Graphic image compression and storage system

Claim 3

The method of claim 1 wherein the step of extracting a portion of the image data comprises the step of performing a boundary scan on a plurality of sides of the image by parsing through the boundaries of the image data and discarding image data that corresponds to a predetermined image pattern.

Claim 4

The method of claim 2 wherein the predetermined image pattern comprises a predetermined colored pixel.

Claim 5

The method of claim 2 wherein the predetermined image pattern comprises a predetermined pattern of a number of disparately colored pixels.

Claim 6

The method of claim 1 wherein the shared storage facility comprises a clipboard storage facility.

Claim 7

A graphics processing system comprising: a processor system operable to access a clipboard storage facility and a memory device context; an input system coupled to the processor system and operable to provide commands to the processor system; a display system coupled to the processor system and operable to display graphic images to a user of the graphics processing system; the processor system operable to execute application programs to retrieve image data and to convert and store the image data as a metafile within the clipboard storage facility; the processor system further operable to access the clipboard storage facility and retrieve the metafile and write the metafile into the memory device context; the processor system further operable to perform a boundary scan on the image data within the memory device context to extract and discard background fields from the image data leaving a remainder image; and the processor system further operable to convert the remainder image to a device independent bit map and to compress the device independent bit map to a predetermined image size using an iterative process.

Claim 8

A graphics processing system comprising: a processor system operable to access a clipboard storage facility and a memory device context; an input system coupled to the processor system and operable to provide commands to the processor system; a display system coupled to the processor system and operable to display graphic images to a user of the graphics processing system; the processor system operable to execute application programs to retrieve image data and to convert and store the image data as a metafile within the clipboard storage facility; the processor system further operable to access the clipboard storage facility and retrieve the metafile and write the metafile into the memory device context; the processor system further operable to perform a boundary scan on the image data within the memory device context to extract and discard background fields from the image data leaving a remainder image; and the processor system further operable to convert the remainder image to a device independent bit map and to compress the device independent bit map to a predetermined image size using an iterative process.

Claim 9

The system of claim 6 wherein the processor system is further operable to create an image palm print by associating the compressed device independent bit map with dimension data and palette data specifying respectively the size of the decompressed image and a plurality of colors associated with the image data.