JP2839246B2 - Printer control method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Summary] This is a printer control method of a printer apparatus that performs printing in page units. The printer control method creates a print request control block corresponding to a document print request, and outputs document information and page information of each page of the document. The page information is output from the spool control unit, and the document information and the page information received from the spool control unit are written by the printer control unit in the memory as the printing information of the document for each page, and the sending order to the printer device is determined. The document information and the page information of the page and the print data corresponding to the page received from the spool control unit are transmitted from the printer control unit to the printer device, and a notification of the completion of printing the page is received from the printer device to receive the print request corresponding to the print request. Of the page information of the document being printed Remove the document information and the page information corresponding to the print completion of serial page was configured to notify the completion of printing of a document to the spool control unit upon completion of printing the document. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer control method for a printer that performs page-by-page printing. In particular, it relates to a printer control method capable of improving printing speed and reliability. 2. Description of the Related Art A conventional printer apparatus that performs printing in units of a page notifies completion of reception of print data or completion of printing in response to a transmission control procedure. That is, in the conventional printer control method, a print completion notification is received from the printer device when printing of one page is completed, or printing is completed by receiving a print data reception response from the printer device. Controls data transmission. [Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, such conventional methods have the following problems. First, the method of returning a response upon completion of printing has a problem in that the next print data cannot be transmitted until the printing is completed, and the printing speed is reduced. Further, in the method of returning an immediate response upon completion of reception, the printing status cannot be accurately grasped, and especially in the case of a hardware error of the printer, the recovery process becomes complicated. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve such a conventional problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printer control method capable of improving the printing speed and printing reliability of a printer device. [Means for Solving the Problems] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle of the printer control system of the present invention. In the figure, an application unit 11 creates print data of a document in an external storage unit 30 and outputs a print request. The spool control unit 12 creates a print request control block in response to a print request generated from the application unit 11, and then creates and outputs document information and page information for each page of the document. It outputs the information and the print data for each page read from the external storage means 30, and deletes the print request control block when receiving the information notifying the completion of printing the document. The printer control unit 13 writes the document information and page information of the document corresponding to the print request received from the spool control unit 12 into the memory 20 as printing information for each page, and the transmission order to the printer device 40 is established. The document information and page information of the page and the print data corresponding to the page received from the spool control unit 12 are transferred to the printer device 40 under protocol control, and the printer device 40 notifies the printer device 40 of the completion of page printing. Is the printer device
When input from 40, the document information and the page information corresponding to the completion of printing of the page in the printing page information of the document corresponding to the print request are deleted, and when the printing of the document is completed, the document is printed on the spool control unit 12. Notify completion. The present invention includes the application unit 11, the spool control unit 12, and the printer control unit 13. [Operation] When the application unit 11 creates print data of a document in the external storage unit 30 and outputs a print request, the spool control unit 12 creates a print request control block in response to the print request, The document information and page information for each page and the print data for each page read from the external storage unit 30 are output to the printer control unit 13. The printer control unit 13 writes the document information and page information received from the spool control unit 12 to the memory as printing information of the document for each page,
The document information and page information of the page in the order of transmission to the printer device 40 and the print data corresponding to the page received from the spool control unit 12 are transmitted from the printer control unit 13 to the printer device 40 to perform printing. Cause. When receiving the notification of the completion of printing the page from the printer device 40, the printer control unit 13 receives the document information and the page information corresponding to the completion of printing of the page among the printing page information of the document corresponding to the print request. Is deleted, and when the printing of the document is completed, the spool control unit 12 is notified of the completion of the printing of the document. Upon receiving the print completion notification of the document, the spool control unit 12 deletes the print request control block of the document. When a failure occurs during the printing of the printer device 40 and the printer device 40 attempts to perform printing after recovery,
The spool control unit 12 may start printing from the page specified by the page information in the printing information, instead of starting printing from the first page of the document being printed. Helps improve printing speed and reliability. This effect
It is possible to cope with abnormalities such as a power failure of the printer device itself, and the power of the present invention is exhibited. Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment showing one configuration example of the printer control system of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a central control unit (CPU) 10 includes an application unit 11, a spool control unit 12, and a printer control unit 13. The application means 11 includes a memory 20 and an external storage means (a direct access storage device, hereinafter referred to as a “DA
SD ”. ) 30 is connected. A printer device 40 is connected to the printer control unit 13. The memory 20 and the DASD 30 store page information during printing, respectively.
21 and 31 are configured to be queue-controlled by spool queues 22 and 32. The DASD 30 stores print data 33. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a processing method according to the embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, the processing method according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The print data for the page printer is spooled in document units from the application means 11 in the CPU 10.
Output to SD30. A document consists of one or more pages. After completing the creation of the print data, the application unit 11 issues a print request to the spool control unit 12. The spool control unit 12 manages queues (the memory 20 and the DASD 30) by using a print request (a request from a plurality of applications) generated asynchronously as a print request control block. The print request control block is created for each document. The contents are shown in FIG. 4 and are used for document print management. Then, the spool control unit 12 performs an output schedule of the print request control block managed in the queue. In addition, the spool control unit 12 sends a DASD to the head of the queue or a print request control block in the next print order.
The print data (see FIG. 3) for each page of the document read from the document 30 is transferred to the printer control unit 13. Data 1, data 2,..., Data n in FIG. This print data is delivered in page units or in subdivided pages as in the conventional case. The document information and the page information for each page are transferred together with the transfer of the print data to the printer control unit 13. Document information and page information are created from the print request control block in the same manner as in the conventional method. As shown in FIG. 6, the specific contents of the document information are used to specify the document to be printed, the number of copies to be printed, and to specify the next print request control block when the print request control block is queue-managed. In addition, when a notification of a print completion page, which will be described later, is received, it is used to identify which document page the page belongs to. As shown in FIG. 6, specific contents of the page information are used to specify which page of the document the page being printed is, the number of copies of the page, designation of the end page of the document, and the like. This is used for identification when a notification about a page for which printing is completed, which will be described later, is received. The printer control unit 13 transmits the print data to the printer 40 while performing protocol control with the printer device 40, that is, on condition that the reception buffer for alternately receiving the print data of the printer device 40 can receive data as in the related art. Pass in the unit of the capacity of the receive buffer. Data 1, data 2,..., Data n in FIG. Along with transferring the print data to the printer device 40, the document information and page information corresponding to the page passed to the printer device 40 are passed to the printer device 40. Further, the document information and page information passed to the printer device 40 are written in the memory 20 as page information during printing. In this writing, N work areas are provided without performing queue control.
Each time one page of print data and document information and page information of the page are transferred to the printer control 40, the print data is written in an empty area in the work area. Since the input of the print completion information from the printer device 40 is delayed from the transmission of the print data, the printer control unit 13 waits for the input of the print completion information for the page of the document whose printing is started. In the printer device 40, the print data received in the reception buffer is developed in a development buffer in a page-by-page print format according to the conventional method, and when the printing of the page is completed, the printer device 40 outputs the document information and The page information is notified to the printer control unit 13. The purpose of notifying the document information and the page information is to inform the printer control unit 13 of which page of which document has been printed. The printer control unit 13 deletes the currently printing page information corresponding to the notified document information and page information to make it an empty area. The clearing of the page information during printing is performed for each page for which printing is completed. After the printing of the document including one or a plurality of pages is completed, the printer control unit 13 notifies the spool control unit 12 of the completion of the printing of the document. Upon receiving the print completion of the document, the spool control unit 12 deletes the print request control block of the document managed in the queue. Here, if a printer error occurs before receiving the print completion, re-output or other processing is executed not from the page where printing started as in the past, but from the one where printing was not completed due to the printer error By doing so, reprint processing can be easily performed. The reason why the queue to be printed is stored in the DASD 30 in addition to the memory 20 is to enable the queue to be recreated when the system goes down. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the contents of the print request control block (the contents of the queue). The file position contains a file name and a serial number. The file name is management information of a document stored in the external storage means 30, and the serial number is management information when there are a plurality of external storage means 30. The contents of the print request include a start page, an end page, deletion after printing, the number of copies, other vertical or horizontal use of paper, whether or not to comply with print control information in a document, and form overlay information. The management position includes a management code for internally managing a document and an address for managing a chain of queues. The status position includes information indicating that printing has been accepted. FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of state management during printing. There are N work areas for each printer device.
The writing of document information and page information is written in the empty areas of the N work areas, the read pointer of the print completed page is erased every time printing is completed, and the write pointer of the print request page is written every time a print request is made. Is written to. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the contents of the work area. The document information includes a document code, a queue address, the number of copies, and form overlay information, and the page information includes a page code, a number of copies,
It includes form overlay information, document end page, and the like. The document code is obtained by converting a file name used for managing a document in the external storage unit 30 into a file name for printing management in the printer device 40. The page code is also obtained by converting information (start page and the like) used for managing pages in a document in the external storage unit 30 for managing page printing in the printer device 40. Note that the printer device that performs printing in page units is, for example, a laser printer. This laser printer includes a printing unit that performs printing by laser, and a controller unit that converts various printing patterns such as characters and graphs into electric signals. Therefore, the print completion information is transferred to a printing unit, for example, a paper transfer portion (a portion that applies positive static electricity to the back side of the paper and attracts the toner on the photosensitive drum toward the paper) to a pressure fixing portion (a paper on the paper). This can be realized by a configuration in which the toner is generated at the time when the toner passes through a portion where the toner is pressed against the paper by applying pressure to prevent the toner from dropping. [Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the spool control unit responds to the print request by generating the print data of the document in the external storage unit by the application unit and outputting the print request. After creating the print request control block, the document information and page information for each page of the document and the print data for each page read from the external storage unit are output to the printer control unit, and the document information and page information are output. The printer control unit writes to the memory page by page as the document printing information, and the document information and the page information of the page in the order of transmission to the printer device and the print data corresponding to the page received from the spool control unit. From the printer control unit to the printer To cause printing. When printing a document from the application unit, the application unit creates print data in the external storage unit and issues a print request to the spool control unit. After creating the print request control block, the spool control unit outputs, to the printer control unit, document information and page information for each page of the document and print data for each page read from the external storage unit. The printer control unit writes the document information and the page information as printing information of the document into the memory for each page by the printer control unit, and outputs the document information and the page information of the pages in the sending order to the printer device and the spool. The print data corresponding to the page received from the control unit is sent from the printer control unit to the printer device to cause printing. The printer control unit, upon receiving the notification of the completion of printing the page from the printer device, deletes the document information and the page information corresponding to the completion of the printing of the page among the printing page information of the document corresponding to the print request,
When the printing of the document is completed, the spool control unit is notified of the completion of the printing of the document. Upon receiving the print completion notification of the document, the spool control unit deletes the print request control block of the document. With this configuration, when a failure occurs during printing of the printer device and the printer device attempts to perform printing after recovery, the spool control unit starts from the first page of the document being printed. Instead of starting printing, it is sufficient to print from the page specified by the page information in the printing information, which is useful for improving printing speed and reliability. Further, this effect can cope with an abnormality such as a power failure of the printer device itself, and the power of the present invention is exerted.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle of a printer control method according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of a printer control method according to the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an example processing method, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the contents of a print control block, FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of state management during printing, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the contents of a work area. In the figure, 10 is a central control unit (CPU), 11 is application means, 12 is a spool control unit, 13 is a printer control unit, 20 is a memory, 21 is page information during printing, 22 is a spool queue, 30
Is an external storage means (DASD), 31 is page information during printing, 32 is a spool queue, 33 is print data, and 40 is a printer device.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] Application means for creating print data of a document in an external storage means and outputting a print request; and receiving a print request generated from the application means to create a print request control block, and then providing document information and page information for each page of the document. And outputs the document information and page information and the print data for each page read from the external storage means, and upon receiving information notifying the completion of printing the document, the print request control block A spool control unit to be deleted, and the document information and the page information received from the spool control unit are written into a memory for each page as printing information of the document corresponding to the print request, and
Delivering the document information and the page information of the page that has become the sending order to the printer device and the print data corresponding to the page received from the spool control unit while performing protocol control to the printer device,
When information notifying the completion of page printing from the printer device is input from the printer device, the document information and page information corresponding to the printing completion of the page among the printing page information of the document corresponding to the print request are deleted. A printer control unit for notifying the spool control unit of the completion of printing of the document when printing of the document is completed.