Printer ink reduction

1 . A method of printing an image, comprising:

sending a data stream representing the image to a printer driver;

generating a stream of print instructions at the printer driver;

forwarding the stream of print instructions to a printer; and

printing the image in accordance with the print instructions;

wherein the data stream or stream of print instructions is intercepted by a shell driver before it reaches the printer driver or between the printer driver and the printer and processed by the shell driver so that the printer uses less ink to print the image than it would if the processing was not performed.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

installing a shell driver onto the computer, the shell driver being arranged to intercept a data stream intended for the printer driver and process said data stream so as to reduce the amount of ink used by the printer.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

installing a shell driver onto the computer, the shell driver being arranged to intercept print instructions intended for the printer and process said print instructions so as to reduce the amount of ink used by the printer.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the step of installing the shell driver includes causing an icon to be displayed in the system tray so that the user can select the icon to vary settings of the shell driver including the ink usage.

5 . A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the data stream is intercepted and processed before it reaches the printer driver.

6 . A method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the processing of the data stream does not depend on the printer driver to which the data stream is to be forwarded.

7 . A method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the processing of the data stream is performed using information about the printer driver to which the data stream is to be forwarded.

8 . A method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the shell driver has settings which can be varied by the user, the method further comprising varying these settings so as to vary the amount of ink saved.

9 . A method as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the step of varying the settings of the shell driver is performed by accessing the shell driver via the system tray.

10 . A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the reduction of the amount of ink used by the printer is achieved by processing the data stream or stream of print instructions so as to result in a reduction of the number of dots printed by the printer.

11 . A method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the data stream or stream of print instructions is processed so that the dot reduction is performed in such a way that the visible quality of the document printed by the printer as perceived by a human viewer is not reduced.

12 . A method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein dot reduction is performed by removing dots at random.

13 . A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the step of processing the data stream or stream of print instructions comprises modifying black regions in the image to half-tone grey regions.

14 . A method as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the half-tone grey regions have a grey level of about 60%.

15 . A method as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the level of half-toning may be set by the user.

16 . A method as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the step of processing the data stream or stream of print instructions includes modifying pixels in filled objects within the image to half-tone grey, but ensuring that pixels at the edge of filled objects remain highly saturated.

17 . A method of reducing the ink used by a printer to print an image, the method comprising:

using a shell driver to intercept a data stream, representing the image, sent to a printer driver for printing;

using the shell driver to process the data stream so as to produce a modified data stream still representing the image;

forwarding the processed data stream to the printer driver;

generating a stream of print instructions;

forwarding the stream of print instructions to the printer; and

printing the image in accordance with the print instructions;

wherein the step of processing the data stream results in a reduction of the amount of ink used by the printer as compared to the amount which would be used by the printer if the processing was not performed.

18 . A method of reducing the ink used by a printer to print an image, the method comprising:

using a shell driver to intercept a stream of print instructions, representing the image, sent from a printer driver to a printer;

using the shell driver to process the stream of print instructions so as to produce a modified stream of print instructions still representing the image; and

printing the image in accordance with the modified print instructions;

wherein the step of processing the stream of print instructions results in a reduction of the amount of ink used by the printer as compared to the amount which would be used by the printer if the processing was not performed.

19 . A computer storage medium having stored thereon a program arranged to cause a computer to perform a method as claimed in claim 1 .

20 . A system for printing documents from an application, comprising:

a printer driver arranged to receive a data stream corresponding to a document to be printed and forward a stream of print instructions to a printer to print said document in response to the data stream; and

a shell driver arranged either to intercept a data stream intended for the printer driver, process the data stream and pass the processed data stream to the printer driver, or to intercept a stream of print instructions intended for the printer, process the print instructions and pass the processed print instructions to the printer;

wherein the shell driver is arranged to process the data stream or print instructions in such a way that the printer uses less ink than it would if the data stream or print instructions was not processed.

21 . A system as claimed in claim 20 , wherein the shell driver is arranged to process the data stream or print instructions in such a way that the reduction in ink used by the printer is caused by a reduction in the number of dots printed by the printer.

22 . A system as claimed in claim 20 , wherein the shell driver is arranged to process the data stream or print instructions in such a way that the visible quality of the printed document as perceived by a human viewer is not reduced.

23 . A system as claimed in claim 20 , wherein the shell driver has settings which can be varied by a user so as to vary the degree of reduction of ink used by the printer.

24 . A system as claimed in claim 23 , wherein the settings of the shell driver are accessible to the user via the system tray.

25 . A system as claimed in claim 20 , wherein the operation of the shell driver is invisible to the user of the system during printing.