JP3768670B2 - Printing system and printing control method - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printing system including a printing apparatus that operates in response to printing information from a host computer and a printing control method, and is particularly called a printer control language (PDL (Printer Description Languag)) or a printer control command. The present invention relates to a printing apparatus having a printer control function, a printing system including a printer driver prepared on the host computer side for the printing apparatus, or software called a print spooler or a print processor, and a printing control method.
[0002]
[Prior art]
As printers in recent years, printers that print and record high-definition data used in multimedia processing such as CAD (computer-aided design), CG (computer graphics), design, and business DTP (desktop publishing) fields Has been commercialized.
[0003]
As such a printer, a PDL printer that renders (rasterizes) hardware or software an intermediate language created by receiving and analyzing a PDL (page description language) code sent from a host computer, and reducing the cost. In addition, there is an image printer that reduces the functions on the printer side, and rasterizes it to an image data format that can be output on the host computer side, and sends it to the printer.
[0004]
The PDL printer receives information in a page as a page description language, creates an intermediate language, and performs drawing processing when one page is accumulated.
[0005]
The character drawing method uses the font data in the ROM inside the printer, or the font data is expanded and sent as image data by the host computer. In order to obtain the same print result as the display on the display The latter utilization rate has increased.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, if all characters are sent as image data, the amount of transfer data increases and the drawing speed decreases.
[0007]
An object of the present invention is to provide an image-dedicated printer having a simple configuration similar to that of the image printer, but by receiving a character portion as a character code and expanding it into a character image, the character expansion processing time and the host in the host It is to provide a printing system and a printing control method that can be used efficiently by reducing the amount of data transferred from the printer and reducing the memory capacity of the printing apparatus.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises the following arrangement. That is, Management means for managing the range of pages in which each character appears, and based on the page range of each character managed by the management means, group Create Grouping means and the grouping means A transfer unit that creates a character set of characters to be used on the page of interest from the created group, transfers the created character set to a printer, and a character set transferred by the transfer unit. Delete command to delete To the printer Send Send Means.
[0014]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
(First embodiment)
An embodiment of the printing method of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment.
<System configuration>
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes a host computer. In the host computer 101, data created using a drawing application that creates an image including characters and natural images is converted into a data format that can be received by the printer by an image driver executed by the CPU 1011. The converted data is sent to the printer controller 102. This image driver is a program stored in the external memory 1013 or the main memory 1012.
[0015]
Data input to the printer controller 102 is stored in the input buffer 103 (RAM) by DMA transfer. Data stored in the input buffer 103 is processed by a transfer data analysis program in the program ROM 104 executed by the CPU 105. The input buffer 103 is also used as an area for holding character set data. The program ROM 104 is a memory for storing a processing procedure (control program) shown in the drawing, which will be described later, and the CPU 105 reads data according to this control program and executes each process.
[0016]
The CPU 105 sets parameters such as the drawing position of the image data stored in the input buffer in the image hard renderer 107. The image hard renderer 107 decompresses the compressed image data in the input buffer and draws it on the band memory 108.
[0017]
The CPU 105 analyzes the character drawing command stored in the input buffer and sets the already registered character data in the character hard renderer 106. The character hard renderer 106 expands the character data in the input buffer into a character image, and directly draws the image on the band memory 108 if there is an image already developed.
[0018]
There are at least two band memories (page width x band height of about 128 pixels). If one memory is in a shipping state (image data is being output from the band memory to the engine unit), the other The memory of the image is obtained by continuously performing an image expansion state (a state in which image data other than character data is expanded in the band memory) and a character drawing state (a state in which the character image is expanded in the band memory). The synthesis process is performed. Information on the band that has been combined is immediately sent to the printer engine 110 via the printer interface 109. On the other hand, image development and character drawing are performed on the band memory after shipping.
[0019]
The printer interface 109 transmits a command to the printer engine 110 with the printer engine 110, for example, the LBP, and receives a status (data can be stored, etc.) from the printer engine 110.
[0020]
A CPU 105 is an arithmetic unit that controls internal processing of the printer controller 102 and controls the entire printer. A printer engine 110 prints a video signal sent from the printer controller 102, and may be an electrophotographic LBP or an inkjet system. A color printer or a monochrome printer may be used.
<Description of Type Wing method>
In the system configured as described above, before sending print data from the host computer to the printer, character data is picked up in order from the head of the data for each job. If the character is character data to be sent for the first time, the registration number (character ID) and character image are registered in a printer with a predetermined number of sets (this is called a character set, and its identifier is called a character set ID). For the second and subsequent characters, the character ID and drawing position are sent from the host computer to the printer. The printer refers to the previously registered character ID and the character image of the character, develops the character image, and creates an image to be printed. The inventors call this method the Type Wing method.
[0021]
The Type Wing method in this embodiment is realized by a character set registration command for registering character set data from the host computer to the printer, a character drawing command for print data, and a character set deletion command for deleting a registered character set. Is possible. The printer operates as follows for each command.
[0022]
A font set address table area corresponding to the character set ID is secured by the character set registration command, and the character ID and character image data included in the character set are registered in association with each other.
[0023]
In accordance with a registered character printing (character drawing) command, an already registered character is drawn at a designated position.
[0024]
The character set deletion command is used to delete a character set that is not often used when the printer's internal memory becomes full. The specified character set is deleted from the registered character set and its area is deleted. Is released.
[0025]
With this Type Wing method, since the characters are encoded, the amount of data is reduced, and the transfer time from the host computer to the printer is also shortened. Therefore, in order to realize high-speed character printing with a low-cost printer, it is effective to adopt a TypeWing method in the image printer.
[0026]
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the process from creation of data in which characters and graphics are mixed by the host computer to output by the printer controller.
[0027]
Reference numeral 201 denotes a schematic diagram of an output result in which a result drawn with the drawing application of the host computer 101 is displayed on a display. In the host computer 101, characters are stored in a character code, and lines are stored in a data format such as a start point, an end point, and a line width. The printer driver converts these data formats into a data format that can be output by the printer controller 102.
(Printer driver processing)
(1) Print job initialization
The print data of one print job is scanned, characters that can be drawn by the printer controller 102 are extracted, and the extracted characters are stored in the management table for each character type. Information about the page that appears is also added to each character in the management table. For one entire print job, after storing the characters in the management table, characters used in a plurality of pages are collected to create a character set composed of bitmap font data and character identifiers.
(2) Generation of page data
A character set necessary for one page is generated. The print data is scanned again, and for character data, a character drawing command is generated based on the character set identifier (ID) to which the character data belongs, the character identifier (ID) in the character set, and the character drawing position in the page. To do.
[0028]
All of the data other than print data to be drawn as characters is expanded into image data. The compressed image data 203 is compressed for each band so that it can be expanded for each size of the band memory 108. The character drawing command and compressed image data generated for one page and the character set data necessary for the page are referred to as page data.
(3) Data transfer
When page data for one page is stored in the internal memory space of the host computer 101, a character set registration command and a character drawing command are sent to the printer controller 102, and the image data is transferred to the printer as long as the printer controller 102 has enough memory. To do.
[0029]
When the printer controller 102 informs that there is a sufficient margin in the memory, it continues sending image data as much as it is free.
(4) Delete unnecessary data
When the transfer of page data for one page is completed, the host computer 101 creates a delete command for a character set composed of characters that are used only on that page, and transfers it to the printing apparatus.
[0030]
Note that the host computer successively transfers commands and data to the printer regardless of whether the output from the printer is completed. The printer manages the character set according to the printing status and the command from the host computer. For example, when the output of a certain page is completed, the data consistency is taken by processing the character set deletion command for that page after that. By doing so, the processing of this embodiment can be performed even if the printer and the host are not connected by bidirectional communication.
[0031]
FIG. 3 shows various tables prepared for character set management by the host computer 101.
[0032]
In FIG. 3, a driver management character table group 301 is a table group prepared for each print job, and includes a character set table 303 and a character management table 304.
(Character set for driver management)
The driver management character set 301 is held in the host computer during the print job in order to manage the character set of the printer by the printer driver.
[0033]
The character set table 303 is a table in which character sets are registered for each character type (number of points, Mincho, Gothic, etc.). The printer driver checks the characters included in the data to be printed in one job and registers the character type in the driver management character set table 303. The registration of the character type is performed by setting a pointer to the driver management character management table 304 corresponding to each character type in the pointer portion of the driver management character set table 303.
[0034]
The driver management character management table 304 is created for each character type. Hereinafter, the structure of the character management table 304 will be described with reference to FIG.
[0035]
Characters included in the page data are assigned a character ID 901 unique to each character separately from the character code used in the host computer. The assigned character ID 901 is registered so that it can be searched from the character code by a fast search method such as hashing.
[0036]
When registering for the first time, the page numbers that appear are set in minPage 902 and maXPage 903. The character data expanded in the bitmap format is stored in the character data storage area, and the head address is set in the character pointer 904.
[0037]
When the same character appears multiple times in one job, the corresponding character ID in the driver management character management table 304 is found, and the maxPage 903 is updated with the page number that has appeared.
[0038]
When characters for one job are registered, the page number on which the character registered in the driver management character management table 304 appears is referred to and grouping for creating a printer transfer character set is performed. In creating a printer transfer character set, characters used in a common page range are first grouped among characters used in a plurality of pages. As a result, bitmap data transfer of the same character is avoided as much as possible in one job.
[0039]
When this group is determined, the character set required for the first page is grouped. When the character set group required for the first page is determined, a printer transfer character set is created and registered in the printer transfer character set management table 305.
[0040]
Thus, character set grouping is performed according to the following three rules.
(1) All characters necessary for drawing a page must be transferred to the printing apparatus.
(2) An unnecessary character set is deleted by a character set deletion command so that the data storage memory in the printing apparatus does not overflow.
(3) Characters used in a common page range are registered in the same character set to reduce the number of retransmissions.
[0041]
The ID of the character set in which the character is stored and the offset value (relative address) in the character set are registered in CharSetID 905 and Offset 906 of the character management table 304.
[0042]
Note that character IDs of frequently appearing characters such as hiragana and numbers are reserved, and are preferentially registered in the character management table 304 at the position of the reserved ID. This can prevent overhead such as calculation of a hash function and processing at the time of collision.
(Character grouping and printer transfer character set creation example)
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of the driver management character set thus generated. For example, the character 1 or the character ID “1” and the character 7 or the character ID “7” are used between the first page and the fifth page, and the character 8 or the character ID is used. It can be seen that the character “8” is used only on the fifth page. Therefore, the character 1 and the character 7 are grouped in the same group because the page range in which they are used is the same. All other characters are divided into separate groups because they use different page ranges.
[0043]
When creating a transfer character set from this group, the printer transfer character set has a fixed length, so it is more efficient to combine multiple groups into one character set according to the length of the character set. In some cases. A group condition that should be summarized is to satisfy both of the following two conditions, for example.
(1) The printer transfer character set created in a lump fits within the fixed length.
(2) The range of pages used is continuous or overlapping.
[0044]
In FIG. 10, for example, the usage ranges of character 1 and character 7 include the usage ranges of all other characters. In addition, the character 4 overlaps or is continuous with the use range of all other characters, so that any character group can be grouped as long as there is an empty space. Characters 2 and 8 cannot be collected because they do not satisfy the above conditions.
[0045]
This is only an example, but characters are grouped in this way, and a transfer character set is created from the group.
(Character set for printer transfer)
The printer transfer character set 302 is data for creating a character set registration command to be sent to the printer. The character data registered in the driver management character set 301 is also registered in the printer transfer character set 302.
[0046]
The printer transfer character set 302 includes a character set management table 305 and character set data 306. The character set data 306 is the character set data itself transferred from the driver to the printer, and has a format to be described later.
[0047]
Bitmap data, which is the actual state of character data, is obtained by development from an outline font of the host computer. The character set 306 is erased by the character set deletion process. Therefore, if bitmap data is registered in the character management table 304 for the driver in units of one character and a paper jam or the like occurs after the character set deletion processing, the processing for newly developing the bitmap data is not performed. In both cases, the character set can be re-registered, and the processing speed can be increased.
<Data transferred from the host computer to the printer>
Next, the transfer data format will be described with reference to FIG.
[0048]
FIG. 4 shows the structure of page data for one page created by the host computer.
(Job start data section)
The job start data 401 is a table in which information of each data to be transferred is registered, and includes initial setting data necessary for performing drawing processing such as page layout information data.
(Character set data part)
The character set data 402 is data configured so that bitmap font data of characters used for drawing the page can be easily found from the character ID.
[0049]
The size of one character set is a multiple of a fixed length determined by the printer, and the number of registered characters changes depending on the font size and compression rate. If it is less than the fixed length size, it is adjusted to the fixed length size by filling in blanks. The character set data includes a character set header portion 405, a relative address 406, and a character data portion 407.
[0050]
The character set header portion 405 includes a character set ID 4051, the number of characters 4052 registered in the character set, a first page 4053 that is the first page in which the character set is used, and a last page last page 4054.
[0051]
In the relative address portion 406, byte offset values from the header portion for accessing each character data in the character set data are set for the number of registered characters.
[0052]
The character data portion 407 is a portion where character data is actually registered. Bitmap data of each character is stored following the character header portion in which information such as the character width, height, compression type, and size is stored. Compressed and registered.
(Character drawing command data part)
The character drawing command data 403 is a command group for instructing a character drawing position. Each character drawing command data is divided into band units, and is indicated by the ID of the character set that includes the character to be printed and the offset value of the character within the character set. As the drawing position, a relative coordinate position in the band is set.
[0053]
The data size of the entire character drawing command data is also adjusted to be a multiple of the fixed length size.
(Image data part)
The image data unit 404 is image data generated and compressed with a height and width for each band, which is a unit processed by the printer.
<Character set management and character drawing command creation procedure>
Next, a procedure for generating character set data and a character drawing command by the printer driver of the host computer will be described using the flowchart of FIG. 8 and the data structures of FIGS.
[0054]
S801: Print data is spooled for one job. Among them, only character data is processed, and a driver management character set 301 is constructed. At this time, the page number where the character appears is managed by the minPage 902 and maxPage 903 in the character management table 304.
[0055]
S802: Search for characters used in a plurality of pages from the driver management character set by minPage 902 and maXPage 903 indicating the number of pages in which the characters appear, and group the characters used in the plurality of pages.
[0056]
S803: Characters used in the target page being processed are grouped based on minPage 902 and maXPage 903 indicating the number of pages on which the character appears. From this group and the character group created in S802, a character set 302 for character transfer used in the page of interest is created. At this time, characters belonging to different groups are registered in different character sets.
[0057]
S804: Create a character drawing command for the page of interest, and transfer it to the printer together with the character set created in S803. The character drawing command is generated by combining the character set ID 905 and the relative address 906 in the character set with the drawing position. All other data is expanded into an image, used as an image drawing command, and transferred to the printer.
[0058]
S805: A delete command for deleting a character set that is unnecessary after the page of interest is generated and transferred to the printer. The character set to be deleted is a character set that normally includes characters grouped in S803, and the character set grouped in S802 is not used as a deletion target because it is used even after the page of interest.
[0059]
S806: If there is a next page in the job, the page is set as the page of interest, and the process returns to S803. If there is no next page, the process ends.
[0060]
By the above procedure, a printer transfer character set is created and transmitted to the printer together with a character drawing command.
<Data format in printer>
Next, a procedure for storing data on the printer RAM and a registered data format will be described with reference to FIGS.
[0061]
In step S <b> 1101, the printer 102 reads job start data of the transfer data 400 created by the driver and performs initial setting of the printer.
[0062]
S1102: Thereafter, data is read into the RAM according to the size of data included in the job start command.
[0063]
The reception buffer 103 is composed of many fixed-length reception cells. Each reception cell 501 has a structure having an address part (nextp) which is a pointer to the next empty buffer and a data part. The size of one character set data created by the host computer matches the size of this reception cell. Data can be managed even if they do not match, but since the printer manages the use / unuse of the area for each received cell, odd-sized data also occupies one received cell, and the memory is effectively used. Can not.
[0064]
The reception buffer 103 is managed by the reception buffer control structure 502. The reception buffer control structure 502 includes a pointer Freep to an empty reception cell, a pointer FreeEndp to the last cell of the empty reception cell, a pointer Fontp to the top of the character set data portion, and a top to the character drawing command data portion. It is composed of a pointer Renderp and a pointer Imagep to the top of the image data portion. In the initial state, the pointer Freep points to the beginning of the receiving buffer, the pointer FreeEndp points to the receiving cell at the end of the receiving buffer, and a pointer to the next receiving cell is written in the address portion of each receiving cell.
[0065]
Data received from the host computer is packed in units of reception buffer cells at the destination indicated by the pointer Freep. The pointer Freep is updated with the value of the pointer nextp of the reception cell in which data is stored. Data can be read until the pointer Freep becomes the same as the pointer FreeEndp.
[0066]
S1103: The top position (Fontp) of the character set data, the top position (Renderp) of the character drawing command data, and the top position (Imagep) of the image data can be calculated from the data size of the job start command read first. The position is registered in the reception buffer control structure 502.
[0067]
Note that image data may not be able to fit into one page, but in that case, the image data is stored as much as possible.
[0068]
S1104: Trace the pointer fontp, and create a character set table 503 storing a character set ID and a pointer to the corresponding character set for each character set.
<Printing procedure>
Next, processing from receiving a plurality of pages in the above memory space to printing out the same will be described with reference to FIG.
[0069]
600: The reception buffer is in an initialized state at the start of drawing.
[0070]
601: The received character set data and character drawing data are stored according to nextp from the upper part of the reception buffer.
[0071]
602: Store image data until the memory becomes full, and set pointers Fontp, Renderp, and Imagep from each data size included in the job start instruction.
[0072]
For the stored character set, the head address is registered in the character set table for each set. The procedure so far is the procedure of FIG.
[0073]
603: Start drawing. The previous band image data indicated by the pointer “Imagep” is expanded in the band memory, and the CPU analyzes the previous character drawing command data indicated by the pointer “Renderp”, and obtains the corresponding character image from the character set data. Draw.
[0074]
Along with this, the receiving cell of the image data portion developed in the band memory is released. The address of the received cell that has been released is set in the pointer nextp portion of the received cell pointed to by the pointer FreeEndp until then, and the address of the received cell that has been released is also set in FreeEndp.
[0075]
In the released reception cell, data in a state waiting for storage in the reception buffer is read as needed.
[0076]
604: After all the data for one page has been read into the receiving cell, the next page of data is also fetched. In the state 604, the character set data of the second page is stored in the empty area following the image data of the first page.
[0077]
605: A state immediately before the end of data processing for one page is shown. The first page stores character set data, character drawing commands, and part of image data. In addition, character set data, a character drawing command, and part of image data for the second page are stored.
[0078]
606: A command to delete character set data is sent from the host computer as necessary. When the processing of the character drawing command for the page of interest is completed, the received cell storing the character set data that is no longer needed and the drawing command for the first page is released according to the character set deletion command. Thereafter, the job start command on the second page is read and parameters are set.
[0079]
When deleting character data, the head address of the released reception cell is set to the pointer nextp of the destination reception cell pointed to by the pointer FreeEndp, and the final address is set to FreeEndp.
<Deleting Instruction Processing Procedure>
Next, the processing procedure for the character set deletion command will be described with reference to FIG.
[0080]
S1201: The character set ID designated as the deletion target is searched from the character set table 503 held by the printer.
[0081]
S1202: If not found, error processing is performed.
[0082]
S1203: The address of the received cell of the character set corresponding to the designated character set ID is obtained from the character set table, and the received cell is released. The reception cell is released by connecting the current empty area and the newly released area by the pointer nextp of each reception cell. That is, the address of the received cell to be newly released is set to the pointer nextp of the received cell pointed to by the pointer FreeEndp to the end of the current free space, and then the address of the received cell to be newly released is also set to the pointer FreeEndp. set.
[0083]
S1204: The character set table entry corresponding to the deleted character set ID is deleted and updated.
[0084]
By deleting the character set data as described above, the free area is released in units of received cells. Therefore, it is possible to reuse the open area without collecting it. The procedure for releasing the reception cell is not limited to the character set data, and the reception cell storing the character drawing command that has been output for one page and the band image data that has been output for one band is released. Also used when.
[0085]
FIG. 7 shows a state when the drawing process has progressed. The destination of tracing the pointer Freep and tracing the nextp from the reception cell indicated by the pointer Freep is an empty area. In addition, when nextp shows the receiving cell which continues, the arrow showing the nextp is abbreviate | omitted.
[0086]
In this way, when the character set size is non-fixed length and occupies memory discontinuously, the size of the free space that is created when character set data is erased is uneven, and the character set registered in units of one character If is deleted, a discontinuous free space is created. Therefore, it takes a lot of time to reconstruct character set data in order to collect free memory, and it is impossible to reconstruct character set data between pages during continuous page output.
[0087]
In contrast, in the printing system according to the present embodiment, the printer memory is managed in units of fixed-length received cells. For this reason, the free area released in the memory of the printer is a unit of the reception cell, and can be reused immediately without collecting the free area.
[0088]
In such a case, if character set data is created for each character, for example, many areas are wasted in order to store character set data for one character in one receiving cell. In this embodiment, since the host computer creates character set data with a fixed length in units of the size matched to the received cell, the character set data is stored in the received cell without waste, reducing the memory utilization efficiency. There is nothing.
[0089]
In the above, the printing system that determines the timing for executing the character set data deletion command on the printer side and executes the character set deletion command has been described. However, the host computer obtains information from the printer because it is connected with a bidirectional interface. If it is possible, the printer may notify the host computer of the end of the print output of the page, and the host computer may send a character set deletion command that is not used on the page or later to the printer based on the information.
<Printer engine>
There is no particular limitation on what is used as the printer engine of the above embodiment. Here, two typical engines applicable to the printer of this embodiment will be described.
[0090]
FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view showing the internal structure of a laser beam printer (hereinafter abbreviated as LBP) in this case. This LBP can input character pattern data or the like and print it on recording paper.
[0091]
In the figure, reference numeral 740 denotes an LBP main body, which forms an image on a recording paper as a recording medium based on a supplied character pattern and the like. Reference numeral 700 denotes an operation panel on which an operation switch and an LED display are arranged. Reference numeral 701 denotes a printer control unit for controlling the entire LBP 740 and analyzing character pattern information. This printer control unit 701 mainly converts character pattern information into a video signal and outputs it to the laser driver 702.
[0092]
The laser driver 702 is a circuit for driving the semiconductor laser 703, and switches on / off the laser beam 704 emitted from the semiconductor laser 703 in accordance with the input video signal. The laser beam 704 is swung left and right by the rotary polygon mirror 705 to scan the electrostatic drum 706. As a result, an electrostatic latent image of a character pattern is formed on the electrostatic drum 706. This latent image is developed by a developing unit 707 around the electrostatic drum 706 and then transferred to a recording sheet. A cut sheet is used as the recording paper, and the cut sheet recording paper is stored in a paper cassette 708 mounted on the LBP 740, taken into the apparatus by a paper feed roller 709 and transport rollers 710 and 711, and supplied to the electrostatic drum 706. Is done.
[0093]
FIG. 14 is a schematic view of an ink jet recording apparatus IJRA to which the present invention can be applied. In the drawing, the carriage HC engaged with the spiral groove 5004 of the lead screw 5005 that rotates via the driving force transmission gears 5011 and 5009 in conjunction with the forward and reverse rotation of the drive motor 5013 has a pin (not shown). And is reciprocated in the directions of arrows a and b. An ink jet cartridge IJC is mounted on the carriage HC. Reference numeral 5002 denotes a paper pressing plate that presses the paper against the platen 5000 in the moving direction of the carriage. Reference numerals 5007 and 5008 denote photo-couplers which are home position detecting means for confirming the presence of the carriage lever 5006 in this region and switching the rotation direction of the motor 5013. Reference numeral 5016 denotes a member that supports a cap member 5022 that caps the front surface of the recording head. Reference numeral 5015 denotes suction means that sucks the inside of the cap, and performs suction recovery of the recording head through an opening 5023 in the cap. Reference numeral 5017 denotes a cleaning blade, and reference numeral 5019 denotes a member that enables the blade to move in the front-rear direction, and these are supported by a main body support plate 5018. Needless to say, the blade is not in this form, and a known cleaning blade can be applied to this example. Reference numeral 5021 denotes a lever for starting suction for suction recovery, which moves in accordance with the movement of the cam 5020 engaged with the carriage. The driving force from the drive motor is controlled by a known transmission means such as clutch switching. Is done.
[0094]
[Other Embodiments]
Note that the present invention can be applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), or a device (for example, a copier, a facsimile device, etc.) including a single device. You may apply to.
[0095]
Another object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium storing software program codes for implementing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus, and the computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus stores the storage medium. This can also be achieved by reading and executing the program code stored in.
[0096]
In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.
[0097]
As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, flexible A disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD-R, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, or the like can be used.
[0098]
Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an OS (operating system) operating on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. A case where part or all of the actual processing is performed and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing is also included.
[0099]
Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion is performed based on the instruction of the program code. This includes a case where the CPU or the like provided in the board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.
[0100]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, the character portion is received as a character code and developed into a character image with a simple configuration, so that the character development processing time and transfer data from the host can be obtained. The amount is very small, and the memory capacity of the printing apparatus can be reduced, so that it can be used efficiently.
[0101]
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a print control system according to an embodiment.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating driver data creation processing and printer printing processing;
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the structure of character set management data on the driver side;
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a detailed structure of a transfer character set.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a structure and a storage form (first page) of a reception buffer of the printer.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a printer memory management method;
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a reception buffer of a printer and a storage form (during output of a plurality of pages).
FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a character processing procedure in the host computer.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the structure of a driver management character set.
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of how a driver management character set is used;
FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a procedure for receiving print data in a printer.
FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a procedure for deleting character set data in the printer.
FIG. 13 is a diagram of a laser beam printer engine.
FIG. 14 is a diagram of an engine of an inkjet printer.
[Explanation of symbols]
101 Host computer
102 Printer controller
103 Input buffer
104 ROM
105 CPU
106 character hard renderer
107 Image renderer
108 band memory
110 Printer engine

Claims (15)

Management means for managing the range of pages in which each character appears;
Grouping means for creating a group of characters based on the page range of each character managed by the management means ;
Transfer means for creating a character set of characters used in the page of interest from the group created by the grouping means, and transferring the created character set to a printer;
An information processing apparatus comprising: a transmission unit that transmits a deletion command for deleting the character set transferred by the transfer unit to the printer . The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the grouping unit groups characters having the same page range into the same group based on a page range of each character managed by the management unit. Said transfer means, an information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transfer of character drawing data of the target page. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the transmission unit transmits a delete command for deleting a character set that is no longer necessary after the page of interest . The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the management unit spools print data for one job, processes character data, and manages a page on which characters appear . Management steps to manage the range of pages where each character appears;
A grouping step for creating a group of characters based on the page range of each character managed by the management means ;
A transfer step of creating a character set of characters used in the page of interest from the group created by the grouping step, and transferring the created character set to a printer;
A printing control method comprising: a transmission step of transmitting to the printer a deletion command for deleting the character set transferred in the transfer step . The print control method according to claim 6, wherein the grouping step groups characters having the same page range into the same group based on the page range of each character managed by the management step . It said transfer step, the print control method according to claim 6, wherein the transfer of character drawing data of the target page. 9. The print control method according to claim 8 , wherein the transmission step transmits a delete command for deleting a character set that is no longer necessary after the page of interest . 10. The print control method according to claim 6, wherein the management step spools print data for one job, processes character data, and manages a page on which characters appear . Management steps to manage the range of pages where each character appears;
A grouping step for creating a group of characters based on the page range of each character managed by the management means ;
A transfer step of creating a character set of characters used in the page of interest from the group created by the grouping step, and transferring the created character set to a printer;
A computer-readable storage medium storing a program having a transmission step of transmitting to the printer a deletion command for deleting the character set transferred in the transfer step . 12. The computer-readable program storing a program according to claim 11, wherein the grouping step groups characters having the same page range into the same group based on the page range of each character managed by the management step. Possible storage medium. It said transfer step, a computer-readable storage medium storing the claim 11, wherein the program characterized by transferring the character drawing data of the target page. 14. The computer-readable storage medium storing a program according to claim 13 , wherein the transmission step transmits a delete command for deleting a character set that is no longer necessary after the page of interest . 15. The program according to claim 11, wherein the management step spools print data for one job, processes character data, and manages a page on which characters appear . A computer-readable storage medium.

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