EP0422924A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Method and apparatus for reformatting print data
Assignee: Xerox Corp
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Filing: 1990-10-10
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2010-10-10
Abstract
Abstract Print heads 50, 60 are formed with spaced subheads having nozzles 51, 52, 53, 61, 62, 63 such that all of the lines or pixel rows on a print medium such as a sheet of paper are printed by scanning of the print head along the face of the sheet. The head structures include three subheads, each having nozzles for printing one or more adjacent lines with the subheads being spaced the same number of lines apart as the number of lines each prints; and three subheads spaced the equivalent of seven lines apart, each subhead having three nozzles spaced at the equivalent of alternate lines. The heads are advanced between scans by an equivalent number of lines generally equal to the number of nozzles in the head, whereby all print lines are addressed only once. Apparatus 70 for printing includes the use of pointers in registers 122, 124, 126, 128 to keep track of head structure and location on a print medium for calculating print addresses. A partial page memory 80 is used which wraps around to the beginning from the end. A positive printer carriage position encoder 180 uses an index marker 186 located in the middle of a strip 182 of incremental markers 184. Sensing of the index marker resets an up/down counter 198 with a value that gives a positive value for all count conditions.
Inventors
- 👤 Howard V. Goetz
- 👤 Richard A. Springer
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-05 19:51
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04N; H04N1/00; H04N1/04; H04N1/06; H04N1/0671; B; B41; B41J; B41J19/00; B41J19/18; B41J19/20; B41J19/202; B41J19/205; B41J19/207; G; G06; G06K; G06K15/00; G06K15/02; G06K15/10; G06K15/102; G06K15/105; H04N1/047; H04N1/0473; H04N1/19; H04N1/191; H04N1/1911; H04N1/1912; G06K2215/00; G06K2215/0002; G06K2215/0062; G06K2215/0065; G06K2215/0077; G06K2215/101; G06K2215/111; H04N1/10; H04N1/1013; H04N1/1017; H04N2201/00; H04N2201/024; H04N2201/02406; H04N2201/02439; H04N2201/04; H04N2201/0402; H04N2201/0466; H04N2201/0468; H04N2201/047; H04N2201/04701; H04N2201/0471; H04N2201/04715; H04N2201/04727; H04N2201/04734; H04N2201/04753; H04N2201/04755; H04N2201/04794
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 15
Claim 1
Independent Claim
222 words
An apparatus (70) for printing an image formed of pixels printed selectively at pixel locations over a predetermined area of a print medium (54, 64), the pixel locations being distributed along lines having centers spaced a predetermined interline distance apart and the apparatus being usable with means (72) for generating a sequential line-by-line stream of data elements defining the image formed of pixels printed selectively at pixel locations and the apparatus comprising memory means (80) for storing the image-defining data elements in the order in which they are received from the data generating means; a print head (82) having a plurality of pixel-printing elements (114) disposed in a predetermined arrangement for printing selectively a corresponding plurality of pixels simultaneously; means (94) for positioning the print head to align the pixel-printing elements (114) with respective pixel locations relative to a print medium for printing the plurality of lines forming the image; and means (98) for calculating the addresses in said memory means of all of the data elements corresponding to the pixel locations associated with the pixel-printing elements (114) for each print head position in relation to the print medium, and for reading to the print head (82) the data stored in memory in a sequence corresponding to the pixel locations associated with the pixel-printing elements (114) for each print head (82) position.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
222 words
An apparatus (70) for printing an image formed of pixels printed selectively at pixel locations over a predetermined area of a print medium (54, 64), the pixel locations being distributed along lines having centers spaced a predetermined interline distance apart and the apparatus being usable with means (72) for generating a sequential line-by-line stream of data elements defining the image formed of pixels printed selectively at pixel locations and the apparatus comprising memory means (80) for storing the image-defining data elements in the order in which they are received from the data generating means; a print head (82) having a plurality of pixel-printing elements (114) disposed in a predetermined arrangement for printing selectively a corresponding plurality of pixels simultaneously; means (94) for positioning the print head to align the pixel-printing elements (114) with respective pixel locations relative to a print medium for printing the plurality of lines forming the image; and means (98) for calculating the addresses in said memory means of all of the data elements corresponding to the pixel locations associated with the pixel-printing elements (114) for each print head position in relation to the print medium, and for reading to the print head (82) the data stored in memory in a sequence corresponding to the pixel locations associated with the pixel-printing elements (114) for each print head (82) position.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
84 words
An apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 wherein the pixel-printing elements (114) are spaced on the print head so that each pixel-printing element is associated with a predetermined number of sequential pixel locations from an adjacent pixel-printing element and wherein the calculating means (98) arithmetically calculates the addresses corresponding to the pixel locations associated with each pixel-printing element from a pixel location for which corresponding data elements are stored in said memory means (80) and the spacing of pixel-printing elements on the print head.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
93 words
An apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 wherein at least a subset (112) of the pixel-printing elements (114) is associated with pixel locations a first predetermined number of sequential pixel locations apart, and the calculating means (98) includes means (122) for storing the pixel location associated with the one pixel-printing element, means (124) for storing the predetermined number of pixel locations between the pixel-printing elements of the subset, and arithmetic logic means (120) for changing a previously calculated read address by the first predetermined number of pixel locations to determine another read address.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
127 words
An apparatus as claimed in Claim 3 wherein the print head (82) has two subsets (112, 116) of pixel-printing elements (114), each subset being associated with pixel locations spaced apart one from another a first predetermined number of pixel locations and the subsets being spaced apart one from another by an offset defined by a second predetermined number of pixel locations, and the first and second predetermined numbers of pixel locations not being equal, wherein the calculating means (98) includes means (128) for storing the offset, and wherein the arithmetic logic means (120) changes an address of a pixel-printing element of one subset by an amount including the stored offset to determine an address of a pixel location associated with a pixel-printing element of the other subset.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
36 words
An apparatus as claimed in Claim 3 wherein the calculating means (98) generates data defining the area of the print medium on which to print an image, and recalculates the first predetermined number for each image.
Claim 7
Independent Claim
51 words
An apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the memory means (80) has a predetermined data element capacity and associated first and last memory addresses, and the calculating means calculates a read address that is the first memory address when the next address beyond the last memory address is calculated.
Claim 8
Independent Claim
107 words
An apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the calculating means (98) stores the memory address of a base pixel location on a line being printed by one of the pixel-printing elements for a predetermined position of the print head (82) relative to the print medium (54, 64) during a current pass of the print head (82), and the calculating means calculates the pixel location address for each position of the print head (82) during the current pass based on the position of the print head (82) at each position relative to the position of the print head (82) for printing at the base pixel location.
Claim 9
Independent Claim
237 words
A method of printing an image formed of an array of lines and columns of pixel locations printed selectively with pixels over a predetermined area of a print medium (54, 64) the lines having centers spaced a predetermined interline distance apart, using a print head (82) having a plurality of pixel-printing elements (114) in a predetermined configuration (110) definable in terms of associated positions of pixel locations on an image to be printed, the method comprising storing in an addressable memory (80) data elements corresponding to pixel locations of an image to be printed; positioning the print head (82) relative to the print medium (54, 64) so that at least one pixel-printing element (114) is positioned to print a pixel on a pixel location of the image for which corresponding data elements are stored in the memory; determining the memory address corresponding to the pixel location of the one pixel-printing element (114); calculating form the memory address corresponding to the pixel location associated with the one pixel-printing element (114) the memory address corresponding to the pixel location associated with each of the other pixel-printing elements (114) using the defined configuration of pixel-printing elements (114); reading the data elements corresponding to the memory addresses for each of the pixel-printing elements (114); transmitting the read data elements to the associated pixel-printing elements (114); and printing with each of the pixel-printing elements (114) as defined by the transmitted data elements.
Claim 10
Independent Claim
237 words
A method of printing an image formed of an array of lines and columns of pixel locations printed selectively with pixels over a predetermined area of a print medium (54, 64) the lines having centers spaced a predetermined interline distance apart, using a print head (82) having a plurality of pixel-printing elements (114) in a predetermined configuration (110) definable in terms of associated positions of pixel locations on an image to be printed, the method comprising storing in an addressable memory (80) data elements corresponding to pixel locations of an image to be printed; positioning the print head (82) relative to the print medium (54, 64) so that at least one pixel-printing element (114) is positioned to print a pixel on a pixel location of the image for which corresponding data elements are stored in the memory; determining the memory address corresponding to the pixel location of the one pixel-printing element (114); calculating form the memory address corresponding to the pixel location associated with the one pixel-printing element (114) the memory address corresponding to the pixel location associated with each of the other pixel-printing elements (114) using the defined configuration of pixel-printing elements (114); reading the data elements corresponding to the memory addresses for each of the pixel-printing elements (114); transmitting the read data elements to the associated pixel-printing elements (114); and printing with each of the pixel-printing elements (114) as defined by the transmitted data elements.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
28 words
A method as claimed in Claim 8 wherein the step of storing includes storing fewer data elements in the memory than are required to print the entire image.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
39 words
A method as claimed in Claim 9 wherein the step of storing includes storing data elements in the memory means (80) at addresses from which data elements have previously been stored and read during printing of the same image.
Claim 13
Independent Claim
251 words
A method of printing an image formed of pixels printed selectively at pixel locations distributed over a print medium (54, 64) or a predetermined area thereof, the pixels being distributed along lines having their centers spaced apart one from another by a predetermined interline distance, which method comprises generating a sequential line-by-line data stream comprising data elements collectively defining the image, storing the image-defining data elements in memory means (80) in the order in which they are received by the memory means (80) and reading the stored data to a print head (82) having a plurality of pixel-printing elements (114) disposed in a predetermined print head configuration, the stored data being read to the print head in a sequence corresponding to the sequence of the pixel locations associated with the pixel-printing elements (114) for each of a sequence of positions of the head (82) relative to the print medium and the relative positions of the head (82) and print medium (54, 64) being advanced through the aforesaid sequence of positions so as to bring successively into alignment the respective pixel locations and the pixel-printing elements (114) of the head (82) for printing of the image, characterized in that the read addresses in the memory means (80) are calculated for all the data elements corresponding to the pixel locations associated with the pixel-printing elements (114) for each relative position of the head (82) and print medium (54, 64) to prepare the memory means (80) for read output to the print head (82).
Claim 14
Independent Claim
251 words
A method of printing an image formed of pixels printed selectively at pixel locations distributed over a print medium (54, 64) or a predetermined area thereof, the pixels being distributed along lines having their centers spaced apart one from another by a predetermined interline distance, which method comprises generating a sequential line-by-line data stream comprising data elements collectively defining the image, storing the image-defining data elements in memory means (80) in the order in which they are received by the memory means (80) and reading the stored data to a print head (82) having a plurality of pixel-printing elements (114) disposed in a predetermined print head configuration, the stored data being read to the print head in a sequence corresponding to the sequence of the pixel locations associated with the pixel-printing elements (114) for each of a sequence of positions of the head (82) relative to the print medium and the relative positions of the head (82) and print medium (54, 64) being advanced through the aforesaid sequence of positions so as to bring successively into alignment the respective pixel locations and the pixel-printing elements (114) of the head (82) for printing of the image, characterized in that the read addresses in the memory means (80) are calculated for all the data elements corresponding to the pixel locations associated with the pixel-printing elements (114) for each relative position of the head (82) and print medium (54, 64) to prepare the memory means (80) for read output to the print head (82).
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
70 words
A method as claimed in Claim 11 wherein the pixel-printing elements (114) are spaced on the print head so that each pixel-printing element is associated with a predetermined number of sequential pixel locations from an adjacent pixel-printing element, wherein calculating means (98) arithmetically calculates the addresses corresponding to each pixel-printing element from the pixel location defined by the defining means and the spacing of pixel-printing elements on the print head.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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