Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Patent
1997-03-20
1999-03-02
Feild, Joseph H.
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
395114, 707517, 707525, 707910, G06K 1500
Patent
active
058781994
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention is in the field of electronic reproduction technology and is directed to a method for the electronic assembly of signatures in a raster generator from a plurality of printed pages that are present as high-resolution contone map.
In reproduction technology, printer's copies that contain all elements to be printed such as texts, graphics and images are generated for printed pages. A separate printer's copy that contains all elements that are printed in the respective color is generated for each ink in chromatic printing. For four-color printing, these are the inks cyan, magenta, yellow and black (C, M, Y, K). The printer's copies separated according to inks are also called color separations. The printer's copies are usually screened and exposed on films with high resolution that are then further-processed for the production of printing forms (printing plates, printing cylinders). Alternatively, the printer's copies can also be directly exposed on printing plates in special recorders. For checking the content and the colors of the printed pages, printer's copies are exposed in proof recorders with a recording process that simulates the printing process in a chromatic output.
FIG. 2 shows the work sequence that was previously mainly employed in the prior art in the exposure of printer's copies for printed pages that had been generated in the page description language PostScript. PostScript data 1 are supplied to a raster image processor (RIP) (2) that can be a computer specifically optimized for this job or a program on a standard computer. PostScript data 1 for every color separation are normally generated in a pre-process for every color separation of a printed page and are forwarded to the RIP (2) (separated PostScript). Alternatively, a chromatic printed page can also be generated in a single PostScript dataset (composite PostScript). The case of separated PostScript data 1 shall be explained in greater detail below.
In a first step, the PostScript data 1 are analyzed in an interpreter 3 and resolved into a sequence of simple graphic objects. For that purpose, the printer's copy is divided into horizontal strips (bands) that are successively processed. FIG. 3 shows a band excerpt 9 with a few objects generated by the interpreter. The band excerpt 9 is divided into recording pixels 10. In the example of FIG. 3, the band excerpt is 8 pixels high, numbered from 0 to 7, and 32 pixels wide, numbered from 0 to 31. The resolution can be symmetrical (the same in horizontal and vertical direction) or asymmetrical, for example twice as great horizontally as vertically. The objects A through E (11,12,13,14,15) describe sub-segments of text, graphics or image elements that fall within the band excerpt 9.
The interpreter outputs the objects A through E (11,12,13,14,15) in a data format that is referred to as display list 4 (FIG. 2). For each object, the data format describes its geometrical shape and the gray scale value with which it is filled. The objects A through E (11,12,13,14,15) appear successively in the display list 4 in the sequence in which the corresponding page elements are described in the PostScript data. Objects that appear later in the display list (4) can thereby partly or entirely cover objects that appeared earlier in the display list 4. In the example of FIG. 3, the object A 11 is partly covered by the object B 12. Likewise, the objects D 14 and E 15 cover the object C.
In a further step in the RIP 2, the display list 4 is supplied to a raster generator 5 that successively converts the objects of the display list 4 into surfaces filled with raster points and enters them into a bit map memory 7 as bit map data 6. The raster point size is thereby varied dependent on the gray scale value of the object in the display list 4. The bit map data 6 of objects that appear later in the display list 4 respectively overwrite the corresponding areas of the bit map memory 7. After all objects of a band have been rastered by the raster generator 5 and written into the bit
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Bader Joachim Josef Eugen
Soker Wilfried Helmut
Feild Joseph H.
Linotyoe-Hell AG
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