JP2007264750A - Data processing system, data processing method, program, and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a user to select band size decision methods according to a use environment and the purpose of use. <P>SOLUTION: This data processing system is provided with a band size selecting means 401 as shown by Figure 4, and configured to freely set the band size according to the intention of a user by operating print processing by the selected band size. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for changing a processing unit in print data conversion processing.

  For example, as information output devices in word processors, personal computers, facsimiles, and the like, printers that print desired information such as characters and images on a sheet-like recording medium such as paper or film are widely used. Normally, in order to perform printing with a printer, print data can be generated by a printer driver on a host connected to the printer, and the generated print data is transmitted to the printer.

  When generating this print data, generally, print data is generated with a small amount of memory by performing processing in units of rectangular areas (hereinafter referred to as bands) obtained by dividing the print area in a direction perpendicular to the paper transport direction. To do. At this time, as the band size is smaller, the number of times the same process is repeated increases, so the normal processing time becomes longer. In particular, when a drawing command transmitted from an application is very complicated, the printer driver normally has to analyze the complicated drawing command for the number of times of the band, so that a large delay occurs in band units.

  For this reason, automatic band size determination means that analyzes print data and automatically secures a larger band size according to its complexity is known.

As another conventional example, Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2 can be cited.
JP 2001-47673 A JP 2003-54048 A

  As described above, the optimum band size for high-speed printing can be determined to some extent by determining several factors. However, the factors that determine the optimum band size are extremely complex, and it is difficult to determine the optimum band size in all environments and all printing conditions.

  Specifically, factors that determine the optimum band size include the printer's printing capability, the printer's buffer size, host processing capability, host memory capacity, print data size, and the number of drawing commands in the print data. Etc. More specifically, the host CPU's parallel processing capability also affects the decision on whether to increase the band size.

  Also, even if the print data is complex, if as much memory as possible is secured, the user consumes physical memory by operating another application, and secures physical memory in the subsequent print processing. It may not be possible to access the virtual memory frequently. In this case, even if the band size is increased in accordance with the complicated data and the waste of processing is omitted, the processing time becomes very long as a result.

  For the reasons described above, even when the band size is automatically set, it is not usually considered to secure an extreme band size with an emphasis on safety. As a result, for example, in an environment where complicated print data is often printed on a host with a large memory capacity, it takes time to print each time without using the remaining host memory sufficiently. End up.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has an object to have a plurality of band size determination methods and allow the user to select these determination methods according to the use environment and the purpose of use.

To achieve the above objective,
The data processing system of the present invention includes:
A data processing system capable of operating a predetermined operating system and capable of communicating with a printing apparatus via a predetermined communication medium,
Input means for inputting print data described by a predetermined drawing command;
Conversion means for converting the input print data into a format required by the printing apparatus;
When performing the conversion process in units of bands obtained by dividing a drawing area into a plurality of rectangular areas, a selection means for selecting a method for determining a band size from a plurality of candidates;
Determining means for determining a band size based on selection by the selecting means;
The conversion process is executed with the band size determined by the determining means.

The data processing method of the present invention includes:
A data processing method of a data processing system capable of operating a predetermined operating system and capable of communicating with a printing apparatus via a predetermined communication medium,
An input process for inputting print data described by a predetermined drawing command;
A conversion process for converting the input print data into a format required by the printing apparatus;
When performing the conversion process in units of bands obtained by dividing a drawing area into a plurality of rectangular areas, a selection step of selecting a band size determination method from a plurality of candidates;
A determination step of determining a band size based on the selection by the selection step;
The conversion process is performed with the band size determined in the determination step.

The program of the present invention
The data processing method of the present invention is realized by a computer.

The computer-readable storage medium of the present invention is
It is a computer-readable storage medium storing the program of the present invention.

  According to the present invention, the optimum band size for the printing environment can be determined by the user's intention.

  Next, details of the present invention will be described in accordance with the description of the embodiments.

  DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<Computer hardware configuration example>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of a computer.

  In FIG. 1, a CPU 100 controls the entire apparatus, and executes an application program, a printer driver program, an OS stored in a hard disk (HD) 105, a network printer control program according to the present embodiment, and the like. The RAM 102 is controlled to temporarily store information, files, etc. necessary for program execution.

  Reference numeral 101 denotes a ROM as storage means, which stores various data such as programs such as basic I / O programs, font data used in document processing, and template data. Reference numeral 102 denotes a RAM as temporary storage means, which functions as a main memory, work area, and the like of the CPU 100.

  Reference numeral 103 denotes a flexible disk drive as storage medium reading means, which can load a program or the like stored in the flexible disk 104 as a storage medium into the computer. Reference numeral 104 denotes a flexible disk (FD) as a storage medium, which is a storage medium in which a program is stored so as to be readable by a computer. The storage medium is not limited to a flexible disk, but may be any CD-ROM, CDR, CDRW, PC card, DVD, IC memory card, MO, memory stick, and the like.

  Reference numeral 105 denotes an external storage means, which is a hard disk (HD) that functions as a large-capacity memory, and stores application programs, printer driver programs, OS, network printer control programs, related programs, and the like.

  Reference numeral 106 denotes a keyboard which is an instruction input unit. The user inputs an instruction of a device control command or the like to the client computer, and the operator or administrator inputs to the print server. Reference numeral 107 denotes a display as display means for displaying commands input from the keyboard 106, the status of the printer, and the like.

  A system bus 108 controls the flow of data in the computer. Reference numeral 109 denotes an interface as input / output means, and the computer exchanges data with an external device via the interface 109.

<Configuration example of printing system>
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of the printing system according to the embodiment of the present invention. As an embodiment shown in FIG. 1, for example, a generally popular personal computer (corresponding to the information processing apparatus of the present invention) has an operating system (hereinafter referred to as OS) and a print processing function. An arbitrary application 201 is installed, and a printer 208 is connected to this computer.

  The application 201 can set printing conditions for the printer 208 via the GDI 202. Here, the user interface driver 203 has an interface capable of setting various print settings in addition to notifying the application 201 via the GDI 202 of a list of options that can be set in each print condition.

  Drawing data (print data such as document data and image data) requested by the application 201 is sent to the printer graphic driver 206 via a graphics device interface (hereinafter referred to as “GDI”) 202 which is a drawing module of the OS. Passed. As a result, a print job is generated by the printer graphic driver 206, and the generated print job is output to the printer 208 as a print request. Normally, the GDI 202 once spools the data as EMF (Enhanced Meta File) data in the spool file 204 (OS spool processing), and issues a print request to the print processor 205 when the spooling is completed. As a result, the print processor 205 reads the print output information and the drawing data from the spool file 204 in units of pages, and requests each page to be output to the printer graphic driver 206 via the GDI 202 for printing. The print processor 205 is prepared as an OS module. However, it is allowed to supply the print processor 205 customized by the printer manufacturer or the like together with the printer graphic driver 206 and install them on the hard disk. The printer graphic driver 206 requested to print from the print processor 205 uses the GDI rendering engine, which is a drawing function of the GDI 202, to render the drawing data into raster image data in accordance with the printing resolution of the printer. The raster image data is multi-value data that holds colors as multi-stage values, and color processing is performed based on the raster image data to generate halftone data that is separated into color components for each ink held by the printer 208. When processing these raster image data and halftone data for the entire page at once, generally a very large memory is required. Therefore, the printer graphic driver 206 can request the GDI 202 to perform processing in band units, and in that case, the size of the band can be designated. It is also possible for the printer graphic driver 206 to request the GDI 202 to change the band size after the processing for a certain band is completed. Also, the printer graphics driver 206 requests the GDI 202 not to perform band processing but to perform an unbanding mode in which processing is performed in units of pages, and saves all drawing data independently, and then outputs in units of bands. A form of performing the above is also permitted.

  Thereafter, a printer command is added, and the print job is generated and transmitted to the printer 208. Actually, the data output from the printer graphic driver 206 is output to the language monitor 207 in the form of a transmission request. The language monitor 207 divides the print job into packets of a specific size and outputs them to the printer 208 one by one.

  When the printer 208 is a multi-value printer that can receive multi-value data, it is also possible to send raster image data directly to the printer 208 or send it to the printer 208 after some compression. .

<Details of band processing>
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an outline of processing of the OS (GDI 202) and the graphics driver 206 when print data is generated in band units.

  When the OS receives a predetermined drawing command from the application 201, the OS issues a print start command to the graphic driver 206. When the graphic driver 206 receives the command, it performs a print start process and secures a band memory. Thereafter, the OS analyzes the drawing command and transmits only the drawing command belonging to the area of each band from the top of the page to the printer driver 206. The graphic driver 206 rasterizes the received drawing command and generates raster image data in band units. Here, the rasterization process can be executed by the GDI 202. The generated raster image data is converted to generate halftone data and transmitted to the printer 208. When the transmission is completed, the process is returned to the OS, and the OS transmits a drawing command belonging to the next band to the graphic driver 206. The above is repeated, and when the processing of all the bands for one page is completed, the OS issues a print end command. When the graphic driver 206 receives the print end command, the graphic driver 206 performs print end processing and releases the reserved band memory. Here, the graphic driver 206 is allowed to perform generation of raster image data and halftone data and transmission processing to the printer 208 in parallel.

  When processing in units of bands is performed in this way, as shown in FIG. 3, all drawing commands belonging to even a small band must be drawn, and it is troublesome to draw the same drawing command for a plurality of bands. It takes. In addition, since all drawing commands are not arranged in the coordinate order with respect to the page, the OS must search for drawing commands belonging to each band. In this way, there is a delay compared to processing all of one page at a time, but it can be processed with low memory and the processing load can be distributed. Therefore, it is only necessary to perform processing with an appropriate band size. It is a processing method that functions effectively from the viewpoint of speed.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a dialog 401 for band size selection in the user interface driver 203. In the dialog 401, a combo box 402 can be used to select a band size determining means. As an example, when the recommendation is first selected, the memory to be secured is uniquely determined according to the width and the number of bits of the output image. In this case, it is possible to process one page with the same number of bands in principle for paper sizes with the same aspect ratio, and even very long paper can be processed without securing a large memory. It is. When medium is selected in the combo box 402, the number of bands is reduced overall for any paper size by increasing the amount of memory to be secured by using the same method for determining when the recommendation is selected. Is possible. When “Large” is selected in the combo box 402, the maximum value of the memory that can be secured is determined regardless of the width of the sheet, and the maximum band that can be secured in the memory is secured. As a result, processing is performed in one band as much as possible, and for a large paper size, an upper limit of the amount of memory that can be secured is determined, and processing in several bands is performed. In addition, determination means such as fixing the number of bands and securing a memory corresponding to the band size necessary for performing processing with the number of bands for all sheets is allowed.

  A button 403 is an OK button that saves the result selected by the combo box 402 and closes the dialog 301, and a button 404 is a cancel button that discards the result and closes the dialog 401.

  Thus, in this system, it is possible not only to simply determine the amount of memory used for band processing by the band size selection means, but also to an automatic mode that determines an appropriate band size in a normal environment and a fixed mode. It is possible to switch between fixed modes that specify the amount of memory to be secured. Here, the selection candidates prepared in the band size selection means may be two or more candidates.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a processing flow of the graphic driver 206 after printing of one page is started from the application 201. First, the number N of bands for one page is determined based on the band size determining means selected by the dialog 401 and the current print setting (S501). Actually, if the mode is not determined based on the number of bands, the amount of memory used for the band is first determined, and then the minimum number of bands that can be secured in the memory is determined. The method for determining the band size is as described above.

  Next, a memory size necessary for processing one page with N bands is calculated (S502). This is calculated by the width, height, and number of bits of the output drawing area of the current process.

  An attempt is made to secure the amount of memory determined in S502 (S503). If the memory cannot be secured, N is increased by 1, and the band size is reduced to try to secure the memory again. If it can be secured, a band memory is secured (S505).

  When the driver initialization operation including the determination of the band memory is completed, the GDI 202 sends drawing commands belonging to the currently processed band to the graphic driver 206, so that those drawing commands are rendered to generate raster image data. (S506). The generated raster image data is converted into halftone data that can be received by the printer 208 and output to the printer 208 (S507). The processing from S506 to S507 is repeated until all the data for one page is output. When all the bands have been processed (S506), the band memory secured in S505 is released (S509).

(Other embodiments)
As described above, an object of the present invention is to provide a storage medium recording a program code of software that realizes the functions of the embodiment to a system or apparatus, and a computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus stores the storage medium. This is also achieved by reading and executing the stored program code. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention. As a storage medium for supplying such a program code, for example, a flexible disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like is used. Can do.

  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) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code Includes a case where part or all of the actual processing is performed and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

  Furthermore, after the program code read from the storage medium is written in the memory provided in the function expansion board inserted into the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function is determined based on the instruction of the program code. This includes the case where the CPU or the like provided in the expansion board or function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

It is a figure which shows the typical hardware structural example of a computer. It is a figure which shows the example of a software module structure in a client apparatus. It is a figure which shows the flow of a process by OS and a printer driver in performing a band process. It is a figure which shows an example of a band size selection means. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a flowchart of band processing of print data for one page.

Claims (8)

A data processing system capable of operating a predetermined operating system and capable of communicating with a printing apparatus via a predetermined communication medium,
Input means for inputting print data described by a predetermined drawing command;
Conversion means for converting the input print data into a format required by the printing apparatus;
When performing the conversion process in units of bands obtained by dividing a drawing area into a plurality of rectangular areas, a selection means for selecting a method for determining a band size from a plurality of candidates;
Determining means for determining a band size based on selection by the selecting means;
A data processing system, wherein the conversion process is executed with a band size determined by the determination means. The determining means includes
Memory priority determining means for determining a band size according to a predetermined memory amount;
A division number priority determining means for determining a band size based on a predetermined division number of the drawing area;
Width priority determining means for determining the band size based on the width and the number of bits of the output image,
The data processing system according to claim 1, wherein a band size is determined by any of the determination units based on the candidates selected by the selection unit.   3. The data processing system according to claim 1, wherein there are three or more selection candidates in the selection means. A data processing method of a data processing system capable of operating a predetermined operating system and capable of communicating with a printing apparatus via a predetermined communication medium,
An input step for inputting print data described in a predetermined drawing command;
A conversion process for converting the input print data into a format required by the printing apparatus;
When performing the conversion process in units of bands obtained by dividing a drawing area into a plurality of rectangular areas, a selection step of selecting a band size determination method from a plurality of candidates;
A determination step of determining a band size based on the selection by the selection step;
A data processing method, wherein the conversion process is executed with the band size determined in the determination step. The determination step includes
A memory priority determination step of determining a band size according to a predetermined memory amount;
A division number priority determination step of determining a band size based on a predetermined division number of the drawing area;
A width priority determination step for determining a band size based on the width and the number of bits of the output image,
The data processing method according to claim 4, wherein the band size is determined by any of the determination steps based on the candidates selected by the selection step.   6. The data processing method according to claim 4, wherein there are three or more selection candidates in the selection step.   The program for implement | achieving the data processing method in any one of the said Claim 4 thru | or 6 with a computer.   A computer-readable storage medium storing the program according to claim 7.

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