Patent ID: 7980648
Filing Date: 2011-07-19
Classification: B41J,G06K,H04N

Abstract:
1. A print engine controller for a pagewidth printhead, the controller comprising: contone and bi-level decompression circuitry for decompressing a contone layer of compressed page data and a bi-level layer of compressed page data, respectively; halftoner and compositor circuitry for halftoning the decompressed contone layer to associated bi-level versions and compositing the decompressed bi-level layer over the halftoned contone layers; printhead interface circuitry for receiving the halftoned and composited data, and to generate therefrom print data suitable for printing by the printhead; and line loader and formatter circuitry for receiving dot data from the halftoner and compositor circuitry, loading dot data for a given print line into buffer storages, and formatting dots of a given print line into an order required by the printhead interface circuitry, wherein the line loader and formatter circuitry loads the dot data into a combination of an integrated circuit and external storage buffers.