JP2003223296A - Printer driver - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer driver that allows an image, which has been created by general application software without having a logo registration function, to be registered as the logo. <P>SOLUTION: A universal printer driver 33 generates image data on the basis of images generated by an application 31 without having a log registration function. A logo registration printer driver 50 converts the image data into the logo data and sends the data with a logo registration command to a printer. The printer that receives the data registers the logo using a well-known method. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer driver, and more particularly to a printer driver capable of registering an image created by an application as a logo in a printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, it has been practiced to register a logo in a memory provided in a printer, read it out as needed, and print the logo. In this case, since it is not necessary to transmit the logo data to the printer every time the logo printing is performed, the amount of transmission data can be reduced and high speed printing can be performed. For example, if you want to print shop information or discount coupons on a receipt handed to a customer in a transaction, you can quickly print even a large amount of data by registering these images as a logo in the printer, and You can issue a receipt without waiting.

Such logo registration is performed by using a dedicated application having an image creating function and a logo registering function. In other words, when the user creates a desired image using the dedicated application installed on the computer, the dedicated application creates logo data based on the created image and sends it to the printer together with a command to instruct logo registration. To do. The printer saves the received logo data in its own memory and registers the logo.

[0004]

However, in order to register a logo by the above-mentioned conventional method, a dedicated application having an image creating function and a logo registering function is required. Therefore, the image creating function is provided but the logo registering function is not provided. An image created with a general-purpose application could not be registered as a logo in the printer. Further, since the dedicated application has its own operation method, the user had to learn such an operation method. Furthermore, the procedure for logo registration is generally complicated and difficult for users to use.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printer driver capable of registering an image created by a general-purpose application having no logo registration function as a logo in a printer.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is a printer driver used in a host computer, wherein data adding means for adding logo information to logo data, and the logo information are provided. A printer driver is provided that includes a sending unit that sends the added logo data to a printer that can communicate with a host computer.

According to this structure, the adding means of the printer driver adds the logo information to the logo data, and the sending means sends it to the printer. Upon receiving the logo data with the logo information added, the printer registers the logo data in its own memory. Examples of the logo information include a command for instructing the printer to register the logo, a command for switching the printer to the logo registration mode, and data indicating the data size of the logo data.

The present invention also provides the printer driver according to claim 1, further comprising data conversion means for transforming image data to create logo data.

According to this structure, the data conversion means converts the image data to create logo data. The logo data thus created has a format required for the printer to save the data. The logo data is preferably a rectangle of the minimum size, and this conversion is performed based on the bit image length of the image data and the maximum scan line width, and NULL data is inserted in the blank data portion.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A printer driver according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The logo registration printer driver 50 (FIG. 2) according to the present embodiment is a program that is installed in the host computer 10 of FIG. 1 and executed on the host computer 10. In FIG. 1, the host computer 10
Is a well-known CPU 11, mouse 12, keyboard 13, C
It has an RT 14, an interface 15, and a RAM 16,
It is connected to the printer 20 via the interface 15.

The printer 20 includes a CPU 21 and a ROM 2
2, an interface 23, and a printing mechanism (not shown). The CPU 21 controls the ROM 22 and the printing mechanism to execute logo registration in the ROM 22 and printing by the printing mechanism. The printer 20 is connected to the host computer 10 via the interface 23, and the ROM 2
2 can store a plurality of logo data. The printing mechanism uses image data from the host computer 10, R
Printing is performed based on the logo data and the like stored in the OM 22.

As shown in FIG. 2, the host computer 10 has an operating system (OS) 3 in advance.
0, an application 31, a graphics device interface (GDI) 32, and a universal printer driver 33 are installed. The operating system 30 may be, for example, Microsoft Windows. Application 31
Has an image creating function, and the user uses the application 31.
Can be used to create the desired image. GDI
A module 32 is responsible for a portion related to graphics drawing, and creates graphics based on the image created by the application 31. The universal printer driver 33 converts graphics into a data format usable by the printer and creates image data.

The logo registration printer driver 50 installed in the host computer 10 comprises a communication module 51 for communicating with the universal printer driver 33, and a buffer algorithm 52 for storing a storage location of image data. The logo registration printer driver 50 further includes a logo algorithm 53 for converting the image data to create logo data, and transmitting the logo data to the printer 20 for registration and printing.

As shown in FIG. 3A, the image data created by the universal printer driver 33 consists of a plurality of scan line data. One scan line data has a height corresponding to 8 dots, that is, 1 byte. In addition, scan line data is "no dot"
And the data (dot data) in the solid line portion indicating "there is a dot". The total of the dotted line portion and the solid line portion is the width of each scan line data. On the other hand, the blank part indicates that there is no data. To register such image data as a logo in the printer 20, it is necessary to convert it to rectangular logo data shown in FIG.

This conversion is performed by detecting the smallest rectangular area covering the image data by the logo algorithm 53 and inserting the NULL data in the blank area of the data in the area. The smallest rectangular area may be detected based on the bit image length of image data and the maximum scan line width. Here, the logo width and the logo length of the logo data must be in byte units, that is, the number of bits of the data must be a multiple of 8. The logo length is adjusted in byte units by the universal printer driver 33, but the logo width is adjusted by the logo registration printer driver 50 as necessary. The adjustment method will be described later. Here, FIG.
In the example shown in (b), the logo width direction and the logo length direction are adjusted (dot correction).

Next, a series of processes from forming a desired image to registering the logo on the printer 20 will be described. First, the user uses the application 31 to create a desired image. The application 31 used here may be any application as long as it has an image creating function, and for example, word or Excel can be used. Words are used in this embodiment. To create multiple logos at once, create one image on each page. In the example shown in FIG. 4, two (two pages), a company logo image and a discount ticket image, are created. At this time, if the application 31 to be used has a print preview function or the like, the logo position and the logo size when the logo is actually printed can be visually confirmed in advance.

After creating the desired image, press the print button. Then, the GDI 32 creates graphics based on the image created by the application 31, and the universal printer driver 33 creates the graphics.
Convert to the image data shown in (a). The image data created in this way is sent to the logo registration printer driver 50 together with predetermined command data. Identification data indicating the message type in Table 1 described later is added to the beginning of the image data and the predetermined command data, and the logo registration printer driver 50 refers to these identification data to identify the message type of each data. can do. When the logo registration printer driver 50 receives these data, the logo algorithm 53 performs predetermined processing. Hereinafter, description will be made with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

When the processing is started, data is sequentially sent from the universal printer driver 33 to the logo registration printer driver 50 (S10). The logo registration printer driver 50 refers to the identification data in Table 1 to identify the message type of the received data (S11), and performs processing according to the message type. Table 1 shows the correspondence between identification data and message types.

Table 1

Since the data from the universal printer driver 33 is normally input in a predetermined order, the description will be continued in this order also in this example. First, the logo registration printer driver 50 receives a document start command (S1).
0, S11: "1"). Logo registration printer driver 50
Secures a storage area (S12) and initializes the data buffer and logo buffer in the RAM 16 (S13). Then, a logo data registration command for setting the printer 20 to the logo registration mode is transmitted to the printer 20 (S
14).

Next, a page start command is received (S
10, S11: "2"). Logo registration printer driver 5
0 clears the buffer (S15) and sets the vertical byte variable J and the maximum width I to zero (S16, S17). The vertical byte variable J and the maximum width I are variables for detecting the bit image length and the maximum scan line width of the image data shown in FIG. 3A, respectively.

Subsequently, the image data is received for each scan line (S10, S11: "3"). The received image data for one scan line is stored in the data buffer (S18). Next, add 1 to the vertical byte number J (S1
9) Compare the width of the scanned scan line data with the maximum width I (S20). If the width of the scan line data> the maximum width I (S20: YES), the maximum width I is updated (S21). If the width of scan line data ≦ maximum width I (S20: NO), the next data is received in S10 without updating the maximum width I. When the processes of S18 to S21 are repeatedly executed for one page of image data, one page of image data is stored in the data buffer and the maximum scan line width (maximum width I) is also stored.
And the bit image length (vertical byte variable J) are obtained.

Next, the page end command is received (S10, S11: "4"). The logo registration printer driver 50 sends parameters indicating the logo size (logo width and logo length of logo data) to the printer 20 (S2).
2). Next, conversion processing is performed to convert the image data to create logo data, and the created logo data is printed by the printer 20.
(S23). The conversion process will be described later.
Next, 1 is added to the page number counter (S24), and the next data is received (S10).

As shown in FIG. 4, when a plurality of images (logos) are created, all images (pages)
The processing of S15 to S24 is performed. When the processing is completed for all pages, the document end command is received (S10, S11: "5"). The logo registration printer driver 50 transmits a predetermined logo registration end command to the printer 30 (S25). The logo registration end command is a command for canceling the logo registration mode of the printer 20. Then, the printer reset command is transmitted to the printer 20 (S26). Printer 2
0 receives the printer reset command and saves the received logo data in its own ROM 22. At this time, a table showing the correspondence between the logo number and the logo data size is also created and stored in the ROM 22 at the same time, and the printer 20 can identify each logo by referring to it.

Next, a logo printing command for the registered page is sent to the printer 20 (S27) to print the registered logo. The print result is shown in FIG. This allows the user to check the logo created and registered by the user. Finally, the RAM 16 is released (S28), and a series of processing is completed. When receiving the logo data, the printer 20
Since the processing performed in step 1 is well known, description thereof will be omitted.

Next, the conversion / transmission processing executed in S23 will be described. This conversion process is performed by detecting whether or not image data (NULL data or dot data) exists at a specific dot position. If the image data (NULL data or dot data) exists, that is, if the specific dot position corresponds to the dotted line portion or the solid line portion in FIG. 3A, the NULL data or dot data is read from the data buffer, If there is no image data there, that is, if it corresponds to the data blank part, NULL data is inserted.

This is performed for the image data shown in FIG. 3A in the page length direction (column direction) one byte at a time from the upper left. When the processing for one column is completed, the process moves to the adjacent column and again. It is performed one byte at a time from the top. Here, one byte to be converted is specified by a value (column number) i indicating a dot position in the page width direction and a value (row number) j indicating a byte position in the column direction. Hereinafter, description will be made with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 7.

First, the column number i is initialized and set to zero (S101). Next, the column number i is compared with the above-mentioned maximum width I (S102), and if column number i <maximum width I (S
102: YES), the line number j is initialized and set to zero (S103). The line number j is compared with the vertical byte number J (S104). If the line number j is smaller than the vertical byte number J (S104).
104: YES), and proceeds to S105. In S105, the width of the scan line data in the row number j is compared with the column number i. By comparing the two, it is possible to detect whether the current position (j × i) corresponds to the dotted line portion or the solid line portion of FIG. 3A or the data blank portion.

If the width of the scan line data at the row number j ≧ the column number i (S105: NO), the current position (j × i) corresponds to the data portion, and NULL data or dot data exists there. Means to do. In this case, the NULL data or the dot data is read from the data buffer as it is and transmitted to the printer 20.
The row number j is updated by adding 1 (S108), and S104
Return to. On the other hand, the width of the scan line data of the line number j <
In the case of the column number i (S105: YES), the current position (j × i) corresponds to the data blank portion, which means that there is no data to be read from the data buffer. In this case, NULL data is transmitted to the printer 20 (S
106). Update by adding 1 to the row number j (S10
8) and returns to S104.

In this way, processing is performed for each column one byte at a time in the column direction until the row number j ≧ the number of vertical bytes J (S104: NO), and 1 is added to the column number i. (S109), the process returns to S102. If column number i <maximum width I, the above steps S103 to S109 are repeated for the adjacent column.

When the column number i ≧ the maximum width I is satisfied (S102:
NO), the logo width is adjusted (S110). Here, if the maximum width I, that is, the number of bits in the row direction is not a multiple of 8, the NULL data is printed by the printer 20 until it becomes a multiple of 8.
Output to. Thereby, the number of bits in the logo width direction is corrected as needed.

As described above, since the logo registration printer driver 50 according to the present invention has the logo registration function, it converts the image data created by the universal printer driver into logo data and sends it to the printer 20 together with the logo registration command. To do. Therefore, even an image created by an application that does not have a logo registration function can be registered in the printer 20 with a logo, and the user can create a logo by using a general-purpose application that he or she is familiar with. Further, since the function such as print preview of the general-purpose application to be used can be utilized, the logo can be efficiently created and registered. Further, since the user can register the logo just by clicking the print button, there is no need to perform a complicated logo registration operation, and the operation is simple and convenient.

The printer driver according to the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and various modifications and improvements can be made within the scope of the claims. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the user created a desired image using the application 33, but the logo can be registered even if the image is downloaded from the Internet or read by a scanner.

[0034]

According to the printer driver of the first aspect, the adding means of the printer driver adds the logo information to the logo data, and the transmitting means transmits the logo information to the printer.
The printer registers the logo data in its memory as a logo.
Therefore, even if the data is created by an application or the like that does not have the logo registration function, the logo can be registered in the printer by adding and transmitting the logo information by the data adding means of the printer driver. Therefore, the user can create and register the logo using a general-purpose application that he or she is familiar with, and it is not necessary to bother to use the application dedicated to logo registration or to learn the operation procedure of the application dedicated to logo registration. No, you can easily register the logo.

According to the printer driver of the second aspect, the data converting means converts the image data into a predetermined format to create the logo data. Therefore, the logo is created based on the data created by the application having no logo data creating function. You can register. Therefore, the user can create and register the logo using a general-purpose application. Further, since the logo data created by the data conversion means is created in a predetermined format required by the printer, the printer can save the logo data in its own memory.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a host computer in which a printer driver according to an embodiment of the present invention is used and a printer connected to the host computer.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration installed in the host computer shown in FIG.

3A is an explanatory diagram showing image data created by the universal printer driver of FIG. 2, and FIG.
Explanatory diagram showing logo data created by converting the image data of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a logo created by the application of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a result of logo printing.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing processing executed by the printer driver according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a conversion process executed in S25 of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Host computer 20 ... Printer 22 ... ROM 30 ... Operating system 31 ... Application 32 ... GDI 33. Universal printer driver 50 ... Logo registration printer driver 51..Communication module 52 ... Buffer algorithm 53. Logo algorithm

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A printer driver used in a host computer, wherein the adding means adds logo information to the logo data, and the logo data added with the logo information is sent to a printer capable of communicating with the host computer. A printer driver comprising: a transmission unit. 2. The printer driver according to claim 1, further comprising data conversion means for transforming the image data to create logo data.