Abstract

Because laser printers are capable of rendering only a maximum number of characters per unit time, pervious printer would pre-render the entire page prior to print the page. This pre-rendering process greatly increases the memory requirements. To overcome this problem, there is provided a method for reducing memory requirements in a laser printer when printing a page of characters. First, the page is divided into a series of strips. Next, the entire page is scanned strip by strip for any strips that contain an excess number of characters, where the excess number is that number of character that exceeds the maximum number the printer can render in the given time. Assuming a complex strip is found, any common characters in the complex strips are prerendered. If, after pre-rendering the common characters any strip is still complex, then the excess characters are pre-rendered. Finally, each character in a strip is rendered when the printer is ready to print that strip, if any character in the strip was pre-rendered then it is retrieved from memory. Thus, the present invention renders many of the characters while the page is being exposed. Therefore, the printer can start the exposure process sooner and with significantly lower memory requirements.