JP2937721B2 - Printing system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing system, and more particularly to a printing system for a printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A printing method in a conventional printer apparatus is a method in which a font is stored in a ROM or a hard disk on a printer side and a character attribute is designated from a host, or a font is held only on a host side and a character is stored in a host. Either a bitmap image is sent to the printer and printed using the character pattern of the host, or all the characters of the font are registered from the host machine to the printer.

[0003]

Among the printing methods of the conventional printer, the printing method in which fonts are provided on both the printer side and the host side has a high printing speed but has separate fonts on the printer side and the host side. Had to have an extra medium to memorize. Further, a system in which a font is provided only on the host side and printing is performed by image transfer has the advantage that the host and the printer need only have one type of font resource, but the printing speed is extremely slow. Also, in the method of registering all characters from the host machine, the printing speed is increased and the font resources can be shared, but it is necessary to have the same amount of RAM as when the printer has fonts. As described above, the conventional method has a drawback that it is not possible to simultaneously increase the printing speed, share the font resources, and effectively use the memory resources.

[0004]

According to the present invention, there is provided a printer system for selecting a frequently occurring character and registering it in a character cache of the printer, and a printer cache registration information for storing the character registered in the printer on a host machine side. And a parser for registering a character pattern and a character attribute of the transmitted data in the character cache if the data transmitted from the host machine is a request for registration in the character cache. A character cache that stores registered character patterns and their character attributes, a character cache management unit that manages which information is stored in which position in the character cache, and a drawing memory that renders image data if the data sent from the host machine is image data If it is data for writing and character attribute specification And a printer having a printing unit for writing the print from character cache in the drawing memory fetch character pattern data.

Further, in the printing system according to the present invention, in the printing system according to the first aspect, a transmitting unit for transferring information relating to a character cache used in the printer to the host machine in response to an information request command from the host machine. And a printer having the same.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, one embodiment of the present invention includes a host machine 13 and a printer 14, and the host machine 13
Is a collection of character data, a font 1 distinguished by character attributes such as a typeface type and a character code; a font developing unit 2 for generating a character pattern by referring to the font 1; A printer driver 3 having a function of causing the printer to print data and a function of receiving data from the printer 14, a character occurrence frequency table 5 which is an information table that records the occurrence frequency of character attributes used by the application 4 and the like on the host, and the like. ,
Printer cache registration information 6, which is an area in which character attributes registered in the character cache 11 on the printer are recorded.

The printer 14 receives the data from the host 13, the transmission unit 15 transmits the data to the host 13, and analyzes the received data to generate print data. An analysis unit 8 for executing the received command, a printing unit 9 for converting print data into a drawing image and writing it to a drawing memory 10 and printing data of the drawing memory 10 when a printing request is issued, and forming image data of a printing result. A drawing memory 10, a character cache 11 which is an area for registering a character pattern sent from the host and a character attribute as required, and a character pattern stored in the character cache 11 with a character size, a storage address, and a character attribute. And a cache management unit 12 that manages the information based on such management information.

A printer having only the receiver 7 in the receiver 7 and the transmitter 15 is a unidirectional interface such as a Centro cable, and a printer having the receiver 7 and the transmitter 15 is a bidirectional interface such as SCSI. Between the host 13 and the printer 14.

Next, the operation of an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3.

First, on the host side, a character pattern that frequently occurs is registered in the printer by the printer driver 3 before printing is started. The interface between the host 13 and the printer 14 is one-way, and data is transmitted from the host 13 to the printer 14. Therefore, since the character pattern registration information of the printer 14 cannot be obtained at any time, the character cache 1 of the printer 14 is stored in the printer driver 3 in advance.
The amount that can be registered in 1 is set (process 201).

The printer driver 3 refers to the character occurrence frequency table 5 and extracts the character attribute of the character pattern having the highest occurrence frequency among the unregistered character patterns (process 202).

The extracted character attribute is passed to the font developing unit 2 and a developing request is issued. The font developing unit 2 extracts necessary data from the font 1, converts it into a bitmap character pattern, and passes it to the printer driver 3 (processing 20).
3). In the content of the character occurrence frequency table 5, data according to a general character occurrence frequency is first stored, and thereafter, the content is updated based on the character information sent from the application 4. Next, the printer driver 3 records the character attribute of the character pattern to be registered in the printer cache registration information 6 (step 204).

After the recording in the printer cache registration information 6 is completed, registration is performed using a command for registration in the character cache 11 of the printer 14 (process 205). The command parameters at this time are information indicating the storage location and character pattern data, or character attributes and pattern data.

The processing from processing 202 to processing 204 is performed for the amount of registration set in processing 201 (processing 20).
6). As a result, only the frequently occurring character patterns can be registered in the character cache 11 of the printer 14.

On the printer side, the receiving unit 7 receives the registration information and the analyzing unit 8 analyzes the contents (step 20).
7). When receiving the character cache registration command, the analysis unit 8 registers the received character pattern data in the character cache 11 through the cache management unit 12. If the parameter of the command to be registered in the character cache 11 is information indicating the character pattern and the storage location (step 208), the character pattern is written in the area specified by the parameter, and the cache management unit 12 determines the storage location. Create registration information consisting of the registration size. If the parameters are a character pattern and a character attribute, the character pattern is written in the area determined by the cache management unit 12, and registration information including a storage location, a registration size, and a character attribute is created (process 209).

If a registration command has been sent, process 207
To 209 are repeated.

Next, the processing at the time of actually printing is shown in FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

On the host side, the application 4 passes the print data to the printer driver 3 (process 211). The printer driver 3 compares the character of the print character in the print data with the contents of the printer cache registration information 6 based on the character attribute of the print character and checks whether the print character of the character attribute is registered in the character cache 11 of the printer 14 (processing 213).

As a result of the comparison, if registered, a character cache data print command is sent to the printer 14 (process 215), and printing is performed using the character pattern data in the character cache 11 of the printer 14. The parameter of the character cache data print command is the address of the character cache 11 and the character pattern size if the parameter of the command to be registered in the character cache indicates the character pattern and the storage location. If it is a character pattern and a character attribute, the character attribute is a parameter.

If the character pattern to be printed is not registered, the font developing unit 2 generates a character pattern having the character attribute, and transfers the completed bitmap character pattern to the printer 14 as image data. Print as data (Process 21
4). At this time, if the host 13 has a cache, the font developing unit 2 creates a character pattern on the cache without developing it into a bitmap character pattern.

Further, when the printer driver 3 receives the print data from the application 4, the character generation frequency table 5 is updated (process 212). Process 211,
Steps 213, 215, 214 and 212
(Steps 216 and 217) as long as there is print data.

On the printer side, the receiving section 7 receives data and passes the received data to the analyzing section 8 (processing 21).
8). Upon receiving the print command of the character image data, the analysis unit 8 passes the print command to the printing unit 9 as print data of the image data (process 219). When the character cache data print command is received, a request for extracting a character pattern is issued to the cache management unit 12.

When the cache management unit 12 receives the request for extracting the character pattern data, it extracts the character pattern from the character cache 11 and passes it to the analysis unit 8. If the parameter of the character cache print command is the cached character size, the data indicated by the cache address is extracted from the character cache 11. If the parameter is a character attribute, the registration information is searched and the character cache 1 is searched.
Then, a character pattern is extracted from 1 (process 221).

The printing unit 9 writes the received character pattern into the drawing memory 10. If the received print data is a character image, the character image data is directly written into the drawing memory (step 220).

The printer processes 218 to 221 are repeated, and when a print request is received, the contents of the drawing memory 10 are printed (processes 222 and 223).

Next, the operation of another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, the printer driver 3 registers a frequently occurring character pattern in the printer before starting printing. The procedure is shown below. On the host side, before registering the character pattern, the printer driver 3 issues a character cache information request command to the printer 14 (process 30).
1).

The analyzing unit 8 through the receiving unit 7 of the printer 14
Receives the character cache information request command. The analysis unit 8 receives character cache information such as a character cache size that can be registered in the character cache 11 and an attribute of a character pattern already registered from the cache management unit 12. The received character cache information is passed to the transmission unit 15 and a transmission request is sent to the host 13 (process 311).

The transmitting section 15 transmits the character cache information to the host 13 (Step 312).

The printer driver 3 refers to the character occurrence frequency table 5 and the character cache information obtained from the printer 14 and extracts the character attribute of the most frequently occurring character pattern from the unregistered character patterns (process 302). , 303, 304). The extracted character attributes are passed to the font development unit 2 and a development request is issued. The font developing unit 2 extracts necessary data from the font 1, converts it into a bitmap character pattern, and passes it to the printer driver 3 (process 305).

The contents of the character occurrence frequency table 5 are initially filled with data according to a general character occurrence frequency, and thereafter, the contents are updated based on the character information sent from the application 4. The printer driver 3 records the character attribute of the character pattern to be registered in the printer cache registration information 6 (step 306).

After the recording in the printer cache registration information 6 is completed, registration is performed using a command for registration in the character cache 11 of the printer 14. The parameters of the command at this time are information indicating the storage location and character pattern data or character attributes and pattern data (process 307).

After registration, the printer 14 transmits response data to the host 13. The response data is received by the printer driver 3. The response data includes whether or not registration has been normally performed and character cache information. Based on the contents, it is determined whether to end the registration (process 308). If the registration is continued, the processes 311, 312, 302 to 308 are performed again. As a result, only the frequently occurring character patterns can be registered in the character cache 11 of the printer 14.

On the printer side, the registration information is transmitted to the receiving unit 7.
Is received and analyzed by the analysis unit 8 (processing 31
3). Upon receiving the character cache registration command, the analysis unit 8 registers the received character pattern data in the character cache 11 through the cache management unit 12 (process 314). If the parameter of the command to be registered in the character cache 11 is information indicating a character pattern and a storage location, the character pattern is written in the area specified by the parameter, and the cache management unit 12 configures the storage location and the registration size. Create registration information. If the parameters are a character pattern and a character attribute, the character pattern is written in the area determined by the cache management unit 12, and registration information including a storage location, a registration size, and a character attribute is created (process 315).

When the registration in the character cache 11 is completed, the character cache information is obtained from the cache management unit 12, passed to the transmission unit 15, and a transmission request is issued to the host 13. If registration in the character cache 11 in the analysis unit 8 in the process 314 cannot be performed due to a large registration size, a request to transmit a notification of non-registration to the host 13 is issued to the transmission unit 15. The transmitting unit 15 that has received the request transmits the data to the host 13.

Processing 313 when a registration command is sent
To 315 are repeated (processes 316 and 317). The operation at the time of printing is the same as the operation in the first aspect.

In the case of this method, characters having a high frequency of occurrence are registered in the cache of the printer.
Printing is performed at the same speed as when a character pattern is provided on M. Characters that are not registered in the printer cache are printed by image transfer, so the transfer time is long.However, due to the low frequency of occurrence, there are few cases of printing by image transfer when viewed as a whole, and the overall speed performance is lower than that of the printer. It is close to the printing speed when a character pattern is stored in the ROM.

[0039]

As described above, according to the present invention, a character pattern having a high frequency of occurrence is registered in the character cache of the printer from the host, and the registered characters are printed by designating the character attribute, and the frequency of occurrence of non-registration is registered. By printing characters with low characters as character images, the host and printer can be managed by the same font, the printing speed can be printed at a speed close to that when the font is stored in the ROM of the printer, and the font can be printed on the printer. This has the effect of requiring less RAM area for storage. Also, since it is only necessary to have fonts on the host side, it is not necessary to have the font ROM previously held on the printer side, and the cost is reduced accordingly. It also has the effect that any font it has can be used.

Further, by connecting the printer and the host with a bidirectional cable, the host can immediately obtain the information of the character cache on the printer side, so that the host can manage the character cache without human intervention. Has the effect of being able to perform all of the above.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a flow of processing for registering a character cache in a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a print processing flow of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a processing flow of another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 font 2 font development unit 3 printer driver 4 application 5 character occurrence frequency table 6 printer cache registration information 7 reception unit 8 analysis unit 9 printing unit 10 drawing memory 11 character cache 12 cache management unit 13 host 14 printer 15 transmission unit

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A printer driver for selecting a frequently occurring character and registering a character pattern in a character cache of the printer, and a host machine having printer cache registration information for storing the character attribute and storage location registered in the printer on the host machine side. If the data sent from the host machine requests registration in the character cache, an analysis unit that registers the sent character pattern in the character cache,
A character cache that stores the registered character patterns received from the host machine, a character cache management unit that manages the character patterns stored in the character cache, and a character cache that writes the image data to the drawing memory if the data sent from the host machine is image data. A printer having a printing unit for extracting character pattern data from a character cache if the data requests printing of the character pattern described above, and writing the data in a drawing memory for printing. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein a transmission unit for transferring information related to a character cache used by the printer to the host machine in response to an information request command from the host machine is provided in the printer. A printing system characterized by the following.