JP2005153426A - Printing controlling apparatus, printing controlling method, and storing medium and program storing computer-readable program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To open again a page analyzing processing from the head of an interrupted page even when a cutting-in job is processed, and to simplify the page analyzing processing by excluding such a processing as an analysis from the head page of the job. <P>SOLUTION: When page description language data inputted are processed, and a cutting-in requirement of another page description language data is sensed by a command sensing part 1102, page information on which the data processing is finished and the page description language data during processing are evacuated by a command analyzing part 1103. After cut-in and inputted page description language data are processed, and when the head of the page to be processed for restart is sensed from the evacuated processed page information, from the sensed head of the page to be processed for restart, analysis processing to the intermittent page description language data is opened again. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a print control apparatus and a print control method capable of communicating with an external apparatus, a storage medium storing a computer-readable program, and a program.

  Conventionally, page printers to which this type of print control device is applied are equipped with a controller that analyzes the page description language unique to each company, receives print control commands in accordance with the page description language from the host computer, analyzes them, and performs them for each page. Intermediate data or an image is formed on a printer engine and printed out.

  Here, in general, the valid range of the print control command is valid until the end of the print data. The valid range of the print control command will be described below with reference to the job configuration shown in FIG.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of a print control command in this type of printing apparatus.

  For example, in the example shown in FIG. 11, since the color designated by the color setting command on the first page is also retained on the second page, the rectangle on the second page is the same as the first page without issuing the color designation command again. It is drawn in the same color.

  Also, on the first page, the double-sided printing process instructed by the double-sided printing command is continued until the third page is switched to single-sided printing by the single-sided printing command on the third page. It is printed on the back side. This method has the advantage that the amount of print data can be reduced by minimizing the issue of print control commands.

  FIG. 12 shows a data flow inside the printing apparatus.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a print data processing procedure in this type of printing apparatus. F1 to F4 indicate phases.

  In FIG. 12, first, the print data is read (F1), and temporarily stored in a print data storage unit secured on the memory S, for example. Next, a controller (not shown) performs command analysis processing from the beginning of the print data (F2), and interprets the command contents of the command to generate intermediate data called DisplayList that is easy to interpret on the drawing hardware.

  The DisplayList is rendered by rendering hardware (F3), expanded into image data, and stored in the memory S as PageImage.

Finally, the image data is generally video-developed by shipper hardware (F4) and visually output by the print engine. As this type of prior art, Patent Document 1 has already been published.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-139533

  On the other hand, in the above conventional example, the print data is described in a page description language, and the page description language is not page-independent but in a page order-dependent format (a format that inherits the attributes of the previous page). There is a disadvantage that analysis processing cannot be performed from the page.

  For example, in FIG. 11, even if an attempt is made from the rectangular drawing command at the top of the second page, the color is specified by the color setting command for the first page, so the processing must be performed retroactively to the first page. .

  Furthermore, since the print control command is generally designed to perform various operations by combining a plurality of commands, it is not sufficient to detect only the color setting command. For example, the print control command is similarly issued on the first page. It is necessary to determine what color processing is to be performed in combination with the color mode designation command. Processing for determining the operation by understanding the instruction content of the print control command is called analysis processing (corresponding to the data analysis processing (phase F2) in FIG. 12).

  Therefore, in the printing apparatus, when other print data is interrupted during print data processing for a large number of pages, it is necessary to perform analysis processing again from the top of the print data, and there is a problem that the return processing after interruption is slow.

  For the same reason, there is also a problem that the processing is slow when the pages are processed in the reverse order (from the last page toward the first page) in order to sort and output the pages.

  Furthermore, since the analysis process cannot be started after the print data is divided for each sheet or page, the print data in the conventional page description language format can be processed in parallel by a plurality of CPUs. This was an obstacle to speeding up the printing process.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to link each page input from an external device to a data processing unit in print output, and a plurality of independent pages. When receiving and processing page description language data described as a hierarchical page of a page, if it detects an interrupt request for other page description language data, the processed page information and the page description language data being processed After processing the page description language data input by interrupting, if the head of the page to be resumed is detected from the saved processed page information, the detected page to be resumed is detected. By resuming the analysis processing for the page description language data suspended from the top, even if an interrupt job is processed, the page analysis processing is started from the top of the suspended page. A print control device and printing that can be opened and that can simplify the process of analyzing from the first page of a conventional job, and can build a print processing environment that can efficiently print by significantly reducing the print processing time after interruption It is an object to provide a control method, a storage medium storing a computer-readable program, and a program.

  According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print control apparatus capable of communicating with an external apparatus, wherein each page input from the external apparatus is linked to a data processing unit in print output, and is independent from each other. A data storage unit (for example, the print data storage unit 1030 shown in FIG. 2) for receiving and storing page description language data described as a hierarchical page, and an analysis unit (for example, shown in FIG. 2) for analyzing the page description language data. Command analysis unit 1103), interrupt detection unit (for example, command analysis unit 1103 shown in FIG. 2) for detecting an interrupt request for other page description language data during data analysis by the analysis unit, and the interrupt detection unit When an interrupt request for other page description language data is detected, the processed page information and the page description language data being processed are After detecting the page description language data which is saved in the data storage means and interrupted and input, the head detecting means for detecting the head of the page to be resumed from the saved processed page information (for example, the command shown in FIG. 2) Analyzing section 1103), wherein the analyzing section restarts the analyzing process for the page description language data suspended from the top of the page to be restarted detected by the head detecting section.

  The second invention according to the present invention is characterized in that the head detection means is capable of detecting at least the head of the description of the physical paper, the head of the description of the page, and the head of the description of the band. And

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the analyzing means outputs page description language data to be processed according to a hierarchy detected by the head detecting means from a series of page description language data stored in the data storage means. It is characterized by extracting and analyzing.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the analysis unit is configured to store page description language data processed according to a hierarchy detected by the head detection unit from a series of page description language data stored in the data storage unit. The analysis is skipped, the page description language data to be processed is extracted, and the analysis process is restarted.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the head detecting means can detect the head of a page in page description language data to be processed in ascending or descending order according to the paper discharge mode (for example, in the page analysis process shown in FIG. 8). Corresponding).

  A sixth invention according to the present invention is characterized in that the analysis means reads a plurality of page description language data of the same hierarchy from the data storage means, and performs data analysis in the order of pages read by the head detection means. .

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the analyzing means is capable of analyzing a command specifying an effective range of registered data (corresponding to the usable range shown in FIG. 9) at the top of the page description language data. Features.

  The eighth invention according to the present invention is characterized in that the analysis means can switch the deletion timing of the registration data based on the effective range of the specified registration data.

  According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a page description in which each input page is linked to a data processing unit in print output and is described as a plurality of independent hierarchical pages by communicating with an external device. A printing control method in a printing control apparatus comprising data storage means for receiving and storing language data, the analyzing step for analyzing the page description language data (step S303 shown in FIG. 3), and the data analysis by the analyzing step When an interrupt detection step (step S509 shown in FIG. 4) for detecting an interrupt request for other page description language data and an interrupt request for other page description language data are detected by the interrupt detection step, The processed page information and the page description language data being processed are saved in the data storage means, and the page inputted by interruption is input. A head detecting step (step S305 shown in FIG. 3) for detecting the head of the page to be resumed from the saved processed page information after processing the description language data, and the analyzing step includes the head detecting step The analysis processing for the page description language data suspended from the top of the page to be resumed detected by the above is resumed.

  According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, the head detection step is capable of detecting at least the head of the three levels of the head of the description about the physical paper, the head of the description about the page, and the head of the description about the band. And

  According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in the analyzing step, page description language data to be processed according to a hierarchy detected in the head detecting step is selected from a series of page description language data stored in the data storage means. It is characterized by extracting and analyzing.

  According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, in the analyzing step, the page description language data processed according to the hierarchy detected by the head detecting step is selected from the series of page description language data stored in the data storage means. The analysis is skipped, the page description language data to be processed is extracted, and the analysis process is restarted.

  A thirteenth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the head detecting step can detect the head of a page in page description language data to be processed in ascending or descending order according to a paper discharge mode.

  In a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, the analyzing step reads a plurality of page description language data in the same hierarchy from the data storage means, and performs data analysis in the order of pages read by the head detecting step. .

  A fifteenth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the analysis step enables analysis of a command in which the valid range of registered data is specified at the head of page description language data.

  A sixteenth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the analysis step can switch the deletion timing of the registration data based on an effective range of the specified registration data.

  According to a seventeenth aspect of the present invention, a program for realizing the printing control method according to the ninth to sixteenth aspects is stored in a computer-readable storage medium.

  An eighteenth aspect of the present invention is a program for realizing the printing control method according to the ninth to sixteenth aspects.

  According to the present invention, even when an interrupt job is processed, the page analysis processing can be resumed from the top of the interrupted page, and the conventional processing for analyzing from the top page of the job is simplified, and the print processing time after the interrupt is simplified. As a result, it is possible to freely construct a print processing environment capable of efficiently performing the print processing by greatly shortening the above.

  Next, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  Before describing the configuration of the present embodiment, the configuration of a laser beam printer (hereinafter referred to as “LBP”) suitable for applying the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Needless to say, the printer to which the present embodiment is applied is not limited to a laser beam printer, and may be a printer of another printing method.

  FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an example of a printing apparatus (LBP) to which the printing control apparatus according to the present invention can be applied, and corresponds to a sectional view showing an internal structure of a laser beam printer, for example. The LBP can register a character pattern or a fixed form (form data) from a data source (not shown).

  In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1000 denotes an LBP which inputs and stores character information (character code), form information, macro instructions, and the like supplied from an externally connected host computer, and corresponding characters according to the information. A pattern, a form pattern, and the like are created, and an image is formed on a recording sheet that is a recording medium.

  Reference numeral 1012 denotes an operation panel on which switches for operation, an LED display, and the like are arranged. A printer control unit 1001 controls the entire LBP 1000 and analyzes character information supplied from the host computer. The printer control unit 1001 mainly converts character information into a video signal having a corresponding character pattern and outputs the video signal to the laser driver 1002.

  The laser driver 1002 is a circuit for driving the semiconductor laser 1003, and switches on and off the laser light 1004 emitted from the semiconductor laser 1003 in accordance with the input video signal. The laser beam 1004 is swung in the left-right direction by the rotary polygon mirror 1005 and scans on the electrostatic drum 1006.

  As a result, an electrostatic latent image of a character pattern is formed on the electrostatic drum 1006. This latent image is developed by a developing unit 1007 around the electrostatic drum 1006 and then transferred to a recording sheet.

  A cut sheet is used as the recording paper. The cut sheet recording paper is stored in a paper cassette 1008 mounted on the LBP 1000, and is taken into the apparatus by a paper feed roller 1009, a transport roller 1010, and a registration roller 1011 functioning as a timing roller. And supplied to the electrostatic drum 1006.

[First Embodiment]
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the print control apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and corresponds to the internal configuration of the printer control unit 1001 illustrated in FIG.

  In FIG. 2, the printer control unit 1001 is roughly composed of a formatter control unit 1100, a panel input / output control unit 1020, a print data storage unit 1030, an output control unit 1300, and a printer engine unit 1400.

  The formatter control unit 1100 includes a protocol control unit 1101, a command detection unit 1102, a command analysis unit 1103, a data drawing unit 1104, and a page memory 1105.

  The printer interface 1200 is a means for input / output from / to the outside.

  First, the protocol control unit 1101 is means for communicating with the outside by analyzing and transmitting a network protocol. The command detection unit 1102 detects the type of print control command in the received job.

  The command analysis unit 1103 is a unit that analyzes a command and converts it into an intermediate code in a format that is easier to process. The intermediate code generated by the command analysis unit 1103 is passed to the data drawing unit 1104 and processed.

  The data drawing unit 1104 develops the intermediate code into bitmap data, and the developed bitmap data is sequentially drawn in the page memory 1105.

  The panel input / output control unit 1020 controls input / output from the operation panel 1012 shown in FIG. The print data storage unit 1030 is a storage unit that holds received print data, and may be a primary storage device such as a DRAM or a secondary storage device such as a hard disk.

  In general, the formatter control unit 1100 is configured by a computer system using a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and the like.

  The output control unit 1300 converts the contents of the page memory 1105 into a video signal, and performs image transfer to the printer engine unit 1400. The printer engine unit 1400 is a printing mechanism unit for forming a received video signal on a recording sheet as a permanent visible image.

  Next, in the printing system including the printing apparatus including the printing control apparatus configured as described above, an overall printing control processing procedure in the present embodiment will be described with reference to flowcharts shown in FIGS.

  The present embodiment is an example applied to return from an interrupt job, and is an example in which the start of interrupt job processing is after the end of a page during processing of an interrupted job.

  Therefore, for example, if an interrupt job is interrupted during the processing of the 10th page, the processing is continued until the end of the 10th page, the interrupt job is processed after the 10th page is completed, and the 11th page starts. It becomes the operation of returning from.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of a first data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention, and corresponds to the main processing procedure by the formatter control unit 1100 shown in FIG. As described above, this is realized by the CPU configuring the formatter control unit 1100 loading and executing the control program on the RAM. S301 to S306 indicate each step.

  First, in step S301, print data stored in the print data storage unit is read, and in step S302, the command detection unit 1102 detects a print control command. The content detected here is the type of print control command. When the type of command is found, the process proceeds to step S303, and a drawing process described later in detail is performed.

  If the command is analyzed and executed here, the process proceeds to step S304, and whether or not the next process is a return from the interrupt job, that is, whether or not another job (print data) is interrupted and processed during the drawing process. If the command analysis unit 1103 determines that the job is not a return from the interrupt job, the command analysis unit 1103 determines whether all jobs (print data) have been completed by proceeding to step S306. If it is determined that the printing is finished, the printing control operation is finished.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S306 that the job has not ended, the printing process from step S301 is repeated.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S304 that the job has been returned from the interrupt job, the process proceeds to step S305, where the head detection process is performed in order to scan the print control command reading position, which will be described later, and then the step The processing from S302 is repeated.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the second data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention, and corresponds to the drawing processing procedure (step S303 shown in FIG. 3) by the formatter control unit 1100 shown in FIG. To do. As described above, this is realized by the CPU configuring the formatter control unit 1100 loading and executing the control program on the RAM. S501 to S512 indicate each step. Further, this process is a process for actually performing a printing process.

  First, in step S501, the command analysis unit 1103 checks whether or not the page has ended. If it is determined that the page has ended, the process proceeds to step S506 to perform processing.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S501 that the page has not ended, in step S502, the command analysis unit 1103 determines whether the analyzed command is a description that needs to be expanded to page memory such as character printing or graphic drawing. If it is determined that the description does not require a page memory expansion process, the process proceeds to step S505, immediately performs processing according to the description such as attribute setting / printing position control, and returns to step S301 shown in FIG. .

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S502 that the analyzed command is a description that requires expansion processing to the page memory such as character printing or graphic drawing, the process proceeds to step S503, where the expansion processing to the bitmap is easy. Generate intermediate code of shape.

  In step S504, the intermediate code generated in step S503 is received, and the data rendering unit 1104 performs expansion processing on the page memory 1105. After the expansion processing ends, the process returns to step S302 shown in FIG. Repeat the print data analysis process.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S501 that the page has ended, in step S506, the output control unit 1300 converts the contents of the page memory 1105 into a video signal for the printer engine unit 1400 and outputs the image.

  In step S507, the printer engine unit 1400 forms a permanent visible image on the recording paper and prints the received video signal. When the printed result is discharged in step S508, the printing process per page ends. However, the process proceeds to step S509, where an interruption of another job (print data) is detected. In step S510, the interruption is detected. Determine whether it has occurred.

  In general, this interrupt is generated when an incoming print data including an interrupt command is received, and an interrupt detection means (not shown) detects the interrupt command.

  If it is determined in step S510 that there is no interrupt job, the process ends (returns) as it is.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S510 that an interrupt job exists, the number of pages already processed is stored in the work memory in step S511, and the interrupt job is processed in step S512. After the end, the process ends (returns).

  Here, since the interrupt job is also print data like the interrupted job, all the information on the processing process of the interrupted job is lost except for the number of pages stored in step S511.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of a third data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention. The head detection processing procedure (step S305 shown in FIG. 3) by the formatter control unit 1100 shown in FIG. Correspond. As described above, this is realized by the CPU configuring the formatter control unit 1100 loading and executing the control program on the RAM. S401 to S406 indicate each step. This process is a process for detecting the read position of the unprocessed portion of the interrupted job (stored in the print data storage unit) after processing the interrupt job.

  First, in step S401, the print data read position is moved to the top of the data stored in the print data storage unit 1030. Next, in step S402, a command is read from the moved read position.

  When a command is read, the read position moves to the beginning of the next command. Here, the processing in steps S402 to S403 is repeated until the read command comes to the page start command. When the page start command is detected in step S403, the process proceeds to step S404, and the count value of a counter (not shown) is added.

  Here, the counter simply counts the number of page start commands. If the number of page start commands is three, the counter becomes “3”.

  When the counter is added, it is determined in step S405 whether or not the counter matches the number of pages stored in step S511 shown in FIG. 4, that is, in this case, Since the print data has already been processed up to that page, in step S406, the head of the command is set as the read position, and the process ends.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S405 that the number of stored pages does not match, the process returns to step S402 to repeat the next command reading process.

  Next, the contents and processing order of the print data processed in the present embodiment will be specifically described by comparing the case of the conventional example in FIG. 6 and the case of the present embodiment shown in FIG.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the processing transition of received data in this type of print control apparatus, FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the processing transition of received data in the print control apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. This is a case according to a conventional example, and FIG. 7 is a case according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 6, job A is composed of 3 pages, and various attributes such as paper size designation, duplex printing designation, page orientation designation, color mode designation, color setting, clip area setting are designated on the first page. Thus, the printing apparatus processes the commands in order from the beginning of the data as shown in the analysis process 1.

  Here, it is assumed that an interrupt job (job B) has occurred after discharging up to two pages.

  The print control apparatus interrupts processing of job A and starts processing of interrupt job B. Then, after finishing the processing of the interrupt job B and returning to the processing of the job A, the printing control apparatus continues the printing processing from the third page that has not been processed yet.

  However, because the interrupt job B has been printed, all the information processed up to the second page of job A is lost. The specification becomes unknown.

  Therefore, the print control apparatus determines the printing operation for the third page by repeating the command analysis process again from the first page of job A. That is, only the command analysis process needs to be repeated retroactively to the first page when it is desired to print out only the third page.

  On the other hand, in the example of the received data according to the present embodiment shown in FIG. 7, the job A is composed of 3 pages as in the example shown in FIG. Various attributes such as orientation designation, color mode designation, color brush setting, and clip area setting are instructed, and the printing apparatus processes commands in order from the beginning of the data as shown in analysis processing 1.

  Here, as in the example shown in FIG. 6, it is assumed that an interrupt job (job B) occurs after one page is discharged.

  The print control apparatus interrupts processing of job A and starts processing of job B. Then, after finishing the processing of job B, the printing control apparatus that has returned to the processing of job A tries to continue the printing processing from the second page that has not yet been processed.

  Here, since each page has a hierarchical structure in which each page is independent of each other, the various attributes specified on the first page do not affect the second page (= the life cycle of various attributes is Valid only within that hierarchy).

  Therefore, the print control apparatus only needs to restart the command analysis process from the beginning of the second page, and it is not necessary to perform the analysis process retroactively to the previous page, so the printing operation for the second page is accelerated.

[Second Embodiment]
FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining an example of data processing in the print control apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention. For example, when face-up output processing is performed in the printing apparatus, data when the present embodiment is applied. This is an example of processing.

  Note that face-up output is a paper discharge method in which paper is discharged with the print side facing up. However, when print data is processed in order from the head, two pages are discharged onto one page. Since three pages are discharged on the page, in order to discharge in descending order, it is necessary to process the print data from the subsequent page, that is, the third page, the second page, and the first page.

  As a processing order in this case, first, a command on the physical paper layer is analyzed to interpret paper-related attributes (paper analysis processing 1 and 2 shown in FIG. 8).

  Next, the head of the third page is detected by the head detection process (the procedure shown in FIG. 5), and the analysis process of the third page is started (page analysis process 1). Similarly, the top detection unit detects the top of the second page and performs analysis processing for the second page (page analysis processing 2). Finally, it is understood that the pages can be easily processed in the reverse order by performing the analysis process for the first page (page analysis process 1).

[Third Embodiment]
In the first and second embodiments, the data analysis processing is completely independent for each layer, but depending on the drawing contents, the processing speed may be greatly affected. An example of this is a registered character processing example.

  Here, the registered character is a drawing function that registers a bitmap sent from the host as a character without using the font built in the printing device, and allows repeated printing by adding a character code. It is.

  For example, when printing “shi”, “n”, “bu”, “n”, and “shi”, bitmaps of four characters “shi”, “n”, “bu”, and “n” are assigned to number 0, respectively. Register with the first, second, third, and other character codes, and specify “0, 1, 2, 3, 1” when printing to speed up the fifth character “Shi”. Can be

  Here, if the effective range of the registered characters is made independent for each page, “shi”, “n”, “bu”, “n” are registered on the first page, and “shi” is printed on the second page. When doing so, it is of course necessary to re-register “shi” again.

  However, generally, even if the characters are the same typeface and the same point size, several hundred to several thousand characters are usually printed in one piece of print data.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, the effective range of registration data (hereinafter referred to as a resource) having a large amount of data such as registered characters is designated at the head of the print data, and the resource retention period is switched by analyzing this.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining an example of data processing in the print control apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention. The effective range of resources (resource effective level in the figure) is specified at the head of the job.

  If the designation here is “job”, the resource is not deleted in units of pages, but is held until all the print data is processed. That is, the valid range of registered characters in FIG. 9 is from the registration point to the end of the job as shown.

  Therefore, when the resource effective level is designated, the hierarchical independence of the resource cannot be maintained, so that the analysis process cannot be performed from the head of an arbitrary page as described in the first and second embodiments.

  However, in the first and second embodiments, since the print data is stored in the print data storage unit, an arbitrary page can be accessed. However, in the case of a printing apparatus not equipped with the print data storage unit, There is nothing but processing in order from any head.

  Therefore, by providing means for switching the effective range of resources as in this embodiment, it is possible to perform printing without reducing the printing speed even for a printing apparatus that is not equipped with the print data storage unit 1030.

  According to the above embodiment, a page description language having a plurality of independent hierarchies that are closely related to print output such as physical paper and pages is processed from an arbitrary hierarchy, so that it is easily placed at the head of necessary data in print data. It can be accessed, and various processes such as return from an interrupt job and page sort processing can be accelerated.

  Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and it is needless to say that various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

  The configuration of a data processing program that can be read by the print control apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the memory map shown in FIG.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a memory map of a storage medium that stores various data processing programs readable by the print control apparatus according to the present invention.

  Although not particularly illustrated, information for managing a program group stored in the storage medium, for example, version information, creator, etc. is also stored, and information depending on the OS on the program reading side, for example, a program is identified and displayed. Icons may also be stored.

  Further, data depending on various programs is also managed in the directory. In addition, a program for installing various programs in the computer, and a program for decompressing when the program to be installed is compressed may be stored.

  The functions shown in FIGS. 3 to 5 in this embodiment may be performed by the host computer by a program installed from the outside. In this case, the present invention is applied even when an information group including a program is supplied to the output device from a storage medium such as a CD-ROM, a flash memory, or an FD, or from an external storage medium via a network. Is.

  As described above, a storage medium storing software program codes for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to the system or apparatus, and the computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus stores the storage medium in the storage medium. It goes without saying that the object of the present invention can also be achieved by reading and executing the programmed program code.

  In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the novel function of the present invention, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

  Therefore, as long as it has the function of the program, the form of the program such as an object code, a program executed by an interpreter, or script data supplied to the OS is not limited.

  As a storage medium for supplying the program, for example, a flexible disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, MO, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, DVD, etc. Can be used.

  In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

  As another program supply method, a browser of a client computer is used to connect to a homepage on the Internet, and the computer program itself of the present invention or a compressed file including an automatic installation function is stored on a recording medium such as a hard disk from the homepage. It can also be supplied by downloading. It can also be realized by dividing the program code constituting the program of the present invention into a plurality of files and downloading each file from a different homepage. That is, a WWW server, an ftp server, and the like that allow a plurality of users to download a program file for realizing the functional processing of the present invention on a computer are also included in the claims of the present invention.

  In addition, the program of the present invention is encrypted, stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM, distributed to users, and key information for decryption is downloaded from a homepage via the Internet to users who have cleared predetermined conditions. It is also possible to execute the encrypted program by using the key information and install the program on a computer.

  Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an OS (operating system) or the like running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that a case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by performing part or all of the actual processing and the processing is included.

  Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written to a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion is performed based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that the case where the CPU or the like provided in the board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications (including organic combinations of the embodiments) are possible based on the spirit of the present invention, and these are excluded from the scope of the present invention. is not.

  Although various examples and embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, those skilled in the art will not limit the spirit and scope of the present invention to the specific description in the present specification.

  According to each of the above embodiments, a page description language having a plurality of independent hierarchies that are closely related to print output such as physical paper and pages is processed from an arbitrary hierarchy, so that it is easy to start the necessary data in the print data. It is possible to speed up various processes such as return from an interrupt job and page sort processing.

  In the above embodiment, the case where the unit of the data hierarchy processed by the print control apparatus is a page unit has been described. However, the unit of the data hierarchy processed by the print control apparatus is a band unit obtained by dividing one page into a plurality of units. Also good.

  Then, page processing can be speeded up by performing parallel processing on a plurality of bands from data analysis processing.

  Also, the processing for each level of physical paper is summarized, the level for which OHP is specified is processed collectively, and the level for which double-sided printing is specified is processed collectively, so that the temperature of the fixing device, the conveyance speed, etc. It is also possible to increase the speed by minimizing changes to engine control.

  Furthermore, in the first embodiment, the case where the top of the page after the return of the interrupt is detected using the page counter has been described. However, if the address of the data stored in the print data storage unit does not move, the command at the time of the interrupt is changed. It is also possible to save the address and continue the analysis process from the address when returning.

  In the third embodiment, an example of registered characters is given as a resource, but it goes without saying that registration data having a large data amount can be applied to other examples. For example, palette data for registering a set of colors corresponds to this.

It is sectional drawing which shows an example of the printing apparatus (LBP) which can apply the printing control apparatus which concerns on this invention. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a print control apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a first data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a second data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a third data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention. It is a figure explaining the process transition of the received data in this kind of printing control apparatus. It is a figure explaining the process transition of the received data in the printing control apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a figure explaining the example of a data process in the printing control apparatus which shows 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the example of a data processing in the printing control apparatus which shows 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the memory map of the storage medium which stores the various data processing program which can be read by the printing control apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a figure explaining the structure of the printing control command in this kind of printing apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the print data processing procedure in this kind of printing apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

1001 Printer control unit 1020 Panel input / output control unit 1030 Print data storage unit 1101 Protocol control unit 1102 Command detection unit 1103 Command analysis unit 1104 Data drawing unit 1105 Page memory 1300 Output control unit 1400 Printer engine unit

Claims (18)

A print control device capable of communicating with an external device,
Data storage means for receiving and storing page description language data in which each page input from the external device is linked to a data processing unit in print output and is described as a plurality of independent hierarchical pages,
Analyzing means for analyzing the page description language data;
Interrupt detection means for detecting an interrupt request for other page description language data during data analysis by the analysis means;
When the interrupt detection unit detects an interrupt request for other page description language data, the page information that has been processed and the page description language data being processed are saved in the data storage unit, and the page is input by interruption After processing the description language data, the head detection means for detecting the head of the page to be resumed from the saved processed page information,
The print control apparatus, wherein the analysis unit restarts the analysis process for the page description language data suspended from the top of the page to be resumed detected by the head detection unit.   The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the head detection unit is capable of detecting at least the head of three layers, ie, the head of a description about physical paper, the head of a description about a page, and the head of a description about a band. .   The analysis unit extracts and analyzes page description language data to be processed according to a hierarchy detected by the head detection unit from a series of page description language data stored in the data storage unit. Item 2. The printing control apparatus according to Item 1.   The analysis unit skips the analysis of the page description language data that has been processed according to the hierarchy detected by the head detection unit from the series of page description language data stored in the data storage unit, and the page to be processed 2. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the description language data is extracted and the analysis process is resumed.   The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the head detection unit is capable of detecting the head of a page in page description language data to be processed in ascending or descending order according to a paper discharge mode.   6. The printing control apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the analysis unit reads a plurality of page description language data in the same hierarchy from the data storage unit, and performs data analysis in the order of pages read by the head detection unit.   The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the analysis unit is capable of analyzing a command in which an effective range of registration data is specified at the top of page description language data.   The print control apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the analysis unit can switch a deletion timing of the registration data based on an effective range of the specified registration data. Data storage that communicates with an external device to receive and store page description language data in which each input page is linked to a data processing unit in print output and is described as a plurality of independent hierarchical pages A printing control method in a printing control apparatus comprising means,
An analysis step of analyzing the page description language data;
An interrupt detection step for detecting an interrupt request for other page description language data during data analysis by the analysis step;
When an interrupt request for other page description language data is detected by the interrupt detection step, the processed page information and the page description language data being processed are saved in the data storage means, and the page is input by interruption A head detection step for detecting the head of the page to be resumed from the saved processed page information after processing the description language data,
The analysis control step restarts the analysis processing for the page description language data suspended from the top of the page to be restarted detected by the top detection step.   10. The print control method according to claim 9, wherein the head detection step is capable of detecting at least the head of the three layers of the head of the description about physical paper, the head of the description about the page, and the head of the description about the band. .   The analyzing step extracts and analyzes page description language data to be processed according to a hierarchy detected by the head detecting step from a series of page description language data stored in the data storage means. Item 10. The printing control method according to Item 9.   The analysis step skips the analysis of the page description language data that has been processed according to the hierarchy detected by the head detection step from the series of page description language data stored in the data storage means, and the page to be processed The print control method according to claim 9, wherein the description processing is resumed by extracting the description language data.   The print control method according to claim 9, wherein the head detection step can detect a head of a page in page description language data to be processed in ascending order or descending order according to a paper discharge mode.   The print control method according to claim 13, wherein the analysis step reads a plurality of page description language data of the same hierarchy from the data storage unit, and performs data analysis in the order of pages read by the head detection step.   10. The print control method according to claim 9, wherein the analysis step enables analysis of a command in which an effective range of registered data is specified at the top of page description language data.   The print control method according to claim 15, wherein the analysis step enables switching of the deletion timing of the registration data based on an effective range of the specified registration data.   A computer-readable storage medium storing a program for realizing the print control method according to claim 9.   The program which implement | achieves the printing control method in any one of Claims 9-16.

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