JP2004326660A - Printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform rapid print processing by dividing a page in virtual bands to store the weight of processing for drawing data belonging to the band as an object coefficient, and by switching to produce PDL data by page unit, or to produce the PDL data by band unit, on the basis of the information, and whether to convert the drawing data into bit map data when the PLD data is to be produced by band unit, in a printing system which converts the drawing data into the PDL data by a printer driver to print the data on a page printer. <P>SOLUTION: The printing system comprises a means which assumes the virtual band and spools while recording the weight of the processing of the drawing data for each band; a means for deciding whether the processing is to be performed by page unit or band unit on the basis of the recorded weight information on the processing; and a means for deciding whether the band is to be developed into a bit map when the band unit is decided. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a host apparatus, and more particularly to a printing system that processes print data based on a designation from an application or the like and causes the printing apparatus to output the print data.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, in a printer in which a drawing command received from an application is converted into a page description language (hereinafter, PDL data) by a printer driver on a PC, transmitted to a page printer, and converted into a bitmap and printed on the printer side, a Unless all the PDL data for one page can be stored, processing such as bitmap conversion cannot be performed. In particular, it takes time to print the first page (first print), and memory pressure due to storing one page. (FIG. 1).
[0003]
In order to avoid this, one page is divided into several bands, PDL data corresponding to each band is created and transferred by a printer driver, and when the PDL data for the band is accumulated, bitmap conversion is performed as needed. (Banding PDL method: FIG. 2). This is because the process of converting the PDL data for the band into intermediate data and the process of converting the intermediate data into a bitmap and performing compression and the like can be performed in parallel in separate processes, and efficient print processing can be performed ( (Fig. 3).
[0004]
[Patent Document 1]
JP 2001-282482 A [Patent Document 2]
JP-A-2001-344079
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, when a drawing command extends over a plurality of bands, it is necessary for the printer driver to send the same PDL data to each band. Therefore, the processing in the printer is also duplicated, and the Banding PDL method may be slower. sell. Alternatively, even when the amount of PDL data is small, the Banding PDL method is slower due to the overhead caused by banding.
[0006]
In addition, drawing data having a large load inside the printer is often concentrated in one band. In such a case, the memory is insufficient even in the Banding PDL method. Had to do.
[0007]
The present invention has been made by focusing on the above points. In a printing system in which drawing data is converted into PDL data by a printer driver and printed by a page printer, a page is divided into virtual bands, Is stored as object coefficients, and based on the information, PDL data is created in page units, PDL data is created in band units, or in the case of band units, drawing data is used. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing system capable of performing high-speed printing processing by switching whether or not is converted into bitmap data.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The present invention can solve the above problem by providing the following configuration.
[0009]
(1) A printing system including a printing device and a host device that generates print data and transmits the data to the printing device, wherein the host device virtually divides a page into bands and divides virtual band information for each band. Virtual band dividing means for preparing, extracting means for receiving a drawing command from an application and extracting drawing data from the drawing command, and drawing data extracted by the extracting means for the virtual band divided by the virtual band dividing means. Weighting (object coefficient) depending on drawing data is performed on the first determination means for determining where the image data belongs, and the virtual band information of the band specified by the first determination means, and the object coefficient is added. A storage means for storing the drawing data converted by the extraction means in a spool buffer. And second determining means for determining which of the whole page and the band division is more efficient by using all the virtual band information added by the adding means, and determining the whole page by the second determining means. If it is determined that the band division has been determined by the first transmission unit that sequentially converts the drawing data stored by the storage unit into PDL data and transmits the PDL data to the printing device, and the second determination unit Using virtual bands as actual bands, create PDL data corresponding to drawing data for each band using virtual band information for each band, or create bitmap data using all drawing data for each band Or the third judgment means for judging which is more efficient, and it is judged that it is more efficient to create PDL data corresponding to the original drawing data in the third judgment. In this case, it is more efficient to convert drawing data corresponding to the band into PDL data and transmit the drawing data to the printing apparatus, and to convert the drawing data to bitmap data in the third determination. If determined to be good, a third transmission unit that creates bitmap data from all drawing data corresponding to the band, converts the bitmap data into PDL data as drawing data, and transmits the PDL data to the printing apparatus. And the repetition means for repeating the second and third transmission means for all bands. The printing apparatus determines whether the PDL data received from the host apparatus is data for the entire page or data for each band. And a first unit for converting the PDL data into intermediate data when the fourth unit determines that the whole page is indicated. Conversion means, second conversion means for dividing the intermediate data of the entire page converted by the first conversion means into bands, and performing bitmap conversion, and the data is determined for each band by the fourth determination means. In this case, a fifth determining means for determining whether the PDL data for each band is the original drawing data or bitmap data, and a case where the fifth determining means determines that the original drawing data is the original drawing data. A third conversion means for converting PDL data for each band into intermediate data, a fourth conversion means for performing bitmap conversion on the intermediate data converted by the third conversion means, and a fifth determination means. If it is determined that the data is bitmap data, the non-conversion means using the bitmap data as it is and the first, second or third, fourth conversion means or non-conversion means are used. Printing system characterized by having a printing means for printing after being performed at pages all bands.
[0010]
(2) The size of the band virtually divided by the virtual band dividing means is the size of the band used when performing bitmap conversion by the second converting means or the fourth converting means in the printing apparatus. The printing system according to (1), wherein the printing system has a size.
[0011]
(3) The printing system according to (1), wherein the drawing data stored in the spool buffer by the storage unit has not only the drawing information but also information as to which virtual band belongs.
[0012]
(4) The printing system according to (1), wherein the second and third determination means determine not only speed but also image quality and memory efficiency.
[0013]
(5) The object coefficient according to (1), wherein the object coefficient added by the adding unit may be the same drawing data for each printing device or may be different for each printing device depending on the performance of the printing device. Printing system.
[0014]
(6) The printing system according to (1), wherein the first and second conversion units or the third and fourth conversion units use different processes, so that the processes are performed in parallel. .
[0015]
According to the operation of the present invention, high-speed printing is realized because the more efficient process of simultaneously processing the entire page or processing using the Banding PDL method is switched in units of pages for arbitrary print data. When drawing data is concentrated, it is converted to a bitmap and converted into one drawing data, so the memory inside the printer is fixed to the maximum amount of processing bitmap data, so there is no shortage of memory In addition, there is no need to prepare a process such as a resolution reduction process or a simulation.
[0016]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this embodiment, an example will be described in which the present invention is applied to a system in which a host device and a printing device are connected by a Centronics interface. This interface type is not an important component in the present invention, and can be easily applied to infrared communication, wireless communication, an interface defined by USB or IEEE 1394 standards, or various network connection forms.
[0017]
FIG. 1 shows how a normal page printer bitmaps and prints PDL data obtained from a host PC. When the page printer receives the PDL data, in the process of process 1, the PDL data is stored in the corresponding band while converting it into intermediate data. When the processing 1 is performed on the PDL data of the entire page, the processing 2 converts the intermediate data into a bitmap for each band.
[0018]
FIG. 2 shows the Banding PDL method, which shows how a page printer converts a band-divided PDL data obtained from a host PC into a bit map and performs printing. When the page printer receives the band-divided PDL data, it converts the PDL data into the corresponding band and stores it in the corresponding band in the process of processing 1. When the process 1 is performed on the PDL data for each band, the intermediate data is converted into a bitmap for each band in the process of the process 2.
[0019]
FIG. 3 shows, in chronological order, the timing at which the processes 1 and 2 of FIGS. 1 and 2 are processed in the ordinary PDL system and the Banding PDL system. In the case of the normal PDL method, the processing 2 is performed for each band after the processing 1 for the entire page is completed. On the other hand, in the case of Banding PDL, when the processing 1 for one band is performed, the processing 2 for the band is performed in parallel.
[0020]
In FIG. 4, reference numeral 1 denotes a central processing unit, which reads a storage medium such as an FD, a CD-ROM, an IC memory card or the like in which the program and related data are stored from a medium reading device 6 connected to the system, and stores the read data. The information input from the input device 4 is processed by the system program and the application program loaded into the main storage device 2 from the storage device 3 and output to the output device 5 and the printing device 7. In this embodiment, the output device 5 is a display device such as a display, and is distinguished from the printing device 7 originally included in the output device. It is assumed that the input device 4 is configured by a keyboard, a pointing device, and the like. Further, the auxiliary storage device 3 may be configured by a hard disk or a magneto-optical disk, or may be configured by a combination thereof. Further, the present invention is not limited even if the respective devices are connected via a network.
[0021]
FIG. 5 shows that the data related to the image processing method control program (driver 11) stored in the main storage device 2 is read into the central processing unit 1, a print command is input from the input device 4, and the data is sent to the printing device 7. And a conceptual diagram up to printing. Both the application 10 and the driver 11 function under the control of the OS 9.
[0022]
FIG. 6 is a drawing that best illustrates the features of the present invention. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 9 denotes a client computer main body and an OS that controls the client computer in the printing system of the present invention described later. Connected by Centronics interface.
[0023]
Reference numeral 11 denotes application software (printer driver) for controlling the printing apparatus on the OS.
[0024]
Reference numeral 13 denotes a user interface unit for the user to input various print settings such as print resolution and print quality for the printing apparatus and to issue a print start instruction.
[0025]
Reference numeral 14 denotes a print data control unit which receives a drawing command specified by an application and creates data that can be processed by the printing apparatus. The print data control unit includes an important processing unit on the host device side in the printing system according to the present invention.
[0026]
Reference numeral 15 denotes a virtual band division for a page, determines to which virtual band the drawing data belongs to the drawing command, and adds a weight (object coefficient) to the drawing data to the virtual band to which the drawing data belongs. It is a band processing unit. When the drawing data extends over a plurality of virtual bands, the object coefficients are added to all the virtual bands.
[0027]
Reference numeral 16 denotes a drawing data spool unit that stores drawing data in a spool area. This spool area stores drawing data for pages.
[0028]
Reference numeral 17 denotes a case where all the drawing data for the page is processed by the virtual band processing unit 15 and the PDL data is created in a normal page unit by using the value to which the object coefficient for each virtual band is added, or by the Banding PDL method. A PDL determination unit that determines whether it is better to create PDL data. Here, the object coefficient is a value uniquely specified for the drawing data for each printing device, and usually depends on the processing time required inside the printing device, and it is better to perform the processing in either the page unit or the band unit. Determine if it is fast. If the number of pieces of drawing data is large and cannot be processed by the memory owned by the printing apparatus, it is determined to be in band units.
[0029]
Reference numeral 18 denotes a banding processing management unit that performs a process when the PDL switching determination unit 17 determines that the speed is higher for each band. Using the virtual band as a real band, spooled drawing data belonging to the band is extracted and passed to a PDL data control unit 21 described later. This is done for all bands.
[0030]
The banding processing management section 18 includes an important processing section on the host device side in the printing system according to the present invention. 19 is to convert all the original drawing data and the drawing data belonging to the band into a bitmap by using an object coefficient weighted by the drawing data belonging to each virtual band, and to convert it into one drawing data. A drawing data amount calculation unit that calculates which data amount is smaller and selects the one with the higher efficiency. Reference numeral 20 denotes a bitmap development unit that converts all drawing data in the band into a bitmap and replaces it with all drawing data in the band when conversion to a bitmap is more efficient.
[0031]
Reference numeral 21 denotes a PDL data control unit which changes the drawing data created by the print data control unit into a print command corresponding to the printing apparatus, and controls the entire print command.
[0032]
Reference numeral 22 denotes an OS function, which is a data transmission / reception unit that transmits / receives data to / from the printing apparatus via a Centronics connection.
[0033]
Reference numeral 7 denotes a printing device that performs a printing process or the like in accordance with an instruction from a connected host device.
[0034]
The printing device 7 further includes a data transmission / reception unit 23 for transmitting / receiving data to / from a host device connected to the Centronics, and a printing device for analyzing data received by the data transmission / reception unit 23 to control the printing device and extract print data. A command control unit (PLD command control unit) 24, a print data processing unit 25 that creates an actual print image from extracted print data, and an output unit 31 that actually performs printing are included.
[0035]
The print data processing section 25 includes an important processing section on the printing apparatus side in the printing system according to the present invention.
[0036]
Reference numeral 26 denotes a PDL data format determination unit, which determines whether the PDL data sent from the host device is a page unit or a band unit, and if the PDL data is a band unit, determines whether the PDL data is bitmap data. Then, according to the determination result, it is controlled whether or not to pass through the later-described page intermediate data generation unit 27, band intermediate data generation unit 28, or a system of both.
[0037]
Reference numeral 27 denotes a page intermediate data generation unit that converts PDL data passed in page units into intermediate data in band units. After this process is completed for each page, the control is transferred to the band bitmap generator described later.
[0038]
Reference numeral 28 denotes a band intermediate data generation unit that converts PDL data passed in band units into intermediate data. After this processing is completed for each band, the control is transferred to a band bitmap generator described later.
[0039]
29 creates bitmap data for each band from the intermediate data of the entire page passed from 27, the intermediate data for each band passed from 28, and the bitmap data for each band by the system in which bitmap data has already been created. The band bitmap generator generates a band bitmap for a page and passes the bitmap data to the print image processor 30.
[0040]
Reference numeral 30 denotes print image processing, which performs color processing, binarization processing, and the like on the received bitmap data, and performs printing at the output unit 31.
[0041]
FIGS. 7A and 7B are flowcharts of the above-described embodiment. The operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to this flowchart.
[0042]
In the flowchart, FIG. 7A shows processing in the host device.
[0043]
First, when a command to execute printing is input from the input device 4, the OS among the OS, drivers and applications (FIG. 5) read from the auxiliary storage device 3 onto the main storage device 2 transmits the message. receive. The OS sends a print execution message to the currently active application.
[0044]
The application converts the message into a command recognizable by the OS and sends a data or command message to be printed. The OS converts the command into a command recognizable by the driver and sends the message.
[0045]
When an initialization message is sent to the driver, in step S701, preparations for printing processing by the printing apparatus, initialization of the driver, and initialization of the spool buffer are performed, and in step S702, the page is virtually banded. The virtual band information area for storing the object coefficient of the drawing data for each divided virtual band is initialized. When a drawing command is input from the application, the drawing command is extracted in step S703 to extract the drawing data of the drawing command, and in step S704, it is determined to which of the virtual bands the drawing data belongs. The object coefficient of the drawing data is added to the virtual band information for the virtual band. In step S705, the drawing data is stored in the spool buffer, and in step S706, the same processing is performed for the drawing command for all pages.
[0046]
When the drawing data of all pages is stored in the spool buffer, in step S707, reference is made to virtual band information in which the object coefficient added for each drawing data is recorded, and whether or not the Banding PDL is faster or not. When the data amount of the specific band is large, it is confirmed whether or not a problem occurs inside the printer, and it is determined in step S708 whether band division is better.
[0047]
If it is determined in step S708 that it is better to send the PDL data for the page, the drawing data stored in the spool buffer is extracted in the storage order, converted into PDL data in step S709, and the PDL data is converted into the printer in step S710. Transfer to
[0048]
If it is determined in step S708 that the band should be divided and the PDL data for the band should be sent, the drawing data belonging to the band is extracted from the drawing data stored in the spool buffer in step S711. In step S712, it is better to create PDL data using the drawing data for the corresponding band based on the virtual band information weighted in step S704, or all the drawing belonging to the corresponding band extracted in step S711. It is determined whether it is better to create bitmap data based on the data. If it is determined in step S713 that bitmap development should be performed, bitmap data is created from all drawing data belonging to the corresponding band in step S714, and PDL data is created from the bitmap data in step S715. In step S717, the data is transferred to the printer. If it is determined in step S713 that bitmap expansion should not be performed, all drawing data belonging to the band is sequentially converted to PDL data in step S716, and the PDL data is transferred to the printer in step S717.
[0049]
If the processing has been completed for all the bands in step S718, the processing for one page in the host device ends here.
[0050]
FIG. 7B in the flowchart is a process in the printing apparatus.
[0051]
When the printing process in the printing apparatus is started and the PDL data transferred from the host device is received in step S719, it is determined in step S720 whether the PDL data is for a band or a page. If it is the PDL data of the entire page, the PDL data received in step S721 is sequentially converted into intermediate data. When the conversion of all the PDL data existing in the page into the intermediate data is completed, the intermediate data is converted into bits in step S722. Convert to map data. Here, usually, the intermediate data is divided into bands, converted into bitmap data for each band, and the bitmap data converted in step S723 is stored in the bitmap area. Then, the bitmap stored in step S729 is printed.
[0052]
If the PDL data is for a band in step S720, it is determined in step S724 whether the PDL data is bitmap data created based on the drawing data on the host side, and if the PDL data is bitmap data for each band. Is stored in the bitmap area in step S727. If it is not bitmap data, the PDL data created for each band is converted to intermediate data for each band in step S725, the intermediate data is converted to a bitmap in step S726, and stored in the bitmap area in step S727.
[0053]
In step S728, it is determined whether or not processing has been performed for all the bands of the page. When the bitmap of the entire page is stored, printing is performed in step S729, and the processing ends.
[0054]
The above is the processing operation in the printing apparatus.
[0055]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, an optimal printing process is performed by switching between a process for each page, a process for each band, and, in the case of each band, whether or not to convert the drawing data into a bitmap according to the data to be printed. This enables high-speed printing processing to be realized, and further eliminates the need for the printer to provide simulation processing when memory is insufficient.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 shows how PDL data is converted to a bitmap inside a printing apparatus for a normal page printer.
FIG. 2 illustrates how PDL data is converted into a bitmap inside a printing apparatus for a Banding PDL page printer.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a time series of a difference in processing inside a printing apparatus between a page printer of a normal system and a page printer of a Banding PDL system.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an information processing system to which the image processing printing method according to the present embodiment is applied.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an image processing method control program in which data stored in a storage device of a medium reading device is read into a central processing unit; a print command is input from an input device; It is a conceptual diagram until it performs feed printing.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7A is a flowchart showing an embodiment of an image processing method of the image processing apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 7A is a flowchart on the host device side.
FIG. 7B is a flowchart showing an embodiment of an image processing method of the image processing apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 7B is a flowchart on the printing apparatus side.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Central processing unit 2 Main storage device 3 Auxiliary storage device 4 Input device 5 Output device 6 Medium reading device 7 Printing device 8 ROM
9 OS
10 Application 11 Driver 13 User Interface Unit 14 Print Data Control Unit 15 Virtual Band Processing Unit 16 Drawing Data Spool Unit 17 PDL Switching Judgment Unit 18 Banding Processing Management Unit 19 Drawing Data Amount Calculation Unit 20 Bitmap Expansion Unit 21 PDL Data Control Unit ( Host device side)
22 Data transmission / reception unit (host device side)
23 Data transmission / reception unit (printer side)
24 Print command controller (PLD command controller) (printer side)
25 print data processing unit 26 PDL data format determination unit 27 page intermediate data generation unit 28 band intermediate data generation unit 29 band bitmap generation unit 30 print image processing unit 31 output unit

Claims (6)

A printing system comprising a printing device and a host device that generates print data and transmits the print data to the printing device,
The host device includes:
Virtual band dividing means for virtually dividing the page into bands and preparing virtual band information for each band;
Extracting means for receiving a drawing command from the application and extracting drawing data from the drawing command;
First determining means for determining where the drawing data extracted by the extracting means belongs to the virtual band divided by the virtual band dividing means;
Adding means for performing weighting (object coefficient) depending on drawing data on the virtual band information of the band specified by the first determining means, and adding the object coefficient;
Storage means for storing the drawing data converted by the extraction means in a spool buffer;
A second determining unit that determines which of the whole page and the band division is more efficient by using all the virtual band information added by the adding unit;
When the second determination unit determines that the entire page, the first transmission unit that sequentially converts the drawing data stored by the storage unit into PDL data and transmits the PDL data to the printing apparatus;
If the second determination unit determines that the band is divided, the virtual band is set as an actual band, and PDL data corresponding to the drawing data is created for each band using the virtual band information of each band. A third determination unit that determines whether bitmap data is created using all of the drawing data for each band or which is more efficient, and creates PDL data corresponding to the original drawing data in the third determination. If it is determined that the conversion is more efficient, a second transmission unit that converts the drawing data corresponding to the band into PDL data and transmits the data to the printing apparatus;
If it is determined that it is more efficient to convert drawing data to bitmap data in the third determination, bitmap data is created from all drawing data corresponding to the band, and the bitmap data is drawn. A third transmission unit that converts the data into PDL data and transmits the data to the printing apparatus;
The second, the third transmitting means is repeated for all bands, having a repeating means, the printing device,
Fourth determining means for determining whether the PDL data received from the host device is data for the entire page or data for each band;
A first conversion unit for converting the PDL data into intermediate data when the fourth determination unit determines that the entire page is indicated;
Second conversion means for dividing the intermediate data of the entire page converted by the first conversion means into bands and performing bitmap conversion,
When the fourth determination unit determines that the data is band-specific data, a fifth determination unit that determines whether the PDL data for each band is the original drawing data or the bitmap data,
A third conversion unit that converts the PDL data for each band into intermediate data when the fifth determination unit determines that the data is the original drawing data;
Fourth conversion means for performing bitmap conversion of the intermediate data converted by the third conversion means,
When it is determined that the bitmap data by the fifth determination means, non-conversion means using the bitmap data as it is,
A printing system comprising a printing unit for printing after the first, second, third, or fourth conversion unit or the non-conversion unit is performed in all bands for one page. The size of the band virtually divided by the virtual band dividing unit is the size of a band used when performing bitmap conversion by the second conversion unit or the fourth conversion unit in the printing apparatus. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein: 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the drawing data stored in the spool buffer by the storage unit has not only the drawing information but also information as to which virtual band belongs. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein said second and third determination means consider not only speed but also image quality and memory efficiency. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the object coefficient added by the adding unit may be the same drawing data for each printing device or may be different for each printing device depending on the performance of the printing device. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the first and second conversion units or the third and fourth conversion units use different processes, so that the processes are performed in parallel.

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