Unified RIP Engine for Offset and Digital Print Consistency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional systems for printing with offset and digital printers using different raster image processors (RIP) engines result in inconsistencies in print output, as each printer processes data independently, leading to differences in font, color tone, and layout between printed images.
Innovation Solution
An image processing system with a unified RIP engine for both offset and digital printers, where a hybrid workflow server and digital front end share the same RIP engine capabilities, allowing for coordinated RIP processing to generate consistent raster data for both printers, reducing output differences.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If different RIP engines are used for offset and digital printers, then each printer can independently process data, but printout results have differences in font, color tone, and layout
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the RIP processing functions into a single shared RIP engine that serves both offset and digital printers. This unified approach ensures that both printer types use identical processing algorithms for generating raster data from page description language, eliminating variations in font rendering, color tone, and layout that occur when separate RIP engines are used independently.
Solution Approach 2:
The shared RIP engine is designed to handle multiple printer types (both offset and digital printers) with a single universal processing system. This multi-functional RIP engine can process data for different printer technologies while maintaining consistent output characteristics, allowing one system to serve multiple purposes without compromising precision.
2Manufacturing precision
If a shared RIP engine is used for both offset and digital printers, then printout consistency is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the RIP processing function from individual printers and relocates it to a separate, shared system component. By taking out the RIP engine from each printer and consolidating it into a shared resource, the system achieves consistent processing while allowing individual printers to focus on their specific printing functions, thereby managing complexity through functional separation.
Solution Approach 2:
The shared RIP engine acts as an intermediary between the page description language input and the various printer types. This mediator processes all print data through a unified pipeline before sending appropriate output to either offset or digital printers, simplifying the overall system architecture by introducing a single point of control that manages the complexity of supporting multiple printer technologies.
Data Source
AI summary
An image processing system for executing a plurality of processes includes a process execution control apparatus to control an execution of the plurality of processes, and an image generation-output control apparatus to control an execution of image generation-output operation, The process execution control apparatus includes a process execution controller to control the execution of the processes, a control-side drawing information generator to generate drawing information to be referred when performing the image generation-output operation based on information of a target image to be output. The image generation-output control apparatus includes an output-side drawing information generator capable of generating the drawing information based on the information of the target image to be output acquired from the process execution control apparatus, and an execution controller to execute the image generation-output operation by using the image forming apparatus based on the drawing information generated by the output-side drawing information generator.