JP2001219614A - System and method for controlling print - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problems of conventional method for controlling print that the operation is complicated because two operations, i.e., an operation for generating a form overlay file and actual print operation, are required and a user makes print data correspond with the name of form overlay for each operation and that a form overlay function can not be used from an application because an interface for utilizing that function is different from printer to printer. SOLUTION: In the print according to an application program, high speed print is realized by making the form overlay function of a printer available without requiring any special operation, e.g. an operation for generating a form overlay or an operation for inputting the name of form overlay.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print control system and a print control method for realizing high-speed printing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when an application program such as Windows performs printing, even if there is a fixed portion common to all pages of print data such as a ruled line and a company logo mark, all data is transferred to a page buffer of a printer device. I was

[0003] In such a print control method, the printer device cannot distinguish between a fixed portion common to all pages in the page buffer and variable data for each page, and stores all the contents of the page buffer for each page. Print processing was being performed. For this reason, the amount of data to be printed is increased, and the printing speed of the printer device is reduced.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 10-244727 discloses a print control method for printing all figures in print data and characters of a specific font type as fixed parts by utilizing a form overlay function of a printer. I have.

FIG. 5 shows a print control method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-244727. When a user inputs an overlay file name in a first operation, a printer driver 18 converts a graphic of all pages from print data. Then, characters of a specific font type are extracted, converted into character codes for a printer, and stored as an overlay file 22 in the hard disk of the computer 12. 2 by user
By specifying the overlay file name in the second operation, the contents of the overlay file 22 are transferred to the form overlay buffer 13 of the printer 11. Next, the printer driver 18 extracts print data other than graphics of all pages and characters of a specific font type from the print data,
The data is converted into a character code for a printer and transferred to the page buffer 14 of the printer 11. The form overlay function 15 performs printing by superimposing the contents of the form overlay buffer 13 and the contents of the page buffer 14 and outputs a print result 16.

[0006]

In a conventional print control method using a form overlay function, an interface for using the function is different for each printer.
There was a problem that it could not be used from the application. Also, a form overlay file creation operation,
There is a problem that two operations including the actual printing operation are required, and the operation is complicated because the user associates the print data with the form overlay name in each operation.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and requires special operations such as a form overlay creation operation and a form overlay name input operation in printing by an application program. Instead, an object of the present invention is to make it possible to use a form overlay function of a printer and to perform high-speed printing.

[0008]

A print control system according to the present invention comprises a form overlay buffer for storing fixed print data, a page buffer for storing variable print data for each page, the fixed print data and the variable print during printing. A printer device comprising form overlay means having a function of superimposing data; a selection means for extracting fixed print data common to a plurality of pages of print data in response to a print request from an application program; and a fixed print data extracted to the form overlay buffer. The computer includes a transfer unit having a function of transferring the variable print data for each page to the page buffer.

The selection means extracts data created on a preset page as fixed print data.

Further, the selection means extracts data designated by color as fixed print data.

Further, the selection means extracts duplicate data as fixed print data.

A print control method according to the present invention includes a step of separating print data created by a print request of an application program into fixed print data and variable print data, a step of transferring the fixed print data to the form overlay buffer, Transferring the variable print data to the page buffer, and superimposing and printing the fixed print data and the variable print data by the form overlay means.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1 Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing Embodiment 1 of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the print control system of the present embodiment includes a form overlay buffer 3 and a page buffer 4 in a printer 1, and outputs a print result 6 by overlapping print data with a form overlay function 5. Further, the computer 2 includes a printer driver 8 having both functions of a sorting unit and a transfer unit, and sorts print data 9 created by a print request from the application program 7 into fixed print data 10 and variable print data 11. , To the form overlay buffer 3 and the page buffer 4.

The features of the first embodiment are as follows.
The print control of the first page is performed as the fixed print data 10 common to all pages. The application program 7 of the computer 2 includes print data 9
The fixed print data 10 common to all pages is output on the first page, and the variable print data 11 for each page is output on the second and subsequent pages of the print data 9. Fixed print data 10
The variable print data 11 may include not only characters but also images and ruled lines.

The procedure of the print control method will be described in detail with reference to FIG. If it is determined in step S1 in FIG. 2 that form overlay printing is to be performed, and if it is determined in step S2 that the first page is to be fixed print data, in step S3, the printer driver 8 converts the first page into fixed print data
The print data 9 from which the fixed print data 10 is extracted is set as variable print data 11.

In step S4, the printer driver 8 transfers the fixed print data 10 to the form overlay buffer 3 of the printer 1, and transfers the variable print data 11 to the page buffer 4 of the printer 1 in step S5. Step S
In step 6, the printer 1 superimposes the contents of the form overlay buffer 3 and prints them every time the contents of the page buffer 4 are printed in page units.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, since the fixed print data 10 common to all pages of printing is transferred only once, the amount of data transferred to the printer 1 is reduced, and Processing is performed at high speed.

Further, according to the present embodiment, the application program 7 can use the form overlay function of the printer 1 only by outputting a fixed portion common to all pages to be printed on the first page. Contributes to speeding up.

Further, according to the present embodiment, the printing operation by the user only needs to be performed once, and no special operation such as designation of the form overlay name is required.

Further, according to the present embodiment, the computer 2 does not need a hard disk area (not shown) for storing the form overlay.

Although it is assumed in FIG. 2 that the first page is the fixed print data 10, the last page or any page can be printed as the fixed print data 10. Embodiment 2 FIG. In the second embodiment, the application program 7 uses the present invention by outputting a fixed print portion and a variable print portion in different colors.
The procedure of the print control method will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The characteristic feature of the second embodiment is that the fixed print data 10 is specified by a specific color, instead of being output to the specified page.

The application program 7 of the computer 2 outputs the fixed print data 10 in, for example, blue,
The variable print data 11 is output, for example, in black. The fixed print data 10, like the variable print data 11, may be output to all pages. The fixed print data 10
The variable print data 11 may include not only characters but also images and ruled lines.

The procedure of the print control method will be described in detail with reference to FIG. If it is determined in step S11 in FIG. 3 that form overlay printing is to be performed, and if it is determined in step S12 that data specified by a specific color is fixed print data, the printer driver 8 performs fixed printing of data specified in blue in step S13. The data is extracted as data 10 and the data designated in black is set as variable print data 11.

In step S14, the printer driver 8 transfers the fixed print data 10 to the form overlay buffer 3 of the printer 1, and in step S15, the variable print data 1
1 is transferred to the page buffer 4 of the printer 1. In step S16, every time the printer 1 prints the content of the page buffer 4 in page units, the printer 1 prints the content of the form overlay buffer 3 in a superimposed manner.

As described above, in the present embodiment, high-speed printing can be performed by using form overlay processing of a printer by regarding print data of a specific color as fixed print data. Embodiment 3 FIG. In the third embodiment, the printer driver 8
Compares the print data contents of each page, and sets the print elements overlapping on the comparison target page as the fixed print data 10. The procedure of the print control method will be described in detail with reference to FIG. A characteristic of the fourth embodiment is that the application program 7 does not need to output the fixed print portion and the variable print portion separately.

If it is determined in step S21 in FIG. 4 that form overlay printing is to be performed, and if it is determined in step S22 that data to be duplicated in the comparison target page is to be fixed print data, the printer driver 8 determines in step S23 that the comparison target page is to be printed. The contents are scanned and compared, duplicate data is extracted as fixed print data 10, and print data 9 from which the fixed print data 10 is extracted is set as variable print data 11.

In step S24, the printer driver 8 transfers the fixed print data 10 to the form overlay buffer 3 of the printer 1, and in step S25, the variable print data 1
1 is transferred to the page buffer 4 of the printer 1. In step S26, every time the printer 1 prints the contents of the page buffer 4 in page units, the printer 1 prints the contents of the form overlay buffer 3 in a superimposed manner.

As described above, in this embodiment, high-speed printing is performed by using the form overlay processing of the printer 1 by regarding the data duplicated in the comparison target page as the fixed print data 10 of all pages. Can be.

In the present embodiment, it is possible to select a specific page such as the first page and the second page as the comparison target pages to be scanned, or to select all pages.

[0031]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects.

Since the fixed print data is directly transferred to the form overlay buffer at once by the transfer means,
The data transfer amount is reduced, and the printing process can be performed at high speed without requiring a hard disk area.

Further, since the sorting means can extract data created on a preset page as fixed print data, the printing process can be performed at high speed without requiring a special operation such as designating a form overlay name. It can be carried out.

Further, the selection means can extract data designated by the color as fixed print data.
Print processing can be performed at high speed without requiring special operations such as specification of a form overlay name.

Further, since the selecting means can extract the duplicated data as fixed print data, the print processing can be performed at high speed without requiring a special operation such as designating a form overlay name.

Further, the selection means can be used independently of the application program, and the selection means can be arbitrarily selected.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing when form overlay printing is performed in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing when form overlay printing is performed in Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing when form overlay printing is performed in Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a print control system showing a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printer device 2 Computer 3 Form overlay buffer 4 Page buffer 5 Form overlay function (form overlay means) 7 Application program 8 Printer driver (sorting means, transfer means) 9 Print data 10 Fixed print data 11 Variable print data

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A form overlay buffer for storing fixed print data, a page buffer for storing variable print data for each page, and form overlay means having a function of superimposing the fixed print data and the variable print data during printing. A printer, selecting means for extracting fixed print data common to a plurality of pages of print data in response to a print request from an application program, transferring the extracted fixed print data to the form overlay buffer, and transferring variable print data for each page to the page buffer A printing control system comprising a computer comprising a transfer unit having a function of transferring data to a printer. 2. The print control system according to claim 1, wherein the selection unit extracts data created on a preset page as fixed print data. 3. The print control system according to claim 1, wherein said selection means extracts data designated by a color as fixed print data. 4. The print control system according to claim 1, wherein said selection means extracts duplicate data as fixed print data. 5. A step of separating print data created by a print request of an application program into fixed print data and variable print data, transferring the fixed print data to the form overlay buffer, and transferring the variable print data to the page. A print control method comprising: transferring the fixed print data and the variable print data by the form overlay unit.