Systems and methods for efficiently generating and supplying image data for tandem printers
View Patent ↗A page to be printed is organized into a plurality of strips. To rendered the page using a tandem printer, each strip is rendered a plurality of times, once for each print engine of the tandem printer. Each time the selected strip is rendered for a different one of the print engines, the rendered image data for that print engine is stored into a separate memory area, such as a buffer, associated with that print engine Once a selected strip is rendered and the rendered image data stored into the associated memory areas, the rendered image data is used by the appropriate print engines to form image portions on a receiving sheet corresponding to the rendered image data. At the same time, a next strip is selected and repeatedly rendered for each of the print engines.
1. A method for printing a plurality of images in tandem using a number n of print engines, comprising:
inputting color image data to be printed using at least two of the number n of the print engines, the color image data organized into a plurality of input data strips, a number of the input data strips combining to form a single image;
selecting a first input data strip;
generating at least one color separation layer strip from the selected input data strip;
converting at least one of the at least one color separation layer strip into raster data usable by a corresponding one of the n print engines to form an image strip on a substrate; and
storing, for each converted at least one color separation layer strip, the raster data for that color separation layer strip into a memory associated with the corresponding one of the n print engines.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising repeating at least the converting and storing steps for each of a total of n color separation layer strips.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising repeating at least the generating, converting and storing steps for each of n−1 other input data strips.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising repeating the selecting, generating, converting and storing steps for each of n−1 other input data strips.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
generating at least one color separation layer strip from the selected input data strip comprises generating n color separation layer strips from the selected input data strip;
converting at least one of the at least one color separation layer strip into raster data usable by a corresponding one of the n print engines to form an image strip on a substrate comprises converting each of the n color separation layer strips into raster data; and
storing, for each of the n converted color separation layer strips, the raster data for that color separation layer strip into a memory associated with the corresponding one of the n print engines.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising repeating at least the generating, converting and storing steps for one color separation layer strip for each of n−1 other input data strips during a time period corresponding to a time period used by the n print engines to form the image strip on the substrate.
7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising repeating at least the generating, converting, storing and repeating steps for each of a plurality of the time periods until all of the color separation layer strips of all of the input image data strips have been stored in the memory.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising repeating the generating, converting, storing and repeating steps for each of the strips of input image data.
9. A method for printing a plurality of images in tandem using a number n of print engines, comprising:
inputting color image data to be printed using at least two of the number n of the print engines, the color image data organized into a plurality of input data strips, a number of the input data strips combining to form a single image;
generating n one color separation layer strips from each input data strip;
selecting a first color separation layer strip of a first input data strip;
converting the selected color separation layer strip into raster data usable by a corresponding one of the n print engines to form an image strip on a substrate; and
storing the raster data for the converted color separation layer strip into a memory associated with the corresponding one of the n print engines.
10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising repeating at least the selecting, converting and storing steps for each of a total of n color separation layer strips.
11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising repeating at least the selecting, converting and storing steps for one color separation layer strip for each of n−1 other input data strips.
12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising repeating at least the selecting, converting and storing steps for one color separation layer strip for each of a total of n input data strips during a time period corresponding to a time period used by the n print engines to form one image strip on the substrate.
13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising repeating at least the selecting, converting, storing and repeating steps for each of a plurality of the time periods until all of the color separation layer strips of all of the input image data strips have been stored in the memory.
14. The method of claim 9 , further comprising repeating the generating, selecting, converting, storing and repeating steps for each of the strips of input image data.
15. An image data generating system useable to generate image data for a tandem image forming apparatus that includes a number n of print engines that print in tandem, the system comprising:
an input interface usable to input image data from an image data source, the input image data organized into a plurality of input image data strips, a number of the input data strips combining to form a single image;
a selecting component that selects one of the input image data strips;
a generating component that generates at least one color separation layer strip from the selected input image data strip;
a converting component that converts at least one color separation layer strip into a raster image data strip that is usable by one of the n print engines to form a corresponding color separation layer image on a substrate;
a storing component that stores the raster image data strip into a memory associated with the one of the n print engines.