High speed printer

Claim 2

A printing system comprising: (a) a raster storing means including a page memory for storing at least one page of information to be printed, each page being comprised of a plurality of lines of information including a beginning line, a plurality of intermediate lines and an ending line, each line having one or more successively addressed words each having a plurality of pixels, with a beginning word having the lowest address, with each successive word having a higher address, and with the last word having the highest address; (b) means, coupled to the page memory, for causing the readout of words stored in the page memory in either a first direction or a second direction, the first direction being from the first line successively thru the intermediate lines thru the last line with each line being read out in a direction from the lowest addressed word to the highest addressed word, the second direction being from the last line successively thru the intermediate lines thru the first line with each line being read out in a direction from the highest addressed word to the lowest addressed word and the significance of pixel positions of pixels from words read in the second direction being reversed from the significance of pixel positions of pixels from words read in the first direction; (c) printing means for printing on first and second sides of a printing machine, coupled to the means causing the readout of words, for printing pages of information stored in the page memory on a printing medium having a top and bottom, with the printing of the first side of the printing medium being performed by printing the page of information read out from the page memory in one of the first and second directions while moving the printing medium from the top to the bottom thru a printing station and the printing of second side of the printing medium being performed by printing the page of information readout from the page memory in the other of the first and second directions while moving the printing medium from the bottom to the top

Claim 3

A printing system in accordance with claim 1. wherein the printing means comprises: (a) a printing station for printing pages stored in the page memory on the printing medium fed to the printing station with the printing medium being comprised of individual sheets each having a top end and a bottom end and first and second sides which are fed successively thru the printing station to print the first and second sides of a sheet with first and second pages of information being stored in the page memory; (b) means for feeding individual sheets to the printing station with the first side of a sheet being fed in a position which is printed during a first time interval and with the second side of a sheet being fed in a position which is printed during a second time interval, the means for feeding causing one end of the sheet to be moved first thru the printing station during the first time interval to print the first side and the other end of the sheet to be moved first thru the printing station during the second time interval to print the second side; and (c) means for controlling, coupled to the means for causing the readout, for causing the means for causing the readout to read out pages of information stored in the page memory in one of the first and second directions when one of the two sides of sheets are being printed and to read out pages of information stored in the page memory in the other of the first and second directions when the other of the two sides of sheets are being printed.

Claim 4

A printing system in accordance with claim 2, wherein the means for controlling comprises: (a) means for sensing the position of individual sheets in the means for feeding which indicates when a sheet that has had its first side previously printed is in a position in the means for feeding to have its second side printed by the printing station; (b) means for sensing when the printing station has completed the printing of the first side of a sheet; and (c) means, responsive to the two means for sensing, for causing the sheet, which has had its first side printed that is in a position to have its second side printed, to be fed by the means for feeding to the printing station when the two means for sensing each sense the occurrence of a sheet

Claim 5

A printing system in accordance with claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the means for causing the readout of the words comprises: (a) means for providing the addresses of words to be sequentially read out from the page memory, the means for providing addresses of words containing a counter which is programmed to count a total equal to the number of words which are contained in the page memory and capable of counting in ascending order with an address field anywhere between a minimum address and a maximum address when reading in the first direction and capable of counting in descending order within an addressing field anywhere between the maximum address and the minimum address when reading in the second direction, each word having a plurality of pixels each having an address with the pixels ranging in address from a most significant pixel to a least significant pixel; and (b) means, coupled to the page memory, for selectively reversing the order of outputting of pixels in a single word on an output having a number of lines equal to the number of pixels in a word so as to either output the pixels in a first fixed order from the most significant pixel to the least significant pixel when the direction of reading is in the first direction or in a second fixed order, opposite the first fixed order, from the least significant pixel to the most significant pixel, when the direction of reading is in the second direction, and the output lines being coupled to the printing means.

Claim 6

A printing system comprising: (a) a font storage means including a font storage memory for storing a plurality of characters to be printed, each stored character being comprised of a matrix of pixels contained in a plurality of lines having a first line, a plurality of intermediate lines, and a last line, each line having one or more successively addressed words, with the beginning word having a lowest address, with each successive word having a higher address, and with a last word having the highest address, each word having a plurality of pixels; (b) means, coupled to the font storage means, for causing the readout of words stored in the font storage memory in either a first direction or a second direction, the first direction being from the first line thru the last line with each line being read out in a direction from the lowest addressed word to the highest addressed word and the second direction being from the last line thru the first line with each line being read out in a direction from the highest addressed word to the lowest addressed word and the storage of the words of a character, which have been readout from the font storage memory, in a page memory contained within a raster storage means which stores one or more pages of information to be printed; and (c) printing means, coupled to the raster storage means, for printing on a printing medium pages of information stored in the page memory.

Claim 7

A printing system comprising: (a) a font storage means including a font storage memory for storing a plurality of characters to be printed, each stored character being comprised of a matrix of pixels contained in a plurality of lines having a first line, a plurality of intermediate lines, and a last line, each line having one or more successively addressed words, with the beginning word having a lowest address, with each successive word having a higher address, and with a last word having the highest address, each word having a plurality of pixels; (b) means, coupled to the font storage means, for causing the readout of words stored in the font storage memory in either a first direction or a second direction, the first direction being from the first line thru the last line with each line being read out in a direction from the lowest addressed word to the highest addressed word and the second direction being from the last line thru the first line with each line being read out in a direction from the highest addressed word to the lowest addressed word and the storage of the words of a character, which have been readout from the font storage memory, in a page memory contained within a raster storage means which stores one or more pages of information to be printed; and (c) printing means, coupled to the raster storage means, for printing on a printing medium pages of information stored in the page memory.

Claim 8

A printing system in accordance with claim 5 wherein the means for causing the readout of words comprises: (a) a means for providing the addresses of words to be sequentially read from the font storage memory, the means for providing addresses having a counter which is programmed to count a total equal to the number of words which are contained in an individual character in ascending order from a minimum address to a maximum address when reading out in the first direction and in descending order from the maximum address to the minimum address when reading out in the second direction, each word having a plurality of pixels each having an address with the pixels ranging in address from a most significant pixel to a least significant pixel; and (b) means, coupled to the font storage memory, for selectively reversing the order of outputting pixels in a single word on an output having a number of lines equal to the number of pixels in a word so as to either output the pixels in a first fixed order from the most significant pixel to the least significant pixel when the direction of reading out is in the first direction or in a second fixed order, opposite the first fixed order, from the least significant pixel to the most significant pixel, when the direction of reading out is in the second direction, the output lines being coupled to the page memory.

Claim 9

A printing system comprising: (a) a processing unit having an input for receiving data and commands specifying operations to be performed, the processing unit sequentially issuing commands specifying that an individual character from a specified font is to be retrieved from storage where the character is stored as a matrix of pixels in a series of addressed words with each word having a plurality of pixels, processing each retrieved word of each character to position each word with respect to a word storage location where each individual character is to be stored within a memory for storing a page of information to be printed and specifying an address where a first word of each character will be stored in the memory for storing a page of information; (b) a font storage means, coupled to the processing unit, including a font storage memory for storing one or more fonts of characters each comprised of a plurality of characters to be retrieved and for processing a command issued from the processing unit that a specified character from a specified font is to be retrieved to cause the words of the specified character to be sequentially fetched from storage in the font storage memory by addresses generated by the font storage means and transmitted to the processing unit; (c) a raster storage means, coupled to the processing unit, including a page memory for storing the processed words defining each character sent from the processing unit to create pages of information to be printed, the raster storage means having means for generating the addresses of word locations within the page memory where each of the words of a character are to be stored and causing the storage of the words of each character in a page at the generated addresses, the means for generating the addresses specifying that the first word of each character is stored at the address specified by the processing unit and that all subsequent words of each character are stored within the page memory at addresses generated by the means for generating addresses independently of the operation of the processing unit; and (d) a printing means, coupled to the raster storage means, for sequentially printing pages of information stored in the page memory on a printing medium.

Claim 10

A printing system comprising: (a) a processing unit having an input for receiving data and commands specifying operations to be performed, the processing unit sequentially issuing commands specifying that an individual character from a specified font is to be retrieved from storage where the character is stored as a matrix of pixels in a series of addressed words with each word having a plurality of pixels, processing each retrieved word of each character to position each word with respect to a word storage location where each individual character is to be stored within a memory for storing a page of information to be printed and specifying an address where a first word of each character will be stored in the memory for storing a page of information; (b) a font storage means, coupled to the processing unit, including a font storage memory for storing one or more fonts of characters each comprised of a plurality of characters to be retrieved and for processing a command issued from the processing unit that a specified character from a specified font is to be retrieved to cause the words of the specified character to be sequentially fetched from storage in the font storage memory by addresses generated by the font storage means and transmitted to the processing unit; (c) a raster storage means, coupled to the processing unit, including a page memory for storing the processed words defining each character sent from the processing unit to create pages of information to be printed, the raster storage means having means for generating the addresses of word locations within the page memory where each of the words of a character are to be stored and causing the storage of the words of each character in a page at the generated addresses, the means for generating the addresses specifying that the first word of each character is stored at the address specified by the processing unit and that all subsequent words of each character are stored within the page memory at addresses generated by the means for generating addresses independently of the operation of the processing unit; and (d) a printing means, coupled to the raster storage means, for sequentially printing pages of information stored in the page memory on a printing medium.

Claim 11

A printing system in accordance with claim 7, wherein the processing unit includes means for specifying a position in the page memory with respect to a word boundary where the first pixel of words of each character are to be stored.

Claim 12

A printing system in accordance with claim 8, wherein: (a) the processing unit has a pointer which identifies a word address where a first word of each character is to be stored; and (b) the processing unit calculates a position of each word to be stored in the page memory with respect to word boundaries in the page memory with the calculated position being used to designate a number of positions that a word retrieved from the character memory prior to transmission to the page memory for storage is to be rotated by the processing unit.

Claim 13

A printing system in accordance with claim 7, 8 or 9 further comprising: (a) means, coupled between the raster storage means and the printing means, for causing the reading out of words stored in a page memory in either a first direction or a second direction, the first direction being in a direction from a first line of a page thru a last line of a page with each line being read in a direction from a lowest addressed word to a highest addressed word and the second direction being in a direction from the last line thru the first line with each line being read in a direction from the highest addressed word to the lowest addressed word, each page having an address field extending between a minimum address and a maximum address with subaddress fields contained between the maximum and minimum addresses being readable in either the first or second detection; and wherein (b) the printing means prints pages of information stored in the page memory in a single direction from the top to the bottom of the printing medium on a side of the printing medium to be printed as fed to a printing station.

Claim 14

In a printing system having a processing unit which controls the retrieval of individual stored characters from a font storage memory of a font storage means as a plurality of words each having a plurality of pixels with each character having a plurality of liens and the storage of the retrieved characters in a page memory of a raster storage means for storing a page of characters to be printed by a printing means, an addressing system for generating the addresses of location in the page memory at which the plurality of words of each retrieved character are to be stored comprising: (a) address calculating means, disposed at the processing unit, for calculating the absolute address for storing the first word of each character retrieved form the character memory and transmitting the calculated absolute address to the raster storage means; and (b) means for controlling the storage of each retrieved word of each character in the page memory at a specified absolute address, the absolute address or storing the first word of each retrieved character being the absolute address transmitted from the processing unit and all remaining absolute addresses of each retrieved character being calculated by an absolute address calculating means which operate independently of the operation of the processing unit.

Claim 15

In a printing system having a processing unit which controls the retrieval of individual stored characters from a font storage memory of a font storage means as a plurality of words each having a plurality of pixels with each character having a plurality of liens and the storage of the retrieved characters in a page memory of a raster storage means for storing a page of characters to be printed by a printing means, an addressing system for generating the addresses of location in the page memory at which the plurality of words of each retrieved character are to be stored comprising: (a) address calculating means, disposed at the processing unit, for calculating the absolute address for storing the first word of each character retrieved form the character memory and transmitting the calculated absolute address to the raster storage means; and (b) means for controlling the storage of each retrieved word of each character in the page memory at a specified absolute address, the absolute address or storing the first word of each retrieved character being the absolute address transmitted from the processing unit and all remaining absolute addresses of each retrieved character being calculated by an absolute address calculating means which operate independently of the operation of the processing unit.

Claim 16

A printing system comprising: (a) a page memory for storing at least one page of information to be printed, each stored page being comprised of a plurality of lines of information including a beginning line, a plurality of intermediate lines, and an ending line, each line having a plurality of successively addressed words each having a plurality of pixels, with a beginning word having eh lowest address, with each successive word having a higher address, and with the last word having the highest address; (b) means, coupled to the page memory, for causing the readout of words stored in the page memory in either a first direction or a second direction, the first direction being from the first line successively thru the intermediate lines thru the last line with each line being read out in a direction from the lowest addressed word to the highest addressed word, the second direction being from the last line thru the first line with each line being read out in a direction from the highest addressed word to the lowest addressed word and the significance of positions of individual pixels from words read out in the second direction being reversed from the significance of pixel positions of individual pixels from words read out in the first direction with respect to the significance of pixel positions, each page having an address field extending between a minimum and a maximum address and any one or more addresses within the address field between the minimum and maximum address being readable in either the first or second directions; and (c) printing means, coupled to the means for causing the readout of words, for printing the plurality of lines of a page which have read out in either the first or the second direction on a printing medium.

Claim 17

A printing system comprising: (a) a page memory for storing at least one page of information to be printed, each stored page being comprised of a plurality of lines of information including a beginning line, a plurality of intermediate lines, and an ending line, each line having a plurality of successively addressed words each having a plurality of pixels, with a beginning word having eh lowest address, with each successive word having a higher address, and with the last word having the highest address; (b) means, coupled to the page memory, for causing the readout of words stored in the page memory in either a first direction or a second direction, the first direction being from the first line successively thru the intermediate lines thru the last line with each line being read out in a direction from the lowest addressed word to the highest addressed word, the second direction being from the last line thru the first line with each line being read out in a direction from the highest addressed word to the lowest addressed word and the significance of positions of individual pixels from words read out in the second direction being reversed from the significance of pixel positions of individual pixels from words read out in the first direction with respect to the significance of pixel positions, each page having an address field extending between a minimum and a maximum address and any one or more addresses within the address field between the minimum and maximum address being readable in either the first or second directions; and (c) printing means, coupled to the means for causing the readout of words, for printing the plurality of lines of a page which have read out in either the first or the second direction on a printing medium.

Claim 18

A printing system in accordance with claim 12, wherein the means for causing the readout of the words comprises: (a) means for sequentially providing the addresses of sequential words to be readout from the page memory, the means for sequentially providing the addresses containing a counter which is programmed to count a total equal to the number of words which are contained in the page memory and capable of counting in ascending order within an address field anywhere between a minimum address and maximum address when reading out in the first direction and capable of counting in descending order within an addressing field anywhere between the maximum address and the minimum address when reading out in the second direction, each pixel of the word having an address with the pixels varying from a most significant pixel to a least significant pixel; and (b) means, coupled to the page memory, for selectively reversing the order of outputting of pixels in a single word on an output having a number of lines equal to the number of pixels in a single word so as to either output the pixels in a first fixed order from the most significant pixel to the least significant pixel when the direction of readout is in the first direction or in a second fixed order, opposite the first fixed order with respect to the significance of the pixels, from the least significant pixel to the most significant pixel, when the direction of readout is in the second direction, the output lines being coupled to the printing means.

Claim 19

A printing system in accordance with claim 13, wherein the means for selectively reversing the order of the outputting of pixels comprises: (a) an input means, coupled to an output of the page memory and having a number of inputs equal to the number of pixels in a word, for outputting a word fetched from the page memory; (b) a first gating means, having a number of inputs and a number of outputs equal to the number of pixels in a word, with each output being coupled to a different one of the inputs when the gating means is enabled for selectively gating pixel values on the inputs to the outputs when an enable signal is applied; (c) a second gating means, having a number of inputs and a number of outputs equal to the number of pixels in a word, with each input being coupled to a different one of the inputs for selectively gating pixel values on the inputs to the outputs when an enable signal is applied: and (d) the outputs of the first and second gating means being coupled together to form an output means having a number of outputs equal to the number of pixels in a word with the significance of the order of connection of the outputs of the first gating means to the outputs of output means being reversed from the significance of the order of connection of the outputs of the second gating means to outputs of the output means.

Claim 20

A printing system comprising: (a) a font storage for storing a plurality of characters to be printed, each stored character being comprised of a plurality of lines of information having a first line, a plurality of intermediate lines, and a last line, each line having a plurality of successively addressed words each having a plurality of pixels, with the beginning word having the lowest address, with each successive word having a higher address, and with the last word having the highest address; (b) means, coupled to the font storage memory, for causing the readout of words stored in the font storage memory in either a first direction or a second direction, the first direction being from the first line thru the last line with each line being read out in a direction from the lowest addressed word to the highest addressed word and the second direction being from the last line thru the first line with each line being read out in a direction from the highest addressed word to the lowest addressed word and positions of individual pixels from words read out in the second direction being reversed from positions of pixels read out in the first direction with respect to the significance of the pixel positions, the font storage memory having a number of individual addressable word storage locations defined by an address field extending between a minimum address and a maximum address, and a subfield of contiguous addresses of words defining a single character being readable in either the first or second directions; and (c) printing means, coupled to the means for causing the readout of words, for printing on a printing medium the plurality of characters stored in the font storage memory.

Claim 21

A printing system comprising: (a) a font storage for storing a plurality of characters to be printed, each stored character being comprised of a plurality of lines of information having a first line, a plurality of intermediate lines, and a last line, each line having a plurality of successively addressed words each having a plurality of pixels, with the beginning word having the lowest address, with each successive word having a higher address, and with the last word having the highest address; (b) means, coupled to the font storage memory, for causing the readout of words stored in the font storage memory in either a first direction or a second direction, the first direction being from the first line thru the last line with each line being read out in a direction from the lowest addressed word to the highest addressed word and the second direction being from the last line thru the first line with each line being read out in a direction from the highest addressed word to the lowest addressed word and positions of individual pixels from words read out in the second direction being reversed from positions of pixels read out in the first direction with respect to the significance of the pixel positions, the font storage memory having a number of individual addressable word storage locations defined by an address field extending between a minimum address and a maximum address, and a subfield of contiguous addresses of words defining a single character being readable in either the first or second directions; and (c) printing means, coupled to the means for causing the readout of words, for printing on a printing medium the plurality of characters stored in the font storage memory.

Claim 22

A printing system in accordance with claim 15 further comprising: (a) a page memory for storing a page of information to be printed, coupled to the means for causing the readout of words, for storing individual characters which have been read out from the font storage memory for storing a plurality of characters in either the first or second direction; and (b) control means, coupled to the means for causing the readout of words, for selecting either the first or second direction of readout to cause a selected character to be stored in the page memory in a first orientation or a second orientation rotated 180° with respect to the first orientation.

Claim 23

A printing system in accordance with claim 16 wherein the font storage memory stores each character with orientations consisting of a first orientation and second orientation rotated 90°. with respect to the first orientation.

Claim 24

A printing system in accordance with claim 17, wherein the means for causing the readout of the words comprises: (a) means for providing the addresses of sequential words to be read out from the font storage memory, the means for providing the addresses containing a counter which counts a total equal to the number of words which are contained in the font storage memory and capable of counting characters in ascending order from the minimum address to the maximum address when readout is occurring in the first direction and capable of counting in descending order from the maximum address to the minimum address when readout is occurring in the second direction, each pixel of the word having an address with the pixels varying from a most significant pixel to a least significant pixel; and (b) means, coupled to the font storage memory, for selectively reversing the order of outputting of pixels in a single word on an output having a number of lines equal to the number of pixels in a single word so as to either output the pixels in a first fixed order from the most significant pixel to the least significant pixel when the direction of readout is in the first direction or in a second fixed order, opposite the first fixed order with respect to the significance of the pixels, from the least significant pixel to the most significant pixel, when the direction of readout is in the second direction, and the output lines being coupled to the printing means.