JP4702923B2 - Printing apparatus, printing control method, program, and storage medium - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, a printing control method, a program, and a storage medium that print only a specific part of a print job.

  When printing is performed by a printing apparatus such as a printer or a copying machine, a partial printing function for designating printing of only a specific page from a host computer or an operation panel may be used. This partial printing function is also called a “non-printing function” because there is a page that is not printed by the partial printing process, and a page that is not printed is sometimes called a “non-printing page”. Generally, this partial printing function is instructed by a user via a host application, or instructed by the application itself. An example of a printing apparatus having a partial printing function is disclosed in Patent Document 1.

  On the other hand, the partial print function not only executes partial print processing based on the external partial print instruction as described above, but also internally controls the job and realizes print return control during interrupt processing. In order to do this, a partial printing function may be used. For example, in interrupt processing, a job that has been processed in advance is temporarily interrupted and overtaken by a succeeding job, and then printing of the remaining data is resumed. In this case, the partial print function is used. .

  FIG. 16 is a diagram for explaining an outline of a conventional partial printing function in the printing apparatus. As described above, the conventional partial printing function is used in various situations. As shown in FIG. 16, the procedure is to generate intermediate data and image data for print processing from PDL data on all pages. This is realized by discarding unnecessary image data that is not printed immediately before image transfer to the printer engine.

  17 and 18 are schematic diagrams for explaining a specific procedure of the conventional partial printing process in the printing apparatus. Hereinafter, an example of a conventional partial printing process will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 17 and 18.

  In the example shown in FIG. 17, when four pages of PDL data including “a”, “i”, “u”, and “e” character data are input to each page, the portion corresponding to the PDL data is displayed. Schematic diagram showing how to process a job specified as “no sort (non-sort), 2 copies specified, 2 to 5 pages specified for partial printing” as a print instruction inside the printing apparatus It is.

  Since FIG. 17 is a specification for not sorting, if there is no partial print designation, each page is copied and “A1”, “A2”, “I1”, “I2”, “U1” ”,“ U2 ”,“ E1 ”, and“ E2 ”. However, since there are 2 to 5 pages designated for partial printing, only “A2”, “I1”, “I2”, and “U1” are actually output. Become. Therefore, the received PDL data is interpreted, and intermediate data and image data corresponding to “A1”, “I1”, “U1”, and “E1” are first created for the printing process. Then, partial print processing is realized by discarding “A1”, “U2”, “E1”, and “E2” that do not need to be printed immediately before transfer to the printer engine.

  FIG. 18 is an explanation of another pattern. For PDL data consisting of 4 pages of “A”, “I”, “U”, “E”, “Sort, 2 copies specified for copy, partial FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram illustrating how a job designated by “printing 7 to last page” is processed inside the printing apparatus. Note that this pattern is the same not only when partial printing is designated from the outside, but also when the interrupted print processing is resumed after an interrupt job is performed.

  In the example shown in FIG. 18, since the sorting mode is selected, copying is performed after sorting, and “A 1”, “I 1”, “U 1”, “E 1”, “A 2”, “I 2”, “ The printing process is performed in the order of “2” and “e2”. Here, as in the case of FIG. 17, “A1”, “I1”, “U1”, “E1”, which are pages other than the 7th to last pages designated immediately before the image is transferred to the printer engine. , “A2” and “I2” are discarded to realize partial printing.

  Next, the processing procedure will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

  FIG. 19 is a flowchart for explaining interrupted job return processing by conventional interrupt designation. FIG. 20 is a flowchart for explaining conventional processing for realizing partial printing by focusing on a certain page and discarding image data.

  First, when an interrupt is specified for a certain print job, an instruction to interrupt the process is executed for the preceding print job, and the process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 19 is started. That is, first, it is determined whether the job is an interrupted job (step S1901). If it is not the target (No), the interrupted process is not performed. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S1901 that the job is interrupted (Yes), print completion page information indicating how many pages of the print job have been printed is stored (step S1902). Further, the PDL data received together with the information and various setting information at that time are saved (stored) (step S1903). After storing the PDL data, its various setting information, and print completion page information, all intermediate processing data such as intermediate data relating to the job is canceled and waits while the interrupt job is executed (step S1904). As a result of this processing, the job designated for interruption becomes the head job, and the overtaking processing is performed.

  Next, the order of the job list held internally is changed, and it is determined whether or not the overtaking of the interrupt job is completed (step S1905). As a result, if it is determined that the overtaking process for interrupt has been completed (Yes), the saved interrupted job is restored. This restoration process is performed based on the saved PDL data, print completion page information, and various other setting information, and generates intermediate data from the PDL process in the same way as when the job is first received. Generate data and resume printing. However, since there is no need to print the page that has already been printed, the job attribute is internally rewritten, and the return processing is performed assuming that partial printing is specified from the next page of the print completion page. Start (step 1906).

  When the return process starts, the process proceeds to the process shown in the flowchart of FIG. In actuality, since the processing of each step is performed continuously, the processing such as PDL interpretation may not necessarily shift to the page unit, but in FIG. The process will be described.

  That is, when the restart process starts, interpretation of the stored PDL data is started again, and intermediate data for all PDL data is generated (step S2001). Next, RIP processing for generating image data from the intermediate data is performed (step S2002), and it is determined whether the generated image is a page to be printed (step S2003). As a result, when it is determined that the generated image is the target page (Yes), the printing process is executed by exchanging with the printer engine (step S2004). On the other hand, if it is determined in step S2003 that the page is not a print target page (No), the image data is discarded without being transferred to the engine, thereby realizing non-printing (step S2005).

In the above description, only the interrupt process has been described. However, the contents shown in the flowchart of FIG. 20 are not limited to the return of the print process after being interrupted. Includes processing when partial printing is designated.
JP 2003-162520 A

  However, the conventional printing apparatus as described above has the following problems.

  That is, when realizing partial print processing such as return to printing after interrupted, conventionally, intermediate data and image data are always generated again for all saved PDL data, and then print completion page information Since the printing is controlled to resume from a predetermined page based on the above, there is a problem that the processing is not accelerated even if the printing of the partial printing designation is performed.

  In the pause process for temporarily stopping the print job, the save process similar to the interrupt process is not performed, so that the pause instruction is effective only for a short period after the data is received until the PDL interpretation starts. When there is a pause job in the device, there is a problem that the succeeding job cannot pass the pause job.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of such circumstances, and the partial printing process itself is accelerated, and the interrupt recovery process using the partial printing function and the recovery process from the paused state are accelerated, It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing apparatus, a printing control method, a program, and a storage medium that can improve the function of the pause function.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is a printing apparatus that receives a print job including page description language data and performs a print process based on the page description language data.
Storage means for storing the page description language data;
Intermediate data generating means for generating intermediate data capable of discriminating page breaks based on the page description language data stored in the storage means in a restart process after the printing process based on the page description language data is interrupted When,
A determination unit that determines a page corresponding to a print target in the restart process among the intermediate data generated by the intermediate data generation unit;
Based on the determination result of the determination unit, a discard unit that discards intermediate data of a page that does not correspond to a print target among the intermediate data;
Based on the determination result of the determination means, image data generation means for generating raster format image data from the intermediate data of the page corresponding to the print target among the intermediate data;
Printing means for printing the image data;
Have
When the print target is a print page range in the page description language data, and the page description language data further includes a plurality of copies of print instructions,
The intermediate data generating means includes first intermediate data for one copy of each print page of the page description language data, and second intermediate data that is virtual data for the second and subsequent pages of each print page. Intermediate data including data,
The discarding unit discards the intermediate data not included in the print page range from the intermediate data;
The image data generating means generates the image data from the remaining intermediate data that has not been discarded by the discarding means, based on the number of pages of the second intermediate data that has not been discarded. Image data is generated by adjusting the number of copies of one intermediate data.

Furthermore, the present invention is a print control method for a printing apparatus that receives a print job including page description language data and performs print processing based on the page description language data.
A storage step of storing the page description language data in a storage device;
Intermediate data generation step for generating intermediate data capable of discriminating page breaks based on the page description language data stored in the storage means in the restart process after the printing process based on the page description language data is interrupted When,
A determination step of determining a page corresponding to a print target in the restart process among the intermediate data generated in the intermediate data generation step;
Based on the determination result of the determination means, a discarding step of discarding intermediate data of a page that does not correspond to a print target among the intermediate data;
Based on the determination result of the determination unit, an image data generation step of generating raster format image data from the intermediate data of the page corresponding to the print target among the intermediate data;
A printing process for printing the image data;
Have
When the print target is a print page range in the page description language data, and the page description language data further includes a plurality of copies of print instructions,
In the intermediate data generation step, first intermediate data for one copy for each print page of the page description language data and second intermediate data that is virtual data for the second and subsequent pages of each print page Intermediate data including data,
Discarding intermediate data not included in the print page range from the intermediate data in the discarding step;
In the image data generation step, when the image data is generated from the remaining intermediate data that has not been discarded by the discarding step, the second data that has not been discarded is generated based on the number of copies of the second intermediate data that has not been discarded. Image data is generated by adjusting the number of copies of one intermediate data.

  According to the present invention, in partial print processing, processing is divided according to the situation, and processing relating to pages that are not printed as much as possible is omitted, thereby speeding up the partial print processing itself and further interrupt return processing using the partial print function. In addition, it is possible to speed up the return processing from the pause state and to improve the pause function.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of a partial printing process using a printing apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

<First Embodiment>
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of a system configuration of a printing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, in this embodiment, a system in which a data processing apparatus and a printing apparatus are connected will be described.

  In FIG. 1, a data processing apparatus 101 is realized by a general-purpose computer, for example, and functions as a supply source of image information or a control apparatus for a printing apparatus such as a printer. In the first embodiment, a laser beam printer (printer) is used as the printing apparatus 102. However, the printing apparatus applicable in this embodiment is not limited to the laser beam printer. For example, it may be a copier, FAX, or a multi-function machine having a plurality of these functions, and it is needless to say that it may be a printer of another printing system such as an ink jet printer.

  The laser beam printer 102 includes a video controller 103, a panel unit 104, and a printer engine 105.

  The video controller 103 generates raster data for each page based on the image information (for example, ESC code, page description language, etc.) supplied from the data processing apparatus 101 and sends it to the printer engine 105. The printer engine 105 forms a latent image on the photosensitive drum based on the raster data supplied from the video controller 103, and records the image by transferring and fixing the latent image on a recording medium (electrophotographic method). To do. The panel unit 104 is used as a user interface. That is, the user can instruct a desired operation by operating the panel unit 104. The panel unit 104 displays processing contents of the printer 102 and warning contents to the user.

  FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration of a tandem color printer applicable as the laser beam printer 102 in the first embodiment.

  In FIG. 2, reference numeral 201 denotes a printer housing. Reference numeral 202 denotes an operation panel on which a switch for giving various instructions by the user, an LED display for displaying messages, printer settings, and the like, an LCD display, and the like are arranged. 104 is one embodiment. Reference numeral 203 denotes a board housing unit that houses boards constituting the electronic circuit portions of the video controller 103 and the printer engine 105.

  Reference numeral 220 denotes a paper cassette that holds the paper (recording medium) S, and has a mechanism that electrically detects the paper size by a partition plate (not shown). Reference numeral 221 denotes a cassette clutch which takes out the uppermost sheet S of the paper S placed on the paper cassette 220 and feeds the taken paper S by a driving force transmitted from a driving means (not shown). It has a cam to convey to The cam rotates intermittently each time a sheet is fed, and feeds one sheet S corresponding to one rotation. A paper detection sensor 223 detects the amount of paper S held in the paper cassette 220. The paper feed roller 222 is a roller that conveys the leading edge of the paper S to the registration shutter 224. The registration shutter 224 can stop paper feeding by pressing the paper S.

  Reference numeral 230 denotes a manual feed tray. Reference numeral 231 denotes a manual sheet feeding clutch. The manual paper feed clutch 231 is used to convey the leading edge of the paper S to the manual paper feed roller 232. The manual paper feed roller 232 is used to convey the leading edge of the paper S to the registration shutter 224. As described above, the paper S to be printed is fed by selecting one of the paper cassette 220 and the manual feed tray 230.

  The printer engine 105 communicates with the video controller 103 according to a predetermined communication protocol, selects one of the paper feeding means from the paper cassette 220 or the manual feed tray 230 according to an instruction from the video controller unit 103, and instructs to start printing. Accordingly, the sheet S is conveyed from the corresponding sheet feeding means to the registration shutter 224. The printer engine 105 includes a sheet feeding unit, a mechanism relating to an electrophotographic process such as formation, transfer, and fixing of a latent image, a sheet discharge unit, and a control unit thereof.

  Furthermore, 204a, 204b, 204c, and 204d are printing units having photosensitive drums 205a, 205b, 205c, and 205d and a toner holding unit, respectively, and form a toner image on the paper S by an electrophotographic process. On the other hand, 206a, 206b, 206c, and 206d are laser scanner units that supply image information by laser beams to the printing units 204a, 204b, 204c, and 204d.

  Further, in the printing units 204a, 204b, 204c, and 204d, a sheet conveying belt 250 that conveys the sheet S is stretched flat in the sheet conveying direction (from bottom to top in FIG. 2) by a plurality of rotating rollers 251 to 254. At the most upstream portion, the sheet is electrostatically adsorbed to the sheet conveying belt 250 by the adsorption roller 225 to which a bias is applied. Further, four photosensitive drums 205a, 205b, 205c, and 205d are arranged in a straight line so as to face the belt conveyance surface, and constitute an image forming unit. Note that each of the printing units 204a, 204b, 204c, and 204d is provided with a charger and a developer so as to sequentially surround the vicinity of the periphery of the photosensitive drum.

  In the laser scanner units 206a, 206b, 206c, and 206d, reference numerals 207a, 207b, 207c, and 207d are laser units, and a built-in semiconductor laser is used in accordance with an image signal (/ VIDEO signal) transmitted from the video controller 103. Drive and fire a laser beam. Laser beams emitted from the laser units 207a, 207b, 207c, and 207d are scanned by polygon mirrors (rotating polygon mirrors) 208a, 208b, 208c, and 208d to form latent images on the photosensitive drums 205a, 205b, 205c, and 205d. To do.

  Reference numeral 260 denotes a fixing device that heat-fixes the toner image formed on the paper S by the printing units 204a, 204b, 204c, and 204d. Reference numeral 261 denotes a conveyance roller that conveys and conveys the paper S. A paper discharge sensor 262 detects the paper discharge state of the paper S. Reference numeral 263 denotes a paper discharge roller and double-sided printing conveyance path switching roller that conveys the paper S in the paper discharge direction. If the paper S conveyance instruction is paper discharge, the paper S is discharged to the paper discharge tray 264 as it is. In the case of double-sided conveyance, immediately after the trailing edge of the paper S passes the paper discharge sensor 262, the rotation direction is changed to the reverse direction, and the paper S is conveyed to the conveyance path 270 for double-sided printing by switching back. Reference numeral 265 denotes a discharge stack amount detection sensor that detects the stack amount of the sheets S stacked on the discharge tray 264.

  The sheet S conveyed for duplex printing by the discharge roller / duplex printing conveyance path switching roller 263 is conveyed again to the registration shutter 224 on the duplex printing conveyance path 270 by the duplex conveyance rollers 271 to 274. Then, it waits for a conveyance instruction to the printing units 204a, 204b, 204c, and 204d. The color printer 102 can be further equipped with optional units such as an optional cassette and an envelope feeder.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration when the video controller 103 and the printer engine 105 are connected via a video interface and a detailed configuration of the printer engine 105.

  In FIG. 3, the video controller 103 manages communication with a plurality of data processing apparatuses 101 (including reception of image information), generation (development) of raster data based on the received image information, and control of the printer engine 105. In the printer engine 105, the engine control unit 150 controls the units 151 to 158 in the printer engine 105 based on a control signal supplied from the video controller 103. Below, the outline | summary of the units 151-158 is demonstrated.

  Reference numeral 151 denotes a paper size detection unit that detects the size of the paper placed in the paper cassette 220 and other optional cassettes (not shown) and notifies the engine control unit 150 of the detected size. A paper feed port detection unit 152 detects the presence or absence of paper feed ports of the paper cassette 220, the manual feed tray 231, the option cassette (not shown), and the envelope feeder (not shown) and notifies the engine control unit 150 of the presence or absence. is there. Reference numeral 153 denotes an option investigation unit for confirming the connection status of options such as an option cassette and an envelope feeder. A conveyance control unit 154 controls conveyance of the paper S. Reference numeral 155 denotes an optical system controller that controls optical systems such as the drive motors of the polygon mirrors 208a, 208b, 208c, and 208d and the laser units 207a, 207b, 207c, and 207d. A fixing temperature control unit 156 performs temperature control of the fixing device 260 and detects an abnormality in the fixing device 260. An option control unit 157 controls options such as an option cassette and an envelope feeder. Reference numeral 158 denotes a sensor unit for detecting environmental changes (status changes) such as registration, paper discharge, double-sided, inversion, presence / absence of paper in the conveyance path, outside air temperature, number of printed pages, remaining amount of toner, and the like.

  Next, an outline of various signals communicated by a video interface connecting the video controller 103 and the engine control unit 150 will be described.

  Reference numeral 170 denotes a / CPRDY signal indicating that the video controller 103 can communicate with the engine control unit 150. Reference numeral 171 denotes a / PPRDY signal indicating that the engine control unit 150 is communicable with the video controller unit 103. Reference numeral 172 denotes a / RDY signal indicating that the engine control unit 150 is in a printable state. Reference numeral 173 denotes a / PRNT signal for the video controller 103 to issue a print request to the engine control unit 150. Reference numeral 174 denotes a / TOP signal as a vertical synchronization signal output from the engine control unit 150 to the video controller 103. Reference numeral 176 denotes a / BD signal as a horizontal synchronization signal output from the engine control unit 150 to the video controller unit 103.

  Reference numeral 178 denotes a / SCLK signal as a synchronous clock signal for serial communication. Reference numeral 179 denotes a / CMD signal as a command signal for the video controller 103 to transmit a command to the engine control unit 150. Reference numeral 180 denotes a / CBSY signal as a strobe signal for transmitting a command. Reference numeral 181 denotes a / STS signal for returning a response (including the internal status of the printer engine 105) to the command transmitted from the video controller 103. Reference numeral 182 denotes a / SBSY signal as a strobe signal for returning a response such as status. Reference numeral 183 denotes a / VIDEO signal as raster data.

  Further, 177 shows a status of the printer engine 105 that is not directly related to the / RDY signal, that is, a status change that is not directly related to whether printing is possible (for example, the temperature, the number of printed pages, the remaining amount of toner, etc.). This is a / CCRT signal that becomes “TRUE” when the reference value is exceeded.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration example of the video controller 103. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 301 denotes a panel interface unit that performs data communication with the panel unit 104. The CPU 309 can confirm the contents set and instructed by the user on the panel unit 104 via the panel interface unit 301.

  Reference numeral 302 denotes a host interface unit for two-way communication connection with the data processing apparatus 101 such as a host computer via a network. Reference numeral 306 denotes an engine interface unit for communication connection with the printer engine 105. The CPU 309 controls the / CPRDY signal 170, the / PRNT signal 173, the / SCLK signal 178, the / CMD signal 179, and the / CBSY signal 180 shown in FIG. 2 via the engine interface unit 306, and the / PPRDY signal 171 and / RDY. It is possible to recognize the state of the signal 172, the / TOP signal 174, the / BD signal 176, the / CCRT signal 177, the / STS signal 181, and the / SBSY signal 182, that is, the state of the printer engine 105.

  Reference numeral 303 denotes an image data generation unit that generates (rasterizes) raster data to be supplied to the printer engine 105 based on image information supplied from the data processing apparatus 101. A ROM 304 holds a control program and the like. Reference numeral 305 denotes an image memory for temporarily storing the generated raster data. Reference numeral 309 denotes a CPU that controls a device connected to the CPU bus 320 based on a control program code held in the ROM 304.

  Reference numeral 307 denotes a RAM as a temporary storage memory used by the CPU 309, and is configured such that the memory capacity can be expanded by an optional RAM connected to an expansion port (not shown). The RAM 307 is used as a drawing memory storage unit 402 for storing drawing objects, a work memory temporarily used by a control program held in the ROM 304, and the like. For example, 310 includes a nonvolatile memory for holding control information such as a density correction table. A DMA control unit 308 transfers raster data in the image memory 305 to the engine interface unit 306 in response to an instruction from the CPU 309.

  A CPU bus 320 includes an address, data, and control bus. The panel interface unit 301, host interface unit 302, image data generation unit 303, ROM 304, image memory 305, engine interface unit 306, RAM 307, DMA control unit 308, CPU 309, and EEPROM 310 are all devices connected to the CPU bus 320. Is accessible.

  Next, a method for realizing partial printing by discarding intermediate data in the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing a method for realizing partial printing by discarding intermediate data using the printing apparatus according to the first embodiment.

  Since an ordinary translator (PDL) does not know page breaks after interpreting the data and generating intermediate data, it is necessary to generate at least intermediate data in order to perform partial printing. In this method, unnecessary pages are then discarded (the hatched portion in the figure), image data is generated using only the necessary pages, and the generated image data is transferred to the printer engine. This is a method for realizing partial printing.

  FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing an outline of the partial printing process shown in FIG. 5 in units of pages. The example shown in FIG. 6 is composed of four pages of data in which each page contains character data “A”, “I”, “U”, and “E”. This shows how to internally process a job designated as “2 to 5 pages for partial printing”.

  Therefore, if there is no partial print designation because it is a designation not to sort, each page is copied and “A1”, “A2”, “I1”, “I2”, “U1”, “U” 2 ”,“ E1 ”, and“ E2 ”are printed in this order. Here, since there is a designation that “partial designation is 2 to 5 pages” in this job, only the parts “A2”, “I1”, “I2”, “U1” are actually output. . Then, the received PDL is interpreted to generate intermediate data corresponding to “A1”, “I1”, “U1”, “E1”, but “A1”, “U2”, “ Since “E1” and “E2” are unnecessary, only “A”, “I”, and “U” are generated. Furthermore, for “A” and “U”, two pages are designated by copy designation, but only one page is actually required to be printed by partial designation, so the number of copies is set from 2 to 1. change. In other words, “A” and “U” are processed as one copy, “I” is processed as two copies, and image data “A”, “I”, “I” and “U” are transferred to the printer engine. By doing so, partial printing is realized.

  FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing an outline of another pattern of the partial printing process shown in FIG. 5 in units of pages. Hereinafter, another pattern at the time of interrupt return or pause release will be described with reference to FIG. In the example shown in FIG. 7, each page includes four pages of data including character data “A”, “I”, “U”, and “E”. FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing how a job designated as “7 to the last page for partial printing” is internally processed.

  Since the pattern shown in FIG. 7 is in the sort mode, if there is no partial designation, each page is copied and “A1”, “I1”, “U1”, “E1”, “A2” , “I2”, “U2”, “E2” in this order. Here, as in the case of FIG. 6, the intermediate data “A” and “I” of the non-print page may be discarded and printed for one page. For “U” and “E”, the number of copies is changed to 1, and the processing is continued. As a result, only “U” and “E” are generated, and these images are transferred to the printer engine to realize partial printing of only “U2” and “E2”.

  Next, a detailed processing procedure of the partial printing process will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the processing contents of the printing apparatus during interrupted printing and printing pause (pause) in the first embodiment. FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining processing for realizing partial printing by discarding intermediate data in the first embodiment.

  When an interrupt is specified to be interrupted and printed, an instruction to interrupt the process is executed for a job preceding the interrupt job. In addition, when a pause is designated for which printing is paused, an instruction to suspend processing is executed for a job for which a pause instruction has been given. And the process shown by the flowchart of FIG. 8 starts.

  First, it is determined whether the job is an interrupted job or a pause instruction job (step S801). As a result, in the case of a job that is not the target (No), the interrupt is performed and the process is terminated. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S801 that the job is interrupted or a pause instruction job (Yes), the number of pages that the job has been printed is stored (step S1902).

  Next, the received PDL data and various setting information at that time are saved, and all the mid-process data of the job is canceled (step S1903) and waits (step S1904). By this processing, the job designated for interruption becomes the top job. Then, it is determined whether an overtaking process has been performed or a pause release instruction has been performed (step S802). As a result, when an overtaking process or a pause cancel instruction is performed (Yes), a job return process is performed (step S1906).

  The return process is performed based on the saved PDL data, print completion page information, and other attribute information, and the process is restarted from the PDL process in the same manner as when the job is first received. However, since there is no need to print a page that has already been printed, the job attribute is that the partial print designation from the next page of the completed page is internally performed, and the restoration process is started. (Step S1906).

  On the other hand, in the case of a pause job in step S802 (No), the user may issue a cancel instruction. Therefore, it is determined whether the instruction is cancel (step S803). If the instruction is a cancel instruction (Yes), PDL data All the mid-process data including the job is discarded (step S804).

  When the return process is started by the completion of the order change in the interrupt or the pause release instruction, the process proceeds to the process shown in the flowchart of FIG. Actually, since the processing of each step is performed continuously, there is a part where the processing such as PDL interpretation does not always shift to the page unit, but in FIG. The processing will be described.

  Therefore, when the restart process starts, interpretation of the PDL data is started and intermediate data is generated (step S2001). Then, it is determined whether the generated intermediate data is actually a page to be printed (step S901). As a result, if it is determined that the page is not the target page (No), the intermediate data is discarded (step S905), and the partial printing process for the page is terminated. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S901 that the page is a target page (Yes), it is determined whether or not multiple copies are designated (step S902).

  As a result, when the single page is designated (No), the image generation process is started as it is (step S2002), and the printer engine is caused to perform the printing process (step S2004). On the other hand, if multiple copies are designated in step S902 (Yes), it is determined whether or not all copies are to be printed (step S903). As a result, if the number is not all (No), the copy designation is adjusted (step S904), and the above-described image generation processing (step S2002) and printing processing with the printer engine (step S2004) are continued. If all the objects are determined in step S903 (Yes), it is not necessary to adjust the copy designation, so the image generation process (step S2002) and the printing process (step S2004) for the printer engine are performed as they are.

  In the above description, only the interrupt process and the pause process have been described. However, the contents shown in the flowchart of FIG. 9 are not limited to the return process, and the user can perform partial printing from the host computer or the operation panel. It also includes processing when specified.

  As described above, according to the partial printing process using the printing apparatus according to the present embodiment, intermediate data that does not perform printing instead of always generating image data and discarding it immediately before engine transfer as in the past. By discarding and generating only the image necessary for printing, the partial printing process itself can be accelerated. Also in the pause function, by adopting saving PDL data and returning by partial printing in the same way as interrupt processing, both the extension of the pause instruction valid period and the subsequent job overtakes the pause job and prints. Can be achieved.

  Also, the above processing is executed by always inputting to the printing apparatus a print job including print data and print instruction information for the print data (for example, information on the sort, copy designation, and partial print designation pages described above). In addition, the print data is stored in advance on a specific printing device on the network, and each user individually specifies the output page of the print data and outputs it from each of a plurality of terminals connected to the network. The above processing may also be performed for such cases. As a result, it is possible to avoid the generation of intermediate data for all print data in accordance with the marking instructions of each user, so that the partial printing process itself can be similarly accelerated.

  Further, after a print job for all pages or only a specific page is once output from the host computer or the like to the printing apparatus, instruction information for changing the output page is transmitted from the host computer, or the operation panel of the printing apparatus is used. The above processing can also be applied to the case where the user inputs instruction information for changing the output page and prints only the designated page.

  Furthermore, in a system in which a plurality of printing devices are connected on a network, an error or the like has occurred during printing with a printing device in which a print command has been issued for certain print data. The above processing can be applied to a case where printing is performed.

<Second Embodiment>
In the first embodiment, intermediate data that is not printed is discarded, and only the image necessary for printing is generated to speed up the partial printing process. However, page unit information is embedded in PDL data. The generation of intermediate data itself may be omitted by skipping data in units of pages. Therefore, in the second embodiment, such partial printing processing will be described. In addition, below, description is abbreviate | omitted about the part which is common in 1st Embodiment, and only a different part is demonstrated.

  FIG. 10 is a conceptual diagram showing a method for realizing partial printing processing by skipping reading of PDL data in the second embodiment of the present invention. A normal translator (PDL) does not know page breaks after interpreting the data and generating intermediate data, but in this embodiment, PDL data is embedded in PDL data and only pages to be printed are PDL. An example will be described in which partial printing is realized by performing interpretation and skipping reading (part indicated by hatching).

  That is, in the partial printing process according to the present embodiment, intermediate data and image data unnecessary for printing are not regenerated, and it is not necessary to discard intermediate data or image data.

  FIG. 11 is a conceptual diagram showing an overview of the partial printing process shown in FIG. 10 in units of pages. The example shown in FIG. 11 is composed of four pages of data in which each page contains character data “A”, “I”, “U”, and “E”. This shows how to internally process a job designated as “2 to 5 pages for partial printing”.

  Therefore, if there is no partial print designation because it is a designation not to sort, each page is copied and “A1”, “A2”, “I1”, “I2”, “U1”, “U” 2 ”,“ E1 ”,“ E2 ”are printed in this order. However, since the partial designation is 2 to 5 pages,“ A2 ”,“ I1 ”,“ I2 ”, Only the part of “U1” is output. Therefore, the received PDL data is interpreted, and only intermediate data “A1”, “I1”, and “U1” actually related to printing is generated.

  Furthermore, although “a” and “u” are specified as two pages, only one page is actually required to be printed, so the setting of the number of copies is changed to one. That is, “a” and “u” are processed as one copy, and “i” is processed as two copies, and only “a”, “i”, and “u” are generated. Then, partial printing is realized by transferring the generated image data “A”, “I”, “I”, “U” to the printer engine.

  FIG. 12 is a conceptual diagram showing an outline of another pattern of the partial printing process shown in FIG. 10 in units of pages. Hereinafter, with reference to FIG. 12, another pattern at the time of interrupt return or pause release will be described. In the example shown in FIG. 12, each page is composed of four pages of data including character data of “A”, “I”, “U”, and “E”. FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing how a job designated as “7 to the last page for partial printing” is internally processed.

  Since the pattern shown in FIG. 12 is the sort mode, if there is no partial designation, each page is copied and “A1”, “I1”, “U1”, “E1”, “A2” , “I2”, “U2”, “E2” in this order. Similarly to the case of FIG. 11, intermediate data “a” and “i” of non-printed pages that are not printed are not generated by skipping the intermediate data, and only “u” and “e” are intermediate data. Generate. Furthermore, since it is sufficient to print one page, the processing is continued after changing the number of copies to one. As a result, only “U” and “E” are generated, and those images are transferred to the printer engine to realize partial printing of only “U 2” and “E 2”.

  Next, a detailed processing procedure of the partial printing process will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 13 is a flowchart for explaining processing for realizing partial printing by skipping PDL data in the second embodiment. Note that the flowchart for explaining the interrupt and pause processing is the same as the flowchart shown in FIG. 8 of the first embodiment, so the explanation is omitted here.

  Therefore, when the return process is started by the completion of the order change in the interrupt or the pause release instruction, the process proceeds to the process of the flowchart shown in FIG. Actually, since the processing of each step is performed continuously, there is a part where the processing such as PDL interpretation does not always shift to the page unit, but in FIG. An explanation shall be given.

  When the restart process starts, interpretation of the PDL data is started. First, it is determined whether to skip reading or to generate intermediate data for each page (step S1301). As a result, when the page is not a page of PDL data to be printed (No), the PDL data is skipped (step S1302), and the process is terminated. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S1301 that the data is PDL data of a page to be printed (Yes), the page is interpreted to generate intermediate data (step S2001).

  Next, it is determined whether or not a plurality of copies are designated (copy designation) (step S2002). As a result, when the single page is designated (No), the image generation process is started as it is (step S2002), and the printing process with the printer engine is continued (step S2004). On the other hand, if it is determined in step S902 that multiple copies have been designated (Yes), it is then determined whether or not all copies are to be printed (step S903). As a result, if it is determined that the number is not all (No), the copy designation is adjusted (step S904), and the image generation process (step S2002) and the printing process (step S2004) and process with the printer engine are performed. Continues to.

  If it is determined in step S903 that all the images are to be processed (Yes), the adjustment of copy designation is unnecessary, so that the image generation process (step S2002) and the printing process with the printer engine (step S2004) and the process are performed as they are. Will continue.

  In the above description, only the interrupt process and the pause process have been described, but the content shown in the flowchart of FIG. 13 is not limited to the return process, and the user designates partial printing from the host computer or the operation panel. This also includes the processing when the operation is performed.

  As described above, according to the second embodiment, in partial print processing, by embedding page breaks in PDL data, generation of intermediate data that is not printed can be omitted, and intermediate data necessary for printing and It is possible to speed up the partial printing process by generating only the image. Also in the pause function, by adopting saving PDL data and returning by partial printing in the same way as interrupt processing, both the extension of the pause instruction valid period and the subsequent job overtakes the pause job and prints. Can be achieved.

  As in the first embodiment, this processing can also be applied to partial printing processing of print data stored in the printing device in advance, and printing on another printing device in the event of an error. Is possible.

<Third Embodiment>
In the first embodiment described above, partial printing is realized by always discarding the intermediate data. In the second embodiment, partial printing is realized by always skipping reading and generating intermediate data. However, in actual operation, partial printing may be realized by dividing these processes according to the situation, including the conventional example. Therefore, in the third embodiment, a partial printing process in which various partial printing processes are separated and executed will be described. In addition, below, description is abbreviate | omitted about the part which is common in 1st and 2nd embodiment, and only a different part is demonstrated.

  FIG. 14 is a conceptual diagram showing an outline of partial printing processing according to the third embodiment in units of pages. The example shown in FIG. 14 is composed of four pages of data in which each page contains character data of “A”, “I”, “U”, and “E”. This shows how to internally process a job for which the designated page for partial printing is 4 to the last page.

  Therefore, if there is no partial print designation because it is a designation not to sort, each page is copied and “A1”, “I1”, “U1”, “E1”, “A2”, “I” Processing is performed in the order of “2”, “U2”, and “E2”. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, a pattern that requires partial printing of a plurality of copies in the sort mode and data of all pages are necessary, and therefore processing such as skipping and discarding of intermediate data cannot be performed. Furthermore, printing must be performed in the order of “E1”, “A2”, “I2”, “U2”, “E2”. Therefore, in the present embodiment, it is assumed that the conventional partial print processing by image discard that discards image data just before the image transfer to the printer engine is used only for this pattern.

  FIG. 15 is a flowchart for explaining processing switching of image discard, intermediate data discard, and PDL data skip in the third embodiment.

  First, it is determined whether or not the copy designation of the job to be processed is one, or whether or not the remaining number of copies is one for an interrupt or pause job (step S1501). As a result, if it is determined that the copy designation of the job to be processed is not 1 copy and the remaining number of copies for the interrupt or pause job is not 1 copy (No), it is determined whether or not the operation mode is the sword operation mode (step S1502). ). If it is the sort operation mode (Yes), it is determined whether or not it is the RIP-Once mode in which the once generated image data is repeatedly used inside the device (step S1503). As a result, if it is determined in step S1503 that the current mode is the RIP-Once mode (Yes), the generated image is discarded and partial printing is realized (step S1505) as in the conventional method.

  Also, when it is not specified at step S1501 (Yes), when it is not the sort operation mode at step S1502 (No), and when it is not the RIP-Once mode at step S1503 (No), the image is discarded as in step S1505. Since the partial printing process can be realized without this, the process proceeds to step S1504.

  In step S1504, the process is divided depending on whether or not the translator has the ability to determine the page break. If the determination is possible (Yes), the PDL data is skipped as in the method described in the second embodiment. Partial printing is realized (step S1506). On the other hand, if there is no judgment capability (No), the intermediate data is discarded and partial printing is realized (step S1507), as in the method described in the first embodiment.

  As described above, the partial print processing can be optimized by switching the three types of image discard, intermediate data discard, and PDL data skip according to the situation.

<Fourth Embodiment>
In the third embodiment described above, three types of switching processing of image discard, intermediate data discard, and PDL data skip have been described, but image discard and intermediate data discard, image discard and PDL data skip, and intermediate data discard. And PDL data reading may be skipped for switching.

  In each of the above-described embodiments, the example in which partial printing is performed in units of pages has been described. However, partial printing processing may be performed in units of lines or other various units in addition to pages.

  As described above, the embodiment has been described in detail. However, the present invention can take an embodiment as a system, apparatus, method, program, storage medium, or the like, and specifically includes a plurality of devices. The present invention may be applied to a system that is configured, or may be applied to an apparatus that includes a single device.

  In the present invention, a software program (in the embodiment, a program corresponding to the flowchart shown in the figure) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment is directly or remotely supplied to the system or apparatus, and the computer of the system or apparatus Is also achieved by reading and executing the supplied program code.

  Accordingly, since the functions of the present invention are implemented by computer, the program code installed in the computer also implements the present invention. In other words, the present invention includes a computer program itself for realizing the functional processing of the present invention.

  In that case, as long as it has the function of a program, it may be in the form of object code, a program executed by an interpreter, script data supplied to the OS, or the like.

  As a recording medium for supplying the program, for example, floppy (registered trademark) disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, MO, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card ROM, DVD (DVD-ROM, DVD-R) and the like.

  As another program supply method, a client computer browser is used to connect to an Internet homepage, and the computer program of the present invention itself or a compressed file including an automatic installation function is downloaded from the homepage to a recording medium such as a hard disk. Can also be supplied. It can also be realized by dividing the program code constituting the program of the present invention into a plurality of files and downloading each file from a different homepage. That is, a WWW server that allows a plurality of users to download a program file for realizing the functional processing of the present invention on a computer is also included in the present invention.

  In addition, the program of the present invention is encrypted, stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM, distributed to users, and key information for decryption is downloaded from a homepage via the Internet to users who have cleared predetermined conditions. It is also possible to execute the encrypted program by using the key information and install the program on a computer.

  In addition to the functions of the above-described embodiments being realized by the computer executing the read program, the OS running on the computer based on the instruction of the program is a part of the actual processing. Alternatively, the functions of the above-described embodiment can be realized by performing all of them and performing the processing.

  Furthermore, after the program read from the recording medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion board or The CPU or the like provided in 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.

1 is a diagram illustrating an outline of a system configuration of a printing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of a tandem color printer that can be applied as the laser beam printer 102 according to the first embodiment. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration when a video controller 103 and a printer engine 105 are connected by a video interface and a detailed configuration of the printer engine 105. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration example of a video controller 103. FIG. It is the conceptual diagram shown about the method of implement | achieving partial printing by discarding intermediate data using the printing apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is the conceptual diagram which showed the outline | summary of the partial printing process shown in FIG. 5 per page. It is the conceptual diagram which showed the outline | summary of another pattern of the partial printing process shown in FIG. 5 per page. 6 is a flowchart for explaining processing contents of the printing apparatus at the time of interrupted printing and printing pause in the first embodiment. 6 is a flowchart for explaining processing for realizing partial printing by discarding intermediate data in the first embodiment. It is a conceptual diagram shown about the method of implement | achieving a partial printing process by skipping the PDL data in the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is the conceptual diagram which showed the outline | summary of the partial printing process shown in FIG. 10 per page. It is the conceptual diagram which showed the outline | summary of another pattern of the partial printing process shown in FIG. 10 per page. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the process which implement | achieves partial printing by skipping PDL data in 2nd Embodiment. It is the conceptual diagram which showed the outline | summary of the partial printing process which concerns on 3rd Embodiment for every page. 10 is a flowchart for explaining processing switching between image discard, intermediate data discard, and PDL data skip in the third embodiment. It is a figure for demonstrating the outline | summary of the conventional partial printing function in a printing apparatus. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the specific procedure of the conventional partial printing process in a printing apparatus. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the specific procedure of the conventional partial printing process in a printing apparatus. 10 is a flowchart for explaining a process for returning an interrupted job according to a conventional interrupt designation. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the conventional process which implement | achieves partial printing by discarding image data paying attention to a certain page.

Explanation of symbols

101 Data processing device 102 Printing device (laser beam printer)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 103 Video controller 104 Panel part 105 Printer engine 150 Engine control part 151 Paper size detection part 152 Paper feed port detection part 153 Option investigation part 154 Conveyance control part 155 Optical system control part 156 Fixing device temperature control part 157 Option control part 158 Sensor part 301 Panel I / F unit 302 Host I / F unit 303 Image data generation unit 304 ROM
305 Image memory 306 Engine I / F unit 307 RAM
308 DMA control unit 309 CPU
310 EEPROM
320 CPU bus

Claims (6)

A printing apparatus that receives a print job including page description language data and performs print processing based on the page description language data.
Storage means for storing the page description language data;
Intermediate data generating means for generating intermediate data capable of discriminating page breaks based on the page description language data stored in the storage means in a restart process after the printing process based on the page description language data is interrupted When,
A determination unit that determines a page corresponding to a print target in the restart process among the intermediate data generated by the intermediate data generation unit;
Based on the determination result of the determination unit, a discard unit that discards intermediate data of a page that does not correspond to a print target among the intermediate data;
Based on the determination result of the determination means, image data generation means for generating raster format image data from the intermediate data of the page corresponding to the print target among the intermediate data;
Printing means for printing the image data;
Have
When the print target is a print page range in the page description language data, and the page description language data further includes a plurality of copies of print instructions,
The intermediate data generating means includes first intermediate data for one copy of each print page of the page description language data, and second intermediate data that is virtual data for the second and subsequent pages of each print page. Intermediate data including data,
The discarding unit discards the intermediate data not included in the print page range from the intermediate data;
The image data generating means generates the image data from the remaining intermediate data that has not been discarded by the discarding means, based on the number of pages of the second intermediate data that has not been discarded. A printing apparatus that generates image data by adjusting the number of copies of one intermediate data .   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a designation unit that designates a page corresponding to the print target by a command. A saving means for saving the page description language data at the time of interrupted printing or printing pause;
The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a designation unit that designates a print target in the page description language data that has been saved by the saving unit when interrupted and returned or when the print pause is canceled. . A print control method for a printing apparatus that receives a print job including page description language data and performs print processing based on the page description language data.
A storage step of storing the page description language data in a storage device;
Intermediate data generation step for generating intermediate data capable of discriminating page breaks based on the page description language data stored in the storage means in the restart process after the printing process based on the page description language data is interrupted When,
A determination step of determining a page corresponding to a print target in the restart process among the intermediate data generated in the intermediate data generation step;
Based on the determination result of the determination means, a discarding step of discarding intermediate data of a page that does not correspond to a print target among the intermediate data;
Based on the determination result of the determination unit, an image data generation step of generating raster format image data from the intermediate data of the page corresponding to the print target among the intermediate data;
A printing process for printing the image data;
Have
When the print target is a print page range in the page description language data, and the page description language data further includes a plurality of copies of print instructions,
In the intermediate data generation step, first intermediate data for one copy for each print page of the page description language data and second intermediate data that is virtual data for the second and subsequent pages of each print page Intermediate data including data,
Discarding intermediate data not included in the print page range from the intermediate data in the discarding step;
In the image data generation step, when generating image data from the remaining intermediate data that was not discarded in the discarding step, the image data was not discarded based on the number of second intermediate data pages that were not discarded. A printing control method, comprising adjusting the number of copies of the first intermediate data to generate image data . A program for causing a computer to execute the printing control method according to claim 4 . A computer-readable storage medium storing the program according to claim 5 .

Images