JPH10177462A - Page printer controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To restrict the degradation of printing performance even at the time of including a complicated object after a blank paper page by generating the blank paper page without using a page memory when the blank paper page is included during a printing job, jumping the page extending processing of the blank paper page and processing a succeeding page. SOLUTION: A data analyzing part 2 analyzes and edits a printing command/ parameter received from a high-order host computer and a page extending part 3 executes an extention-processing in a bit map-type printing page data by editing data which is generated in the data analyzing part 2 so as to store it in a page memory 4. When the printing job including the blank paper page, the page extending part 3 judges that the second the third pages are the blank paper pages based on analyzed and processed page information and indicates the processing of blank paper page data generation to a printing mechanism control part 6. The printing mechanism control part 6 which receives an indication indicates the transmission of zero data to a printing mechanism part 8 to a zero data generating part 9.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a page printer control device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the periphery of a receiving section, an analyzing section, a page expanding section, and a printing mechanism section in a page printer control device. In the page printer control device, the data receiving unit 1 normally receives a print command / parameter from the host computer and then sends the received command / parameter to the data analyzing unit 2 for analysis. Upon receiving the command / parameter, the analysis unit 2 generates page information necessary for creating print page data (generally, what kind of character is to be used, what kind of font is used, and at what position on the page, etc.) ), And issues a print page data generation command to the page developing unit 3 based on the analyzed information. Usually, the page memory 4 is provided in the page printer control device.
The page expansion unit 3 generates bitmap page data 5 in the memory. When the generation of the page data 5 for one page is completed, the page data 5 in the page memory 4 is read out by the printing mechanism control unit 6 including the printing data sending unit, and then the printing data 7 is sent to the printing mechanism unit 8. Then, printing is performed in the printing mechanism unit 8.

Here, as shown in a print sequence example 1 in the conventional apparatus of FIG. 5, when printing a print job including a blank page (the second and third pages correspond to this print job), the page developing unit 3 Expands the page data of the first page based on the analyzed page information (page expansion 0), and expands the page data of the second page, which is a blank page, in the page memory 2 (page expansion 1). On the other hand, after the page data of the first page is generated, the printing mechanism control unit 6 including the printing data sending unit sends the printing data to the printing mechanism unit 8 to execute the printing process. Similarly, for the second and subsequent pages, the printing process is executed by the printing mechanism control unit 6 including the print data sending unit and the printing mechanism unit 8 in the order in which the page data is generated.

Normally, blank page data is generated by writing 0 data in the page memory 4 by the page expanding section 3. The time required for this is almost the same as the memory cycle time for writing data 0 to the page memory 4. However, in a general resolution page printer, the page memory required for creating one page of page data is 1 to 2 megabytes. Further, a high-resolution page printer requires twice as much page memory. Therefore, the time for writing the simple 0 data for generating blank page data also accounts for a proportion that cannot be ignored from the entire print sequence. However, printing sequence example 1 in FIG.
As shown in (1), if the development time of each page is sufficient by the timing of the start of the printing process of each page, the page printer can perform continuous printing corresponding to the performance of the printing mechanism unit 8, and there is no problem.

However, a print sequence example 2 shown in FIG.
In such a case, there is a problem. This means that if the page after the blank page is complex (typically a complex document includes a page containing image data and graphics in addition to a normal text document), the page is expanded within the print time of the previous page Does not end, and continuous printing corresponding to the performance of the printing mechanism unit 8 becomes impossible, and a state of printing standby occurs. In print standby, print data cannot be sent to the print mechanism unit 8, so that the print mechanism unit 8 waits for print data and interrupts continuous printing. If the operation of the printing mechanism unit is temporarily interrupted during the printing standby, the printing mechanism control unit 6 including the print data sending unit is finally operated by the printing mechanism control unit after receiving the information of the end of the page data development (time 10 in FIG. 6). A start instruction is issued to the unit 8. However, usually, the time from the issuance of the start command to the start of the operation of the printing mechanism unit 8 requires a time in seconds, which is a serious problem that hinders continuous printing.

[0006]

As described above, in the conventional page printer control device, since blank pages are also developed as print data in the page memory, pages including complicated objects such as images and graphics are printed after blank pages. When printing, there has been a problem that a processing time is required for developing a blank page, and the page developing process for the next page cannot be completed in time and the printing is on standby. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a page printer control apparatus which eliminates the drawbacks of the conventional page printer control apparatus and minimizes a decrease in printing performance even when printing a job including a complex object after a blank page. It is.

[0007]

The object of the present invention is to provide a means for automatically generating a blank page, and to determine whether a blank page is included in a print job based on a determination of whether or not the page is a blank page by the page expanding section. The problem can be solved by automatically generating a blank page without using a memory, skipping the page expanding process of the blank page, and performing the process of the next page.

[0008]

1 to 3 show an embodiment of the present invention.
This will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration around a page developing unit and a printing mechanism unit, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are explanatory diagrams showing an example of a printing sequence. The same parts as those shown in FIGS. 4 to 6 showing the prior art are denoted by the same reference numerals.

In this embodiment, when printing a print job including a blank page, the page developing unit 3 determines that the second and third pages are blank pages based on the analyzed page information, and The data generation process is instructed to the printing mechanism control unit 6 including the print data sending unit. The printing mechanism control unit 6 including the print data sending unit that has received this instruction is configured as shown in FIG.
Instructs the 0 data generation unit 9 to transmit 0 data to the printing mechanism unit 8 at the timing of time 5 in the print sequence example 1 of FIG. In this embodiment, the 0 data generation unit 9 is added independently of the printing mechanism control unit 6 including the print data transmission unit. However, the zero data generation unit 9 may be incorporated in the printing mechanism control unit 6 including the print data transmission unit. Good. Specifically, it can be realized by writing 0 data in a data register in the printing mechanism control unit 6 including the print data sending unit and sending the print data 7 to the printing mechanism unit.

The page developing unit 3 which has given the instruction to the printing mechanism control unit 6 including the print data sending unit at the timings of times 2 and 3 in the printing sequence example 2 of FIG. 3 is the next page from the timing of time 4. The page development process for the fourth page can be started. Therefore, even when the page expansion processing time of the fourth page is required to be twice as long as the normal time, the print data 7 can be sent to the printing mechanism unit 9 by the timing of the time 9, and the printing standby can be prevented.

[0011]

As described above, according to the present invention, when printing a job including a blank page, the page developing unit can perform the next page developing process without generating blank page data in the page memory. Even when the page development processing time is twice as long as usual, continuous printing can be performed without waiting for printing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a page printer control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a print sequence in the page printer control device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of a print sequence in the page printer control device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a conventional page printer control device.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a print sequence in a conventional page printer control device.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of a print sequence in a conventional page printer control device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 is a data receiving unit, 2 is a data analyzing unit, 3 is a page expanding unit, 4 is a page memory, 5 is page data, 6 is a printing mechanism control unit, 7 is print data, 8 is a printing mechanism unit, and 9 is 0 data. The generation unit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A receiving unit for receiving a print command / parameter transmitted from an upper host computer, an analyzing unit for analyzing / editing the received command / parameter, and a bitmap format based on edit data generated by the analyzing unit. A page expansion unit for expanding the print page data, a page memory for storing the expanded print page data, a control of a printing mechanism of the printer, and a printing page from the page memory according to a synchronization signal transmitted from the printer printing mechanism. In a page printer control device having a printing mechanism control unit for reading data and transmitting the data to a printer printing mechanism unit, a means for automatically generating a blank page is provided,
Based on the determination of whether the page expansion unit is a blank page,
A page printer control apparatus characterized in that when a blank page is included in a print job, a blank page is automatically generated without using a page memory, and a page developing process of the blank page is skipped and a next page is processed.