Patent ID: 6693719
Filing Date: 2004-02-17
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
A printer comprising:a transceiver adapted for bidirectional communication with a communications channel; a memory; a print engine adapted for placing color dots on a printed page according to received image data and control signals; and a programmable data processor connected to said transceiver, said memory and said print engine, said programmable data processor programmed to receive print data corresponding to pages to be printed from the communications channel via said transceiver; convert said print data into image data and control signals for supply to said print engine for printing a corresponding page, said conversion including clipping a subject polygon by a clip polygon and forming trapezoids filling the clipped area by: representing the subject polygon and the clip polygon each as a set of edges, each edge represented by minimum Y coordinate, a minimum X coordinate, a maximum Y coordinate and a slope, sorting said subject polygon set of edges and said clip polygon set of edges in increasing values of minimum Y coordinate and storing said sorted set of edges as an array of edges, determining the greatest minimum Y coordinate of a first edge entry in said subject polygon set of edges and a first edge entry in said clip polygon set of edges, thereby determining a bottom Y coordinate of a next trapezoid to be formed, detecting all intersections between edges, forming trapezoids for all areas within both said subject polygon and said clip polygon between successive pairs in the direction perpendicular to the scan line dimension of all edge ends and edge intersections between said greatest minimum Y coordinate of said subject polygon edges and said clip polygon edges and a smallest maximum Y coordinate of said subject polygon and said clip polygon edges; and controlling said print engine according to said image data and control signals to print a corresponding page.