The IO_Image command set contains the Image Object Content Architecture (IOCA) fields used to present image data. The image data can be used in a page, a page segment or an overlay. The IO-Image command set provides functions, that are not provided by the IM-image command set, such as image compression and grayscale.
The varioPRINT 140 Series support the following subsets:
FS10, used for monochrome bi-level images
FS11, used for multilevel gray or full colour images
FS40, tiled version of FS10 (rarely used)
FS42, obsolete format, created for an old type IBM-printer. Low quality: avoid using this format
FS45, used for B/W and full process colour printers
IOCA Images can be downloaded at the beginning of the job as data object resources. The IPDS command Include Data Object (IDO) is used to include the images on pages or in overlays. IOCA Resource Objects can also be pre-RIP’d in home state, which may improve the performance. This RPO function for IOCA images and Object Containers is not supported by all printers.
All the SRA printers support the full FS10 subset. The following compression algorithms can be used:
IBM MMR
No Compression
RL4
ABIC (bi-level ABIC, also known as ABIC-Black)
G3 MH
G3 MMR
G4 MMR (Fax 4)
PackBits
Supported functions in addition to the standard FS10 subset:
Unpadded RIDIC
Multiple Image Contents (MIC)
Scale-to-Fill mapping
Set Bi-level Image Colour SDF
Set Extended Bi-level Image Colour SDF
X’70’ Presentation Space Reset Mixing Triplet
X’4E’ Colour Specification Triplet (background colour for the presentation space)
The FS10 format is only used for bi-level, monochrome images. The images can either be printed in black or with a single highlight or full process colour, i.e. monochrome.
The FS11 is a super set of FS10; multilevel grey and full colour image formats are added.
Additional commands in FS11:
8 bit / IDE uncompressed gray images: an old legacy format, avoid using this format.
JPEG Baseline DCT - Huffman coded: Gray 8 bit/IDE or full colour 24 bit/IDE. This is the standard JFIF/JPEG format.
JPEG Extended Sequential DCT - Arithmetic coding, JPEG Progressive Sequential DCT - Arithmetic coding: better compression format than Huffman but slower to compress. Hardly used.
Sub-sampling (non-JPEG): Sub-sampling is standard with JPEG. Support also for sub-sampling of non-JPEG images is now added. The only allowed sub-sampling ratio for the Cb and Cr bands is 2.
Concatenated ABIC: A 4 or 8 bit/IDE gray ABIC format, also known as ABIC grey. This format has been specified as an alternative to TIFF or Fax-4 for the US Federal Reserve “Common Output Format” (Check 21 - scanning and reprinting). The widely used IBM 3890 check sorter/scanner can generate concatenated ABIC images.
FS40 can be described as a tiled version of FS10 and is only used for monochrome bi-level images. This format is rarely used.
FS42 is an old image format which was designed for the Infoprint Color 100. The images were pre screened, therefore is FS42 not a suitable format for modern B/W or colour printers.
FS45 images are tiled images with four 8-bit multilevel planes, C, M, Y, and K. Each colour plane is compressed separately - LZW or JPG compression is used. The FS45 image will be converted to gray or to Device CMYK using colour management. ICC input profiles can be invoked with the IOCA image. The quality of the image has improved over earlier versions.
IOCA Colour Management is used in this version. FS11 JPEG images may contain an embedded ICC source profile or invoke an external CMR with a source profile. Other image types can only invoke a CMR. A default source profile will be used when no profile is provided.