing the intercepted data stream to generate the modified data stream defining the modified image which requires fewer dots of ink to be printed by the printer or processing the intercepted data stream to generate the modified data stream by modifying black regions in the image defined by the intercepted data stream to half-tone grey regions in the modified image.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.