Page printer having automatic font compression.

摘要

A page printer (10) includes random access memory (RAM) (20) whose capacity is insufficient to store certain page configurations; a processor (12); and a control memory (24) that holds at least one data compression procedure. The page printer (10) performs a font compression method that comprises the steps of: issuing a memory low/out signal (54) when insufficient RAM is available to store portions of an input data stream; if raster graphics images are present in portions of the input data stream, attempting to compress those images to remove the memory low/out signal (58); if no raster graphics images are present in the input data stream, compressing font characters by use of a data compression procedure (62); and if the attempted compression of the raster graphics images is unsuccessful in removing the memory low/out signal, compressing font characters by use of a data compression procedure (62). The page printer also may be controlled to automatically data compress a large size font whose size exceeds a second threshold (which may be related to available printer RAM), under circumstances where a memory low/out signal is not present. <IMAGE>