CN116360713A

CN116360713A - Printing control method and device

Info

Publication number: CN116360713A
Application number: CN202211536545.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张彬; 张强
Original assignee: Beijing Bentu Information Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Bentu Information Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2022-12-01
Filing date: 2022-12-01
Publication date: 2023-06-30

Abstract

The present invention relates to the field of computer technologies, and in particular, to a print control method and apparatus. After a print task instruction is detected, print data is acquired, the print data is converted into page image data, then a print identifier is created for the page image data, the page image data is divided into a plurality of print paragraphs, and then one print paragraph and the print identifier associated with the print paragraph are sent to an image forming device each time based on a print sequence, so that the image forming device performs a printing operation on the print paragraphs based on the print identifier. The method converts the printing data into the image forming device and divides the image forming device into a plurality of printing paragraphs, thereby achieving the effect of outputting PCL language and enabling the image forming device to smoothly execute printing operation.

Description

Printing control method and device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of printer technologies, and in particular, to a print control method and apparatus.

Background

Nowadays, an image forming apparatus such as a printer generally processes a print job based on a print control language (Printer Control Language, PCL), a host apparatus connected to the image forming apparatus outputs the print job in the PCL language, and the image forming apparatus performs a printing operation after receiving the print job. PCL language is used as an industry standard, making printing operations economical and efficient.

However, for some operating systems that do not support the output PCL language, when processing a print job, it is difficult in some aspects to meet the user requirements, which affects the user experience.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a printing control method and a printing control device, which achieve the effect of outputting PCL language by converting printing data into page image data and dividing the page image data into a plurality of printing paragraphs, so that an image forming device can smoothly execute printing operation.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a print control method, including:

after a print task instruction is detected, print data is acquired;

converting the print data into page image data;

creating a print identifier for the page image data, and dividing the page image data into at least one print paragraph, wherein each print paragraph has an associated print identifier;

based on the printing order, one print paragraph at a time and a print identification associated with the print paragraph are transmitted to the image forming apparatus, so that the image forming apparatus performs a printing operation on the print paragraph based on the print identification.

In one embodiment, the creating a print identifier for the page image data, dividing the page image data into a plurality of print paragraphs, includes:

and creating corresponding printing image start identifiers and printing image end identifiers every N lines, and dividing page image data of each page into a plurality of printing paragraphs, wherein each printing paragraph comprises N lines.

detecting whether the printing paragraph contains blank lines or not;

if the printing paragraphs containing blank lines exist, corresponding printing image start marks and printing image end marks are created at the blank lines, and the corresponding printing paragraphs are divided into a plurality of new printing paragraphs again.

for page image data of any page, creating a printing page starting identifier;

determining a starting line of a printing paragraph, and creating a printing image starting mark and a printing image reading mark on the starting line;

determining an ending line of a printing paragraph, and creating a printing image ending mark on the ending line;

if the ending behavior of the current printing paragraph is the last line of the current page, creating a printing page ending mark, otherwise, executing the starting line operation of the printing paragraph again.

In one embodiment, the determining the start line of the print paragraph includes:

if the current line is X < n+1 >, determining the current line as the starting line of a printing paragraph, wherein X is a non-negative integer;

if the current line is not a blank line and the previous line of the current line is a blank line, the current line is determined to be the starting line of a printing paragraph.

In one embodiment, the determining the end line of the print paragraph includes:

if the current line is X X N, determining the current line as an ending line of a printing paragraph, wherein X is a positive integer;

if the current line is not a blank line and the next line of the current line is a blank line, the current line is determined to be the end line of a print paragraph.

In one embodiment, the converting the print data into page image data includes:

the protocol of the print drive file PPD is set to the data format TBCP of the printer driver to cause the general-purpose printing system cpu to convert the print data into the page image data.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a print control apparatus including:

the acquisition module is used for acquiring the printing data after the printing task instruction is detected;

a conversion module for converting the print data into page image data;

the segmentation module is used for creating a printing identifier and segmenting the page image data into at least one printing paragraph, wherein each printing paragraph has an associated printing identifier;

and the sending module is used for sending one printing paragraph and the printing identification associated with the printing paragraph to the image forming device at a time based on the printing sequence so that the image forming device can execute printing operation on the printing paragraph based on the printing identification.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides an electronic device, including:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory communicatively coupled to the processor, wherein:

the memory stores program instructions that are invoked by the processor to perform the method provided in the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present invention provide a computer-readable storage medium including a stored program, wherein the program when executed by a processor implements the method provided in the first aspect.

In the embodiment of the invention, after a print task instruction is detected, print data is acquired, the print data is converted into page image data, then a print mark is created for the page image data, the page image data is divided into a plurality of print paragraphs, and then the print paragraphs and the corresponding print marks are sent to an image forming device, so that the image forming device executes printing operation on the print paragraphs based on the print mark. The method converts the printing data into page image data and divides the page image data into a plurality of printing paragraphs, thereby achieving the effect of outputting PCL language and enabling the image forming device to smoothly execute printing operation.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions of the prior art, the following description will briefly explain the drawings used in the embodiments or the description of the prior art, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the present invention, and other drawings can be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort for a person skilled in the art.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a print control method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of another print control method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a print control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

For a better understanding of the technical solutions of the present specification, the following detailed description of the embodiments of the present invention refers to the accompanying drawings.

It should be understood that the described embodiments are only some, but not all, of the embodiments of the present description. All other embodiments, which can be made by one of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments herein without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the present disclosure.

The terminology used in the embodiments of the invention is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the description. As used in this application and the appended claims, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

PCL is a relatively common printer language, and the construction of PCL requires compliance with specific printer language standards. The PCL language standards include: a print job start identifier, a print page end identifier, a print font start identifier, a print font read identifier, a print font end identifier, a print image start identifier, a print image read identifier, a print image end identifier, a print job end identifier, and other standard instructions. The PCL language is described by fonts TEXT and IMAGE, so that the PCL printer can analyze IMAGE data. By way of example, current Mac systems support only PS language and GDI language and do not support output PCL language, so the method provided by the present invention can implement PCL printing in Mac systems. The following describes the implementation of the present invention in detail.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a print control method according to an embodiment of the present invention. The method may be applied to a host device (personal computer), as shown in fig. 1, and may include:

step 101, after detecting a print job instruction, obtaining print data.

In the printing scene, a user can complete editing of printing data through the host equipment, then trigger a printing task instruction, and the host equipment acquires the printing data after detecting the printing task instruction. If the host device supports output of PCL language, the host device may directly transmit print data to the image forming apparatus, which is capable of parsing the print data and performing a printing operation.

Step 102, converting the print data into page image data.

Since the output PCL language is not supported, the host device needs to convert the print data into page image data after acquiring it. Alternatively, the host device may directly convert the print data into page image data through the universal printing system cup, and this function requires the user to modify parameters in advance, and set the protocol of the print driving file PPD to the data format TBCP of the printer driver.

Step 103, creating a print identifier for the page image data, and dividing the page image data into at least one print paragraph, wherein each print paragraph has a respective associated print identifier.

The host apparatus is required to create a print flag for dividing the page image data into at least one print paragraph, and instruct the image forming apparatus to perform a corresponding printing operation. The host device may first divide the page image data into a plurality of pages, the page image data of each page being subdivided into a plurality of print paragraphs, each print paragraph having a respective associated print identity.

In one embodiment, in dividing a print paragraph, the host device may create a corresponding print identity every N lines, including: the print image start flag and the print image end flag divide the page image data of each page into at least one print paragraph, each print paragraph containing N number of lines. N can be set in advance according to actual demands, and the total number of lines of each page can be a multiple of N. Further, considering that the page image data contains blank lines, the host device may further divide the print paragraph again, and eliminate the blank lines, which may specifically include: and detecting whether the printing paragraph contains blank lines, if so, creating corresponding printing image start marks and printing image end marks at the blank lines, and dividing the corresponding printing paragraph into a plurality of new printing paragraphs again. The blank lines are removed, so that the printing efficiency can be effectively improved.

Step 104, based on the printing sequence, transmitting one printing paragraph and the printing mark associated with the printing paragraph to the image forming device at a time, so that the image forming device executes the printing operation on the printing paragraph based on the printing mark.

In order to avoid that the page image data exceeds the storage space, the image forming device needs to sequentially send the print paragraphs obtained by dividing the page image data and the associated print identifications of each print paragraph to the image forming device according to the printing sequence, so that the image forming device can execute the subsequent printing operation.

In the embodiment of the invention, the host equipment converts the printing data into the page image data, sets the printing mark to segment the page image data, can achieve the effect of outputting PCL language, removes blank lines in the segmentation process, and can improve the integral printing efficiency.

In one embodiment, the specific step of creating the print identifier by the host device may include: (1) For page image data of any page, creating a printing page starting identifier; (2) Determining a starting line of a printing paragraph, and creating a printing image starting mark and a printing image reading mark on the starting line; (3) Determining an ending line of the printing paragraph, and creating a printing image ending mark on the ending line; (4) If the ending action of the current printing paragraph is the last line of the current page, creating a printing page ending mark, otherwise, executing the operation of determining the starting line of the printing paragraph again. Specifically, when determining the starting line of a print paragraph, if the current line is the x×n+1 line, determining the current line as the starting line of a print paragraph, where X is a non-negative integer; if the current line is not a blank line and the previous line of the current line is a blank line, the current line is determined to be the starting line of a printing paragraph. When determining the ending line of the printing paragraph, if the current line is the X X N line, determining the current line as the ending line of the printing paragraph, wherein X is a positive integer; if the current line is not a blank line and the next line of the current line is a blank line, the current line is determined to be the end line of a print paragraph. For example, the current page contains 50 lines in total, N is set to 10, and the host device can segment the current page into 5 print paragraphs, each containing 10 lines. The first print paragraph contains 1 to 10 lines, the 1 st line, the 10 th line, the second print paragraph contains 11 to 20 lines, the 11 th line, the 20 th line, … …, the fifth print paragraph contains 41 to 50 lines, the 41 st line, the 50 th line. When X is 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively, five start rows can be determined, and when X is 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively, five end rows can be determined. Further, if the 3 rd line and the 6 th line are blank lines, the host device needs to segment again with the blank line segmentation points. Lines 2 and 5 satisfy the end line condition (the current line is not a blank line, and the next line is a blank line), lines 4 and 7 satisfy the start line condition (the current line is not a blank line, and the next line is a blank line), the host sets a new print flag for the first print paragraph, divides it into 3 print paragraphs again, namely, lines 1 to 2 are a print paragraph, lines 4 to 5 are a print paragraph, and lines 7 to 10 are a print paragraph.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart of another printing control method according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 2, the method may include:

step 201, print parameters are modified.

The printing parameters of the host device are modified (the protocol of PPD is set to TBCP) so that the cpu processes the printing data into page image data after reading the printing parameters.

Step 202, a print function identification is created.

The print function flag may be a printer job language (Printer Job Language, PJL) command for declaring the subsequent print flag as a PCL command, instructing the image forming apparatus to execute a corresponding print operation.

Step 203, a print job start identification is created.

A print job start identifier is created at the beginning of the entire print job.

Step 204, a print page start identifier is created.

A print page start identifier is created at the beginning of each page.

In step 205, page image data is acquired.

The host device acquires page image data that has been previously converted.

Step 206, creating a print image start identifier.

Step 207, dividing the image, creating a print image reading identifier and a print paragraph.

Step 208, create print image end identifier.

A print image start identifier is created at the beginning of each print paragraph and a print image end identifier is created at the end of each print paragraph for segmenting the page image data. The print image reading identifier is used for reading page image data of specified bytes to obtain a print paragraph.

In one embodiment, the host device may remove the blank row at this point in time, and the specific method includes: and judging whether page image data is blank line by line (judging whether one line of data is 0 xFF) or not, if not, creating a printing image start mark, and creating a printing image end mark after encountering the blank line or the X X N line. If the page image data is blank, the judgment of the next line is skipped until the page image data is completely judged. Typically, N may be set to 256.

Step 209, determining whether the current line is the last line of the current page.

If yes, go to step 210, otherwise return to step 206.

At step 210, a print end of page identifier is created.

The host device detects that the current line is the last line of the current page, and creates a print end page identifier.

Step 211, it is determined whether the current page is the last page.

If yes, go to step 212, otherwise return to step 204.

Step 212, create print job end identification.

If the current page is the last page, creating a print job ending mark, ending the whole print job, otherwise, reestablishing a print page starting mark, and executing the subsequent flow.

The host apparatus PCL packages all print paragraphs through the above steps (intermittent one-line data may also be one print paragraph), so that the image forming apparatus can parse each print paragraph. In addition, the host device effectively improves the printing efficiency by removing the blank line.

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a print control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The device may be used as a specific apparatus to implement the print control method provided by the embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 3, the device may include: an acquisition module 310, a conversion module 320, a segmentation module 330, and a transmission module 340.

The obtaining module 310 is configured to obtain print data after detecting the print job instruction.

The conversion module 320 is configured to convert the print data into page image data.

The segmentation module 330 is configured to create a print identifier and segment the page image data into a plurality of print paragraphs.

The transmitting module 340 is configured to transmit the print paragraph and the corresponding print identifier to the image forming apparatus, so that the image forming apparatus performs a printing operation on the print paragraph based on the print identifier.

Fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The electronic device shown in fig. 4 is only an example and should not be construed as limiting the functionality and scope of use of the embodiments of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 4, the electronic device is in the form of a general purpose computing device. Components of an electronic device may include, but are not limited to: one or more processors 410, a memory 430, and a communication bus 440 that connects the different system components (including the memory 430 and the processor 410).

The communication bus 440 represents one or more of several types of bus structures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, a processor, or a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. By way of example, and not limitation, such architectures include industry Standard architecture (Industry Standard Architecture; hereinafter ISA) bus, micro channel architecture (Micro Channel Architecture; hereinafter MAC) bus, enhanced ISA bus, video electronics standards Association (Video Electronics Standards Association; hereinafter VESA) local bus, and peripheral component interconnect (Peripheral Component Interconnection; hereinafter PCI) bus.

Electronic devices typically include a variety of computer system readable media. Such media can be any available media that can be accessed by the electronic device and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media.

Memory 430 may include computer system readable media in the form of volatile memory, such as random access memory (Random Access Memory; hereinafter: RAM) and/or cache memory. The electronic device may further include other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer system storage media. Although not shown in fig. 4, a magnetic disk drive for reading from and writing to a removable non-volatile magnetic disk (e.g., a "floppy disk"), and an optical disk drive for reading from or writing to a removable non-volatile optical disk (e.g., a compact disk read only memory (Compact Disc Read Only Memory; hereinafter CD-ROM), digital versatile read only optical disk (Digital Video Disc Read Only Memory; hereinafter DVD-ROM), or other optical media) may be provided. In such cases, each drive may be coupled to communication bus 440 by one or more data medium interfaces. Memory 430 may include at least one program product having a set (e.g., at least one) of program modules configured to carry out the functions of the embodiments of the invention.

A program/utility having a set (at least one) of program modules may be stored in the memory 430, such program modules including, but not limited to, an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data, each or some combination of which may include an implementation of a network environment. Program modules typically carry out the functions and/or methods of the embodiments described herein.

The electronic device may also communicate with one or more external devices, with one or more devices that enable a user to interact with the electronic device, or with any device (e.g., network card, modem, etc.) that enables the electronic device to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication may occur through communication interface 420. Moreover, the electronic device may also communicate with one or more networks (e.g., local area network (Local Area Network; hereinafter: LAN), wide area network (Wide Area Network; hereinafter: WAN) and/or a public network, such as the Internet) via a network adapter (not shown in FIG. 4) that may communicate with other modules of the electronic device via the communication bus 440. It should be appreciated that although not shown in fig. 4, other hardware and/or software modules may be used in connection with an electronic device, including but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, disk arrays (Redundant Arrays of Independent Drives; hereinafter RAID) systems, tape drives, data backup storage systems, and the like.

The processor 410 executes various functional applications and data processing by running programs stored in the memory 430, for example, to implement the print control method provided by the embodiment of the present invention.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a computer readable storage medium, which stores computer instructions for causing the computer to execute the printing control method provided by the embodiment of the invention.

Any combination of one or more computer readable media may be utilized as the above-described computer readable storage media. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. The computer readable storage medium can be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or a combination of any of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer-readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a Read-Only Memory (ROM), an erasable programmable Read-Only Memory (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory; EPROM) or flash Memory, an optical fiber, a portable compact disc Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In this document, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

The computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with computer readable program code embodied therein, either in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated data signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. A computer readable signal medium may also be any computer readable medium that is not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

In the description of the present specification, a description referring to terms "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "examples," "specific examples," or "some examples," etc., means that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the present invention. In this specification, schematic representations of the above terms are not necessarily directed to the same embodiment or example. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples. Furthermore, the different embodiments or examples described in this specification and the features of the different embodiments or examples may be combined and combined by those skilled in the art without contradiction.

Furthermore, the terms "first," "second," and the like, are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying a relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defining "a first" or "a second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one such feature. In the description of the present invention, the meaning of "plurality" means at least two, for example, two, three, etc., unless specifically defined otherwise.

Any process or method descriptions in flow charts or otherwise described herein may be understood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code which include one or more executable instructions for implementing specific logical functions or steps of the process, and additional implementations are included within the scope of the preferred embodiment of the present invention in which functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order from that shown or discussed, depending on the functionality involved, as would be understood by those reasonably skilled in the art of the embodiments of the present invention.

In the several embodiments provided by the present invention, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the elements is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple elements or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

In addition, each functional unit in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit. The integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in hardware plus software functional units.

The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the invention is not intended to be limiting, but rather to enable any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement or the like to be made within the spirit and principles of the invention.

Claims

1. A print control method, characterized by comprising:

after a print task instruction is detected, print data is acquired;

converting the print data into page image data;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein creating a print identifier for the page image data, dividing the page image data into a plurality of print paragraphs, comprises:

3. The method of claim 2, wherein creating a print identifier for the page image data, dividing the page image data into a plurality of print paragraphs, comprises:

detecting whether the printing paragraph contains blank lines or not;

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein said creating a print identifier for said page image data, dividing said page image data into a plurality of print paragraphs, comprises:

for page image data of any page, creating a printing page starting identifier;

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining the start line of the print paragraph comprises:

6. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the ending line of the print paragraph comprises:

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the converting the print data into page image data comprises:

8. A print control apparatus, comprising:

a conversion module for converting the print data into page image data;

9. An electronic device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory communicatively coupled to the processor, wherein:

the memory stores program instructions that are called by the processor to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 7.

10. A computer readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer readable storage medium comprises a stored program, wherein the program when executed by a processor implements the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7.