Real-Time Streamable Page Generation for Low-Memory Printers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional techniques for rendering digital documents on devices with limited resources, such as legacy printers, result in reduced visual quality and accuracy due to the need to store the entire document before rendering, which is not feasible with current portable document formats.
Innovation Solution
A page generator module generates individually streamable pages with metadata at the beginning, allowing rendering engines to process objects as they are received, without needing to store the entire document, thus preserving visual quality and supporting legacy devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional techniques are used to render digital documents on devices with limited resources, then the entire document must be stored before rendering, but this reduces visual quality and accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the digital document into individual streamable pages, each with its own metadata header. This segmentation allows the rendering engine to process one page at a time rather than requiring the entire document to be stored in memory simultaneously, thereby maintaining visual quality while reducing memory requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent writes metadata at the beginning of each streamable page before the actual page content. This preliminary action provides the rendering engine with all necessary information (object locations, types, and parameters) ahead of time, enabling efficient rendering of each page as it is received without requiring the entire document to be pre-loaded into memory.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the entire digital document is stored before rendering, then complete document rendering is possible, but devices with limited memory resources cannot handle large documents
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the document into individually streamable pages with self-contained metadata, the patent enables legacy devices with limited memory to render documents page-by-page without requiring the entire document to fit in memory, thus expanding device compatibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The metadata acts as an intermediary between the streamable page data and the rendering engine. It provides a simplified interface that allows legacy rendering engines to process modern streamable document formats without requiring changes to the underlying rendering architecture, thereby improving device compatibility.
3Productivity
If streamable pages with metadata are generated, then rendering can occur as pages are received, but additional processing is required to generate the streamable format
Solution Approach 1:
The metadata is written in advance at the beginning of each streamable page during the document conversion process. This preliminary organization of rendering information eliminates the need for complex runtime processing or back-and-forth seeking operations, thereby improving rendering efficiency despite the initial processing overhead.
Solution Approach 2:
Each streamable page is made self-sufficient with its own metadata header containing all necessary information for rendering that specific page. This self-service approach allows the rendering engine to independently process each page without requiring access to or processing of other pages, simplifying the rendering pipeline and improving efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques and systems are described for real time streamable page generation from a digital document. A page generator module generates individually streamable pages from a digital document in which metadata is written at a beginning of the streamable pages that is usable to control rendering of the page. Therefore, upon receipt of the streamable page by a rendering engine of a receiver device (e.g., a printer), the metadata is usable to render the objects included in the streamable page as received. The streamable pages are renderable by a receiver device as individual pages and/or portions of the pages are received.