JPH02294724A - Image data printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the printing speed of image data by dividing the image data sent from a CPU into units to be outputted to a printer with a printer control mechanism and converting a margin part included in a row into a printing position changing information. CONSTITUTION:Image data read out from an image scanner 9 are temporarily stored in a memory device 3 from an image scanner control mechanism 8 through an I/O bus 4. The image data themselves or image data obtained by executing working such as dot density conversion by program control are sent to the printer 7 through the printer control mechanism 5 to print out the data. Since a margin expressed by continuous '0' sent from the mechanism 5 to the printer 7 is sent not by the prescribed number of continuous '0' but by a printing position changing information format, only the minimum image data required for printing are sent. Thus, the printing speed of image data can be improved without adding a new hardware.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a data processing device, and particularly to an image data printing method suitable for improving the printing speed of image data.

[Conventional technology]

The amount of image data read from an image scanner or the like has increased enormously compared to code data expressed by character codes. For this reason, there is a need for fast image data processing speed. JP-A-63-26
No. 779 aims at improving processing speed by reducing the amount of image data by performing data compression. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10274/1986 aims to improve processing speed by providing a data path separate from the system bus within the central processing unit.

Each of these methods requires dedicated hardware to improve the processing speed of image data, and is not a method that can be realized only by software processing. Further, there is no particular mention of improving the printing speed of image data.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The above-mentioned conventional technology does not mention the printing speed of image data, and only improves the processing speed of image data within the central processing unit. As the processing speed of image data increases, the time required for printing can be shortened, but this does not solve the problem of shortening the print output time itself.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art and to improve the printing speed of image data without special hardware.

[Means to solve the problem]

The above purpose is to divide the image data sent from the central processing unit into units to be output to the printer by the printer control mechanism.
This is achieved by converting the blank space included in the line into print position change information, thereby reducing the amount of image data sent to the printer and shortening the data transfer time.

[Effect]

Bit II sent from the print control mechanism to the printer
O The consecutive margins of I+ are a predetermined number of consecutive bits+
Since the information is sent in the format of print position change information rather than 1011, the amount of data is reduced and printing speed is improved. [Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be explained below with reference to the drawings.6 A data processing device 1 includes a central processing unit 2 and a storage device 3, and is controlled by a program. An image scanner control mechanism 8 that controls the image scanner 9 and a printer control mechanism 5 that controls the printer 7 are connected to the central processing unit via the input/output bus 4.

Image data is transferred from the image scanner 9 to the printer 7 as follows. image scanner 9
The image data read from the image scanner control mechanism 8 is sent via the input/output bus 4 to the storage device 3.
is stored in After that, leave it in the same shape or dot 1.
After processing such as density conversion is performed under program control, it is sent to the printer via the printer control mechanism 5 and printed.

The image data read by the image scanner 9 usually contains blank parts everywhere, as shown in the image input data 21 of FIG. 2(a).

Since this image input data 21 is sent to the printer as image data until it is output as it is, time for transferring image data in blank areas is wasted. Normally, a printer has a function of receiving and printing image data in a data format corresponding to the number of dots (for example, 24 dots) constituting a character. Therefore, the printer control mechanism 5 needs to edit the image data sent from the central processing unit 2 by dividing it into image data 22 each having the number of vertical dots to be output to the printer, as shown in FIG. 2(b). be.

Image data is expressed in bits, but when actually printing with a printer, only the pixels marked by bits ``'1'''' in the image data are involved in the printing operation.In other words, the pixels in the image data Bit LL O I+
The pixels represented by are used only to update the print position without actually printing. Here, a certain number or more consecutive I in the image data
t O I1 will be called a margin. The reason why the margin is defined as a certain number or more consecutive ``0'' in the image data is that if this margin is converted into print position change information, the amount of image data sent to the printer 7 will be reduced, which will shorten the data transfer. This is because there is a boundary value that connects them.

The printing method of image data in a printer will be explained using a dot impact type Kanji serial printer with a 24-pin print head as an example.

When printing image data, the printer focuses on the bit "1" in the image data, moves the print head to a designated position, and prints. Bit ''0
The part ``'' does not need to be printed, so it is used only to move the print head. However, the part indicated by bit rr Oh h in the image data is
It is impossible to understand unless all image data is checked. In contrast, the print position change control code 31
As shown in Figure 3, when changing the print position, the absolute value of the print position movement is specified in the control code, so there is no need to check all the data as in the case of image data. good. Is n the movement amount finger? (h h. L
L ) is the number of bytes. Furthermore, there is no need to transfer the image data itself to be checked to the printer 7.

The conversion process will be explained using FIG. 4, taking as examples 41 where all the data in the line is blank and 42 where the line includes three blank spaces 42.

FIG. 5 shows the construction of the printer controller 5. The printer system $4 mechanism 5 takes in the image data sent from the central processing unit 2 into the memory 54 via the data input/output control section 53. The image data format 62 sent from the central processing unit 2 is a horizontal scanning format. On the other hand, the image data reception format 63 of the printer is a vertical scanning format. In order to send image data to the printer 7, it is necessary to convert from the horizontal scanning method to the vertical scanning method. This conversion is performed using the vertical/horizontal conversion circuit 55. The microprocessor S2 searches the vertically and horizontally converted image data for a part where (oO)■6 is consecutive 30 times or more in the horizontal direction, and converts it to (00).
．． The moving scene of the print position change control code 31 is set according to the number of consecutive times. The image data converted into the print position change control code in this way is removed from the print data. The image data and print position change control code remaining as described above are sequentially stored in the memory 54, and are stored in the printer control unit 56.
It is output to the printer 7 via.

Through the above processing, the image data becomes only the minimum necessary for printing. Since the image data removed as a margin becomes a control code for changing the print position, the amount of data sent to the printer 7 can be significantly reduced compared to when the margin was sent as image data.

Normally, the data transfer speed within a data processing device is slowest between the printer control mechanism 5 and the printer 7, which are serially transferred, so reducing the amount of data transferred here is very effective in improving printing speed. There is.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the printing speed of image data without adding new hardware in a data processing device that inputs an image, performs various editing processes, and prints the data.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is a diagram showing general image data, Figure 3 is a diagram showing a print position change control code, and Figure 4 is a diagram showing image data. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the optimization process, FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the printer control mechanism 5, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the image data format sent from the central processing unit and the image data reception format of the printer. 2...Central processing unit, 3...Storage device, 5.
...Printer control mechanism, 7...Printer, 31.
...Print position change control code, 6l...Image data, 62...Image data format sent from the central processing unit, 63...Printer's image data reception format, Jll1/Accent 21μ Yasushi 4411 / Collection 1 figure Shin 2 figure (b) 7 ===== Nikoshima figure series heather figure Masashi Wataruji ko=■ko]]]] 11 Usenho 1 change Kazuki 1 Gogordo ↓ ↓ 2L Hamariki Figure S

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an image data printing method in which image data sent from a central processing unit is output to a printer via a printer control mechanism, the printer control mechanism converts the margin portion of the image data into printing position change information and outputs it to the printer. The image data printing method is characterized in that the printer moves a print head based on the print position change information.