Importance

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Abstract

A color copier machine includes a conventional image scanner for scanning successive swaths of an original document into an image memory and a conventional high quality four-color inkjet printing mechanism for printing each swath as an array of pixels each covered with up to three types of ink (black and one color or three colors). A monotone image is scanned only once and subsequent copies are printed from the half toned data stored in the image memory. The first copy is printed while the scanner is scanning, with each 8-bit pixel in the scanned image being printed and stored as a 1-bit (on or off) pixel (in the half-tone image. Print time for subsequent copies is less than that required for scanning/printing the first copy because in at least the black-only printing mode of a typical inkjet printer, the time required to scan and process a single swath is more than the time required to print that swath.

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First Claim