Efficient implementation of raster operations flow
First Claim
1. A method of filling an image portion of a page to be printed with a corresponding color, said method being performed in a printer, said method comprising:
- receiving a plurality of commands specifying content for said image portion of said page, said image portion containing a plurality of points, said plurality of commands including at least one command specifying a raster operation to be performed to generate a bit map representing said image portion, said raster operation being performed on at least one operand, and indicating that said one operand is to be filled with corresponding color;
determining for each raster operation whether performing said raster operation of said at least one command would result in a same value of said corresponding color being generated for all of said plurality of points of said image portion of said page;
if said same value would be generated for all of said plurality of points of said image portion of said page, performing said raster operation for only one of said plurality points to determine said same value and using said same value for all of said plurality of points of said image portion of said page; and
if said same value would not be generated for all of said plurality of points of said image portion of said page, performing said raster operation for each of said plurality points to determine a value for each corresponding point and using said value for said corresponding point of said image portion of said page.
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Accused Products
Abstract
According to one aspect, a printer supports transparency operations by generating mask data at interpretation stage which indicates whether each bit of a page content would be determined by the result of a raster operation or a prior destination value. The mask data can be used to complete quickly rendering of a page image once the rendering starts. Another aspect enables color fills of objects to be performed efficiently. A raster operations engine may determine whether all the points (pixels) of the object would have the same value if the raster operation is performed. If all pixels would have the same value, the value for only one pixel is computed and used for multiple pixels of the object. According to another aspect, when a pattern is to be tiled on an entire image portion, the pattern data is stored in a memory and provided as an input to rendering operation multiple times.
16 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A method of filling an image portion of a page to be printed with a corresponding color, said method being performed in a printer, said method comprising:
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receiving a plurality of commands specifying content for said image portion of said page, said image portion containing a plurality of points, said plurality of commands including at least one command specifying a raster operation to be performed to generate a bit map representing said image portion, said raster operation being performed on at least one operand, and indicating that said one operand is to be filled with corresponding color; determining for each raster operation whether performing said raster operation of said at least one command would result in a same value of said corresponding color being generated for all of said plurality of points of said image portion of said page; if said same value would be generated for all of said plurality of points of said image portion of said page, performing said raster operation for only one of said plurality points to determine said same value and using said same value for all of said plurality of points of said image portion of said page; and if said same value would not be generated for all of said plurality of points of said image portion of said page, performing said raster operation for each of said plurality points to determine a value for each corresponding point and using said value for said corresponding point of said image portion of said page. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A printer controller filling an image portion of a page to be printed with a corresponding color, said printer controller comprising:
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means for receiving a plurality of commands specifying content for said image portion of said page, said image portion containing a plurality of points, said plurality of commands including at least one command specifying a raster operation to be performed to generate a bit map representing said image portion, said raster operation being performed on at least one operand, and indicating that said one operand is to be filled with said corresponding color; means for determining for each raster operation whether performing said raster operation of said at least one command would result in a same value of said corresponding color being generated for all of said plurality of points of said image portion of said page; means for performing said raster operation for only one of said plurality points to determine said same value and using said same value for all of said plurality of points of said image portion of said page, if said same value would be generated for all of said plurality of points of said image portion of said page; and means for performing said raster operation for each of said plurality points to determine a value for each corresponding point and using said value for said corresponding point of said image portion of said page, if said same value would not be generated for all of said plurality of points of said image portion of said page. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8)
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9. A non-transitory computer readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for causing a printer to fill an image portion of a page to be printed with a corresponding color, wherein execution of said one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors contained in said printer causes said one or more processors to perform the actions of:
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receiving a plurality of commands specifying content for said image portion of said page, said image portion containing a plurality of points, said plurality of commands including at least one command specifying a raster operation to be performed to generate a bit map representing said image portion, said raster operation being performed on at least one operand, and indicating that said one operand is to be filled with said corresponding color; determining for each raster operation whether performing said raster operation of said at least one command would result in a same value of said corresponding color being generated for all of said plurality of points of said image portion of said page; if said same value would be generated for all of said plurality of points of said image portion of said page, performing said raster operation for only one of said plurality points to determine said same value and using said same value for all of said plurality of points of said image portion of said page; and if said same value would not be generated for all of said plurality of points of said image portion of said page, performing said raster operation for each of said plurality points to determine a value for each corresponding point and using said value for said corresponding point of said image portion of said page. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
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Specification