current color for example in cmyk color space the c cyan separation will have a specified value this value is achieved in reality by turning the right number of dots on or off in the printer as controlled by the halftone specification for the cyan separation once the virtual bitmap is defined the value is loaded into a newvalue buffer in step s425 in the second path in step s426 the currently existing bitmap is read at the exact location and area defined by the location and bounding box of the current object which is about to be merged in step s427 these bits are loaded in order into a current buffer finally in the third path in step s428 the mask which defines the shape of the object is retrieved and in step s429 is loaded into the third buffer the mask buffer once all buffers are loaded in step s430 a multiplexing operation takes place in which the mask buffer is used to select between the newvalue buffer and the current buffer wherever the mask is 0 that is outside the defined shape of the object the original current bits are chosen to restore the bits that were already there however wherever the mask is 1 that is within the object the newvalue bits are chosen.