Patent Abstract:
Systems and methods consistent with some embodiments presented provide methods for rendering print data. In some embodiments of methods for rendering print data comprising at least one compressed image object may include generating a display list by parsing the print data. The compressed image object may be identified in the display list by a reference to the at least one compressed image object. In some embodiments, the display list may be rasterized and converted to a bitmap. In some embodiments, the reference to the at least one compressed image object may be used to retrieve the at least one compressed image object. The retrieved compressed image object may be decoded and rasterized to generate a bitmap of the decoded image.

Full Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention relates to the field of printing and in particular, to methods for optimizing memory and processing requirements during rasterization and rendering of high resolution compressed images. 
         [0003]    2. Description of Related Art 
         [0004]    High resolution digital images are a common component of electronically stored documents. These images may often be defined by high colorimetric and spatial resolution. High resolution images can occupy large amounts of memory and are therefore often stored in compressed formats, such as Joint Photographic Experts Group (“JPEG”) or Portable Network Graphics (“PNG”). Even lower resolution images can occupy significant amounts of memory. In uncompressed form, the images may be described by a bitmap. 
         [0005]    Electronic documents that include compressed images may often require decompression prior to both rasterization and integration into the display lists. The decompression process, however, may consume significant computing resources and accordingly degrade performance. Moreover, decompressed high-resolution images may often exceed the storage capacity typically allocated for a display lists. In these cases, a swap file on secondary storage or other storage media may be used to provide additional storage capacity. However, time delays in accessing swap files in secondary storage may introduce additional delays and consume other resources potentially available for rasterization thereby reducing printer performance. Thus, there is a need for methods and systems to optimize the rasterization and rendering of documents with image content for printing. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0006]    In accordance with the present invention, systems and methods for rendering print data are presented. In some embodiments, a method for rendering print data, wherein the print data comprises at least one compressed image object, the method comprising generating a display list by parsing the print data, wherein the at least one compressed image object is identified in the display list by a reference to the at least one compressed image object; and rasterizing the display list, wherein rasterization further comprises using the reference to the at least one compressed image object to retrieve the at least one compressed image object; decoding the retrieved compressed image object; and creating a bitmap using the decoded image object. 
         [0007]    Embodiments of the present invention also relate to instructions created, stored, accessed, or modified by processors using computer-readable media and/or computer-readable memory. 
         [0008]    These and other embodiments are further explained below with respect to the following figures. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0009]      FIG. 1  shows a block diagram illustrating components in a system for printing documents. 
           [0010]      FIG. 2  shows a high level block diagram of an exemplary printer. 
           [0011]      FIG. 3  shows an exemplary high-level data flow between modules in a system for rendering print data. 
           [0012]      FIG. 4  shows an exemplary lower level data flow between modules in an exemplary raster information processor module for rendering print data. 
           [0013]      FIG. 5  shows a flowchart illustrating steps in an exemplary method for rendering print data. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0014]    Reference will now be made in detail to one or more exemplary embodiments of the present invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings to refer to the same or like parts. 
         [0015]      FIG. 1  shows a block diagram illustrating components in a system for printing documents according to some embodiments of the present invention. A computer software application consistent with the present invention may be deployed on a network of computers, as shown in  FIG. 1 , that are connected through communication links that allow information to be exchanged using conventional communication protocols and/or data port interfaces. 
         [0016]    As shown in  FIG. 1 , exemplary system  100  includes computers including computing device  110  and server  130 . Further, computing device  110  and server  130  may communicate over connection  120 , which may pass through network  140 , which in one case could be the Internet. Computing device  110  may be a computer workstation, desktop computer, laptop computer, or any other computing device capable of being used in a networked environment. Server  130  may be a platform capable of connecting to computing device  110  and other devices (not shown). Computing device  110  and server  130  may be capable of executing software (not shown) that allows the printing of documents using printers  170 . 
         [0017]    Exemplary printer  170  includes devices that produce physical documents from electronic data including, but not limited to, laser printers, ink-jet printers, LED printers, plotters, facsimile machines, and digital copiers. In some embodiments, printer  170  may also be capable of directly printing documents received from computing device  110  or server  130  over connection  120 . In some embodiments, such an arrangement may allow for the direct printing of documents, with (or without) additional processing by computing device  110  or server  130 . In some embodiments, documents may contain one or more of text, graphics, and images. Image data may be compressed when stored in electronic form. Accordingly, decompression may be performed on compressed image data prior to printing. In some embodiments, printer  170  may receive PDL or PPML descriptions of documents for printing. A PDL description is often translated to a series of lower-level printer-specific commands when the document is being printed. The process of translation from a PDL description of a document to a lower-level description that may be used to place marks on a print medium is termed rasterization. 
         [0018]    Note that document print processing can be distributed. Thus, computing device  110 , server  130 , and/or the printer may perform portions of document print processing such as half-toning, color matching, and/or other manipulation processes before a document is physically printed by printer  170 . 
         [0019]    Computing device  110  also contains removable media drive  150 . Removable media drive  150  may include, for example, 3.5 inch floppy drives, CD-ROM drives, DVD ROM drives, CD±RW or DVD±RW drives, USB flash drives, and/or any other removable media drives consistent with embodiments of the present invention. In some embodiments, portions of the software application may reside on removable media and be read and executed by computing device  110  using removable media drive  150 . 
         [0020]    Connection  120  couples computing device  110 , server  130 , and printer  170  and may be implemented as a wired or wireless connection using conventional communication protocols and/or data port interfaces. In general, connections  120  can be any communication channel that allows transmission of data between the devices. In one embodiment, for example, the devices may be provided with conventional data ports, such as parallel ports, serial ports, Ethernet, USB, SCSI, FIREWIRE, and/or coaxial cable ports for transmission of data through the appropriate connection. In some embodiments, connection  120  may be a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), or a cable connection. The communication links could be wireless links or wired links or any combination consistent with embodiments of the present invention that allows communication between the various devices. 
         [0021]    Network  140  could include a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), or the Internet. In some embodiments, information sent over network  140  may be encrypted to ensure the security of the data being transmitted. Printer  170  may be connected to network  140  through connection  120 . In some embodiments, printer  170  may also be connected directly to computing device  110  and/or server  130 . System  100  may also include other peripheral devices (not shown), according to some embodiments of the present invention. A computer software application consistent with the present invention may be deployed on any of the exemplary computers, as shown in  FIG. 1 . For example, computing device  110  could execute software that may be downloaded directly from server  130 . Portions of the application may also be executed by printer  170  in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. 
         [0022]      FIG. 2  shows a high-level block diagram  200  of exemplary printer  170 . In some embodiments, printer  170  may contain bus  174  that couples CPU  176 , firmware  171 , memory  172 , input-output ports  175 , print engine  177 , and secondary storage device  173 . Exemplary secondary storage  173  may be an internal or external hard disk, memory stick, or any other memory storage device capable of being used by system  200 . Printer  170  may also contain other Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), and/or Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs)  178  that are capable of executing portions of an application to print documents according to some embodiments of the present invention. In some embodiments, printer  170  may also be able to access secondary storage or other memory in computing device  110  using I/O ports  175  and connection  120 . In some embodiments, printer  170  may also be capable of executing software including a printer operating system and other appropriate application software. In some embodiments, printer  170  may allow paper sizes, output trays, color selections, and print resolution, among other options, to be user-configurable. 
         [0023]    In some embodiments, CPU  176  may be a general-purpose processor, a special purpose processor, or an embedded processor. CPU  176  can exchange data including control information and instructions with memory  172  and/or firmware  171 . Memory  172  may be any type of Dynamic Random Access Memory (“DRAM”) such as but not limited to SDRAM, or RDRAM. Firmware  171  may hold instructions and data including but not limited to a boot-up sequence, pre-defined routines, and other code. In some embodiments, code and data in firmware  171  may be copied to memory  172  prior to being acted upon by CPU  176 . Routines in firmware  171  may include code to translate page descriptions received from computing device  110  to display lists and image bands. In some embodiments, firmware  171  may include rasterization routines to convert display commands in a display lists to an appropriate rasterized bit map and store the bit map in memory  172 . Firmware  171  may also include compression and decompression routines and memory management routines. In some embodiments, data and instructions in firmware  171  may be upgradeable. 
         [0024]    In some embodiments, CPU  176  may act upon instructions and data and provide control and data to ASICs/FPGAs  178  and print engine  177  to generate printed documents. In some embodiments, ASICs/FPGAs  178  may also provide control and data to print engine  177 . FPGAs/ASICs  178  may also implement one or more of translation, compression, decompression, and rasterization algorithms. In some embodiments, computing device  110  can transform document data into a first printable data. Then, the first printable data can be sent to printer  170  for transformation into intermediate printable data. Printer  170  may transform intermediate printable data into a final form of printable data and print according to this final form. 
         [0025]    In some embodiments, rasterization may be performed using ASIC/FPGA  178 , CPU  176 , or a combination thereof. In other embodiments, rasterization may also be performed using software, firmware, hardware, or combination thereof. For example, ASIC/FPGA  178 , CPU  176 , or a combination thereof may be used to convert PDL formatted data into intermediate data, which may take the form of a display list, and may include a list of objects and low-level drawing commands associated with the objects. Once the display list is complete, ASIC/FPGA  178 , CPU  176 , or a combination thereof can rasterize the objects, transform the raw bit map, and provide a bitmap to a frame buffer or print engine to place marks on printable media. In some embodiments, the first printable data may correspond to a PDL or PPML description of a document. 
         [0026]      FIG. 3  shows an exemplary high-level data flow  380  between modules in a system for rendering print data. As shown in  FIG. 3 , the system comprises, inter alia, RIP module  300 , secondary storage  173 , and frame buffer  370 . RIP module  300  may comprise parser  330 , decoder  350 , and rasterizer  360 . In some embodiments, parser  330 , decoder  350 , and rasterizer  360  communicate with each other and may also create, modify, and perform other operations on display lists  340 . 
         [0027]    As shown in  FIG. 3 , parser  330  can receive print job  310  from computing device  110  and may use PDL language objects present in print job  310  to generate display lists  340 . In other embodiments, display lists  340  may hold one or more of text, graphics, command, image header, and image data objects. These display commands may include data comprising characters or text, line drawings or vectors, and images or raster data. In some embodiments, objects in display lists  340  may correspond to similar objects in a user document. In some embodiments, display lists  340  may be stored in memory  172  or secondary storage  173 . In some embodiments, the display lists may reside in one or more of printer  170 , computing device  110 , and server  130 . Memory to store display lists may be a dedicated memory or form part of general purpose memory, or some combination thereof according to disclosed embodiments. Display lists  340  may be a second or intermediate step in the processing of data prior to actual printing and may be parsed before conversion into a subsequent form. In some embodiments the subsequent form may be a final representation. 
         [0028]    In some embodiments, RIP module  300  may be implemented as a software application, or in firmware  171  using CPU  176 ; or using ASIC/FPGA  178 , or by some combination thereof. RIP module  300  can receive and operate on data in print job  310  to facilitate the generation of frame buffer  370 . In some embodiments, print job  310  may comprise a sequence of drawing commands and language objects. The sequence may include drawing commands associated with text objects, graphics objects, and/or image objects. In some embodiments, the images corresponding to image objects in print job  310  may comprise high-resolution images. High resolution images may be defined by high calorimetric and spatial resolution. 
         [0029]    In some embodiments, the images corresponding to image objects in print job  310  may be compressed using common compression algorithms, including but not limited to JPEG, GIF, TIFF and/or PNG. In some embodiments, the images corresponding to image objects associated with print job  310  may be stored in secondary storage  173 . In other embodiments, images corresponding to image objects associated with print job  310  may stored on other computer readable storage media coupled to computing device  110  or printer  170  (not shown) either alone or in combination with secondary storage  173 . 
         [0030]    In one embodiment, a reference pertaining to the image stored in secondary storage  173  may be used in display list  340  to identify and locate the image. In some embodiments, the reference may include an image header and/or other identifying and location information. In some embodiments, the reference may point to the location of the image object in memory, or in secondary storage. For example, the reference may include a pointer to a read function providing access to the image. The pointer may provide address and other information associated with the image object. 
         [0031]    in some embodiments, processing print job  310  by parser  330  may comprise placing drawing commands associated with text and graphics directly into display list  340  based on a PDL definition associated with print job  310 . In cases where print job  310  contains images, parser  330  can place an image header or some other descriptive reference corresponding to the image object in display list  340 . In some embodiments, images in the print job may continue to remain in compressed form in memory or in secondary storage. 
         [0032]    In some embodiments, decoder  350  can use image header or other image identification information in display list  340  to decompress retrieved compressed images. For example, decoder  350  can request the retrieval of compressed images from secondary storage  173  using information present in the reference to image objects in display list  340 . In some embodiments, decoder  350  can then decompresses the compressed image. 
         [0033]    In some embodiments, the reconstruction of the uncompressed image may proceed scan line by scan line in order from top to bottom. A scan line may be described as a 1×N array of pixels, where N may represent a first integer value. In some situations, a scan line may additionally be described as 1 to M planes deep. Here, M may represent a second integer value. For example, when image data consists of information in M multiple color planes, the scan line may include 1 line of data comprising of N pixels for each of the M color planes. Decoder  350  may receive a pointer to a read function to access an image from secondary storage  173 . In some embodiments, the read function may be system specific. Decoder  350  may also output scan lines for reconstructing the decompressed image. In some embodiments, decoder  350  may be implemented in one of hardware, software, or some combination thereof. For example, decoder  350  may be implemented in firmware  171 , CPU  176 , ASIC/FPGA  178 , or some combination thereof. 
         [0034]    In some embodiments, rasterizer  360  can read data and drawing commands from display lists  340  and decompressed scan lines from decoder  350 . and store its output in frame buffer  370 . In some embodiments, frame buffer  370  may be part of memory  172 . In some embodiments, data in frame buffer  370  may be organized as discrete horizontal bands to optimize processing. Frame buffer  370  may hold a rectangular bitmap specifying the marks to be made on a printed page for print job  310 . Print engine  177 , may process the rasterized data in frame buffer  370 , and form a printable image of the page on a print medium, such as paper. In some embodiments, routines for rasterizer  360  may be provided in firmware  171  or may be implemented using ASICs/FPGAs  178 . 
         [0035]      FIG. 3  shows some functional blocks in an exemplary system for rendering print data, the modules and/or functional blocks shown can be implemented variously using hardware, software, or some combination of hardware and software. For example, CPU  176  could copy parser  330  from firmware  171  to memory  172  and execute parsing operations on the data in print job  310 . Decoding and decompression operations may be implemented using ASIC and/or FPGAs  178  and operate under the control of an operating system for printer  170  running on CPU  176 . 
         [0036]      FIG. 4  shows a lower level data flow  480  between modules in exemplary raster information processor module  300  for rendering print data. In some embodiments, rasterizer  360  may include, among other things, master rasterizer  400  and slave rasterizers  410 , including one or more slave rasterizers  410 - 1 - 410 - n,  where n is the integral number of slave rasterizers. Master rasterizer  400  may receive drawing commands from display lists  340  to arbitrate and control execution of drawing command sequences among some combination of slave rasterizers  410 - 1 ,  410 - 2 , through  410 - n.  In some embodiments, master rasterizer  400  may also be coupled to decoder  350  to direct decompressed scan lines from decoder  350  to a particular slave rasterizer for rendering. 
         [0037]    In some embodiments, slave rasterizers  410 - 1 ,  410 - 2 , through  410 - n  may execute drawing commands associated with a particular region of frame buffer  370 . As shown in  FIG. 4 , memory frame buffer  370  may be segmented into a plurality of distinct contiguous bands  440  to receive the output of rasterizer  360 . For example, frame buffer band  1   440 - 1  may be coupled to receive the output of slave rasterizer  410 - 1 . Similarly, in other embodiments, frame buffer band  2   440 - 2  through frame buffer band n  440 -n may also be coupled to receive the output of slave rasterizer  2   410 - 2  through slave rasterizer n  410 - n,  respectively. In some embodiments, slave rasterizer  1   410 - 1  is coupled to receive a scan line output from decoder  350 . The output of decoder  350  may point to a scan line buffer in the process space of slave rasterizer  1   410 - 1  based on master rasterizer  400 . Similarly, in other embodiments, the output of decoder  350  may point to scan line buffers in the process space of slave rasterizer  2   410 - 2  through slave rasterizer n  410 - n.    
         [0038]    In some embodiments, decoder  350  and rasterizer  360  may process compressed images and display lists  340  commands in parallel. In some embodiments, decoder  350  can decompress an image sequentially, reconstructing each image referenced by an image header in display lists  340  scan line by scan line in order from top to bottom. Decoder  350  can provide the decompressed scan lines to rasterizer  360  for processing in the same order as the original image was compressed. For example, in one embodiment, one or more slave rasterizers  4101  can rasterize the decompressed scan lines in the same logical order that was used to compress the original image. In other embodiments, parallel processing may be performed by running decoder  350  on one core of a CPU  176  with multiple cores and running rasterizers  400  and  410  on another core of CPU  176 . 
         [0039]      FIG. 5  shows a flowchart  580  illustrating the steps in an exemplary method for rendering print data. It will be readily appreciated by one having ordinary skill in the art that the illustrated procedure can be altered to combine, delete and/or move steps, or further include additional steps to perform the desired operations. In step  500 , print job  310  is received from computing device  110 . In some embodiments, data in print job  310  may be received by parser  330 . Moreover, print job  310  may comprise a sequence of language objects and drawing commands. The sequence of drawing commands, which may include drawing commands associated with text, graphics, or images, may be passed to parser  330 . In some embodiments, the images contained in print job  310  may be compressed. 
         [0040]    In step  510 , display list  340  is generated based on print job  310 . In some embodiments, parser  330  may generate display list  340 . For example, parser  330  may provide drawing commands associated with text and graphics directly into display lists  340  based on a PDL definition associated with print job  310 . In some embodiments, print job  310  may also include a pointer or image header corresponding to a compressed image stored on secondary storage  173 . In these cases, parser  330  may store the image header in the display lists  340  instead of the fully decompressed images themselves. 
         [0041]    In step  520 , a compressed image is retrieved using an image header and/or other image identifying or location information. In some embodiments, the image header may include a pointer to a read function providing access to secondary storage  173 . In step  530 , a compressed image identified and located by the image header in display lists  340  can be decoded. In some embodiments, decoder  350  may generate an uncompressed image as sequential decompressed scan lines, ordered from the top of the image to the bottom of the image. In some embodiments, steps  530  and  540  may be performed in parallel. 
         [0042]    In step  540 , objects in display lists  340 , including image objects identified by references in display lists  340 , may be rasterized. For example, rasterization of display lists  340  and each associated compressed image may be performed by rasterizer  360 . For example, rasterizer  360  may generate a frame buffer by reading drawing commands from display lists  340  and rendering decompressed scan lines of each image associated with each image header. 
         [0043]    In some embodiments, the rasterization process may be divided among a plurality of slave rasterizers, each slave rasterizer generating a particular region of the frame buffer. For example, drawing commands received by rasterizer  360  may be processed by slave rasterizers  410 - 1  though  410 - n.  Accordingly, drawing commands and decompressed scan lines associated with a particular band of frame buffer  370  may be assigned for processing to one of a plurality of slave rasterizers  410  by master rasterizer  400 . For example, slave rasterizer  1   410 - 1 , slave rasterizer  2   410 - 2 , through slave rasterizer n  410 - n  may operate on frame buffer band  1   440 - 1 , frame buffer band  2   440 - 2 , through frame buffer band n  440 - n,  respectively. In some embodiments, master rasterizer  400  may arbitrate the execution of drawing commands in display lists  340  across multiple slave rasterizers coupled to a particular region of the frame buffer. In addition, master rasterizer  400  may signal to decoder  350  to direct its output to a scan line buffer in the process space associated with a particular slave rasterizer. 
         [0044]    In step  550 , rasterized scan lines may be transformed to adjust a scan line prior to output to frame buffer  370 . For example, slave rasterizer  1   410 - 1 , slave rasterizer  2   410 - 2 , through slave rasterizer n  410 - n  may each transform their rasterized outputs prior to transport to frame buffer  370 . In some embodiments, geometrical transformation may comprise, shifting, scaling, or other operations applied to pixels of a scan line. For example, slave rasterizer  410 - 1  may generate a scan line comprised of 1×N pixels. In some embodiments, slave rasterizer  410 - 1  may shift the scan line, scale the scan line, or perform a combination thereof to properly position the scan line for placement into frame buffer  370 . Shifting may comprise an operation applied to all pixels of the scan line to place the drawing object in the correct location within frame buffer  270 . In scaling an operation is applied to all pixels to resize an object and/or change the aspect ratio of the object. 
         [0045]    Other embodiments of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of one or more embodiments of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.

Technology Classification (CPC): 6