PRINT DATA COMPRESSION METHOD AND PRINTER DRIVER

A printer driver software product is provided for execution by a computer to produce compressed page data corresponding to a page layout. The driver includes instructions to generate continuous-tone data and bi-level text and black graphics data from print data corresponding to the page layout. Data compression instructions are also included in the printer driver. Upon execution the data compression instructions cause the computer to compress the set of continuous-tone data and the set of bi-level text and black graphics data to produce compressed page data corresponding to the page layout. The compressed data is then transmitted to a printer in communication with the computer. A printer driver software product according to the invention is particularly useful where a printer is coupled to a computer by means of a relatively limited bandwidth connection.