| 摘要 |
An image processor ( 14 ) supporting very high-speed printing. The image processor ( 14 ) preferably has two separate connections to a source ( 12 ) of the image being printed, e.g., a printer control bus ( 34 ) and an image data bus ( 36 ). The image processor ( 14 ) preferably accepts images from the image source ( 12 ) in commonly known graphics file formats, such as the well-known 24-bit, uncompressed TIFF file format. The image processor ( 14 ) is a multiprocessor implementation. Preferably, one processor ( 30 ) coordinates or "orchestrates" control of the printing system and handshaking with the image source via the printer control bus ( 34 ) and the other processor ( 32 ) functions as a raster image processor (RIP) processor ( 52 ) and accepts and stores images into the printer environment from the image source ( 12 ) via the image data bus ( 36 ). The RIP processor ( 52 ) preferably performs color separation on the image into color planes and transmits each color plane to a separate processing path from that point on in the imaging chain. Each color plane preferably has a separate imaging path out from a shared image data bus ( 62 ). This separate path for each color plane preferably includes a band manager ( 54 ), a print engine or nozzle controller ( 60 ), and a print head ( 58 ).
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