JP2006079475A - Print processing system, program and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a print processing system achieving fast printing by a printer description language by efficiently using hardware and software in rendering data. <P>SOLUTION: The print processing system implements printing by applying rendering processing and rendering the data on a band memory. The print processing system has: a host computer transmitting print data for printing; and a printer having a display list preparation section interpreting the print data transmitted from the host computer; dividing the interpreted print data into the permutation of a rendering command and graphic rendering processing for the hardware and software; and preparing a display list. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a print processing system, a program, and a recording medium, and relates to speeding up printing by optimizing a printer description language.

When printing is performed by a printer, printing is executed by the printer receiving print data created in the printer language in a personal computer and forming an image.
In the printer, print data in a printer language from a personal computer is interpreted by an interpreter and converted into a display list, and the display list is further interpreted and converted into bitmap data by a graphic drawing unit. On the paper.
In the printer language, information such as the figure type, origin, size, foreground color, background color, pattern, and the presence / absence of a fill is set by different commands. Therefore, in order to convert one figure (called an object) into bitmap data, a plurality of commands must be referred to. Therefore, the interpreter interprets the printer language and converts the graphic information necessary for each object into a combined display list. Further, when rasterizing is performed by dividing into a plurality of bands, a correspondence table of bands and objects to be drawn in the bands is also created.
The graphic drawing unit performs rasterization by dividing into bands. The display list and the correspondence table output from the interpreter are temporarily stored in the intermediate data memory of the graphic drawing unit. Using the correspondence table stored in the intermediate data memory, find the object to be drawn in the band that is currently rasterized, read the display list from the intermediate data memory, interpret the display list, determine the figure type, , Rectangles, horizontal straight lines, etc., are converted into bitmaps and drawn in the page memory.
As a prior document, Patent Document 1 discloses that processing is performed in either hardware or software.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-228561 discloses a technique for efficiently performing print processing by managing a printer in a network with a server.
Patent Document 3 discloses a technique of converting a command format for hardware and then reconverting it for software as necessary.
JP 2003-179767 A JP 11-259258 A Japanese Patent No. 3158101

By the way, in recent years, with an increase in the speed of a printer engine, a memory for expanding image information such as characters and graphics into a bitmap has increased, and a processing time required for the expansion has increased. As a method for shortening the processing time, dedicated hardware has been increasingly used. Although drawing time with hardware is shorter than drawing with software, on the other hand, it is often not possible to leave all drawing to hardware due to cost and difficulty at the design stage. Therefore, both are used properly, but if each command can be processed by hardware, it is impossible to draw faster than expected due to the interrupt waiting time required for switching to hardware. is there.
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of such a point, and printing that can speed up printing in a printer description language by efficiently using hardware and software when drawing data. An object is to provide a processing system, a program, and a recording medium.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention described in claim 1 is a print processing system that performs print processing after drawing print data in a band memory, and a host computer that transmits the print data, and the host computer. When creating print data for graphic drawing from the interpreted print data, the display list is displayed in accordance with the image processing of the graphic drawing means consisting of hardware or graphic drawing means consisting of software. And a printing apparatus having a display list creation unit to create.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in a print processing system that performs print processing after drawing print data in a band memory, the printer has graphic drawing means composed of hardware or software, and interprets and interprets the print data. When creating drawing data for drawing graphics from the print data, a display list creating unit for creating a display list in accordance with the image processing of the graphics drawing means comprising the hardware or software is provided. And a host computer having a printer driver for transmitting to the printing apparatus, wherein the printing apparatus prints a display list drawing command sent from the host computer by a graphic drawing means comprising hardware or software. To do.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in a print processing system that performs print processing after drawing print data in a band memory, the print data is interpreted and drawing data for drawing a graphic is generated from the interpreted print data. A host computer having a display list creation unit for creating a display list in accordance with a graphic drawing means comprising hardware or software, and having a printer driver for sending the display list to a printer server, and sent from the host computer A printer server that transmits the display list to the printing apparatus, and a printing apparatus that prints a display list drawing command sent from the printer server by a graphic drawing means composed of hardware or software. To do.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in a print processing system for performing print processing after drawing print data on a band memory, the print device having graphic drawing means composed of hardware or software, and interpreting and interpreting the print data When creating drawing data for drawing graphics from the print data, a display list creating unit for creating a display list in accordance with the image processing of the graphics drawing means comprising the hardware or software is provided. A host computer having a printer driver to be transmitted to the printer server, and a printer server for transmitting a display list sent from the host computer to the printing apparatus, wherein the printing apparatus has a display sent from the printer server. Before drawing data of list Characterized in that it and a printing apparatus for printing by drawing means consisting of hardware or software.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the print processing system according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the display list creating unit generates the drawing data from the hardware or software. A drawing data format that can perform the image processing of the drawing processing by the graphic drawing means is selected at the highest speed.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the print processing system according to any one of the first to fifth aspects, the display list creating unit creates a memory capacity of the band memory when creating the drawing data. The drawing data format is selected according to the above.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the print processing system according to any one of the first to sixth aspects, the display list creating unit generates the drawing data from the hardware or software. In the case where there is drawing data that cannot be drawn by the graphic drawing means, an intermediate data format is selected in an apparatus that processes print data in which the drawing data exists.

According to an eighth aspect of the invention, in the print processing system according to any one of the first to seventh aspects, the print data is divided and processed in band units.
According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the print processing system according to any one of the first to eighth aspects, when the print data is spooled, the graphic drawing composed of the hardware or software at the spool stage. The display list is generated by determining which of the means to allocate.
According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the print processing system according to any one of the first to ninth aspects, whether the graphic drawing means comprising the hardware or software is used is processed on a print data path. The display list is generated by dividing the drawing data in the print data into several blocks.
According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in a print processing system for performing print processing after drawing print data in a band memory, a display list creating unit is provided in each of the host computer, the printer server, and the printing apparatus, and any one of the display lists is provided. The creation unit generates a display list.
The invention described in claim 12 is a program for causing a computer to execute the functions of the print processing system according to any one of claims 1 to 11.
A thirteenth aspect of the present invention is a computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to the twelfth aspect is recorded.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to speed up the printing process by creating the display list in accordance with the image processing of the graphic drawing means constituted by hardware or the graphic drawing means constituted by software.

DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment according to a print processing system of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a print processing system according to the first embodiment.
In FIG. 1, print data composed of drawing commands generated by a printer driver on a host computer (hereinafter referred to as “host PC”) 1 is sent to a printing apparatus, and the printing data is received by the printing apparatus.
In the printing apparatus, print data is received by the interpreter 10 in the printer controller 2, converted into an intermediate command format, and stored in the intermediate data memory 20.
The display list creation unit 3 generates a display list to be passed to the graphic drawing unit 12 or the graphic drawing circuit 22 from the intermediate command format stored in the intermediate data memory 20, and each processing area of the display list storage data memory 21 Save to (memory). Here, the display list is an intermediate language before printing composed of development start coordinates for printing graphics, fonts, and the like according to the paper size to be actually printed, and the top address of the data. Further, in the processing on the software side, the display list may be a function call instead of a drawing command.
At this time, the command distribution determination unit 11 interprets the intermediate command stored in the intermediate data memory 20 and determines whether to process by the graphic drawing unit 12 or the graphic drawing circuit 22 to determine the display list. Is generated. In addition, it is simultaneously determined whether or not to draw based on the drawing range. Further, if the rearrangement of drawing commands does not affect the drawing result, the order of commands on the display list may be changed so that commands that can be processed on the hardware side may be collected.
The allocation of the command allocation determination unit 11 can be performed in the band memory at a higher speed when processed by the graphic drawing circuit 22 than when processed by the graphic drawing unit 12, so that the graphic drawing circuit 22 is basically allocated. become. As a result, the graphic drawing circuit 22 outputs the generated bitmap data to the page memory 23, and the contents written in the page memory 23 are transferred to the printer engine 4 and printed on the paper.

By the way, in the print processing system of the first embodiment configured as described above, when the graphic drawing unit 12 and the graphic drawing circuit 22 can process commands of the same format in many cases as graphic drawing processing, It is easiest to generate intermediate data containing drawing commands of the same format for both. However, there are cases in which there are different display list drawing command formats even though the printing results are the same, such as RGB 24-bit image data and CMYK 32-bit image data.
Therefore, in the print processing system of the first embodiment, the processing efficiency is the highest depending on whether the drawing command is processed by either the graphic drawing circuit 22 configured by hardware or the graphic drawing unit 12 configured by software. The feature is that the efficiency of the entire printing system is improved by selecting the drawing command format so that the printing system is improved.
Specifically, when the image drawing command processing is mounted on the graphic drawing circuit 22 and color conversion processing such as gamma and BG / UCR is possible for the drawing command, the graphic drawing circuit 22 Drawing can be performed faster than processing by the graphic drawing unit 12. Therefore, when generating intermediate data for drawing graphics, color conversion processing is performed for the drawing unit 12 and data is created separately so that it is not performed for the drawing circuit 22. However, when it is necessary to perform special color conversion that cannot be processed by the graphic drawing circuit 22, when it is necessary to draw at a higher speed, or when there is a margin in the printer controller memory, It is selected whether the graphic drawing unit 12 performs the color conversion processing or the graphic drawing unit 12 performs the drawing to the page memory 23.
The display list in the display storage data memory 21 is composed of a set of drawing commands in units of bands or smaller, and when stored in the intermediate data memory 20 as spool data, the graphic drawing circuit 22 and the graphic drawing are displayed. It is determined which part 12 should be directed to.
In the present embodiment, it is assumed that one graphic drawing unit 12 as software and one graphic drawing circuit 22 as hardware are provided. However, for example, a plurality of different graphic drawing circuits 22 may be provided. is there.

Here, the drawing process of the above-described print processing system will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
First, in step S1, it is determined whether the rendering process can be performed by hardware. If the rendering process can be performed, it is added to the display list to be processed on the hardware side in step S2. Next, in step S3, it is determined whether or not a higher-speed command format is to be used. If it is determined to be a higher-speed command format, in step S4, processing is performed for the graphic drawing circuit formed of hardware, and step S8 is performed. Proceed to In step S4, if the command format is not high, the process proceeds to step S8 without performing step S3.
As a case where a high-speed command format is not used, there may be a case where a drawing command format that uses less memory and consumes less memory without prioritizing speed is selected.
On the other hand, if it is determined in step S1 that hardware processing is not possible, it is added to the display list to be processed on the software side in step S5. Next, in step S6, it is determined whether or not a higher-speed command format is to be used. If it is determined that the command format is to be higher-speed, a process directed to a graphic drawing unit made of software is performed in step S7 and the process proceeds to step S8. . If the command format is not a high speed in step S6, the process proceeds to step S8 without performing the process in step S7. As a case where a high-speed command format is not used, there may be a case where a drawing command format that uses less memory and consumes less memory without prioritizing speed is selected.
In step S8, it is determined whether or not it is the last drawing command. If it is the last drawing command, the process is terminated. If not, the process returns to step S1 to perform the process.
In this way, the print processing system according to the first embodiment can be realized.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a print processing system according to the second embodiment.
The print processing system shown in FIG. 3 is configured such that print data sent from the host PC 1 is converted into an intermediate data format by the interpreter 10 and the conversion result is directly supplied to the display list creation unit 3. As described above, even when the intermediate data memory 20 is not provided in the print processing system, it is determined whether the graphic drawing circuit 22 or the graphic drawing unit 12 performs processing on the host PC 1 side, the print data transfer path, and the interface portion. If possible, the same processing as in the first embodiment described above can be realized.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a print processing system according to the third embodiment.
The print processing system shown in FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration in which graphics drawing processing hardware or software assigns processing by a printer driver.
As shown in FIG. 4, when the printer controller of the printing apparatus 41 can directly process the display list, the printer driver 30 on the host PC 1 side that has received the print data from the application 40 generates the display list. The displayed list is sent to the printing apparatus 41.

The printer driver 30 converts the print data received from the application 40 into a drawing command group having a high abstraction level in the PDL language generation unit 31. The display list creation unit 32 interprets this drawing command group, and the command distribution determination unit 33 determines whether to perform a graphic drawing process by hardware or a graphic drawing process by software, and which process Display list having processing unit selection information indicating whether to be processed by each unit, and stored in each of the hardware processing memory and the software processing memory of the display list storage data memory 34, and output the display list The display list stored in the display list storage data memory 34 is transmitted to the printing apparatus 41 by the unit 35.
Here, the display list creation unit 32, the command distribution determination unit 33, and the display list storage data memory 34 function as the display list generation unit 3, the command distribution determination unit 11, and the display list storage data memory 21, respectively. Are the same except that the display list has processing section selection information indicating whether the display list is processed by hardware or software.
In the printing apparatus 41, the display list creation unit on the printer controller refers to the processing unit selection information in the display list and determines whether the processing is performed by the drawing processing unit by software or the drawing processing circuit by hardware. Print.
Alternatively, the printer driver 30 only determines whether the command group generated by the PDL language generation unit 31 is processed by the command distribution determination unit 33 using a hardware or software drawing processing unit, and selects a processing unit. The information may be transmitted to the printing apparatus 41 with the information added to the command group.
In this case, the display list creation unit of the printer controller of the printing apparatus 41 refers to the processing unit selection information and creates a display list for each drawing processing unit.

Further, FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration when the display list is constructed on the printer server.
In FIG. 5, when the printer controller of the printing apparatus 41 can directly process the display list, the printer server 50 that has received a command group in the PDL language sent from the host PC 1 generates a display list, and the generated display The list is sent to the printing apparatus 41.
In this printer server 50, the sent PDL language command group is received by the PDL language input unit 51, the display list creation unit 52 reconfigures the display list, and the display list output unit 55 prints the display list. 41.
The display list creation unit 52 interprets the command group, and the command distribution determination unit 53 determines whether to perform a graphic drawing process by hardware or a graphic drawing process by software. A display list having processing unit selection information indicating whether to process the data is configured and stored in the hardware processing memory and the software processing memory of the display list storage data memory 54, and a display list output unit In 55, the display list stored in the display list saving data memory 54 is transmitted to the printing apparatus 41.
Here, the display list creation unit 52, the command distribution determination unit 53, and the display list storage data memory 54 function as the display list generation unit 3, the command distribution determination unit 11, and the display list storage data memory 21, respectively. Are the same except that the display list has processing section selection information indicating whether the display list is processed by hardware or software.
In the printing apparatus 41, the display list creation unit on the printer controller refers to the processing unit selection information in the display list and determines whether the processing is performed by the drawing processing unit by software or the drawing processing circuit by hardware. Print.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6, it is determined which device (host PC, printer server, or printing device) is most effective in creating the display list, and the display list creation unit existing in each device is switched. May be.
In this case, the CPU performances of the host PC, printer server, and printing apparatus (the number of clocks and the time required for 10,000 addition operations are used as indices) are mutually exchanged, and the load factor of the CPU is mutually exchanged at regular intervals. When the processing is to be performed, the processing is performed by the device having the largest value as the product of the CPU performance and the CPU load factor.
Here, when the display list is created by the printer driver, the display creation unit of the printer server delivers the display list as it is to the printing device, and the display creation unit of the printing device adds processing to the display list. A graphic drawing processing unit by hardware or software is selected based on the part selection information, and drawing processing is performed.
Alternatively, when the display list is created by the printer server, the display creation unit of the printer driver converts the print data from the application into a command group in the PDL language and delivers it to the printer server. The display list creation unit of the printer server adds processing unit selection information to the command group in the PDL language and passes it to the printing device. The display creation unit of the printing device uses hardware or software depending on the processing unit selection information added to the display list. The graphic drawing processing unit is selected and the drawing processing is performed.
Alternatively, when the display list is created by the printing apparatus, the display creation unit of the printer driver converts the print data from the application into a command group in the PDL language and delivers it to the printer server. The display list creation unit of the printer server delivers the display list as it is to the printing device, and the display creation unit of the printing device interprets a command group in the PDL language and distributes it to a graphic drawing processing unit by hardware or software to perform drawing processing. I will let you.

Furthermore, the present invention is not limited only to the above-described embodiment, and each function constituting the host computer, printing apparatus, or printer server of the above-described embodiment is programmed and installed in the host computer, printing apparatus, or printer server. The object of the present invention can be achieved by executing this program with a built-in microprocessor.
As a recording medium, a semiconductor medium (for example, ROM, nonvolatile memory card, etc.), an optical medium (for example, DVD, MO, MD, CD-R, etc.), a magnetic medium (for example, magnetic tape, flexible disk, etc.) Either may be sufficient.
Further, the case where the operating system or the like performs part or all of the actual processing based on the instruction of the loaded program and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing is also included.
Furthermore, the case where the above-described program is loaded into a memory provided in a function expansion board or a function expansion unit and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by executing the program is included.
Further, when the above-described program is stored in a storage device of a server computer and downloaded from a user's computer connected via a network and distributed, or when distributed and distributed from a server computer, A storage device is also included in the recording medium of the present invention.
As described above, by recording and distributing the program having the function of the present invention on a recording medium, cost, portability, and versatility can be improved.

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a print processing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The flowchart which shows the process sequence when performing a drawing process using a display list. FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a print processing system according to a second embodiment. FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a print processing system according to a third embodiment. FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a print processing system according to a fourth embodiment. Explanatory drawing when creating a display list with the most efficient device.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Host computer (host PC), 2 Printer controller, 3 Display list preparation part, 10 Interpreter, 11 Command distribution determination part, 21 Display list storage data memory, 20 Intermediate data memory, 12 Graphic drawing part, 22 Graphic drawing circuit , 23 page memory, 14 CPU, 4 printer engine, 40 application, 30 printer driver, 31 PDL language generation unit, 32 display list creation unit, 33 command distribution determination unit, 34 display list storage data memory, 35 display list output Unit, 36 CPU, 41 printing device, 50 printer server, 51 PDL language input unit, 52 display list creation unit, 53 command distribution determination unit, 54 display list storage data memory, 55 display Irisuto output section, 56 CPU

Claims (13)

  In a print processing system for performing print processing after drawing print data in a band memory, interpreting the print data sent from the host computer, and drawing the figure from the interpreted print data A printing apparatus having a display list creation unit for creating a display list in accordance with image processing of a graphic drawing unit made of hardware or a graphic drawing unit made of software when creating drawing data for A print processing system.   In a print processing system for performing print processing after drawing print data in a band memory, a printing apparatus having a graphic drawing means made of hardware or software, interpreting the print data, and drawing the graphic from the interpreted print data A printer driver that includes a display list creation unit that creates a display list in accordance with image processing of the graphic drawing unit configured by the hardware or software when creating the drawing data, and transmits the display list to a printing apparatus; A print processing system, wherein the printing apparatus prints a display list drawing command sent from the host computer by a graphic drawing means comprising hardware or software.   In a print processing system for performing print processing after drawing print data in a band memory, a printing apparatus having a graphic drawing means made of hardware or software, interpreting the print data, and drawing the graphic from the interpreted print data A printer driver that includes a display list creation unit that creates a display list in accordance with image processing of the graphic drawing unit comprising the hardware or software when creating the drawing data, and that transmits the display list to a printer server; And a printer server that transmits the display list sent from the host computer to the printing apparatus, and the printing apparatus receives drawing data of the display list sent from the printer server as the hardware. Or Print processing system, characterized by comprising a printing apparatus for printing by drawing means consisting Towea.   4. The print processing system according to claim 2, wherein when a display list is created by a printer driver on the host computer, whether the print data is processed by a graphic drawing means comprising hardware or software. A print processing system characterized in that information to be added is added, the print apparatus determines whether the print data is processed by hardware or software graphic drawing means, and distributes to each graphic drawing means.   5. The print processing system according to claim 1, wherein the display list creation unit performs drawing processing by a graphic drawing unit including the hardware or software when creating the drawing data. A print processing system that selects a drawing data format capable of performing image processing at the highest speed.   6. The print processing system according to claim 1, wherein the display list creation unit generates a drawing data format according to a memory capacity of the band memory when creating the drawing data. A print processing system characterized by selecting.   The print processing system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the display list creation unit performs a drawing process by a graphic drawing unit including the hardware or software when creating the drawing data. When there is drawing data that cannot be performed, an efficient intermediate data format is selected in an apparatus for processing print data in which the drawing data exists.   8. The print processing system according to claim 1, wherein the print data is divided and processed in band units.   9. The print processing system according to claim 1, wherein when the print data is spooled, the display list creating means is a graphic drawing means comprising the hardware or software at the spool stage. The print processing system is characterized in that the display list is generated by determining which of the display list is allocated.   10. The print processing system according to claim 1, wherein printing is performed by determining which of the graphic drawing means including the hardware or software is to be processed by any of the print data paths. A print processing system for generating a display list by dividing the drawing data in data into several blocks.   In a print processing system that performs print processing after drawing print data in a band memory, a display list creation unit is provided in each of the host computer, the printer server, and the printing apparatus, and a display list is generated in any one of the display list creation units. A print processing system.   A program for causing a computer to execute the function of the print processing system according to any one of claims 1 to 11. A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to claim 12 is recorded.

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