RASTER IMAGE SERIAL PRINTER HAVING VARIABLE BUFFER MEMORY AND METHOD FOR OPERATING SAME

摘要

A raster image serial printer in which a printing opera-tion can be carried out using a buffer having as small acapacity as possible by altering the form of bit map datam proportion to the amount of the memory that can beused as an image buffer. The inventive raster imageserial printer includes a print data decision unit for de-termining the type of input data, a buffer capacity deci-sion unit for determining the capacity of a buffer inwhich raster image data is assembled, an imge assem-bling unit for assembling the image by determining thenumber of bits to be assembled corresponding to theavailable memory capacity, and a latch for latching theimage data assembled in the buffer and null data formaking up the deficiency. When the input data is rasterimage data and the capacity of an image buffer is small,the printing operation is carried out while the defi-ciency is made up by null data in such a way that bitmap data lines fewer in number than the dot formingelements of a recording head are stored in the buffer.