Raster Image Processor - Stages of RIP

Stages of RIP

  1. Interpretation: This is the stage where the supported PDLs (Page description languages) are translated into a private internal representation of each page. Most RIPs process pages serially so the current machine state is only for the current page; i.e. one page at once. Once a page has been output the page state is discarded to ready it for the next page.
  2. Rendering: A process through which the private internal representation is turned into a continuous tone bitmap. Note that in practical RIPs, interpretation and rendering are frequently done together. Simple languages were designed to work on minimal hardware so tend to "directly drive" the renderer.
  3. Screening: In order to print, a continuous-tone bitmap is converted into a halftone (pattern of dots). Two screening methods or types are Amplitude Modulation (AM) screening and stochastic or Frequency Modulation (FM) screening. In AM screening, dot size varies depending on object density—tonal values; dots are placed in a fixed grid. In FM screening, dot size remains constant and dots are placed in random order to create darker or lighter areas of the image; dot placement is precisely controlled by sophisticated mathematical algorithms.

A RIP chip is used in laser printers to communicate raster images to a laser.

Read more about this topic:  Raster Image Processor

Famous quotes containing the words stages of, stages and/or rip:

    Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
    Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell
    And the profit and loss.
    A current under sea
    Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
    He passed the stages of his age and youth
    Entering the whirlpool.
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)

    The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery....Child’s play is the infantile form of the human ability to deal with experience by creating model situations and to master reality by experiment and planning.
    Erik H. Erikson (20th century)

    We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke straps our vice. Where is the skillful swordsman who can give clean wounds, and not rip up his work with the other edge?
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)