JP2001270168A - Recorder and its recording data counting method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recorder in which throughput is enhanced by eliminating the operation for counting the number of recording dots thereby shortening the time required for counting the number of recording dots. SOLUTION: A data processing omission detecting circuit 301 checks data from a receiving buffer 251 being stored in a recording buffer 252 to determine whether the values of recording data included in a specified region is entirely identical or not. If the values of recording data included in the specified region entirely indicates unrecording, counting operation is not required and it is omitted at a data processing circuit 102.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording apparatus and a recording data counting method for the recording apparatus, and more particularly, to a recording head having a plurality of recording elements arranged in a predetermined direction.
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that performs printing by scanning over a printing medium in a direction substantially orthogonal to the arrangement direction of printing elements, and a print data counting method of the printing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For information output in a word processor, a personal computer, a facsimile, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art A printer is well known as a recording apparatus for recording desired information such as characters and images on a sheet-like recording medium such as paper or film.

[0003] Various types of printing methods are known for printers. However, ink-jet printing is possible because non-contact printing is possible on printing media such as paper, colorization is easy, and quietness is high. In recent years, the method has attracted particular attention, and its configuration is to mount a recording head that ejects ink in accordance with desired recording information and perform reciprocating scanning in a direction perpendicular to the feed direction of a recording medium such as paper. A serial recording system for performing recording is generally widely used because it is inexpensive and easy to miniaturize.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the basic operation of the ink jet recording apparatus. In the figure, 1 is a recording medium on which an image is recorded, 9 is a recording head for discharging ink droplets, and 29 is a control circuit for driving the recording head.

A plurality of ink discharge ports (nozzles) 10 are formed at a predetermined pitch in the vertical direction on the surface of the recording head 9 facing the recording medium 1. Ink 13 is supplied from an ink tank (not shown) via a liquid passage 10A.

[0006] Each of the ink discharge ports 10 is provided with an electrothermal converter (heat generating resistor or the like) 11 corresponding thereto. By selectively energizing and heating these in accordance with recording information, a film boiling phenomenon occurs in the ink. As a result, bubbles (bubbles) 12 are generated. The ink is ejected by this pressure, and the flying ink droplet 1
3A is formed. Then, the flying ink droplets 13A are made to adhere to the recording medium 1 in a predetermined pattern, and recording is performed by a dot pattern. Thereafter, when the energization heating in step 11 is stopped, the inside of the recording head nozzle is cooled, and the bubble (bubble) 1
2 disappears.

Each of the electrothermal transducers is provided with a heat driver 14 for turning on / off the energization, and converts the recording data transmitted from a control circuit (driver) 29 for performing the above-described driving into serial / parallel data. The heat driver 14 is driven by ANDing the signal converted by the conversion circuit 16 into data corresponding to the number of nozzles and the heat signal from the heat signal generation circuit 17.

A control unit including a CPU for controlling the entire recording apparatus and a ROM, a RAM and the like attached thereto receive various control signals and recording data transmitted from a host computer or the like, and, based on the received signals, various motors and the like. A drive power source (heat power source) for the electrothermal transducer is applied to each of the recording heads 9A to 9D via the drive circuit 29 and the heat driver 13 together with the drive source, and is energized.

The flow of print data when a printing operation is performed in such a serial type ink jet printing apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5A shows dot data recorded on the recording medium 1. One row is composed of dot data from 1 to N with eight recording dots as a recording unit, and the second row is composed of dot data from (N + 1) to 2N. Since the nozzles of the recording head are arranged in the recording medium feed direction, it is necessary to perform a horizontal (row direction) to vertical (column direction) conversion (vertical / horizontal conversion) process in accordance with the nozzle arrangement when recording. Become.

Normally, data sent from the host 100 includes information related to control of the printing apparatus (control command) and data related to dots to be formed on the print medium (print data). The CPU of the recording device reads the received data, determines the control command and the recording data, and sends control commands to various control circuits based on the control command.
Controls motors, panels, etc. In the following, for simplicity, only the recording data will be described.

FIG. 5B shows the flow of data and the format of the data. The recording data is sent from the host apparatus 100 in units of 1-byte data of 1 dot vertically × 8 dots horizontally, 1, 2, 2 in the figure. 3. . . Are transmitted in that order. The transmitted data is sent to the working memory 25 via the interface 22.
, 2, 3,. . . Are stored in this order.

Thereafter, data is transferred from the reception buffer 251 to the recording buffer 252. At this time, the order of the data is changed so that the vertical / horizontal conversion process can be easily performed later. Here, it is assumed that vertical and horizontal conversion of 8 × 8 dots is performed as an example. That is, 8 × 8 dots are stored in the recording buffer 252 as a unit.

In this case, the data held at the address 1 of the reception buffer 251 is stored in the address 1 of the recording buffer 252, and the data stored in the address 2 of the reception buffer 251 is stored in the address 9 of the recording buffer 252.
At (= 8 + 1), the data held at address 3 of the reception buffer 251 is recorded at address 17 (= 2 × 8 + 1) of the recording buffer 252, and so on.

On the other hand, the data held at the address 9 of the receiving buffer 251 is the address 2 of the recording buffer 252.
The data held at the address 17 of the receiving buffer 251 is recorded at the address 3 of the recording buffer 252. By changing the order of the data in this way, the received data has an arrangement similar to that of the recording dots on the recording medium.

Thereafter, the data transferred to the recording buffer 252 is read out serially in the order of addresses in the recording buffer, and count control such as dot count, smear account, and power monitor control count is performed. After data processing (vertical / horizontal conversion processing) suitable for recording is performed, the data is transferred to the head.

Here, the dot count is a control for counting recording data for each head when performing one heat control, and the sum account is a control for recording each data recorded in a certain area on a recording medium. The power monitor control is a control for counting data for each head, and the power monitor control is a control for counting the total data of all dots recorded in a certain area on a recording medium using all the recording heads.

These processes are described in JP-A-07-0.
No. 47696, JP-A-07-125216,
And JP-A-62-41114.

[0018]

In the conventional recording apparatus, these count controls are performed mechanically regardless of the data to be counted. For this reason, the above-described counting process is also performed on an area that does not include any recording data.

However, in recent years, with an increase in the speed of the host device, an improvement in the throughput of the recording apparatus has been further required, and the time required for these controls hinders the improvement in the throughput.

The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and the processing of counting the number of recording dots is omitted as necessary to reduce the time required for these processing and improve the throughput. It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording apparatus and a recording data counting method of the recording apparatus which can perform the recording.

[0021]

In order to achieve the above object, a recording apparatus according to the present invention comprises a recording head having a plurality of recording elements arranged in a predetermined direction in a direction substantially orthogonal to the arrangement direction of the recording elements. A recording device for recording by scanning over a recording medium, a receiving buffer for storing recording data transmitted in a raster format, and a predetermined area in which data stored in the receiving buffer is recorded by the recording head. A recording buffer for storing data for each recording buffer, a data conversion step of converting data stored in the recording buffer into data in a format conforming to the array of the recording elements, A counting step of counting the number of data indicating recording among the stored data; and all data in the predetermined area stored in the recording buffer are A determining step of determining whether or not all the data in the predetermined area have the same value. It is configured to simplify counting.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording data counting method for a recording apparatus, comprising: a recording head having a plurality of recording elements arranged in a predetermined direction; A recording data counting method of a recording device that performs recording by scanning over a recording medium,
Storing print data transmitted in a raster format in a reception buffer, storing the data stored in the reception buffering process in a recording buffer for each predetermined area recorded by the recording head, A data conversion step of converting data stored in the storage element into data in a format conforming to the arrangement of the printing elements; and And a determining step of determining whether or not all the data in the predetermined area stored in the recording buffer have the same value. When it is determined that all the data in the predetermined area have the same value, the counting of the number of data is simplified.

That is, before counting the number of recording data in the data stored in the recording buffer, it is checked whether or not the values of the recording data included in the predetermined area are all the same. When all the values of the recording data included in the area indicate non-recording, the count processing is unnecessary, and the description is omitted.

This makes it possible to speed up the processing relating to the count of the number of recording data, which is performed when transmitting the driving data from the recording buffer to the recording head, thereby improving the throughput of the recording apparatus.

[0025]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a view showing an example of the configuration of a color ink jet recording apparatus of a type including an electrothermal converter as an ink discharge energy generating means as a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 2, a recording medium 1 such as a sheet of paper or a plastic sheet is supported by a pair of conveying rollers 2 and 3 arranged above and below a recording area, and is driven by a conveying roller 3 driven by a sheet feed motor 70 to indicate an arrow A. Conveyed in the direction. A guide shaft 5 is provided in front of the transport roller 3 in parallel with the transport roller 3. The carriage 6 is reciprocated in the direction of arrow B by the carriage motor 71 via the wire 8 along the guide shaft.

A carriage 6 serving as a head moving means has a recording head 9 integrally formed with a separable ink tank. These recording heads are for color recording, and are respectively arranged for cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and yellow in the scanning direction of the carriage.
4 provided corresponding to each color ink of black (Bk)
A plurality of recording heads 9, that is, a black head 9A, a cyan head 9B, a magenta head 9C, and a yellow head 9D are provided.

A plurality of (for example, 48 or 64) ink ejection ports are provided on the front surface of each recording head 9, that is, a surface facing the recording surface of the recording medium 1 at a predetermined interval (for example, 0.8 mm). Are provided in a line in the vertical direction that intersects the scanning direction.

An operation panel 160 mounted on an outer case (not shown) of the recording apparatus includes key setting units such as an online / offline switching key 60A, a line feed key 60B, a form feed key 60C, and a recording mode switching key 60D. And a display unit including warning lamps such as a plurality of alarm lamps 61A and a power lamp 61B.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a control system of the color ink jet recording apparatus shown in FIG.

In FIG. 4, a CPU 21 in the form of a microprocessor is connected to a host device 100 via an interface 22, and a command signal (command), recording data, and the like read from a controller of the host device 100 into a data memory 23. And a program memory 24 in the form of a ROM or a working memory 25 in the form of a RAM
The recording operation is controlled based on the program and the recording command data stored in the storage device.

The receiving buffer and the recording buffer in this embodiment are provided inside the working memory 25. The vertical and horizontal conversion control is performed by the CPU 21 by the working memory 2.
5 and the data processing circuit 102.

The CPU 21 controls the carriage motor 71 and the sheet feed motor 70 via the output port 26 and the motor driver 27, and controls the data memory 23
Head control circuit 29 based on the recording information stored in
To control the recording head 9 to perform recording.

Outputs from the operation keys 60A to 61D (FIG. 2) on the operation panel 160 are input to the input port 32.
Is transmitted to the CPU 21 via the
Control signals are supplied to the lamps such as 1A and the power lamp 61B via the output port 36.

In FIG. 4, the power supply circuit 28 outputs a logic drive voltage VCC (for example, 5 V) for operating the control logic circuit and various motor drive voltages VM.
(For example, 30 V), a reset voltage RESET, and a heat voltage VH (for example, 25 V) for supplying electricity to the electrothermal transducer 11 of the recording head 9 to generate heat are output. This heat voltage VH is applied to the recording head 9.

Hereinafter, a configuration for reducing the time required for the count control in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In this embodiment, when all print data corresponding to an area of a specific size, such as an area where the carriage can print in one scan, is data representing “non-print”, dot count, smear account, and This is to reduce the processing time without performing power monitor control.

In FIG. 1, when data is transferred from the reception buffer 251 to the recording buffer 252, a detection timing signal is sent from the reception buffer 251 to the data processing omission detection circuit 301. Based on this, the data processing omission detection circuit 301 converts the data to be transferred into a predetermined unit,
For example, AND or NAND of recording data corresponding to eight bits included in one byte is obtained, and it is determined whether or not the recording data is non-recording data (in this case, “0” indicates non-recording data).

The data processing omission detection circuit 301
The results of the determination are collectively stored in a number corresponding to an area having a predetermined size (for example, a number corresponding to all print data included in an area where the carriage can print in one scan).

Next, when performing dot count, smear account, or power monitor control, the data processing circuit 102
Sends a processing start signal to the data processing omission detection circuit 301. In response, the data processing omission detection circuit 301
Transmits a determination result signal to the data processing circuit 102.

The data processing circuit 102 actually performs each counting process when all the judgment results corresponding to the predetermined areas are not non-recording. When all the determination results are non-recording, since there is no need to perform the processing, the counting processing is omitted and preparations are made for performing the counting processing for the next area.

Here, the operation of the data processing omission detection circuit 301 of this embodiment will be described again with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In step S71, the process waits until a detection timing signal is received from the reception buffer 251. After receiving the detection timing signal, in step S71, AND or NAND of each bit of the 1-byte recording data is obtained.
It is determined whether the data is non-recorded data.

Then, in step S73, the carriage moves to 1
If the determination for print data of a predetermined area, such as an area that can be printed in one scan, is not completed, step S
Returning to 72, the determination is performed again. When the determination for the print data of the predetermined area is completed in step S74, the determination result is stored.

In step S75, the process waits until a process start signal from the data processing circuit 102 is received. When the signal is received, the stored judgment result is transmitted to the data processing circuit 102.

The above processing is repeated, and when all the recording data in the predetermined area is "non-recording" in accordance with the timing of transmission of the recording data from the reception buffer 251 to the recording buffer 252, the data processing circuit 102 The counting process can be omitted.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when data is transmitted from the reception buffer to the recording buffer, before the content of the recording data is checked and the count processing is performed, the recording data corresponding to the predetermined area is transmitted. When all of them indicate non-recording, the counting process can be omitted to shorten the processing time.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the first embodiment, the counting process is omitted only when all the recording data included in a specific area indicates non-recording. However, in the second embodiment, the counting process is not performed. In the case where all pieces of recording data have the same information in a certain specific area, the processing is further speeded up by controlling the count processing to be omitted.

Hereinafter, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In this embodiment, the working memory 25 including the reception buffer 251 and the recording buffer 252, the data omission detection circuit 301, the data processing circuit 102,
And a selector 302. Here, portions that are not particularly described have the same configuration as those described in the first embodiment, and perform similar operations.

The data processing omission detecting circuit 30 of the present embodiment.
1 is to determine whether all the read data is non-recording information or all the recording information by AND and NAND of each bit. The AND of both bits is set as an upper bit, and the AND of each bit is set as a lower bit. The 2-bit flag data is held in a specific area. That is, the upper bits indicate whether the information can be omitted, and the lower bits indicate whether the information can be all recorded information or all non-recorded information.

In the illustrated example, all eight pieces of 1-byte recording data are data representing recording. Therefore, the upper bit is "0" and the lower bit is "1".

Next, when performing each count control, the data processing circuit 102 performs 1 count control by the selector 301 according to the upper bit of the flag data.
The omission signal is checked byte by byte to determine whether data in the area can be omitted.

If the data in the area cannot be omitted (ie, the upper bit = “1”), the normal processing as described in the first embodiment is performed.

On the other hand, if the data can be omitted (ie, the upper bit = "0"), it is determined from the value of the lower bit of the flag data whether all data is non-recording or recording. If all data indicates non-recording, the count processing is not performed because the number of recorded data does not change. When all the data represents recording, a predetermined value (8 × 8 = 64 in this case) corresponding to the number of data in the area is simply added to the count number. Is loaded into the counter.

In the present embodiment, by performing such control, when all the recording data in the specific area have the same value, the count processing can be omitted for the non-recording information, and the recording information can be omitted. Even if only one addition process is performed, the time for counting up can be significantly reduced.

In the above embodiment, the description has been made assuming that the droplets ejected from the recording head are ink, and that the liquid stored in the ink tank is ink. It is not limited. For example, an ink tank may contain a processing liquid discharged to a recording medium in order to improve the fixability and water resistance of the recorded image or to improve the image quality.

The above-described embodiment is particularly provided with a means (for example, an electrothermal converter or a laser beam) for generating thermal energy as energy used for performing ink ejection even in an ink jet recording system. By using a method in which a change in the state of the ink is caused by energy, it is possible to achieve higher density and higher definition of recording.

The typical configuration and principle are described in, for example, US Pat. Nos. 4,723,129 and 4,740.
It is preferable to use the basic principle disclosed in the specification of Japanese Patent No. 796. This method can be applied to both the so-called on-demand type and continuous type. In particular, in the case of the on-demand type, liquid (ink)
By applying at least one drive signal corresponding to recorded information and providing a sharp temperature rise exceeding nucleate boiling to an electrothermal transducer arranged corresponding to a sheet or a liquid path in which Since thermal energy is generated in the electrothermal transducer and film boiling occurs on the heat-acting surface of the recording head, bubbles in the liquid (ink) corresponding to this drive signal on a one-to-one basis can be formed. It is valid.

The liquid (ink) is ejected through the ejection opening by the growth and contraction of the bubble to form at least one droplet. When the drive signal is formed into a pulse shape, the growth and shrinkage of the bubble are performed immediately and appropriately, so that the ejection of a liquid (ink) having particularly excellent responsiveness can be achieved, which is more preferable.

As the pulse-shaped drive signal, those described in US Pat. Nos. 4,463,359 and 4,345,262 are suitable. Further, if the conditions described in US Pat. No. 4,313,124 relating to the temperature rise rate of the heat acting surface are adopted, more excellent recording can be performed.

As the configuration of the recording head, in addition to the combination of the discharge port, the liquid path, and the electrothermal converter (linear liquid flow path or right-angled liquid flow path) as disclosed in the above-mentioned respective specifications, A configuration using U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,333 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,459,600, which discloses a configuration in which a heat acting surface is arranged in a bent region, is also included in the present invention. In addition, for multiple electrothermal transducers,
JP-A-59-123670 which discloses a configuration in which a common slot is used as a discharge part of an electrothermal transducer, and JP-A-59-123670 which discloses a configuration in which an opening for absorbing a pressure wave of thermal energy corresponds to a discharge part. A configuration based on 138461 may be adopted.

Further, as a full-line type recording head having a length corresponding to the width of the maximum recording medium that can be recorded by the recording apparatus, the length is determined by combining a plurality of recording heads as disclosed in the above specification. This may be either a configuration satisfying the above requirements or a configuration as a single recording head formed integrally.

In addition to the cartridge type recording head in which an ink tank is provided integrally with the recording head itself described in the above embodiment, the recording head is electrically connected to the apparatus main body by being mounted on the apparatus main body. A replaceable chip-type recording head, which enables a simple connection and supply of ink from the apparatus main body, may be used.

Further, it is preferable to add recovery means for the printhead, preliminary auxiliary means, and the like to the configuration of the printing apparatus described above, since the printing operation can be further stabilized. Specific examples thereof include capping means for the recording head, cleaning means, pressurizing or suction means, preheating means using an electrothermal transducer or another heating element or a combination thereof. It is also effective to provide a preliminary ejection mode for performing ejection that is different from printing, in order to perform stable printing.

Further, the recording mode of the recording apparatus is not limited to the recording mode of only the mainstream color such as black, but may be an integral recording head or a combination of a plurality of recording heads. Alternatively, the apparatus may be provided with at least one of full colors by color mixture.

In the above-described embodiment, the description is made on the assumption that the ink is a liquid. However, even if the ink solidifies at room temperature or lower, it is possible to use an ink that softens or liquefies at room temperature. Or, in the ink jet method, generally, the temperature of the ink itself is controlled within a range of 30 ° C. or more and 70 ° C. or less to control the temperature so that the viscosity of the ink is in a stable ejection range.
It is sufficient that the ink is in a liquid state when the use recording signal is applied.

In addition, in order to positively prevent the temperature rise due to thermal energy as energy for changing the state of the ink from the solid state to the liquid state, the temperature is positively prevented.
Alternatively, in order to prevent evaporation of the ink, an ink which solidifies in a standing state and liquefies by heating may be used. In any case, the application of heat energy causes the ink to be liquefied by application of the heat energy according to the recording signal and the liquid ink to be ejected, or to start to solidify when reaching the recording medium. The present invention is also applicable to a case where an ink having a property of liquefying for the first time is used.

In such a case, the ink is disclosed in JP-A-54-5
No. 6,847, or Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-71260, in which the porous sheet is opposed to the electrothermal converter while being held as a liquid or solid substance in the concave portion or through hole of the porous sheet. It may be. In the present invention, the most effective one for each of the above-mentioned inks is to execute the above-mentioned film boiling method.

The present invention can be applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), and can be applied to a single device (for example, a copier, a facsimile). Device).

Further, an object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium (or a recording medium) in which a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiment is recorded to a system or an apparatus, and to provide a computer (a computer) of the system or the apparatus. Alternatively, it is needless to say that the present invention can also be achieved by a CPU or an MPU) reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium implements the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention. Also,
When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also the operating system (OS) running on the computer based on the instructions of the program code.
It goes without saying that a case where the functions of the above-described embodiments are implemented by performing some or all of the actual processing, and the processing performs the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion card inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the program code is read based on the instruction of the program code. Needless to say, the CPU included in the function expansion card or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

When the present invention is applied to the storage medium, the storage medium stores program codes corresponding to the above-described flowchart (shown in FIG. 7).

[0074]

As described above, according to the present invention, before the data stored in the recording buffer is counted, the values of the recording data contained in the predetermined area are all the same before counting the number of recording data. Check whether or not, for example,
When all the values of the recording data included in the predetermined area indicate non-recording, the count processing is unnecessary and can be omitted, and the recording data performed when the driving data is transmitted from the recording buffer to the recording head can be omitted. This has the effect of speeding up the processing for counting the number and improving the throughput of the printing apparatus.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external perspective view illustrating a configuration of a main part of a color inkjet recording apparatus to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an internal configuration of the inkjet recording head.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a control configuration of the color inkjet recording apparatus of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining data processing in a conventional recording apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Recording medium 2, 3 Conveyance feed roller 4 Sheet feed motor 5 Guide shaft 6 Carriage 7 Carriage motor 8 Belt 9, 9A-9D Recording head 10 Ink ejection port 10A Liquid path 11 Electrothermal conversion 14 Heat driver 16 Serial / parallel conversion circuit Reference Signs List 17 heat signal generation circuit 92 ink cartridges 60A-60D operation keys 61A alarm lamp 61B power lamp 17 control board 21 CPU 22 interface 23 data memory 24 program memory 25 working memory 28 power supply device 100 host device 102 data processing circuit 160 operation panel

Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. A recording apparatus which performs recording by scanning a recording head having a plurality of recording elements arranged in a predetermined direction on a recording medium in a direction substantially orthogonal to the arrangement direction of the recording elements. A reception buffer for storing recording data transmitted in a format, a recording buffer for storing data stored in the reception buffer for each predetermined area recorded by the recording head, and a data buffer for storing the data stored in the recording buffer. A data conversion step of converting data into a format conforming to the array of the recording elements, and a counting step of counting the number of data indicating recording among the data stored in the recording buffer during the conversion in the data conversion step, A determination step of determining whether all data in the predetermined area stored in the recording buffer have the same value, The recording apparatus, wherein the counting step is configured to simplify counting of the number of data when the determining step determines that all data in the predetermined area have the same value. 2. The method according to claim 2, wherein the counting step does not count the number of data in the predetermined area when the determining step determines that all data in the predetermined area is data indicating non-recording. The recording device according to claim 1, wherein 3. The counting step includes adding a value corresponding to the number of data included in the predetermined area when the determination step determines that all data in the predetermined area is data indicating recording. The recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the recording is performed. 4. When the recording apparatus has a plurality of recording heads, the counting step counts the number of data recorded by each recording head and the number of data recorded by all recording heads. Claims 1 to 3
The recording device according to claim 1. 5. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination step performs the determination when transmitting data from the reception buffer to the recording buffer. 6. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determining step transmits a determination result in response to a request from the counting step. 7. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording head is an inkjet recording head that performs recording by discharging ink. 8. The printing head according to claim 1, wherein the printing head uses thermal energy to eject ink, and includes a thermal energy converter for generating thermal energy to be applied to the ink. Item 8. The recording device according to Item 7. 9. A recording data counting method for a recording apparatus, which performs recording by scanning a recording head having a plurality of recording elements arranged in a predetermined direction on a recording medium in a direction substantially orthogonal to the arrangement direction of the recording elements. Storing the recording data transmitted in a raster format in a reception buffer; and storing the data stored in the reception buffering step in a recording buffer for each predetermined area recorded by the recording head. A data conversion step of converting data stored in the recording buffer into data in a format conforming to the arrangement of the recording elements; and performing a conversion of the data stored in the recording buffer during the conversion in the data conversion step. A counting step of counting the number of data indicating the same, and all data in the predetermined area stored in the recording buffer have the same value. A counting step of determining whether or not all the data in the predetermined area has the same value. A recording data counting method for a recording apparatus. 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the counting step does not count the number of data in the predetermined area when the determining step determines that all data in the predetermined area is data indicating non-recording. The recording data counting method for a recording apparatus according to claim 9, wherein: 11. The counting step includes adding a value corresponding to the number of data included in the predetermined area when the determination step determines that all data in the predetermined area is data indicating recording. 11. The method according to claim 10, wherein
4. The recording data counting method of the recording device according to 1. 12. When the recording apparatus has a plurality of recording heads, the counting step counts the number of data recorded by each recording head and the number of data recorded by all recording heads. The recording data counting method for a recording apparatus according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein: 13. The recording apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said determination step performs said determination when data is transmitted from said reception buffer to said recording buffer. Data counting method. 14. The recording data counting method for a recording apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the determination step transmits a determination result in response to a request from the counting step.