JP2006039898A - Print job processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a processing method that prevents memory shortage errors from occurring at a printer when printing is performed as the rearrangement of print pages is designated by means of print job creation software. <P>SOLUTION: Either the work memory of the printer is cleared by combining a usable memory clear mode and a page-based memory clear mode, or a command for clearing the work memory is created when the size of memory in use exceeds a usable memory size in cases where print data are rearranged to create output command data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a print job processing method for rearranging print pages.

  In recent years, some printing apparatuses have printing functions such as reverse order printing for rearranging print data from application software and saddle stitch printing. In order to realize this printing function, the print pages are rearranged on the application software side, or the normal print pages requested for printing on the print job generation software side are rearranged before being sent to the printing device. Alternatively, a print job received on the printing apparatus side, that is, a command data string that can be decoded by the printing apparatus is rearranged. However, there are still many applications that have a sorting function for reverse printing and saddle stitch printing on the application software side. In addition, rearranging on the printing apparatus side requires a storage device for storing received print jobs in units of pages. Therefore, in general, the print job generation software side rearranges and transmits the data before transmitting it to the printing apparatus.

  When sorting on the print job generation software side, first according to the print request from the application software, the print job is generated in the normal order, all output command data strings are stored in the print job file, and the start position for each print page And the data of the end position are stored in the print page offset file. At that time, if there is a print request for soft fonts that exist on the operating system, the soft font data to be downloaded to the printing device should be saved to a soft font file so that printing illegality due to rearrangement, that is, missing characters, garbled characters, etc., will not occur. Stored as a temporary file.

  On the application software, a printer font built in the printing apparatus or a soft font existing on the operating system can be designated for the character data. In the former case, characters to be printed can be printed simply by specifying the printer font attribute information (font name, size, etc.) and the character code. You need to download the font data.

  Next, according to the page rearrangement designation (for example, reverse order printing) designated by the operator in the user interface provided in the print job generation software, the print page rearrangement order is determined, and if there is a soft font file, After sending the soft font data definition command sequence in the file to the printing device, the output command data sequence on the print job file corresponding to the print page (in the print page stored in the print page offset file) according to the rearranged order. The corresponding data string from the start position to the end position is transmitted to the print job spooler.

  Conventionally, when using soft font data, in order to avoid a shortage of work memory capacity of the printing device, the memory consumption of the soft font data to be downloaded to the printing device is calculated in advance, and this value is used as the used memory. A mode that counts and clears the soft font data in the work memory when it exceeds the available memory of the printing device specified on the user interface in the print job generation software (hereinafter, the available memory clear Mode) or a mode for clearing soft font data in the work memory for each print page (hereinafter referred to as page unit memory clear mode) has been exclusively set by the operator.

  The work memory is used for storing soft fonts and printer font caches, and the capacity varies depending on the physical memory installed in the printing apparatus. For example, in the case of 128 MB of physical memory, 10 MB multiplied by 8% of the work memory ratio becomes the work memory (however, when the printing apparatus is activated). The printer font is temporarily cached, but is automatically deleted on the printing apparatus side according to the memory usage status. On the other hand, a soft font is not deleted unless a memory clear command is output. However, because of the volatile memory, when the printer is turned off, the data in the memory is lost regardless of the font type.

  When the above-described available memory clear mode is used as a method for clearing the work memory, all the soft font data is downloaded at the head of the print job. Therefore, the printing apparatus depends on the available memory size and soft font data amount. There is a problem that the memory capacity of will be insufficient.

  Therefore, to avoid this problem, if the print page rearrangement is specified by the operator, the print job generation software automatically enables the above page unit memory clear mode and clears the memory in page units. It is common.

  Here, the flow of conventional printing will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 7 is a block diagram for explaining conventional rearrangement printing, wherein 1 is a host computer, 2 is an operating system that is basic software for operating the computer 1, and 3 is an application for creating and printing a document. Software 4 is a print interface that gives a print instruction to the print job generation software 5 in accordance with a print instruction of the application software 3. The print job generation software 5 includes a user interface unit 6 having an interface with an operator for setting a print format on the application software 3, a print job generation processing unit 7 for generating a print job, and a despooling unit for rearranging print pages 9

  When print data including characters created by the operator on the application software 3 is specified and printed in the reverse order, the print interface 4 gives a print instruction to the print job generation software 5 according to the print instruction on the application software 3, and based on that. The print job generation processing unit 7 in the print job generation software 5 is activated.

FIG. 8A shows a processing flow of the print job generation processing unit 7. The print job generation processing unit 7 first resets the used memory size counter for calculating the current used memory consumption, and print job An initial setting command is transmitted to the print job spooler 10 (step 101). Then, it is determined whether to clear the memory for each page specified by the user interface unit 6 (step 102), and the page unit memory clear mode is set (step 103). When reverse order printing is specified, for example, in the case of 4 pages, it is necessary to rearrange in order of 4 → 3 → 2 → 1. Therefore, the despool mode is set as the print job processing method, and the generated command data is output. Set the destination to a temporary file and set the page unit memory clear mode. Then, a print job file for storing the print job and a print page offset file for storing the start position (offset position) for each page are created, and the print job counter indicating the current offset position is reset (step 107). ).
Next, the current print job counter is stored in the print page offset file as a print page start process (step 108). If the print request is for character data (step 109), the page unit memory clear mode is not used (step 109). Step 110) A soft font data file is created (Step 111), the character drawing processing unit 8 is activated (Step 113), and the processing is continued until one page output is completed.

  After the end of one page (step 114), in the page unit memory clear mode, a command data string for clearing the work memory (not shown) of the printing apparatus 12 is output (step 116), and the soft font management table and use Reset the memory size counter. Then, the current print job file size is set as the offset position of the next page in the print job counter (step 117), and the above processing is continued until all pages are output.

  After all pages have been output, since the despool mode is selected, the despooling unit 9 for rearranging the print pages is activated (step 120), and all print pages requested by the application software 3 are designated by the specified sort. The print jobs are sequentially transmitted to the print job spooler 10. The received print job spooler 10 transmits the print job to the printing apparatus 12 via the bidirectional interface 11, and the print jobs rearranged by the printing apparatus 12 are printed. In the case of a print request other than character data, a graphic drawing processing unit for drawing a graphic or image data is started (step 112), but the description is omitted here.

  FIG. 9 shows a processing flow of the character drawing processing unit 8.

  The character drawing processing unit 8 first determines the designated character data (step 201), is not downloaded with soft font data (step 202), and is not in the page unit memory clear mode (step 203), The available memory set on the user interface unit 6 is compared with the currently used memory (step 204). If the used memory is within the range of available memory, the memory consumption size of the soft font data is added to the used memory size counter (step 206), and the soft font data definition command sequence is output (step 207). The downloaded soft font data is set to be already downloaded on the soft font management table for managing (step 208). If the available memory is exceeded, a command for clearing the downloaded soft font data on the work memory of the printing apparatus 12 is output, and the soft font management table and the used memory size counter are reset (step 205). ). Then, a command for drawing soft font data is generated and output (step 209), and the above processing is continued until drawing of all characters is completed (step 211).

  FIG. 10 shows a processing flow of the despooling unit 9.

  The despooler 9 first switches the command data output destination to the print job spooler 10, acquires the page rearrangement method specified by the user interface unit 6 (step 301), and if a soft font data file exists. (Step 302), all soft font data definition command strings in the soft font data file are output (step 303). Next, according to the page rearrangement method, the print page to be output is determined (step 304), the start position and end position corresponding to the print page are acquired from the print job offset file (step 305), and the print job file A command data string for designating drawing of print characters between the start position and the end position is acquired and output (step 306). As described above, the processing is continued until the output of all pages is completed (step 307). After the output of all pages is completed, all temporary files are deleted (step 308).

  However, if the print page rearrangement is specified by the operator, even if the page-unit memory clear mode is automatically enabled, the soft memory data that consumes all of the specified available memory within one page. However, a memory shortage error always occurs on the printing apparatus, and it cannot always be said that normal printing is possible.

  Also, the print instruction sequence from the print interface is saved in the intermediate language file in page units, and the print job spooler generates the page unit print instruction sequence in the intermediate language file by the page sorting method specified in the print job generation software. When print requests can be made to the print interface in the sort order (hereinafter referred to as intermediate language spool mode), the print job generation software does not need to sort, so a memory shortage error is generated by clearing the memory for each available memory. However, if you want to generate a print job directly without generating an intermediate language file, instead of using the intermediate language spool mode, you can only reorder the pages with the print job generation software. There was no mechanism for normal printing.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and when print data including soft font data is printed from an application software by specifying print page rearrangement, the print job rearrangement is performed by the print job generation software. An object of the present invention is to provide a print job processing method that does not cause a memory shortage error in a printing apparatus.

  In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a print job generation software capable of rearranging print pages, generating print data to be transmitted to a printing apparatus in a print job file, and storing the print job file in the print job file. Print data stored in the print job offset file in the print job offset file, and print data in the order according to the operator's rearrangement specification using the data stored in the print job file and the print job offset file. A step of creating output command data in which pages are rearranged, and storing the soft font and the soft font for clearing the work memory of the printing apparatus for each print page when the print job file is generated The memory size used for When exceeded's, there is one of the features to generate clear command data each time to clear the work memory.

  Another feature of the present invention is that a print job generation software capable of rearranging print pages generates soft font data to be downloaded to a printing device into a font file, and print data to be transmitted to the printing device is a print job. A step of generating a file, and a step of generating a soft font information table storing data indicating a soft font definition name of soft font data to be downloaded to the printing apparatus, a consumption amount of the work memory, and a storage position on the font file And generating output command data in which the print data is rearranged in the order according to the operator's rearrangement specification, and when generating the rearranged output command data, the soft font information table is used. Reconstruct the soft font data Rutotomoni, when the memory size to be used to store the soft fonts exceeds the available memory size of the work memory is to produce a clear command to clear the work memory.

  According to the first aspect of the invention, by using the available memory clear mode and the page unit memory clear mode in combination, normal printing can always be performed without causing a memory shortage error in the printing apparatus.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, the memory size used for storing the soft font exceeds the available memory size of the work memory when generating the output command data according to the operator's rearrangement designation of the print data. A command to clear the work memory is generated at the time, so normal printing is always possible without causing a memory shortage error in the printing device, and soft font data is downloaded to the printing device for each available memory. Therefore, the generation efficiency in the code size of the print job is also improved.

  FIG. 1-1 is an overall block diagram showing a first embodiment of a print job processing method according to the present invention. The print job generation software 5 includes a print job generation processing unit 7, a character drawing processing unit 8A, and a despooling unit 9. Have.

  The processing flow of the print job generation processing unit 7 is the same as that of the conventional FIG. 8-1, the processing flow of the despooling unit 9 is the same as that of the conventional FIG. 10, but the processing flow of the character drawing processing unit 8A is as shown in FIG. -1 and is different from the conventional FIG. That is, FIG. 2A is a flowchart in which step 203 for determining whether or not the page unit memory clear mode is in FIG. 9 showing the conventional processing flow is deleted.

  If step 203 is deleted, when it is determined in step 202 that the soft font data is not downloaded, the available memory amount of the work memory is always compared with the memory amount used by the download, and the available memory amount is small. When it does, it will output a command to clear the work memory.

  On the other hand, in the processing flow of the print job generation processing unit of FIG. 8A, there is a step 115 for determining whether or not the page unit memory clear mode is set. A command to clear the memory is generated.

  That is, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the work memory of the printing apparatus 12 can be cleared by a mode that combines a page unit memory clear mode for clearing the memory for each page and an available memory clear mode. There are features.

  As a result, the soft font data in the work memory of the printing apparatus 12 is cleared for each print page, and even when the memory consumption of the soft font data downloaded to the printing apparatus exceeds the available memory of the printing apparatus, the work memory The soft font data can be cleared, and the work memory can be cleared at two timings per page.

  Next, the processing procedure will be described by taking as an example a case where there is a request from the application software 3 to print four pages of print data as shown in FIG.

  In response to a 4-page character data print request from the application software 3, the print job generation software 5 outputs the print job file in units of pages. However, it is assumed that the used memory size exceeds the available memory size of the work memory of the printing apparatus 12 at “4” on the fourth page.

  First, as shown in FIG. 5, data definition commands “A”, “I”, “U”, “E”, and “O” are generated on the first page of the print job file (step 207 in FIG. 2A). At the same time, an output character command data string is generated (step 209 in FIG. 2A). Similarly, a data definition command “P” “.” “1” and an output character command data string are generated. Thereafter, a page-by-page clear command is stored in steps 115 and 116 in FIG.

  Similarly, the second page includes data definition commands of “ka” “ki” “ku” “ke” “ko”, an output character command data string, data definitions of “P” “.” “2”, and An output character command data string is generated, and then a page-by-page clear command is generated.

  The third page also includes “A” “I” “U” “E” “O” data definition command and output character command data string, “P” “.” “3” data definition and output A character command data string is generated, and finally a memory clear command for each page is stored.

  The fourth page contains data definition commands and output character command data strings of “ka” “ki” “ku” “ke” “ko”, data definition commands of “P” “.”, And output character command data strings. Generated. Furthermore, since the used memory size exceeds “4” and the usable memory size of the work memory, a memory clear command sequence is generated by the processing of steps 204 and 205 in FIG. After that, a data definition code “4” and an output character command data string are generated, and finally a memory clear command for each page is stored.

  The print job offset file stores the start position and end position of the output character command data string on the print job file corresponding to the print page (step 108 in FIG. 8A). In this example, the first to fourth page start positions are 0, 401, 601, and 801, and the end positions are 400, 600, 800, and 1000, respectively.

  Next, in step 2 of FIG. 5, since the page rearrangement method is the saddle stitching designation, the page order of 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 is rearranged in the order of pages 1 → 4 → 3 → 2. For this purpose, first, the start position and end position of the first page are acquired from the print job offset file, and the output character command data string on the first page corresponding to the start position to the end position is output. Similarly, the start position and the end position of the fourth page, the third page, and the second page are acquired from the print job offset file in order, and the output character command data string of the corresponding print page is output (step 301 in FIG. 10). And 304-306).

  In the above procedure, when the character “4” on the fourth page is output, the used memory size exceeds the available memory size, but the memory clear 2 is used to clear the work memory, so there is not enough memory. An error does not occur, and the subsequent processing only rearranges the print pages, so that a memory shortage error does not occur.

  As described above, according to the first embodiment, print data including soft font data is rearranged from application software by using a combination of the page unit memory clear mode and the available memory clear mode. When printing is specified, normal printing can always be performed without causing a memory shortage error in the printing apparatus.

  FIG. 1-2 is an overall block diagram showing a second embodiment of the print job processing method according to the present invention. The print job generation software 5 includes a print job generation processing unit 7, a character drawing processing unit 8, a despooling unit 9, A soft font reconstruction unit 13 is included.

  The processing flow of the print job generation processing unit 7 is shown in FIG. 8-2, the processing flow of the character drawing processing unit 8 is shown in FIG. 2-2, the processing flow of the despooling unit 9 is shown in FIG. The processing flow of the font reconstruction unit 13 is shown in FIG.

  In the second embodiment, the soft font reconstruction unit 13 is added to the despooling unit 9 as compared with the conventional example, step 220 is added to the processing flow of the character drawing processing unit 8, and the processing flow of the despooling unit includes steps 310 and 311. Is added, and step 106 is deleted in the processing flow of the print job generation processing unit.

  That is, in the processing flow of the print job generation processing unit of this embodiment, unlike the first embodiment, the available memory clear mode for clearing each available memory is used as the work memory clear method, so that the print pages are arranged. The page unit memory clear mode is not set when changing.

  Next, the processing flow of the character drawing processing unit 8 will be described with reference to FIG. In this processing flow, a soft font information table (hereinafter referred to as “font information table”) used by the soft font reconstruction unit 13 described later is created when the soft font data is output.

  First, it is determined whether or not the character data designated in step 201 is a printer font designation. If the result is affirmative (hereinafter YES), the process proceeds to step 210 to generate and output a printer font drawing command. On the other hand, if the determination in step 201 is negative (hereinafter referred to as NO), the process proceeds to step 202, where it is determined whether or not the character data is already downloaded as soft font data. If the determination is YES, the process proceeds to step 209 to generate and output a soft font data drawing command. On the other hand, if the determination in step 202 is NO and the software font data has not been downloaded, it is determined in step 203 whether the mode is to clear the memory for each page. If the determination in step 203 is NO, the user interface 6 is determined. The available memory set on the department is compared with the currently used memory (step 204). As a result of the determination in step 204, if the used memory is within the available memory range, the memory consumption size of the soft font data is added to the used memory size counter in step 206, and further in step 220 on the font information table. , Header command of the soft font data (specifying the type of soft font data to be downloaded before each soft font data definition command), data definition name, memory consumption size for each soft font data, software A start position and an end position indicating a storage position on a font data file (hereinafter referred to as a font file) are set. If the available memory is exceeded in the determination in step 204, a command for clearing the downloaded soft font on the work memory of the printing apparatus 12 is output, and the soft font management table and the used memory size counter are reset. (Step 205). Next, in step 208, the soft font data is set to have been downloaded on the soft font management table, and in step 221 the soft font data definition command string is output to a font file. In step 209, the soft font data Generates a command sequence for drawing characters and outputs it to a print job file. In step 211, it is determined whether or not all characters requested for printing have been drawn. If NO, the process returns to step 201 and the above-described processing is repeated.

  Next, the processing flow of the despooling unit 9 will be described with reference to FIG. This processing flow is characterized in that a page-unit memory clear mode determination is added, and when not in the page-unit memory clear mode, a soft font reconstruction unit 13 described later is executed.

  First, in step 301, the command data output destination is switched to the print job spooler 10 and the page rearrangement method designated by the user interface unit 6 is acquired. In step 310, it is determined whether or not the page unit memory clear mode is set. As a result of the determination, if it is not the page unit memory clear mode, the soft font reconstruction unit in step 311 is executed, and when the print page is rearranged, soft font data is taken into consideration from the created font file in consideration of the work memory consumption. Reconfigure. On the other hand, if the result of determination in step 310 is the page unit memory clear mode, it is determined whether there is a soft font data file in step 302 as in the prior art. All the soft font data definition command strings in the file are output. Next, in step 304, a print page to be output is determined according to the page rearrangement method, and in step 305, the start position and end position corresponding to the print page are printed. In step 306, a command data string for drawing and designating print characters is acquired from the print job file between the start position and the end position and output. The above processing is continued until all pages are output (step 307).

  Next, the processing of the soft font reconstruction unit 13 will be described with reference to FIG. In this process, a character string of a soft font to be drawn is converted from a print job file, a print job offset file, a font file, and a font information table created by the character drawing processing unit 8 into a soft font reconstruction software font data output table. (Hereinafter referred to as a font output table), and after outputting a soft font data definition command sequence corresponding to the character string to be rendered, the character string to be rendered is output.

  First, in step 401, a print page to be output is determined according to the specified page rearrangement method, and then in step 402, the print job offset file storing the storage position in the created print job file is used to print the print page. A start position and an end position corresponding to the page are acquired and set. In step 403, a soft font data definition name is searched between the start position and end position in the print job file, and the corresponding output character strings are grouped and registered in the font output table. At this time, however, registration is performed only when the output character string includes undownloaded soft font data.

  Next, in step 404, the memory consumption of the output characters existing in one group (hereinafter referred to as group memory size) is calculated, and in step 405, a value obtained by adding the group memory size to the currently used memory size can be used. It is determined whether or not the size is within the range of the memory size. If the result of the determination is within the range, the process proceeds to step 406, where a header command string corresponding to the soft font data is acquired from the font information file and output. In step 408, the soft font data definition command sequence is acquired from the font file and output. In step 409, the soft font data is set to be downloaded on the font output table. The above processing is performed on all the soft font data existing in the group (step 410), and after completion, in step 411, the group memory size is added to the current used memory size, and the current group on the font output file is displayed. The storage end position of the last part of the output character command corresponding to is set to the current end position. In step 416, the command data string corresponding to the print page is acquired and output between the start position and end position (end position on the print job offset file) of the print job file, and until the print page ends. The process is continued (step 417). However, if memory clear command data strings exist in the print job file at this time, they are not output.

  If it is determined in step 405 that the value obtained by adding the group memory size to the currently used memory size exceeds the available memory size, the process proceeds to step 412 to display a command data string corresponding to the print page up to the present time as a print job. In step 413, the current end position is set to the current start position, and the print page end position on the print job offset file is reset to the current end position. To do. In step 414, a command sequence for clearing the soft font data downloaded up to the present time is output to clear all soft font data in the work memory on the printer 12, and the font output table and the used memory size counter are reset. .

  The above process is performed until all print pages are completed (step 415).

  Next, as an example, a case will be described in which four pages of print data as shown in FIG.

  In response to a 4-page character data print request from the application software 3, the print job generation software 5 sets each definition command sequence of “Aiue Okeki Keko” as soft font data # 1 and “P” as soft font data # 2 in the font file. .1234 ″ (step 221 in FIG. 2-2 and step 111 in FIG. 8-2). Then, output character command data strings corresponding to those soft fonts are stored in the print job file (step 209 in FIG. 2-2). Further, the print job offset file stores the start position and end position of the output character command data string of the print page as shown in the table (step 108 in FIG. 8-2). At that time, for the soft font data # 1 and # 2, the header command, the data name, the memory consumption size for each soft font data, the start position and the end position on the stored font file are set and displayed. Is created (step 220 in FIG. 2-2).

  In the font information table, # 1 and # 2 are the types of soft font data, for example, the header command # 1 indicating the MS Mincho etc., the header command definition sequence of the soft font data for # 1, and the data # 1 is # 1 Indicates the soft font data name. “A” / 200/31/130 has a memory consumption of 200 bytes for “A” font data, 31 is a start position offset from the top of the soft font data file, and 130 is also an end position offset. Indicates. FIG. 6 shows an example in which the available memory size becomes full at “P.” of the second page and exceeds this size at the next “2”.

  Next, since the page rearrangement method is saddle stitching, the page order of 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 is determined to be rearranged in the order of 1 → 4 → 3 → 2 and the start position and end of the first page The position is acquired from the print job offset file (step 402 in FIG. 4). A search is performed with the soft font data name # 1 or the soft font data name # 2 between the start position and the end position on the print job file. First, # 1, “Aiueo” is found, so the data name # 1 is set as the group G1. “A”, “I”, “U”, “E”, “O” are set, and the storage end position of the last part of the output character command data is set (step 403 in FIG. 4).

  Then, all memory consumption sizes in the group G1 are calculated. In this example, the consumption size of “A” is 200, “I” is 170, “U” is 170, “E” is 180, and “O” is 190, so the total is 910 bytes. If the available memory size is 2000 bytes, the available memory size> the used memory + the group memory size (= 0 + 910). Therefore, after outputting the header command # 1 on the font information table in which the group G1 exists, “(31-130)”, “I” (131-220), “U” (221-300), “E” (301-390), “O” (391-490) A command string is output (step 408 in FIG. 4), and the group memory size is added to the used memory size counter (step 411 in FIG. 4). The parentheses indicate the start position and end position on the font information file. Further, in order to output the immediately preceding output character command data string when the memory clear occurs, the storage end position (= 350) at the end of the output character command data of the group G1 is set to the current end position.

  After performing the same processing for the group G2 (# 2, “P.1”), all the soft font data definition command strings for the first page could be output, so the output character command data string for the first page Acquired and output between the start position and end position on the print job file (step 416 in FIG. 4).

  In the font output table of FIG. 6, G1 and G2 indicate character strings for each print job file data, and data name # 1 indicates a soft font data name for # 1. “A”, “I”, “U”, “E”, “O” indicate character codes in the group G1, and 350 indicates the storage position offset of the last part of the output character command of G1 on the print job file.

  In this method, characters to be output existing in the page are group-registered sequentially in units of soft font data and used when command data is output.

  In the case of the fourth page, when the start position and end position of the fourth page are obtained from the print job offset file and the font output table for the fourth page is created, G3 and G4 are created as a group as shown in the upper part of the table. (Step 403 in FIG. 4). However, since available memory size (= 2000) <used memory + group memory size (= 1980 + 90), memory clear processing is performed here (steps 412, 413 and 414 in FIG. 4). As a result of this processing, a memory clear command is generated next to “Kakikakeko” in G3.

  If the memory clear is executed before the output character command data string is output, character omission occurs. First, the start position (= 301) to the end position (= 950) on the print job file on the fourth page. ) Output character command data string is output. To set the next storage position, the end position + 1 (= 951) is set to the current start position, the fourth page end position (= 1000) is set to the end position, and the memory clear command for the soft font data # 1 and # 2 is set. To reset the font output table and the used memory size counter. Then, the search is performed from the start position (= 951) to the end position (= 1000) of the print job file, and the font output table is registered again (as shown in the lower part of the table, undownloaded # 2, “P”, “.”). "4" is registered as group G1), header commands and data definition command strings for group G1 (# 2, "P.4") soft fonts are output, and the current start position and end position on the fourth page Output character command data string between. Thereafter, the process is performed for the third and second pages, and is output in the order of command data as shown in the table (step 2).

  In step 1 and step 2 of FIG. 6, the memory clear timing is different as shown in the table, but even in the memory clear method that can be used at the time of print page rearrangement, memory for print data including soft fonts is obtained by soft font reconstruction. Normal printing is possible without causing a shortage error. Further, compared with the first embodiment, only necessary soft font data is downloaded, so that the generation efficiency is improved in the code size.

1 is an overall block diagram illustrating a first embodiment of a print job processing method according to the present invention. FIG. FIG. 6 is an overall block diagram illustrating a second embodiment of a print job processing method according to the present invention. It is a flowchart of the character drawing process part in 1st Example of this invention. It is a flowchart of the character drawing process part in 2nd Example of this invention. It is a flowchart of the despooler in the 2nd Example of this invention. It is a flowchart of the soft font reconstruction part in 2nd Example of this invention. It is explanatory drawing explaining an example of the saddle stitching by this invention processing method. It is explanatory drawing explaining an example of the saddle stitching by this invention processing method. It is a whole block diagram regarding the conventional rearrangement printing. 10 is a flowchart of a conventional print job generation processing unit. 10 is a flowchart of a print job generation processing unit according to the second embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart of the conventional character drawing process part. It is a flowchart of the conventional despooling part.

Explanation of symbols

1 is a host computer, 2 is an operating system, 3 is application software, 4 is a print interface, 5 is print job generation software, 6 is a user interface unit, 7 is a print job generation processing unit, 8 is a character drawing processing unit, and 9 is A despooling unit, 10 is a print job spooler, 11 is a bidirectional interface, 12 is a printing apparatus, and 13 is a soft font reconstruction unit.

Claims (3)

  A print job processing method in a system including application software, a host computer having print job generation software capable of rearranging print pages, and a printing apparatus having a work memory of a predetermined size, the print job generation software Generating print data to be transmitted to the printing apparatus in a print job file; generating data indicating a storage position of each print page of the print data stored in the print job file in a print job offset file; Generating output command data in which print pages are rearranged in the order according to the operator's rearrangement specification using the data generated in the print job file and the print job offset file. create When the memory size used to store the working font of the printing device for each page and the storage size of the soft font downloaded to the printing device exceeds the available memory size of the working memory, A print job processing method comprising a step of generating a clear command for clearing a work memory each time.   A print job processing method in a system including application software, a host computer having print job generation software capable of rearranging print pages, and a printing apparatus having a work memory of a predetermined size, the print job generation software A step of generating a soft font data to be downloaded to the printing device into a font file, a step of generating print data to be transmitted to the printing device into a print job file, and a soft font of the soft font data to be downloaded to the printing device Generating a soft font information table for storing data indicating a definition name, consumption of the work memory, and a storage position on the font file; and arranging the print data in an order according to an operator's rearrangement designation. Creating the replaced output command data, and reconstructing the soft font data using the soft font information table when storing the rearranged output command data, and storing the soft font A print job processing method, comprising: generating a clear command for clearing a work memory when a memory size used in the process exceeds an available memory size of the work memory. 3. The print job processing method according to claim 2, wherein the soft font data is reconstructed so as to be grouped in units of types of the soft font data.

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