A parallel printing system is disclosed which is particularly useful for colour laser printing. The system includes a source of video image data generally derived from a scanner or a graphics system, and a plurality of print engines that, substantially simultaneously, print images output from the source. The printing system also includes a parallel printing desynchroniser that interfaces the source with each one of the print engines and permits asynchronous operation of each of the print engines by having various data stores, a first of which receives synchronous data from the source, and a plurality of other stores, corresponding to each engine, which receive data from the first store simultaneously, and output that data in synchronism with the respective print engine.
A color image forming apparatus is provided with a printer controller which is capable of receiving color image data for one page, which is divided into a plurality of data for each of a corresponding plurality of colors, at an irregular interval, and, upon receiving the image data for one color, driving an image forming device to form an image of the color whose data has been received, and after images of all of the plurality of colors are completed, outputting the final image on a recording media. The image forming device may also include, an intermediate image transfer belt for forming thereupon an image of each of the plurality of colors, superposing one on another, and a leading edge detect sensor to detect a leading edge of an image of each of the plurality of colors for registering the leading edges of images of the plurality of colors. The apparatus may further include, in addition to a scanner and a printer, a system controller which issues an image formation command for each of the plurality of colors to the scanner and the printer at a regular interval in a copy mode, and to the printer at an irregular interval in a print mode.
Methods and apparatus for reducing the time required to generate a calibration image product on a transfer medium in an inline imaging device having a plurality of toner stations by simultaneously applying at least two toners to the transfer medium. In one method of the present invention, each toner station is configured to deposit an associated toner onto the transfer medium to thereby generate the calibration product. The method includes the step of depositing a first toner from a first toner station and a second toner from a second toner station onto the transfer medium while moving the transfer medium from a first position relative to the plurality of toner stations to a second position. An apparatus of the present invention includes a scanning section, a plurality of toner stations, a transfer medium, and a calibration image product generator. Each toner station is configured to deposit a dedicated toner onto the transfer medium. The transfer medium is configured to move past the toner stations in serial order, and the scanning section is configured to cause selective deposition of toner associated with a toner station onto the transfer medium. The calibration image product generator is configured to cause the scanning section and the plurality of toner stations to produce a calibration image product on the transfer medium as the transfer medium moves past the toner stations. The calibration image product generator is further configured to cause at least two toner stations to simultaneously deposit toner onto the transfer medium.
A printer system which allocates various pages of a job to a plurality of individual printers that each print a different page of the job. The system is therefore capable of increasing the speed of the job without requiring a faster engine speed. The printer system includes a plurality of print engines, a sequenced stacking device, imaging electronics to create raster image signals suitable for the video input of the print engines and control electronics to direct these electrical signals to each of the print engines on a page by page basis and to control the stacking device to direct printed sheets to the output stack in proper sequence. The stacking device loads the print images into a single properly sequenced output stack at a speed of n.times.i images per minute, wherein n is the number of print engines used and i is the speed of a single print engine in images per minute.
A multiple print engine configuration allows a plurality of workstations (10) to create individual print jobs and then transfer them to a distributing processor (14). The distributing processor (14) is operable to spool the jobs in a print spooler (20) and then perform a software RIP on the print jobs. The RIP process divides the jobs into multiple individual jobs which are stored in the page buffer (24). An image task manager (26) in conjunction with an engine manager (28) are then operable to selectively distribute the pages to multiple print engines (16). They are distributed in such a manner that they are placed in the output bins (40) in the order that the pages were received in the print jobs.
A copying attachment that enables employing a fast high-quality digital press also as a direct copier. The printing engine of the digital press is fed, through an image processor and, possibly, a buffer memory, image data that is obtained directly from a scanner--all operating under a common and automatic control.
