Patent Application
20080218789
The present disclosure relates to digital printing and particularly, printing on equipment that employs a plurality of raster image processors in the printing workflow. In particular, the disclosure relates to digital printing systems in which the tasks of the raster image processor are distributed to a collection of computing elements. Heretofore, for parallel workflow the pages of the document have been subdivided into groups or segments of the document which are then distributed to the computing elements of the system. Thus, colored pages and pages containing graphical material may be interspersed in the document to be printed with pages of plain black and white text. The memory and performance requirements for printing the black and white plain text are much lower, and, thus, it is inefficient to print such pages on expensive processors having a large memory and high performance for printing colored pages.
Another example of inefficiency in digital document printing is the situation where the document to be printed includes pages of letter size and those of larger than letter size such as tabloid or pages having 11″×17″ measurement. If the document is segmented such that the images for the larger pages are included in the same segment with the letter size pages and the segment is sent to a computing element of limited capability such as, for example limited memory capacity or relatively low performance or speed, the larger size pages could not be printed through that computing element. Thus, the computing element needed to have sufficiently large memory and performance capability to print pages larger than letter size. However, if plain text letter size pages are included in the same document segment the result is inefficient use of equipment for printing the letter.
It has therefore been desired to provide a way or means of utilizing distributed computing elements in a digital printing system for segmenting the printing job in a manner employing the least costly computing elements thus improving the efficiency of the printing process.
The method of the present disclosure segments a document to be printed digitally according to the content of each page image and routes the page image to the least capable, and thus, least costly computing element such as, for example a raster image processor (RIP) able to handle the content and size of the page image where the least capable computing element is available at the time. If the least capable computing element is not available, the method of the present disclosure routes the page image to a computing element having the next higher level of capability. If the page image is colored, the method routes the page image to the highest capable computing element and to a color printer. If the page image contains graphical material, the method employed routes the image to a computing element with a relatively high capability such as higher memory capacity and/or performance. If the page image has dimensions greater than letter size, the image is routed to the computing element having the highest capability, but if the page image does not contain colored material, the image need not be printed on a color printer if a monochrome printer is available. If the image is not larger than letter size and does not contain graphical or colored material, the page image is then routed to the computing element having the lowest capability and is directed to a monochrome printer if currently available.
Referring to
However, if the determination at step 14 is negative (e.g. the page image is greater than letter size), the system proceeds to step 18 and queries as to whether the page image is colored; and, if the determination is affirmative, the image is inputted to the RIP at step 20.
If the determination at step 16 is negative, the system proceeds to step 22 and queries as to whether an RIP of lesser capability is least busy.
If the determination at step 22 is negative, the image is inputted to the RIP of higher capability at step 20; however, if the determination at step 22 is affirmative, the system proceeds to step 24 and inputs the image into an RIP of lesser capability.
The images from the higher capability RIP at step 20 are sent directly to the color printer at step 27. The images inputted to the RIP of lesser capability at step 24 proceed to step 26 where the system inquires as to whether a monochrome printer is available; and, if not, the image is sent to the color printer at step 27. However, if the query at step 26 is answered in the affirmative, the images are sent to a monochrome printer at step 28.
Referring to
The system then proceeds to step 34 and queries as to whether the page image is less than or equal to letter size; and, if the determination is negative, the system proceeds to an RIP having a large memory capacity and high performance at step 37. If the determination at step 34 is affirmative, the system proceeds to step 36 and queries as to whether the page image contains colored material; and, if the determination at step 36 is affirmative, the system proceeds to step 38 and queries as to whether an RIP with medium memory capacity and high performance is the least busy. However, if the determination at step 36 is negative, the system proceeds to step 40 and inquires as to whether the page image contains graphical material.
If the determination at step 40 is affirmative, the system proceeds to step 38; however, if the determination at step 40 is negative, the system proceeds to step 42 and queries as to whether an RIP with small memory capacity and low performance is the least busy.
If the determination at step 42 is affirmative, the system proceeds to send the page image to step 44 and inputs the image to an RIP of small memory capacity and low performance. However, if the determination in step 42 is negative, the system proceeds to step 46 and inputs the page image to an RIP of medium memory capacity and low performance.
If the determination at step 38 is negative, the image is sent to the large memory capacity high performance RIP at step 37. However, if the determination at step 38 is affirmative, the image is sent to step 48 and inputted to an RIP of medium memory capacity and high performance.
The output of the RIP at step 37 is forwarded by the system to step 50 where inquiry is made as to whether the page image contains colored material; and, if the query is answered in the affirmative, the system forwards the image to the color printer at step 52. However, if the determination at step 50 is negative, the system forwards the image to step 54 where an inquiry is made as to whether a monochrome printer is available.
The output of the RIP at step 48 is forwarded by the system to step 56 where an inquiry is made as to whether page image contains colored material; and, if the query is answered in the affirmative, the system sends the image to colored printer at step 52. However if the determination at step 56 is answered in the negative, the system sends the image to step 54.
The output of the RIP at step 46 is forwarded to step 54 as is the output of the RIP at step 44.
If the determination at step 54 is negative, the images are forwarded to the color printer at step 52. However, if the determination at step 54 is affirmative, the images inputted thereto are distributed to the monochrome printer at step 60.
The present method thus determines the content of each page image of a digital document and, depending upon the content thereof as to whether each page image contains colored, graphical, or text material or is larger than letter size, the method distributes the individual page to the computing element, or raster image processor, of the lowest capability that is able to implement printing of the page if the RIP of lesser or lower capability is available at the time; otherwise, the image is sent to the RIP having the next higher level of capability. The method of the present disclosure thus seeks to maximize the efficiency of the individual computing elements or RIPs available in the particular digital printing system.
It will be appreciated that various of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Also that various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.
