JP2003305913A - Overlay print control method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a printer having a so-called overlay print function for synthesizing and printing a character string and fixed data of a ledger, or the like, in which a large volume of print is realized by a simple operation at a low cost. <P>SOLUTION: In a processing where overlay print data is recorded in a nonvolatile memory in a printer as one or more overlay data files in a printable data format and read out to an image memory at the time of printing, overlay data file names and overlay IDs for sorting these file names are stored in the nonvolatile memory in the printer in the data format of 1:1 correspondence, and print is executed by reading out an overlay data file being used at the time of printing to the image memory by an overlay ID specification command from a host computer being connected with the printer. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to overlay printing using a combination of a computer and a printer capable of performing overlay printing in which data read from a database is superimposed and printed on a fixed print format such as a form formed on printing paper. Regarding control method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There are the following conventional methods for performing overlay printing of forms and the like. (1) Form printing using a word processor or spreadsheet software When using a word processor or spreadsheet software that is commercially available at a low cost, edit the form data with the input field empty in advance and save it as a file. Before printing, manually enter data into the required input fields from the keyboard, etc.
The method of printing a small number of pages is used. (2) Using preprinted paper as a form Prefixed data is printed on the printing paper in advance (this is called preprinted paper).
A method is used in which different data for each form is read from the database and printed as a form. (3) Application software for reading data from an application software database called form application software, synthesizing the data with form data and printing the data is commercially available.

[0003]

The above-mentioned conventional technique has the following problems. (1) Problems of form printing using word processing and spreadsheet software Form printing by this method is suitable for printing a small amount of form such as several sheets, but it has a database of thousands of customer data. In such an application environment, it takes a very long time to execute a large amount of form printing, so that there is a problem that form printing is not practical in such an application. (2) Problems of printing using pre-printed paper as a form Pre-printed paper has fixed data already printed on it, so if you try to print by changing only part of the fixed data, The print paper has to be recreated, but this has the problem that it takes time and money to prepare the preplied paper. (3) Problems with application software called form application software Since such software was originally designed to create forms and print database data on the form, customer data It is possible to print a large amount of forms even in an application environment in which several thousand or more are stored in a database, but the software is expensive. As for operability, the difficulty level of operation is higher than that of word processing software and spreadsheet software that are widely used.

With respect to the above problems, the present invention enables the user to easily create form data by using existing word processing software or spreadsheet software that the user is familiar with and uses daily without using preprinted paper. An object of the present invention is to provide a print control method capable of executing a large amount of form printing by a simple operation even in an application environment where thousands of customer data are stored in a database.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a print control method capable of visually selecting an overlay data such as a form without an erroneous operation because a form to be used can be selected from a reduced image list.

[0006]

According to the present invention, overlay print data is recorded in a non-volatile memory in a printer as one or more overlay data files in a printable data format of the printer and read out to an image memory at the time of printing. In the printing process, the overlay data file names and the overlay IDs for classifying the file names are stored in the non-volatile memory in the printer in a data format corresponding to 1: 1 and are transmitted from the host computer connected to the printer. The overlay ID designating command is used to read out the overlay data file used at the time of printing to the image memory of the printer and execute printing.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides the following elements. (1) "Host computer" A computer for executing various kinds of application software other than the application software for executing the overlay printing of the present invention, which is connected to a "printer" by a communication cable and used. (2) "Print execution software" In the software executed on the software executed on the "host computer", the common functions related to printing are processed and printed for any application software having a function to execute printing. Send the data to the printer. (3) "Record type database" A database prepared on the host computer side for storing a plurality of record format files as shown in FIG. (4) "Record type database application software" Software executed on a host computer capable of editing and retrieving record format data files as shown in FIG. (5) "Overlay data editing application software" Software that is executed on the host computer side that can be edited by combining frames, ruled lines, character strings, and images that are fixed data for each page and store as a data file. (6) "Record file / print data file conversion software" For the record data of the "record type database", it is necessary to print a form etc. for each field character string data to be printed of each field that constitutes the record Software that can add print attribute information such as start coordinates (x, y) on the printing paper, character point size, and character typeface (font), convert it to the print data format, and print the character string on the form. (7) "Overlay source data database" As a non-volatile memory that uses a hard disk to store data files in the application program specific format created by "Overlay data creation application software", directly on the host computer side or via a network A database that connects indirectly. (8) "Overlay ID: overlay source data file association database" On the host computer side, select "Overlay source data.
A database using a non-volatile memory that stores "overlay source data file name" and "overlay ID" in "database" in a 1: 1 correspondence. (9) "Overlay management software" Software that stores "overlay source data file name" and "overlay ID" in a 1: 1 correspondence and stores them. When the overlay software for creating overlay data executes overlay registration, it automatically assigns an "overlay ID" and the corresponding relationship with the created "overlay source data file name" is shown in "Overlay ID: Overlay source data". "File association database".

Further, when the "record file / PDL conversion software" selects a record type database to be used for printing and selects a form to be used for the printing, when displaying a list of overlay reduced images, " The search list information of usable overlay data files based on "overlay ID: overlay source data file association database" is passed to "record file-> PDL conversion software". (10) "Field data attribute database" For each record file in the "record type database", corresponding to overlay data such as print coordinates (x, y), character point size, character typeface attribute, etc. for each field that constitutes a record A database that uses a non-volatile memory to store this information. (11) Which coordinate position (x, y) in the print overlay image is to be arranged for each field in the overlay for each overlay source data file in the "field layout software""overlay source data database" , What typeface (font) and character point size to use for that field,
Application software that is edited on the screen and stored in the "field data attribute database" and executed on the "host computer". (12) "Printer" A device that receives data from a "host computer", processes the data with "printer control software", and prints on actual paper with a "printing mechanism". (13) "Printer control software" A control program that has the functions of registering and deleting overlay data, printing overlay data, and combining overlay data and print data for printing. (14) "Printing mechanism" Mechanical hardware that executes printing on the "printer" side. (15) "Overlay database" A database using a non-volatile memory that stores zero or more "overlay print data files" in a data format that allows the printer to print. (16) "Overlay ID: overlay data file association database" In the printer, "overlay print data file name" and "overlay ID" in the "overlay database"
A database using a non-volatile memory that stores 1: 1 in correspondence with each other.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of the present invention.
The number n in (n) corresponds to the number of the component in the figure. Here, the configuration of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

The host computer 1 and the printer 13 are connected via a communication cable via the communication hardware 20 and 22. Here, the printer 13 uses the Ethernet protocol to allow the printer 13 to transmit the PDL (Printer Description L) transmitted by the host computer 1.
Angular), PJL (Printer Job)
(Language) is received, and the printing operation is executed.

The host computer 1 is assumed to be a general workstation or personal computer used in the market. The host computer 1 causes the operating system 2 to execute control programs such as a plurality of application programs and device drivers in parallel in time.

In the present invention, as application software, database application software 5, record file / print PDL conversion software 7, overlay management software 10, overlay data editing application software 6, field layout software 12
To use. The print execution software 3 processes the System Call related to printer control from the application software under the control of the operating system 3, and the PDL (Print)
ter Description Languag
e), PJL (Printer Job Langua)
ge) is transmitted to the printer 13 side via the communication driver 21, or information such as status from the printer 13 is received.

The display driver 23 processes the System Call relating to screen display control from the application software under the control of the operating system 3 and executes the drawing specified on the screen. The host computer 1 side has the following databases as described above. A record type database 4, a field data attribute database 11, an overlay source data database 8, and an overlay ID: overlay source data association database 9.

On the printer 13 side, the printer control software 1
4 from the communication hardware 20 through the communication driver 19 to the PDL (Print) from the host computer 1 side.
erDescription Language), P
Upon receiving a JL (Printer Job Language), the printing mechanism 15 and the P related to the designated printing
DL format overlay database 16, overlay I
D: Controls the PDL format overlay related database 17.

Here, the overlay source data database 8 on the host computer 1 side and the overlay data in the overlay database 16 on the printer 13 side are sparsely data-related as a relational database using only the overlay ID as a key. That is, overlay ID on the host computer 1 side: overlay source data association database 9 and printer 1
By having the overlay ID: overlay association database 17 on the third side, the overlay data of different data formats of the same print image of both the host computer 1 and the printer 13 are made to correspond 1: 1.

The operation and the flow of execution of overlay printing in the configuration of the above-described embodiment will be described below. (1) Creation of record type database The data structure of the file of the record type database 4 is
As shown in FIG. 2, one record is composed of m (m ≧ 1) item fields and n (n ≧ 1) records as one unit of text file, and such a record type data structure file has different file names. Create more than one (1 or more). Such data files can be edited with commercially available database software and spreadsheet software. (2) Editing and registering overlay data (i) The host computer 1 edits overlay data with application software such as commercially available word processing software or spreadsheet software, and uses the overlay source according to the data format specific to the editing application software to be used. Store in data database 8. As the object that can be used for the overlay image, any line, curve, ruled line character, image, character string, or the like that can be used by the editing application software used can be used. (Ii) When the overlay data is edited and then a printing operation is performed using the commercially available application software, the execution window of the printer driver 3 is displayed on the screen (CRT) by the host side. (Iii) In the printer driver window, a print button for executing printing and an overlay registration button for executing overlay data registration are displayed. (Iv) The operator presses the print button when performing the trial printing of the overlay data itself.
At this time, the printer driver 3 transmits PDL and PJL for printing the edited image to the printer. On the other hand, when the overlay registration button is pressed, the printer driver 3 sends the overlay registration instruction PJL designating the overlay ID in advance of the PDL and PJL for printing, and finally adds the PJL designating the end of overlay registration. Then, the printer driver 3 erases the execution window.

When executing this overlay registration sequence,
In the host computer 1, as shown in FIG. 3, the overlay ID and overlay source data are stored in the overlay ID: overlay source data association database 9 in association with each other.

In FIG. 3, the information of the overlay ID to be registered next literally points to the ID of the overlay source file name to be registered next.

The printer 13 that has received the overlay registration sequence data does not execute the normal printing by the printer control software 14, but uses the received overlay data as a file to form the overlay database 1
6, and the overlay ID as shown in FIG.
An overlay ID designated by PJL and a file name of overlay data PDL automatically generated inside the printer are stored in the overlay-related database 17 in a 1: 1 correspondence.

According to the above procedure, one unit of overlay data is registered in the host computer 1 and the printer 13. (3) Correlation between each field in the record and the overlay data In order to continuously read the records from the record type database 4 and execute the printing by overlaying the overlay formats, the fields of the data record are shown in FIG. As shown, for the selected record type database file, to each field of the selected overlay data file, the print start coordinates (x,
y), the point size of the character, and the font typeface of the character must be defined in advance.

The attribute information of each field in these data records is registered in the field data attribute database 11. The registration process to the field data attribute database 11 is executed by the field data layout software 12. (4) Execution of overlay printing (i) The record file / PDL conversion software 7 is executed to select the data record file to be printed. (Ii) When a data record file is selected, the record file / PDL conversion software 7 obtains from the overlay management software 10 the available overlay data file list shown in FIG. For each file in the list, along with the reduced image, file name, overlay ID,
For example, a list display is executed as shown in FIG. (Iii) The operator uses the pointing device such as a keyboard or mouse to select the overlay data used for printing from the overlay images displayed in a list as shown in FIG.

To determine the selected overlay image,
In the screen of FIG. 6, the selection confirmation button is pressed, and the cancel button is pressed to cancel the selected overlay image.

In the following description, it is assumed that any one overlay image is selected by the selection confirmation button on the overlay image selection screen of FIG. (Iv) When the overlay image is selected and the selection decision button in FIG. 6 is pressed, the record file / PDL conversion software 7
Transmits the overlay ID by PJL, and the printer 13 that receives the overlay ID searches the registered overlay data file name from the overlay ID: PDL format overlay data association database 17 for the specified overlay data. The retrieved PDL file is read from the overlay database 16 and the retrieved overlay file is read onto the image memory in the printer 13 that stores the overlay data. (V) When the print process is started by the record file / PDL conversion software 7 after the overlay image is selected,
The data is read one by one from the record file selected in (i), and the print coordinates (x, y) of the field, the character typeface (font), which are read from the field attribute data table (FIG. 5) for each record,
The character point size designation information is converted into the PDL format, added in advance to the character string data in the field, and transmitted to the print execution software 3. (Vi) The printer driver 3 transmits the received PDL to the printer without conversion. (Vii) The printer 13 draws in the image memory the contents of the image memory drawn from the overlay data read to the image memory in (iv) and the converted PDL format record data received in (v). The logical sums are combined, the print mechanism 15 is controlled to fix the print image on the paper, and the paper is ejected from the printer 13.

[0024]

The present invention has the following effects. (1) Since the overlay data used for printing can be visually confirmed and selected on the screen, the overlay data can be selected without error. (2) Since a plurality of overlay data are associated with one record-type database in a relationship of 1: J (J ≧ 1, J is a natural number) and stored and managed by the host computer, Overlay (form)
Alternatively, printing with different printing purposes can be performed by a simple operation. (3) The overlay data is sent to the printer, for example, PD
When the data is stored in the database in the L code format, the data capacity is smaller than the data in the image data format. Therefore, even a relatively small-capacity non-volatile storage device can store and hold various types of overlay data on the printer side. (4) Utilizing commercially available application software for document creation,
It is possible to easily create overlay print data form data) and to create overlay data that is highly expressive in terms of design due to the functions provided by these application software. (5) Modification registration of existing overlay data (eg change of company name, logo, change of field layout), additional registration of new overlay data, and deletion of unnecessary overlay data can be performed easily.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of a data format of a record type data file.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of an overlay ID: overlay source data association database.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of an overlay ID: overlay data association database.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of a data structure of a field data attribute database.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram of an overlay image selection screen.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Host Computer 2 (Host Side) Operating System 3 Printer Driver 4 Record Database 5 Record Database Application Software 6 Overlay Data Editing Application Program 7 Record File-> Print Data File Conversion Program 8 Overlay Source Data Database 9 Overlay ID: Overlay source data file association database 10 Overlay management program 11 Field data attribute database 12 Field layout software 13 Printer 14 Printer control program 15 Printing mechanism 16 Overlay database 17 Overlay ID: Overlay data file association database 18 Printer operating system 19 Printer side Communication driver 20 Printer side communication Dowea 21 host communication driver 22 host communication hardware 23 host-side display driver

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Maki Akai             Hitachiko, 1060 Takeda, Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Prefecture             Machine Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Susumu Hashimoto             Hitachiko, 1060 Takeda, Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Prefecture             Machine Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hiroshi Working             Hitachiko, 1060 Takeda, Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Prefecture             Machine Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Satoshi Aida             Hitachiko, 1060 Takeda, Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Prefecture             Machine Co., Ltd. F term (reference) 2C187 AE07 BG34 DB18 DB23 FB14                       FC23                 5B021 AA01 BB01 CC05 LA03

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A process of recording overlay print data in a non-volatile memory in a printer as one or more overlay data files in a printable data format of a printer, reading out to an image memory at the time of printing, and printing.
Overlay data file names and overlay IDs for classifying the file names are stored in a nonvolatile memory in the printer in a data format corresponding to 1: 1 and an overlay ID designation command from the host computer connected to the printer is stored. According to the above, the overlay printing control method is characterized in that the overlay data file used at the time of printing is read out to the image memory of the printer and printing is executed. 2. The host computer connected to the printer uses edit data of application programs such as word processing software, spreadsheet software, and graphic drawing software as overlay print data in the host computer in its own data format. It is stored in a non-volatile storage device that is directly or indirectly connected via a network, etc., and when performing printing operations with application software, the overlay data is converted to a data format that the printer can process and sent to the printer side, and then sent to the printer side database The overlay printing control method according to claim 1, wherein the registration is performed. 3. The host computer side associates the overlay data stored in the printer side with a file of a data format unique to the application software and an overlay ID, and the overlay ID and the data file of the application software (unique data for each application software). 2. The overlay print control method according to claim 1, wherein the data is stored in a non-volatile storage device directly connected to the host computer or indirectly via a network etc. . 4. The host computer stores print data usable as an overlay in a non-volatile memory by associating one or more usable overlay data file names with each record type database as a list. When the record type database of is selected, a list of reduced images, file names, and overlay IDs is displayed on the host computer, the operator visually confirms and selects the overlay data to be used, and the selected overlay data is selected by the overlay ID. The overlay printing control method according to claim 1, wherein the overlay data is transmitted to the printer, and the overlay data of the printer is selected / designated by the overlay ID. 5. When the application software executes the print operation, the print execution software that enables the print operation by the operator is started, and a button graphic that indicates print or overlay registration is displayed on the display screen of the print execution software. Then, when the print button is pressed, the print execution software outputs the print data received from the application software to the printer in a data format that can be printed by the printer, prints the overlay data, and the button that means the overlay registration. When a figure is pressed, a command indicating overlay registration is added to the beginning of the print data together with an overlay ID parameter, and a command indicating end of overlay registration is also added to the end of the print data and sent to the printer. 3. The overlay data is output and registered in the printer as overlay data. Overlay printing control method of the placement. 6. A print data transmitted from a print host computer is received, and a print image based on the received data is received,
The overlay printing control method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein printing is performed by superimposing it on a designated overlay printing image.