Abstract: An operator can freely and easily designate a region, which the operator wishes to extract as an image to be outputted from an image, by designating the position and size of a region setting frame by using an enlargement/reduction handle. Accordingly, no carrier or mask is required for this purpose, and the number of parts required can be reduced. Operability at the time of cropping an image can also be improved greatly. Further, by operating rotation buttons and 90°-rotation keys, the operator can, with simple operations, rotate an image displayed as a test image and can freely and easily designate an image within the region setting frame, i.e., an image to be outputted.

Abstract: Input first image data and second image data are added with attribute data representing attributes of the respective data, the first and second image data respectively added with the attribute data are multiplexed, the attribute of the image data is analyzed based on the attribute data added to the multiplexed image data, and a first image process is performed to the first image data in the multiplexed image data and a second image process is performed to the second image data, in accordance with the analyzed attributes.

Abstract: A system and method produce a combined page having all of the composition of a first page plus all of the composition of a second page. Each band of the first page is pre-rasterized then saved to solitary band stores. Next each band of the second page is pre-rasterized and combined with the corresponding solitary band store to produce combined band stores. The combined band stores are then joined to produce the combined page. The combined band stores are joined by printing each combined band store in sequential location on the same page.

Abstract: A processor is provided with a first set of digital information that includes a first structured representation of a document. From the first set of digital information, the processor produces a second set of digital information that includes a second structured representation of the document. The second structured representation is a lossless representation and includes a set of tokens and a set of positions. At least one token in the plurality of tokens has an associated semantic label which may be a character code associated with various font types in the second structured representation of the document. The semantic label may be obtained and stored in the second structured representation of the document by a computer program. The first and second representations may be resolution dependent structured representations and have, respectively, first and second characteristic resolutions. The first representation, but not the second, is provided in digital form to an untrusted recipient.

Abstract: Methods and articles of manufacture facilitate the partitioning of an image into a plurality of discrete sections for reassembly into an enlarged version thereof. The image to be enlarged is received in an electronic form and displayed on a display device such as that associated with a personal computer. User commands are input relating to the way in which the image is to be partitioned, including the number of discrete sections. Each section is then printed under user control, enabling the printed sections to be assembled into the enlarged version. The electronic representation of the image may be received through digitally capturing or importation from a file, a clipboard, or any other appropriate source. The image may be in black-and-white or in color, and may be produced photographically or by any other graphical or electronic process.

Abstract: A printing device and control method that facilitates setting of waiting periods for cut-sheet paper insertion and commencement of paper transport or printing through application of waiting time control commands. By establishing a command for setting these waiting periods and incorporating apparatus in the printer for analyzing such a command, a configuration is realized in which these waiting periods are settable and adjustable by the host computer. This provides more efficient POS type printer control and allows setting of the desired time required for positioning recording paper according to operator experience. An interface unit is used to receive and interpret print data and recording paper positioning time setting commands and data from the host computer.

Abstract: Memory storage and memory bandwidth requirements of a color laser printer (or other printer having real-time printing constraints) are reduced by representing image information in a compressed format throughout the rendering process. At any one time during the rendering process, preferably, only a single scan line is expanded to the full, uncompressed format required for eventual printing. The rendered scan line is then recompressed and stored in memory. When all scan lines have been processed and are stored in memory in compressed format, the entire image is then expanded in real time and sent to the printer.

Abstract: When a single user prints out a large quantity of printed matter in a situation where the printer is shared by a plurality of users, other users must wait an extended period of time regardless of the quantity of material which they are to print out. Accordingly, the inventive printer stores received print data upon classifying the print data according to independent spool areas that correspond to respective ones of the users. At printout, fixed quantities of data are printed from the respective spool areas in regular order. Even if there is a user printing out a large quantity of printed matter, other users who are to print out small quantities of printed matter need not wait for the end of the large printing job.

Abstract: A filmless photographic printer for making 3D and/or animation pictures on lenticular print material. A video monitor is used to sequentially display the 2D images which are projected onto lenticular print material by a projection lens at different projection angles. The projection lens and print material are moved to different positions relative to the video monitor screen. The projection lens is maintained in proper focus on the monitor screen and print material during printing. The 2D images for composing the 3D photographs can be captured by an electronic camera or generated by computer.

Abstract: A printing apparatus and a print control method for performing H-V conversion and minimum track printing at high speed. When printing is to be performed on a print medium by reciprocally scanning a printhead, image data is externally inputted, vertical and horizontal orientation of the inputted image data is converted with considering the print width of the printhead so that the vertical and horizontal arrays are reversed in a buffer of a DMAC, the outputted result is continuously processed by utilizing a logical circuit, the left and right ends where actual printing operation is performed based on the image data is detected within a scan area of the printhead, and the scan area of the printhead is controlled based on the detection result.

Abstract: A printer driver having a 32-bit portion for providing a 32-bit property page for insertion into a standard Windows property sheet. The printer driver also has a 16-bit portion for exposing a device driver interface (DDI) entry point, and for providing a dummy property page when the entry point is called. The dummy property page is destroyed before it is displayed. Also provided is a printer driver having a 32-bit property sheet shell extension registered for printers. A 16-bit portion of the printer driver exposes a device driver interface entry point and which provides a dummy property page when the device driver interface entry point is called, the dummy property page indicating that a callback function is to be executed. The callback function signals an operating system to destroy the dummy property page before it is displayed.

Abstract: The image processing technique of the present invention prevents the deterioration of picture quality due to quantization errors caused by conversion of the tone number, which allocates image data to lattice points previously set in a color space. Pre-conversion of the tone number allocates original color image data to peripheral lattice points among the lattice points set by dividing the color space into lattices. The allocation of the original color image data to the peripheral lattice points causes quantization errors. The allocation, however, causes the mean error to be not greater than a predetermined value, in order to output desirable colors in a resulting image. The color space may be divided into smaller areas in a low-density range. This minimizes the deterioration of picture quality due to the quantization errors. A smoothing process carried out after the pre-conversion of the tone number relieves the effect of the quantization errors and further improves the picture quality.

Abstract: A laser printer and printing method for obtaining high quality of a picture by using different DPIs between a printer engine and data for printing, which includes a PC interface unit for receiving rasterized data from a PC connected to a printer; a band memory for storing the data transmitted from the PC interface unit; a main controller for reading and transmitting the data stored in the band memory; a clock generating unit for generating a clock for transmitting the data; a line buffer memory for temporarily storing the read data; and a line buffer control unit for controlling the line buffer. A printing method includes receiving data from the PC and storing the data in a band memory, comparing the DPI of data with that of the printer engine, and transmitting the data at least once to the printer engine for the time corresponding to the predetermined number of the clock.

Abstract: An integrated computerized system for use in color printing having at least one digital representation of a color characteristic of at least one page to be printed and a digital storage memory for storing the digital representation. An imposition apparatus is connected to the storage memory to receive the digital representation and arrange the digital representation in accordance with a desired plate layout, thereby to define a plate image. A press set-up device extracts from the plate image the color characteristic and provides ink flow set-up data to a printing press in accordance with the extracted color characteristic.

Abstract: An automatic system forms color LUTs (or LUT-forming data) for automated reference—typically in error diffusion (ED). A first aspect is for printers with six or more colorants. Three ramps, for different basic colorants, are photometrically measured; mainly just those results yield a transform from 3D color to system colorants. In a second aspect, some device-state candidate colors are chosen for black replacement. In a variant the choice is subject to (1) maintaining some chromatic colorant in each pixel with black; or (2) modifying use patterns to avoid alternative use of composite black vs. black; or (3) adjustments to allow for composite nonequivalence to black. A related third aspect allows replacement only if there is a given minimum amount of composite. In a fourth aspect, candidate states are dropped that have small changes in number of quanta per pixel, or no companion light colorant quantum with each dark one, best eliminating those with too many quanta of each or all colorants.

Abstract: To print plural copies of a document consisting of a plurality of pages by a printer, a host computer sandwiches print data with a spool command and a spool end command, and transmits the print data to the printer. The printer stores the received print data, sandwiched in between the spool command and spool end command, in a spool area. Then, the printer processes the print data stored in the spool area similarly to the processing of print data received directly from the host computer. Note that in this case, the printing operation is repeated the number of times corresponding to the number of copies of the document designated by the host computer. Accordingly, print data stored temporarily in the spool area can be used in similar manner to the print data transmitted directly from the host computer, for printing plural copies of the document.

Abstract: An information processing apparatus analyzes the objects contained in print data and creates index information consisting of the types of objects included in one job and on each page of the job, the numbers of the objects and the sizes thereof. The index information is sent to a printer together with print data. On the basis of the index information, the printer calculates the size of the image developed and the quantity of data before it performs printing. If the calculated image size and quantity of data conform to conditions decided from the memory size and printing speed of the printer, the print data is developed into an image the resolution and number of tones of which are less than those originally specified. This image is printed out.

Abstract: A system and method produce a combined page having all of the composition of a first page plus all of the composition of a second page. Each band of the first page is pre-rasterized then saved to solitary band stores. Next each band of the second page is pre-rasterized and combined with the corresponding solitary band store to produce combined band stores. The combined band stores are then joined to produce the combined page. The combined band stores are joined by printing each combined band store in sequential location on the same page.

Abstract: An image processing system including a host computer, a scanner and a printer, which can reduce the load added to the host computer as well as burden to a user, and improve data transfer efficiency. When an image is scanned by the scanner connected to the host computer, the processing conventionally performed by the host computer or a printer is selected by a scan control selection unit and the selected processing is performed at the time of scanning.

Abstract: A image is printed from a source of drawing instructions. The image is reducible to pixels arranged in a plurality of ranked image lines. The system employs a storage device having compressed and uncompressed regions. Each region has a designated capacity and each is arranged to store pixels of one more of the plurality of image lines. A drawing processor is coupled to the storage device and can be coupled to the source of drawing instructions for responding thereto. This drawing processor can store new pixels in the storage device for successively selected ones of the image lines. The drawing processor has a conditional device, a decompression device and an insertion device. The conditional device can compressively encode and move from the uncompressed region to the compressed region, a remote one of the image lines, if: a) the selected one of the image lines is in the compressed region, and b) the uncompressed region has reached its designated capacity.