JP3037537B2 - Printing system and printing device used in the 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 capable of communicating with a printing apparatus that performs printing while analyzing a control language received from a host computer, and a printing apparatus used in the printing system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional printing system, there has been proposed a printing system in which control language analysis processing and processing for developing analysis data into a bit map (hereinafter, rasterization processing) are performed only on the printing apparatus side.

[0003] Focusing on the internal processing of a printing apparatus in a conventional printing system of this type, a single processing system, for example, a printing apparatus that does not generate an intermediate code, analyzes a control language and directly executes a drawing process. In a printing device of a type having a processing system for developing in a drawing memory, and in a printing device of generating an intermediate code, after analyzing a control language,
When the intermediate code is stored in a file and the drawing process is executed, after the intermediate code is read from the file,
There has been proposed a type of printing apparatus that includes only a processing system that executes a drawing process and develops the drawing memory.

[0004]

However, according to the conventional printing system, when the host computer prints out and the printing apparatus cannot process the control code and cannot transfer the control code, the host computer transfers the control code until it can be transmitted. I was waiting. When the printing apparatus is provided with a secondary storage device, when the printing apparatus is processing, the control code is stored in the secondary storage apparatus and the control code in the secondary storage apparatus is stored until the processing of the printing apparatus is completed. Since no processing is performed on the control code, it is necessary to perform the above-described rasterization processing before the subsequent print output, so that it takes a long time to complete the printing processing. There was a problem. That is, even if the control data can be analyzed and rasterized, no data processing is performed until the preceding print processing is completed, so that the time is wasted unnecessarily, and the received control data is analyzed. Therefore, the timing for starting the rasterization is always controlled after the completion of the preprocessing.

However, in a printing apparatus that does not generate the intermediate code, if there is no free space in the drawing memory, the control language analysis process is in a state of waiting for the free space in the drawing memory, and the next control language analysis process cannot be performed. .

In a printing apparatus for generating an intermediate code, the intermediate code is generated and stored in a file even though the drawing memory is available. Therefore, the intermediate code is read from the file when executing the drawing process. As a result, extra time is required, which is an obstacle to increasing the printing speed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and transfers the print information to be transferred while discriminating the state of the printing apparatus in different types, thereby completing the processing on the printing apparatus side. Without waiting, the subsequent printing information can be received as data in a format that can be directly output by the printing apparatus, and the control language received by determining the free space of the drawing memory for the printing information can be generated as an intermediate code, or bitmap data can be generated. An object of the present invention is to provide a printing system capable of improving the speed of a printing apparatus by selecting whether to generate the printing apparatus, and a printing apparatus used in the printing system.

[0008]

A first printing system according to the present invention is a printing system for transferring information and performing printing, the first determining means for determining processing information of a printing apparatus, and the first printing means. Transfer control means for selecting and transferring different types of print information to the printing apparatus based on the determination result of the determination means is provided in the host computer, and the type of print information transferred by the transfer control means is determined. There is provided a second determining means and a data processing means for performing different data processing based on the print information received based on the result of the determination by the second determining means.

[0009] In a second printing system according to the present invention, the transfer control means transmits print information based on a predetermined control language or the predetermined control language to the printing apparatus based on a determination result of the first determination means. It is configured to transfer any of the printing information bit-mapped based on the information.

In a third printing system according to the present invention, storage means for storing printing information bit-mapped based on a predetermined control language is provided in a host computer.

[0011] A printing apparatus used in the printing system according to the present invention includes a printer engine for performing printing based on bitmap data stored in a drawing memory, an analyzing means for analyzing a control language transferred from a host computer,
First image processing means for generating bitmap data based on the analysis data output from the analysis means and storing the generated bitmap data in a drawing memory; and generating an intermediate code based on the analysis data output from the analysis means; A second image processing means for storing bitmap data generated based on the generated intermediate code in the drawing memory; and a first image processing means or a second image processing means for judging an empty state of the drawing memory. Selecting means for selecting any of the image processing means.

[0012]

In the first invention, when the transfer control means transfers the print information of the type selected based on the determination result of the first determination means to the printing apparatus, the second determination means transfers the print information transferred to the printing apparatus. Since the type of information is determined and different data processing is performed based on the print information received by the data processing means based on the determination result, even if the state of the printing apparatus is being processed, the printing information to be performed on the printing apparatus side The processing can be performed in advance by the host computer.

In a second aspect, the transfer control means includes:
Since either the print information based on the predetermined control language or the print information bit-mapped based on the predetermined control language is transferred to the printing device based on the determination result of the first determination unit, the printing device Even if the status is "processing", the host computer can perform bitmap processing to be performed on the printing apparatus side in advance.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the printing information bit-mapped based on the predetermined control language is stored in the storage means of the host computer, the printing information is stored when the printing apparatus enters a standby state. The printable bitmap data stored in the means can be immediately transferred to the printing apparatus.

In the fourth invention, the selection means determines the availability of the drawing memory and selects either the first image processing means or the second image processing means. Thus, it is possible to select a means with a higher printing speed and develop bitmap data that can be printed as much as possible into the drawing memory.

[0016]

【Example】

[First Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a printing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a host computer, which is an editing unit 1 for editing a control code for performing printing.
1. Analysis / rasterization processing unit 1 for analyzing the edited control code and developing (rasterizing) it into a bitmap
2. Hard disk for storing rasterized data (H
D) 13, a transfer buffer 14 for transferring control codes or rasterized data to the printing apparatus, and the like.

Reference numeral 2 denotes a printing apparatus, a receiving buffer 21 for receiving control language data and rasterized data, a data discriminating unit 22 for discriminating the received data, and an analyzing process for analyzing and rasterizing when the received data is a control code. It comprises a rasterization processing unit 23, a video data transfer unit 24 that converts rasterized data into video data and transfers it to the engine, and an engine 25 that receives and prints out the video data.

In the first aspect of the printing system configured as described above, when the printing information of the type selected based on the determination result of the host computer 1 is transferred to the printing apparatus 2, the data determining unit 22 is transferred. The analysis / rasterization processing unit 23 performs different data processing according to the received print information based on the determination result based on the type of the received print information. It is possible to process the print information to be performed by the host computer in advance.

In the second invention, the host computer 1 makes the printing device 2 print information based on a predetermined control language based on the result of the state determination of the printing device 2 or bitmaps the printing information based on the predetermined control language. Since any of the print information is transferred, even if the state of the printing apparatus 2 is being processed, the bit map processing to be performed by the printing apparatus 2 can be performed in advance by the host computer. .

In the third aspect, since the printing information bit-mapped based on the predetermined control language is stored in the hard disk (HD) 13 of the host computer, the printing apparatus 2 is in a standby state. At this point, the printable bitmap data stored in the hard disk (HD) 13 can be transferred to the printing device 2 immediately.

Hereinafter, the processing operation on the host computer side in the printing system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure in the host computer of the printing system shown in FIG. (1) to (8) indicate each step.

When the host computer edits the control code by application software or the like and requests printing (1), first, it outputs a status transfer request to the printing device 2 to know the status of the printing device 2 (2). Next, it is determined whether the returned status is processing (busy) (3). If the status is processing (busy), the control code is analyzed and rasterized, and the rasterized data is transferred to the hard disk (HD) 13. It is stored (4).
Next, a status transfer request is output to the printing device 2 again (5), and the returned status is processing (busy).
(6), and if the printing apparatus 2 is not processing (ready state), the hard disk (HD)
The rasterized data is read from the transfer buffer 13 to the transfer buffer 14 and transferred to the printer 2 (17).

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (3) that the printing device 2 is not in process, the control code is transferred from the transfer buffer to the printing device 2 and the process (8) is completed.

The processing operation of the printing apparatus in the printing system according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure in the printing apparatus of the printing system shown in FIG. Note that (1) to (7) indicate each step.

In the printing apparatus 2, the reception buffer 21
Receives the data (1), the data determination unit 22 determines whether the received data is a state transfer request or a control code (2), (4). If the received data is determined to be a state transfer request in this determination, the printing device 2
Is sent to the host computer 1 (3), and the process returns to step (1).

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (4) that the received data is a control code, analysis / rasterization processing is performed (5), and the rasterized data is converted to video data and transferred to the engine 25. (6). Next, print out is performed (7), and the process returns to step (1).

When performing analysis and rasterization processing on the host side, the rasterized data is compressed and
And the transfer time may be shortened.

Also, the processing time for performing the analysis / rasterization processing on the printing apparatus side and the time for performing the analysis / rasterization processing on the host side and transferring the rasterized data are predicted and compared. If the result printout does not take much time, the printout may be performed in a shorter time by performing the analysis and rasterization processing. [Second Embodiment] FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a printing apparatus in a printing system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, reference numeral 2 denotes a printing apparatus, and the tasks of the printing apparatus are roughly divided into tasks 110, 120, and 130. The task is managed by an operating system (OS) (not shown) and operates asynchronously. The operation of each task will be described below.

In the printing apparatus configured as described above,
Since the control language analysis unit 111 determines the availability of the drawing memory 118 and selects either the rasterizing unit 112 or the intermediate code generation unit 113, a unit with a higher printing speed is selected according to the availability of the drawing memory 118. do it,
Bitmap data that can be printed as much as possible can be developed in the drawing memory 118. In this embodiment, the above processing is controlled by the OS that performs task management.

Each task operation is performed by the drawing memory 118.
The drawing memory flag 114 indicating the empty information of the data (the initial state indicates the empty state (the flag is OFF)), the data analyzed before is being processed by the intermediate code generation unit 113 or is processed by the intermediate code generation unit 113 The intermediate code flag 115 indicates whether the intermediate code is stored in the file 117 (the initial state indicates that the intermediate code is not being generated or the intermediate code is not stored in the file (the flag is OFF). State)), by writing or reading the information of the file table 116 for managing the intermediate code stored in the file 117 and the drawing table 119 for managing the bitmap data in the drawing memory 118 in each task. decide.

First, the task 110 includes a control language analysis unit 11 for analyzing a control code sent from the host.
1. When the drawing memory flag 114 is OFF and the intermediate code flag 115 is OFF, the control language analysis unit 111
The data analyzed in step (1) is developed into a bitmap in the drawing memory 118, and the addresses stored at the same time are stored in the drawing table 119.
Rasterizing unit 112 to be registered in the drawing memory flag 1
14 is ON, or when the intermediate code flag 115 is ON, the intermediate code generation unit 11 converts the data analyzed by the control language analysis unit 111 into an intermediate code.
There are three. After the generated intermediate code is registered in the file table 116, it is stored in the file 117.

When the drawing memory flag 114 is turned off, the task 120 searches the file data, reads out the intermediate code stored in the file 117 at the earliest time, analyzes the intermediate code, and performs drawing. There is an intermediate code analyzer 121 that develops a bitmap in the drawing memory 118 by processing and registers the address where the bitmap data is stored in the drawing table 119.

Further, the task 130 includes the drawing memory 1
There is a video data transfer unit 131 that converts the bitmap data at 18 into video data and transfers the video data to the engine 140. The engine 140 receives and prints out the video data.

Hereinafter, the processing operation of each of the tasks 110, 120, and 130 in the printing apparatus 2 will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing procedure of the task 110 in the printing apparatus 2 shown in FIG. Note that (1) to (10) indicate each step.

First, when the power is turned on, the drawing memory flag 114 and the intermediate code flag 115 are turned off (1).
When the control code is received from the host computer, the control language is analyzed by the control language analysis unit 111 (2). The control language analysis unit 111 stores the drawing memory flag 11
4 to see if the flag is ON (the drawing memory 118 is full and the rasterization process cannot be performed) or if the intermediate code flag 115 is It is determined whether or not the rasterizing process has not been completed (3).
If S, the intermediate code flag 115 is turned ON (4),
The intermediate code generator 113 converts the analysis data into an intermediate code (5), registers it in the file table 116 (6), stores it in the file 117 (7), and returns to step (2).

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (3) that both the drawing memory flag 114 and the intermediate code flag 115 are OFF, the analysis data is directly developed into a bit map by the rasterizing unit 112, and
The address is stored in the drawing memory 118 and the stored address is registered in the drawing table 119 (8). Next, it is determined whether there is a free space in the drawing memory 118 (9),
If there is no free space, the drawing memory flag 114 is turned on (10), and the process returns to step (2) to wait for data reception.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing procedure of the task 120 in the printing apparatus 2 shown in FIG. Note that (1) to (10) indicate each step.

In the task 120, the file table 116 is constantly monitored to determine whether or not an intermediate code is registered (1). If NO, the process returns to the step (1). It is determined whether or not 114 is in the ON state (2). If YES, the process returns to step (1). If NO, (drawing memory flag 11
4 is determined to be in the OFF state), the intermediate code is read from the file 117, the intermediate code is deleted from the file 117, and further deleted from the file table 116 (3). Then, the read intermediate code is analyzed, a drawing process is performed, the bitmap is developed in the drawing memory 118, and the stored address is registered in the drawing table 119 (4).

Next, it is determined whether or not there is a free space in the drawing memory 118 (5). If NO, the process proceeds to step (7). If YES, the drawing memory flag 114 is turned off.
(6). That is, when there is no free space, the drawing memory flag 114 is turned on.

Next, it is determined whether or not the intermediate code exists in the file 117 by referring to the file table 116 (7). If NO, the process returns to the step (1). If YES, the intermediate code flag 115 is turned OFF (8). Then, the process returns to step (1), and monitoring of the file table 116 is started again.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing procedure of the task 130 in the printing apparatus 2 shown in FIG. Note that (1) to (4) show each step.

In task 130, drawing table 1
19 is constantly monitored to determine whether the drawing table is registered (bitmap) in the drawing table 119 (1). If NO, the process returns to step (1), and the drawing table 119 is constantly monitored. The address of the drawing memory 118 storing the drawing data is stored in the drawing table 1
19, the bitmap data of the address is converted into video data, and transferred to the engine 140 (2). After the transfer, the drawing memory 118 is released, and the address is deleted from the drawing table 119. Next, since a free area is left in the drawing memory 118, the drawing memory flag 114 is turned off (3). Next, the engine 14
The printout is started from 0 (4), and the process returns to step (1) to start monitoring the drawing table 119 again.

In the above embodiment, since the intermediate code is always stored in the file 117, the writing time and the reading time are wasted. Therefore, a memory area is reserved in advance, and when the memory area is empty, By storing the code in the memory, the processing speed may be prevented from lowering due to the file access.

When transferring a large amount of data that does not require a long processing time, the intermediate data may not be forcibly generated by the operation of the panel, and the analysis data may be rasterized after analyzing the control code. .

[0050]

As described above, the first embodiment according to the present invention is described.
According to the invention, when the transfer control unit transfers the print information of the type selected based on the determination result of the first determination unit to the printing apparatus, the second determination unit determines the type of the transferred print information. Since the data processing means performs different data processing based on the print information received by the data processing means based on the determination result, the host computer can perform printing information processing to be performed on the printing apparatus side even when the state of the printing apparatus is being processed. Can be processed first by the side.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the transfer control means controls the printing apparatus based on the determination result of the first determination means to print information based on a predetermined control language or a bit map based on a predetermined control language. Since any of the converted print information is transferred, even if the state of the printing apparatus is being processed, the bit map processing to be performed on the printing apparatus side can be performed on the host computer side in advance.

According to the third aspect, the printing information bit-mapped based on the predetermined control language is stored in the storage means on the host computer side. The printable bitmap data stored in the storage means can be immediately transferred to the printing apparatus.

According to the fourth aspect, the selecting means determines the vacant state of the drawing memory and determines whether the first image processing means or the second image processing means is free.
Of the image processing means, a means having a higher printing speed can be selected according to the available state of the drawing memory, and bitmap data that can be subjected to print processing can be developed in the drawing memory as much as possible. .

Accordingly, the printing speed of the printing apparatus in the printing system can be effectively used, and the resources of the printing system or the printing apparatus can be effectively used, so that the printing processing efficiency can be significantly improved as compared with the related art.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing system according to a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure in a host computer of the printing system illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure in a printing apparatus of the printing system illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing apparatus in a printing system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure of a task in the printing apparatus illustrated in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure of a task in the printing apparatus illustrated in FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure of a task in the printing apparatus illustrated in FIG. 4;

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 host computer 2 printing device 11 editing unit 12 analysis / rasterization processing unit 13 hard disk 14 transfer buffer 21 reception buffer 22 data discrimination unit 23 analysis / rasterization processing unit 24 video data transfer unit 25 engine

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] A first determining unit that determines processing information of a printing apparatus in a printing system in which a printing apparatus communicates with a host computer to transfer print information and perform printing;
Transfer control means for selecting and transferring different types of print information to the printing apparatus based on the determination result of the first determination means is provided in the host computer, and the transfer information of the print information transferred by the transfer control means is provided. A printing system comprising: a second determination unit that determines a type; and a data processing unit that performs different data processing based on print information received based on a determination result of the second determination unit. And a transfer control unit configured to print information based on a predetermined control language based on a result of the determination by the first determination unit or print information that is bit-mapped based on the predetermined control language. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein any one of the following is transferred. 3. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein storage means for storing print information bit-mapped based on a predetermined control language is provided in the host computer. 4. A printer engine for performing printing based on bitmap data stored in a drawing memory, an analyzing means for analyzing a control language transferred from a host computer, and an analyzing means for analyzing a control language transmitted from the analyzing means. First image processing means for generating bitmap data and storing the generated bitmap data in a drawing memory; and generating an intermediate code based on the analysis data output from the analysis means, and generating the intermediate code based on the generated intermediate code. Second image processing means for storing bitmap data to be stored in the drawing memory, and selecting means for determining whether the drawing memory is free and selecting either the first image processing means or the second image processing means. And a printing apparatus for use in a printing system.