Abstract: A printer feeds cut-sheet print media past an exposure area of a linear exposure print engine exposing the edges of the media. A sheet of print media is fed into a pair of open leading edge pinch rollers as printing is started. These rollers close and push the media past the exposure area where the leading edge of the sheet is exposed to the image being printed. The leading edge then passes through a pair of open trailing edge pinch rollers, which close to start pulling the media through the exposure area. After the trailing edge pinch rollers close, the leading edge pinch rollers open, transferring the movement from the leading edge pinch rollers to the trailing edge pinch rollers, allowing the trailing edge pinch rollers to pull the trailing edge of the sheet through the exposure area where it is exposed to the image being printed.

Abstract: Disclosed is a photographic printer with bi-directional sweeping of a monochrome CRT to expose a photosensitive medium. Image data from a host system is received by the printer and stored in a data drive system. The data drive system converts the data into a series of rows of dot row data to produce the appropriate image desired. Linear deflection amplifiers sweep the CRT's electron beam across the face of the CRT to expose the medium utilizing the dot row data. The present invention sweeps and writes data bi-directionally, eliminating the retrace period associated with sweeping and writing in one direction, and without any hold periods once printing starts. The data in every other dot row is processed in reverse order so that the dot row data utilized in the reverse writing sweep will be exposed onto the medium in proper relationship to the rows written above and below it.

Abstract: Disclosed is a photographic printer with bi-directional sweeping of a color CRT to expose a photosensitive medium. Image data from a host system is received by the printer and stored in a data drive system. The data drive system converts the data into a series of rows of dot row data to produce the appropriate image desired. Linear deflection amplifiers sweep the CRT's electron beam across the color phosphor areas on the face of the CRT to expose the medium utilizing the dot row data. The present invention sweeps and writes data bi-directionally, eliminating the retrace period associated with sweeping and writing in one direction, and without any hold periods once printing starts. The data in every other dot row is processed in reverse order so that the dot row data utilized in the reverse writing sweep will be exposed onto the medium in proper relationship to the rows written before and after it.

Abstract: A printer for transferring image data from a computer to a print media. The printer displays the image data in line segments on the CRT, which then transfers the image line segments of the image onto the media, as the media moves across the cathode ray tube. The segments are used to illuminate phosphor rows on an inside surface of the cathode ray tube, and filters, chemically bonded to an outside surface of the cathode ray tube, adjust the spectral output of the phosphor rows to match the spectral requirements of the print media. The filters may be short pass, long pass, or band pass to achieve the required adjustments to the light so that the print media is properly exposed. Protrusions are formed on the edges of the filters to act as spacers between the filters and the print media.

Abstract: A photographic printer that uses a plurality of small CRTs to print wide format images. Within the printer, the CRTs are positioned horizontally adjacent one another but vertically displaced so that image segments displayed by adjacent CRTs either abut or overlap one another. The printer decomposes each line of the image into horizontal image segments, buffers the image segments to compensate for the vertical displacement, and displays the image segments on the CRTs such that they are exposed horizontally aligned with one another on the photographic media. The printer stitches the image at the seams between adjacent segments to reduce the discontinuities in the horizontal image rows.