A printer controller for controlling operation of a pagewidth printhead is provided. The printer controller comprises: a bus; a data input interface connected to the bus so that the bus can receive compressed and encoded page data from a computer-based machine connected to the data input interface; page data expansion and decoding circuitry connected to the bus and configured to expand and decode the compressed and encoded page data; a printhead interface for communicating print page data to the printhead; and processing circuitry for controlling operation of components of the printer controller.