Patent ID: 8064073

Claim:
A method for printing, comprising the steps of: communicating data between a processor, memory and an input/output interface of a host through a local interface; determining, by a rasterizer, a storage capacity of the memory of the host that is available for use as a rasterizer buffer; allocating, by the rasterizer, the rasterizer buffer from the memory, the rasterizer buffer having a storage capacity that is responsive to the storage capacity determined to be available for use as the rasterizer buffer; buffering a next portion of bitmap data in the rasterizer buffer, the bitmap data associated with an image to be printed; and providing the bitmap data from the rasterizer buffer in the memory of the host to a printer over the input/output interface, wherein the determining and allocating steps are repeated by the rasterizer for each of a plurality of portions of bitmap data associated with the image to be printed.