Patent ID: 7978196

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of generating a page representation to be rendered to a raster image from a plurality of objects, the computer comprising a processor configured to implement the method and a storage device to store the page representation, each of the plurality of objects comprising an outline and a fill, said method comprising the steps of: generating a first intermediate page representation from a first subset of the plurality of objects, said generating step comprising the sub-steps of: determining a first plurality of disjoint regions from the outlines of the first subset of objects, the first plurality of disjoint regions defined by a first plurality of pixel-aligned edges, wherein at least one of the plurality of edges extends over a plurality of scanlines; and deriving a fill compositing sequence for each of the first plurality of disjoint regions, wherein a fill compositing sequence comprises one or more fills and one or more operators; storing the first intermediate page representation comprising the edges and the fill compositing sequences on the storage device; and merging the first intermediate page representation with a second subset of the plurality of objects to create the page representation, wherein an object in the second subset of the plurality of objects overlaps an object in the first subset of the plurality of objects, said merging step comprising the sub-steps of: determining a plurality of spans, each of the plurality of spans comprising an intersection of a scanline and the outlines of the second subset of objects; utilizing the plurality of spans and the edges of the first intermediate page representation to determine a second plurality of disjoint regions, the second plurality of disjoint regions defined by a second plurality of pixel-aligned edges, wherein at least one of the plurality of edges extends over a plurality of scanlines; and deriving a fill compositing sequence for each of the second plurality of disjoint regions, wherein said fill compositing sequence is used to render the raster image.