Patent ID: 6791704
Filing Date: 2004-09-14
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
Method of managing resources of at least one printing product available in a printer, characterised in that said method comprises the steps of:predicting (100) a quantity of a printing product necessary for printing a document by a computer connected to the printer, wherein said predicting step includes creating a table (T) describing at least part of a monochromatic component of the document, the component corresponding to the printing product and each cell in the table representing a pixel, counting (6) a number of switched-on pixels in the table and deriving therefrom the necessary quantity (10) of the printing product, and wherein a table (107) is created with a limited capacity, less than a necessary capacity for describing the monochromatic component of the document, in that groups of pixels of the monochromatic component of the document are entered therein successively, and in that on each occasion a number of switched-on pixels is counted (114) until all the monochromatic component of the document has been entered in the table and its switched-on pixels have been counted; creating each table of limited capacity from digital data representing adjacent bands (107, 118) of the document; measuring (315), with quantity detection means, before printing the document, a quantity of printing product still available in a corresponding reservoir of the printer; comparing the predicted quantity and the measured quantity; and, if the measured quantity is lower than the predicted quantity, sending (220, 230, 503) a message and/or triggering implementation of a processing before printing the document, wherein overlapping broadened bands (107, 118) are selected, in that, using corresponding digital data, at least one enlarged table is created, allowing an image reprocessing entailing a modification of the switched-on pixels, in that the table is modified by applying a known correction algorithm (111), and in that counting of the switched-on pixels corresponding to an excess part of the enlarged table is excluded.