Patent ID: 7425054

Claim:
A method of printing swath of an image, comprising: (a) calculating, a minimum number of passes P required to print the image using the equation P=(H i *V i )/(H s *V s ), wherein H i equals horizontal resolution of the image, V i equals vertical resolution of the image, H s equals horizontal resolution of the swath, and V s equals vertical resolution of the swath; (b) allocating a memory space equal to N*S*(P+1)/2 for a delay buffer, wherein N equals number of nozzles in a color bank and S equals horizontal swath resolution; (c) dividing the delay buffer into g segments having a first segment, a second segment, a (g−1) th segment, and a g th segment, wherein g=P(P+1)/2, such that, size of each of g segment equals (N/P)*S; (d) receiving (N/P)*D raster lines splitting the raster lines into P color layers having a first color layer for a first pass, a second color layer for a second pass, a (P−1) th color layer for a (P−1) th pass, and a P th color layer for a P th pass, wherein D equals V i /V s ; (e) searching for empty segments from g segments of the delay and grouping the empty segment into a first empty segment, a second empty segment, a (P−1) th empty segment and a P th empty segment; (f) storing the first color layer for the first pass in the first segment, the second color layer for the second pass in the second empty segment, the (P−1) th color layer for the (P−1) th pass in (P−1) th empty segment, and the P th color layer for the P th pass in the P th empty segment; (g) building an i th swath using segments having color layers for i th pass, and printing the i th swath, wherein, i equals 1, 2, P; (h) emptying the segment having the color layer for the i th pass; (i) advancing the print media and checking for incoming raster lines; and (j) repeating steps (d) to (i) upon determining the incoming raster lines.