A raster printer with sufficient flexibility so that text data and image data of any size and orientation can be placed at any position on a page. Input data has a succession of coded character data along with control data which specifies information concerning font selection and the placement of the characters on the page. Control circuits process the input data, one character at a time, and generate for each of the characters, data relating to the position of the character on the page, the size of the character and the address in storage of the graphic pattern for the character. The data is utilized by pattern move control logic to access the graphic pattern in the order the characters are to be printed and move the graphic data to a strip buffer. Data is read out of the strip buffer to energize imaging apparatus to print a page corresponding to the graphic pattern of the character data. An accumulator provides temporary storage for parts of the graphic pattern data and this data is logically ORed with later data so that a page of unlimited complexity can be printed.
There is disclosed a data processing apparatus capable of rotating image data in the block unit, for achieving faster process with reduced memory capacity. The data processing apparatus comprises recognition means for recognizing the size of data of a bit map format to be compressed and the size rotatable by rotation means, division means for dividing the bit map-formatted data to be compressed, based on the size of the bit map-formatted data and the size rotatable by the rotation means recognized by the recognition means, compression means for compressing the bit map-formatted data divided by the division means, and transfer means for transferring the bit map-formatted data, compressed by the compression means, to an output device.
A page modification method in a printer subsystem of the partial page buffer composing type. A printer subsystem receives a packet containing a page of characters, coded overlays/elisions, and combining data from an external source. The packet is translated into a linked list of character placement representations for each of the doubly indexed coded characters within the page. Elisions from the page are made by inhibiting the formation of a linked list segment for each character sequence within elision markers set out in the page. In contrast, coded character overlays are appended to the list as addenda. The list governs the placement of characters into a partial page buffer, whose contents are system accessible in row major order.
An area exposure apparatus for exposing a text on a recording carrier and a method for the area exposure is disclosed. In accordance with the device configuration, text is exposed on a recording carrier (12) which continuously moved forward in a forward move direction. To this end, the recording carrier is scanned over a maximum area and consequently exposed by means of an intensity modulated laser beam along scanning lines (Z1, Z2) at right angles relative to the forward move direction, and coupled in a predetermined manner to the forward movement. The scanning lines formed by the scanning extend over a plurality of characters of the text. For the exposure of the recording carrier with a text which exceeds a given length to width ratio, and has a predetermined narrower width than the recording carrier, which is hence relatively narrow, the recording carrier (12) is shifted in the direction of the lines of the text and at the same time is scanned in the direction of the height of the characters of the text.
A horizontal line processor for loading print instruction commands into selected locations in a full page bit map memory. The horizontal line processor includes: a font memory for storing bit representations of print instruction commands; a means for receiving commands indicating the type of operation and the location of an operation to be performed on the printing instructions in the full page bit map memory; a sequencer for controlling the horizontal line processor in response to the instructions; an address control unit for incrementally and sequentially generating the addresses of full page bit map memory locations where the printing instructions are to be modified, and the addresses of font memory locations containing bit representations of printing instructions to be loaded into the full page bit map memory; and, a data control unit for retrieving printing instructions from the full page bit map addresses generated, loading thereinto the bit representations to generate updated printing instructions, and loading the updated printing instructions into the full page bit map memory. The address control unit and the data control unit are concatenated so that for each command to load printing instructions the printing instructions are updated along an entire section of an X-axis line in a single pass.
A priority grade is provided to each of several graphic figures. Respective contour lines of the graphic figures are classified into two groups according to respective locations. Respective contour lines in the two groups are serially selected in a descending order of main scanning coordinate values, and are compared with each other to specify a cross point having the largest coordinate value within a selected pair of cross points. A component of the raster data is generated on the basis of the selected cross point when a priority grade of the selected cross point satisfies a predetermined condition in connection with respective priority grades of the other cross points.
