Method of printing a compressed image having a bi-level black layer and a contone layer

1. A method of printing a compressed image, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving, with a printer controller, the image, having a bi-level black data layer compressed in an Edge Delta and Runlength (EDRL) compression format and a continuous tone (contone) CMYK data layer, from a computer;

expanding the image by simultaneously decompressing the two data layers in parallel;

halftoning the contone CMYK data layer into bi-level CMYK data layer;

compositing the bi-level black data layer over the bi-level CMYK data layer to form a composited bi-level CMYK image; and

transmitting the composited bi-level CMYK image to a memory buffer of a pagewidth printer for printing.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the image is compressed in an Edge Delta and Runlength (EDRL) compression format and a continuous tone (contone) CMYK data layer by a printer driver application executed by the computer.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of receiving the image includes receiving the image at a constant data rate.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of expanding includes decoding of entropy coded EDRL codewords in an input bitstream according to a predetermined decoding table.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of receiving the image includes receiving the contone layer in a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) compression format.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the step of expanding includes decoding a JPEG bitstream with a decoder according to 8 parallel pixel First-In-First-Out (FIFO) registers to deliver an output in the form of 8×8 pixel blocks.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the steps are sequentially performed by a print controller using a number of First-In-First-Out (FIFO) registers.