Print engine/controller for driving an inkjet printhead
View Patent ↗A print engine/controller for driving an inkjet printhead is provided. The print engine/controller comprises: (a) an interface for receiving compressed page data; (b) a plurality of decoders, each decoder being configured for decoding respective types of image planes in the received compressed page data; and (c) a half-toner/compositor for compositing image plane data, the half-toner/compositor comprising: (i) a dot merger unit for taking bits from the respective planes as inputs; (ii) a color mask register for holding masking bits in equal number to the number of image planes; and (iii) means for ANDing respective input bits to the dot merger with respective color mask register bits, and means for ORing the resultant bits together to form an output bit in a channel for which there is an ink at the printhead.
1. A print engine/controller chip for interfacing with an inkjet printhead comprising:
an interface for receiving compressed page data;
a contone image decoder for decoding any continuous tone image planes in the received compressed page data;
a high resolution decoder for decoding any high resolution image planes in the received compressed page data;
a half-toner/compositor for dithering any continuous tone image planes and composite any high resolution image plane data with any output plane, the half-toner/compositor including a dot merger unit controlled by a color mask for mapping image planes into channels corresponding to what inks are supplied in the printhead; and
a printhead driver for outputting the composite to a print head.
2. An inkjet printer comprising:
a printhead; and
a print engine/controller,
wherein the print engine/controller comprises:
an interface for receiving compressed page data;
a contone image decoder for decoding any continuous tone image planes in the received compressed page data;
a high resolution image decoder for decoding any high resolution image planes in the received compressed page data;
a half-toner/compositor for dithering any continuous tone image planes and compositing high resolution image plane data with any output plane, the half-toner/compositor including a dot merger unit controlled by a color mask for mapping image plants into channels corresponding to what inks are supplied in the printhead; and
a printhead driver for outputting tbe composite to a printhead.
3. A method of operating an inkjet printer comprising the steps of:
receiving compressed page data;
decoding any continuous tone image planes in the received compressed page data to generate output planes;
decoding any high resolution image plane in the received compressed page data to generate an output plane;
dithering any continuous tone image planes;
compositing any high resolution image plane data with any output plane; and
forwarding composited data to a printhead with image planes mapped to what inks are available at the print head.