JP2009003832A - Printing system, printing control device, printing control method, printing control program, and recording medium recording of the program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing system, a printing control device, a printing control method, a printing control program, and a recording medium recording of the program for shortening a time required for the completion of printing. <P>SOLUTION: An XML parsing part 220 is provided with a band information application part 221 for applying the band information of a band in which a plotting range is present to a plotting instruction described in an XML document; a plotting instruction acquisition part 222 for analyzing a plotting instruction described in the XML document in the order of band numbers on the basis of the band information, and for acquiring the plotting instruction. A rendering part 230 successively performs plotting on the basis of the acquired plotting instruction, and when plotting is completed about the top band, a control part 210 outputs print data of the top band to a printer prior to the completion of the plotting of all plotting instructions acquired from the XML document. Thus, it is possible to quicken timing when the printer starts printing, and to shorten a time required for the completion of printing. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing system that performs printing using a printing apparatus such as a printer, a printing control apparatus, a printing control method, a printing control program, and a recording medium that records the program.

  The operation system “Windows Vista (registered trademark)” released in recent years performs processing such as document generation, sharing, printing, and archiving in an XPS document format described in an XML (EXtensible Markup Language) -based language. (See Non-Patent Document 1). For example, when printing is performed, an XPS document in which content to be printed is described in XML is output to the printer driver. The printer driver interprets the XML code described in the XPS document, generates a print image by performing image processing such as drawing, and controls printing based on the print image.

  Here, in order to reduce the memory capacity required for processing, there is known a printer that processes a print image for each band partitioned at a predetermined height. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, when printing an image on which a plurality of objects such as graphics, text, and images are drawn, the printer driver sets a predetermined height from the upper end corresponding to the paper transport direction (Y direction) at the time of printing. Each image is divided into a plurality of bands so as to be divided, and the printer is caused to perform printing processing for each band. That is, if the divided bands are referred to as band 0, band 1,..., Band N in order from the upper end, the printer driver transmits image data to the printer in order from band 0, and the printer receives the received image data. The print image is printed so as to be processed sequentially from band 0 according to the above.

  Further, when the printer performs printing processing in bands, printing can be started without receiving image data for all bands at the timing of receiving image data of the first band from the printer driver.

“XPS Paper Specification”, Microsoft, [online], Internet <URL: http: //www.microsoft.com/japan/whdc/xps/xpsspec.mspx>

  However, since the rendering commands described in the XML document are not always described in order based on the rendering position, in order for the printer driver to generate image data for each band, all rendering commands in the XML document It was necessary to wait for the interpretation and development.

  For example, when the three objects OB1, OB2, and OB3 shown in FIG. 8 are drawn in order according to the drawing command obtained by sequentially interpreting the description of the XML document, the drawing range of the two objects OB1, OB3 is the first band ( Since it is in band 0), the band data of the first band cannot be generated when the object OB1 is drawn. In order to obtain the band data of the first band, it is necessary to wait for the output of image data until at least the third object OB3 is drawn.

  In this way, in the XML document, there is no relation to the order in which the drawing commands are described and the actual drawing position, so the image data of each band is determined until all drawing commands described in the XML document have been expanded. I couldn't. For this reason, there is a problem that the timing for outputting the image data of each band to the printer is delayed, and the time required to complete the printing becomes long.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is to solve at least one of the problems described above, and the invention can be implemented as the following forms or application examples.

  Application Example 1 A printing system including a printing apparatus that sequentially processes a print image to be printed for each band partitioned at a predetermined height and performs printing, and a print control apparatus that controls the printing apparatus. The print control apparatus receives input of input data in which a plurality of drawing commands representing the print image are described in a markup language, and for each of the drawing commands described in the input data Band information providing means for providing band information indicating a band included in the drawing range of the command, and based on the band information, the processing order of the band among the plurality of drawing commands described in the input data is the first band. The drawing command acquisition means for sequentially acquiring the drawing commands so that the drawing commands to be drawn are interpreted with priority, and the drawing is sequentially performed based on the sequentially acquired drawing commands. And a print image generating means for generating the print image, and an output means for outputting image data representing the print image for each band to the printing apparatus, wherein the output means is within the range of the head band. A printing system that outputs image data of the first band to the printing apparatus after completion of drawing and before drawing of all drawing commands acquired from input data.

  According to this configuration, the drawing command of the first band is preferentially interpreted and drawn among the plurality of drawing commands described in the input data, and when drawing for the first band is completed, all drawing commands obtained from the input data Since the image data of the first band is output to the printing apparatus without waiting for the completion of drawing, the timing for starting printing can be advanced. In addition, since the printing start timing is advanced, the time required to complete the printing can be shortened.

  Application Example 2 A print control apparatus that sequentially controls a print image to be printed for each band partitioned at a predetermined height and controls a printing apparatus that performs printing, and includes a plurality of drawing commands representing the print image An input means for receiving input data described in a markup language, and a band for giving band information indicating a band included in the drawing range of the drawing command to each of the drawing commands described in the input data Based on the band information, the drawing unit is configured to preferentially interpret a drawing command for drawing the first band in the processing order of the band among a plurality of drawing commands described in the input data based on the band information. A drawing command acquisition unit that sequentially acquires commands; a print image generation unit that generates the print image by sequentially drawing based on the drawing commands acquired sequentially; Output means for outputting image data representing a printed image for each band to the printing apparatus, and the output means completes all drawing within the range of the leading band and then obtains all drawing obtained from input data. A print control apparatus that outputs the image data of the head band to the printing apparatus prior to completion of drawing for the command.

  According to this configuration, the first band drawing command is preferentially interpreted and drawn among the plurality of drawing commands described in the input data, so that the timing of outputting the first band image data to the printing apparatus can be advanced. it can. Therefore, the timing at which the printing apparatus starts printing is advanced, and the time required to complete printing can be shortened.

  Application Example 3 In the print control apparatus, the drawing command obtaining unit interprets a plurality of drawing commands described in the input data based on the band information in the processing order of the bands, and sequentially executes the drawing commands. The output means obtains the band for which drawing has been completed prior to completion of drawing for all drawing commands acquired from input data after all drawing within the band range has been completed for the band after the first band. A print control apparatus that sequentially outputs image data for each band in such a manner that the image data is output.

  According to this configuration, since the image data is sequentially output for the bands after the first band without waiting for the completion of the drawing for all the drawing commands, the timing at which printing is performed for each band can be advanced. This further shortens the time required to complete printing.

  Application Example 4 A print control method for controlling a printing apparatus that performs printing by sequentially processing a print image to be printed for each band partitioned at a predetermined height, and a plurality of drawing commands representing the print image Receiving input of input data described in a markup language, and giving band information indicating a band included in the drawing range of the drawing command to each of the drawing commands described in the input data; Based on the band information, the drawing commands are sequentially obtained by preferentially interpreting the drawing command for drawing the first band in the processing order of the band among the plurality of drawing commands described in the input data. A step of generating the print image by sequentially drawing on the basis of the drawing command obtained sequentially, and representing the print image for each band. Outputting image data to the printing apparatus, and the output means completes drawing for all drawing commands obtained from input data after all drawing is completed within the range of the leading band, A print control method, comprising: outputting image data of the leading band to the printing apparatus.

  Application Example 5 A print control program for sequentially controlling a print image to be printed for each band partitioned at a predetermined height and controlling a printing apparatus that performs printing. Input means for receiving input data describing a plurality of rendering commands represented in a markup language, and band information indicating a band included in the rendering range of the rendering command for each of the rendering commands described in the input data A band information adding means for giving a priority to a drawing command for drawing the first band in the processing order of the band among a plurality of drawing commands described in the input data based on the band information; A drawing command acquisition means for sequentially acquiring the drawing commands; and by sequentially drawing in the image memory based on the sequentially acquired drawing commands, the print image A print image generation means for generating, and an output means for reading out image data representing the print image for each band from the image memory and outputting it to the printing apparatus. A print control program that reads out the image data of the first band from the image memory and outputs the image data to the printing apparatus after drawing is completed and before drawing is completed for all drawing commands acquired from input data. .

  Application Example 6 A computer-readable recording medium on which the print control program is recorded.

(First embodiment)
Hereinafter, a first example according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing system according to the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the printing system 1 includes a host computer (printing control device) 2 and a printer (printing device) 3.

  The host computer 2 is a general-purpose personal computer, for example. As shown in FIG. 1, the host computer 2 includes a CPU 20, a ROM 21, a RAM 22, a hard disk (hereinafter referred to as “HD”) 23, a CD-ROM drive 24, a communication interface (hereinafter referred to as “communication I / F”). 25). The communication I / F 25 is connected to the printer 3 via a cable so as to be able to perform data communication with each other.

  The CPU 20 is a main controller of the host computer 2 and controls each component of the host computer 2. The ROM 21 is a non-volatile memory in which a program for controlling each component of the host computer 2 is recorded. The RAM 22 is a general-purpose memory used as a working memory or the like, and an intermediate code memory and a page memory described later are secured in the memory area of the RAM 22.

  The HD 23 records application programs, driver programs (print control programs), and the like in advance. The driver program is supplied in a form recorded on a recording medium such as the CD-ROM 4. The CD-ROM drive 24 reads the program from the CD-ROM 4, and the CPU 20 records the read program on the HD 23. Examples of the recording medium on which the driver program is recorded are not limited to the CD-ROM, but can be variously readable by a computer such as a flexible disk, an optical disk such as a DVD-ROM, a magneto-optical disk such as an MO, and a memory card. Media. However, a driver program may be downloaded from an external server via an electric communication line and recorded on the HD 23.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the host computer. As shown in FIG. 2, the host computer 2 has an application 100 and a printer driver 200.

  The application 100 is a print request source for the printer 3, and is, for example, document creation software or spreadsheet software. The application 100 passes an XML document (input data) in which print contents are described in XML to the printer driver 200 under the operation system. A specific example of the XML document is an XPS document.

  Upon receiving the XML document from the application 100, the printer driver 200 converts the XML document into print data in a format that can be processed by the printer 3, and outputs the print data to the printer 3. In order to perform these processes, the printer driver 200 performs rendering based on a control unit 210 that controls processing in the driver, an XML parsing unit 220 that parses an XML document, and a rendering command obtained by parsing. Part (print image generation means) 230. The printer driver 200 having these configurations functions by the CPU 20 reading and executing a driver program recorded on the HD 23 under the operation system.

  The control unit 210 includes a document input unit (input unit) 211 that receives an XML document input from the application 100, a data control unit 212 that controls data in the printer driver 200, and print data output that outputs print data to the printer 3. Part (output means) 213. The data control unit 212 passes the input XML document to the XML parsing unit 220 to parse it to the XML parsing unit 220, and passes the drawing command obtained by the parsing to the rendering unit 230 for rendering to the rendering unit 230. To do. The print image data generated by the rendering is output to the printer 3 by the print data output unit 213 in the form of print data via the communication I / F 25. This print data is image data of bands obtained by dividing the print image at predetermined heights, and is output to the printer 3 in the band order.

  The XML parsing unit 220 includes a band information adding unit 221 (band information adding unit) and a drawing command acquiring unit (drawing command acquiring unit) 222. The band information adding unit 221 parses the XML document and determines the drawing range of the drawing command from the description portion of the drawing command. For example, for the XML document describing the contents shown in FIG. 8, it is determined that the drawing range of the object OB1 is band 0, the drawing range of the object OB2 is bands 3 to 5, and the drawing range of the object OB3 is bands 0 to 2. Then, information indicating the band number of the band included in the drawing range (hereinafter referred to as “band information”) is given to the description of the drawing command in the XML document in a tag format.

  The drawing command acquisition unit 222 parses the XML document to which the band information is added and performs processing for acquiring a drawing command. Here, the order of interpretation by the drawing command acquisition unit 222 follows the band number order according to the band information given to the XML document. For example, when the XML document describing the content shown in FIG. 8 is interpreted, if the description of the XML document is interpreted in order from the top, as shown in FIG. 3A, a drawing command for the object OB1, a drawing command for the object OB2, Drawing commands for the object OB3 are acquired in order. However, the rendering command acquisition unit 222 interprets the rendering commands in order from the description with the smallest band number according to the band information given to the rendering command in the tag format, so that the rendering commands are acquired in the band order instead of the description order.

  Note that a drawing command for drawing a plurality of bands as a drawing range is handled as drawing the first band of the plurality of bands. Also, the order of interpretation between rendering commands with the same rendering range is the order of description in the XML document. When the XML document describing the content shown in FIG. 8 is interpreted, the drawing command of the object OB3 having the drawing range of the band 0 to 2 is treated as a command of drawing the band 0, and both are objects having the drawing range of the band 0. Between the drawing command for OB1 and the drawing command for object OB3, the drawing command for object OB1 is first interpreted according to the description order. Accordingly, a drawing command for the object OB1 having the drawing range of the band 0, an object OB3 having the drawing range of the bands 0 to 2, and a drawing command of the object OB2 having the drawing range of the bands 3 to 5 are sequentially acquired. The drawing command acquired in this way is transferred to the rendering unit 230 by the data control unit 212.

  The rendering unit 230 performs rendering based on a drawing command received from the data control unit 212. Therefore, the rendering unit 230 includes an intermediate code registration unit 231, an intermediate code memory 232, a development processing unit 233, and a page memory 234.

  The intermediate code registration unit 231 converts the drawing command received from the data control unit 212 into an intermediate code for each band so that it can be easily processed by the driver, and registers the intermediate code in the intermediate code memory 232.

  The development processing unit 233 performs a process of drawing in accordance with the registered intermediate code and developing a bitmap image in the page memory 234. Then, the intermediate code registration unit 231 and the expansion processing unit 233 sequentially process the drawing commands, so that the image of the object is sequentially written in the page memory 234, and a print image is formed on the page memory 234.

  The print data output unit 213 outputs the print image generated by rendering to the printer 3 as print data in the band order. Thus, the printer driver 200 controls printing by causing the printer 3 to perform printing according to the print data.

  Here, the print data output unit 213 outputs the print data of the band whose contents are fixed. The timing for determining the band and outputting the print data will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a process in which rendering is performed according to the drawing commands in the order of FIG. First, when drawing is performed according to the drawing command of the object OB1 in accordance with the order of the drawing commands shown in FIG. 3B, the object OB1 is expanded in the range of the band 0 as shown in FIG. At this time, since the object OB3 applied to the band 0 is not developed, the band 0 is not fixed.

  Next, when drawing is performed according to the drawing command for the object OB3, the object OB3 is expanded in the range of bands 0 to 2 as shown in FIG. At this time, the drawing range of the object OB2 to be drawn next is the bands 3 to 5 and is not expanded to the range of the bands 0 to 2, so the bands 0 to 2 are determined. The print data output unit 213 sequentially outputs the print data of the determined bands 0 to 2 to the printer 3 and causes the printer 3 to start printing.

  Next, when drawing is performed according to the drawing command of the object OB2, as shown in FIG. 4C, bands are determined for the bands 3 to 5, and the print data output unit 213 sequentially outputs the determined print data of the bands 3 to 5. Is output to the printer 3. As a result, the printer 3 sequentially prints the bands 3 to 5 in succession to the bands 0 to 2 so as to sequentially process the bands 3 to 5.

  As described above, in the printing system 1 according to the present embodiment, by changing the interpretation order of the drawing commands, the print data output timing is output so that the print data of the first band is output at the timing before drawing the object OB2. I'm trying to speed up.

  Next, the flow of processing for parsing an XML document will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Note that the processing in FIG. 5 and the processing in FIG. 6 to be described later are performed by the CPU 20 executing a driver program recorded in the HD 23.

  When the processing of FIG. 5 is started and an XML document is input from the application 100 to the document input unit 211, the band information adding unit 221 receives the XML document from the control unit 210 (step S100). Then, the received XML document is parsed, and the band number of the band applied to the drawing range is specified from the drawing range of the drawing command described in the XML document (step S105). Next, the band information adding unit 221 adds band information to the XML document by adding a tag indicating the band number to the description part corresponding to the drawing instruction of the XML document (step S110).

  Next, the band information adding unit 221 determines whether or not the processing in steps S105 and S110 has been completed for all the descriptions of the XML document (step S115). If the processing has not been completed for all the descriptions (step S115: No), the process returns to step S105, and the processing of steps S105 to S110 is repeated so as to parse the subsequent description of the XML document. When the processing is completed for all the descriptions in the XML document (step S115: Yes), the band information is assigned to all the drawing commands described in the XML document, and the process proceeds to step S120.

  When the process proceeds to step S120, the drawing command acquisition unit 222 first focuses on the leading band (band 0). Then, from the XML document to which the band information is attached in the tag format, the description of the drawing command for drawing the band of interest is searched with reference to the band number of the band information (step S125), and the searched description is parsed. A drawing command is acquired (step S130). Then, the acquired drawing command is returned to the control unit 210 (step S135). At this time, the data control unit 212 passes the drawing command received from the XML parsing unit 220 to the rendering unit 230.

  Next, the drawing command acquisition unit 222 determines whether or not the processing has been completed for the band of interest, that is, whether or not the processing has been performed for all drawing commands in which the band of interest is the drawing range (step S140). If processing has not been performed for all drawing commands (step S140: No), the process returns to step S125, and the processing of steps S125 to S135 is repeated so as to search for the next drawing command. Then, when processing has been performed for all drawing commands in which the target band is the drawing range, the processing for the target band is terminated (step S140: Yes), and the process proceeds to step S145.

  When the process proceeds to step S145, the drawing command acquisition unit 222 determines whether the process has been completed for all bands (step S145). If the processing of steps S125 to S140 has not been performed for all the bands (step S145: No), after paying attention to the next band (step S150), the processing is repeated for the next attention band so as to return to step S125. And if the process of step S125-S140 is performed about all the bands (step S145: Yes), the process of FIG. 5 will be complete | finished.

  With the processing of FIG. 5 described above, as illustrated in FIG. 3B as an example, a plurality of rendering commands described in the XML document are output to the rendering unit 230 in the band order of the rendering range.

  Next, the flow of rendering processing will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  When the processing of FIG. 6 is started and the rendering unit 230 receives a drawing command from the control unit 210 (step S200), first, attention is paid to the head band (step S210). The leading band here is a band that is first output to the printer as print data and is first processed by the printer, and is usually band 0. However, if the printer does not perform printing for bands that do not have a drawing target object, but only processes the bands that include the drawing target object in order to improve printing efficiency, the object is included first. The band becomes the first band. That is, when there is no object to be drawn in the range of bands 0 and 1, and there is an object to be drawn in the range of band 2, band 2 may be processed as the first band.

  Next, the rendering unit 230 performs rendering according to the received drawing command, writes the object image in the page memory 234 (step S220), and receives the next drawing command from the control unit 210 (step S230).

  Next, the rendering unit 230 determines whether or not the content of the band of interest has been confirmed (step S240). Here, the determination is made based on whether or not the drawing range of the next drawing command received in step S230 is on the band of interest. That is, since the drawing command is transferred from the control unit 210 in the band number order, if the next drawing command does not set the target band as the drawing range, it is determined that the content of the target band has been determined based on the result developed before that. If the drawing range of the next drawing command is applied to the target band and the target band is not fixed (step S240: No), the process returns to step S220, and the next drawing command received in step S230 is rendered. . On the other hand, if the drawing range of the next drawing command is not applied to the attention band and the attention band is fixed (step S240: Yes), the print data output unit 213 displays the print image stored in the page memory 234. The image data of the part corresponding to the target band determined from among them is read out and output to the printer 3 as print data (step S250). When print data is first output in step S250, printing by the printer 3 is started in accordance with the output print data of the first band.

  Next, the rendering unit 230 determines whether the processing has been completed for all bands (step S260). If the processing has not been completed for all bands (step S260: No), after paying attention to the next band (step S270), the process returns to step S220, and rendering is performed according to the drawing command received in step S230. When the process is completed for all bands (step S260: Yes), the process of FIG. 6 is terminated.

  According to the printing system 1 described above, a plurality of drawing commands described in the XML document are interpreted and drawn in the band order, and the print data of the determined band is obtained for all drawing commands acquired from the input data. The image is output to the printer 3 without waiting for completion of drawing. As a result, the timing for printing each band is advanced, so that the time required to complete the printing is shortened. In particular, since the timing of outputting the print data of the first band is advanced, printing on the XML document can be started at an earlier timing, and the time required to complete the printing can be shortened.

(Second embodiment)
Next, a second embodiment will be described. In the first embodiment, the printer driver 200 provided in the host computer has a so-called driver page form in which the print data is generated by performing parsing and rendering. In the second embodiment, the printer side of the system Parsing and rendering. In the following, the same components as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof is omitted.

  FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing system according to the second embodiment. As shown in FIG. 7, the printing system 6 includes a host computer 7 and a printer 8. The host computer 7 includes an application 100 and a printer driver 300. The printer driver 300 performs processing for outputting the XML document input from the application 100 to the printer 8 as print data.

  The printer 8 includes a controller (printing control device) 80 and a print engine (printing device) 81. The controller 80 includes a control unit 210, an XML parsing unit 220, and a rendering unit 230, and parses and renders print data (input data) received from the printer driver 300 in the same manner as in the first embodiment. I do. The controller 80 converts the print image of the determined band into data in a format that can be processed by the print engine 81, and sequentially outputs the data to the print engine 81, thereby causing the print engine 81 to print the print image.

  According to the second embodiment, an effect similar to that of the first embodiment can be obtained even in a system that performs parsing and rendering on the printer side.

  The present printing control apparatus is not limited to the first embodiment and the second embodiment, and may be modified as described below.

  (Modification 1) In the first and second embodiments described above, band information is added to the description of all drawing commands described in the XML document. Only for, band information indicating that it is a command to draw the leading band may be given. By preferentially drawing the drawing command to which the band information is added, the head band can be determined and the timing for outputting the print data of the head band to the printer can be advanced. In this case, for the bands other than the head band, the drawing commands may be interpreted and drawn in the order described in the XML document.

  (Modification 2) In the first and second embodiments, the band information is directly attached to the description of the XML document in the tag format. However, the band information attaching unit 221 uses the line number of the drawing instruction of the XML document and The band information may be given by registering data associated with the band information in a memory such as a RAM. In this case, the drawing command acquisition unit 222 may acquire the drawing command by referring to the registered data so as to parse from the description of the line corresponding to the head band.

  (Modification 3) In the first and second embodiments, the case of processing an XML document described in XML, which is a markup language, has been described. However, HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and XHTML (EXtensible HyperText Markup Language) are described. The data described in (1) may be processed.

  (Modification 4) In the first and second embodiments, the printer is described as an example of the printing apparatus. However, the present invention is not limited to the printer, and may be a copier or a fax machine.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing system according to a first embodiment. The block diagram which showed the functional structure of the host computer. It is a figure explaining the order from which a drawing command is acquired, (a) is the order of the drawing command acquired when interpreting in description order, (b) is the order of the drawing command acquired when interpreting in band number order. FIG. It is the figure which showed progress of rendering, (a) shows the band decided after drawing object OB1, (b) after drawing object OB3, (c) after drawing object OB2. The flowchart which showed the flow of the parsing process. The flowchart which showed the flow of the rendering process. The block diagram which showed the structure of the printing system which concerns on a 2nd Example. The figure for demonstrating the conventional processing method.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Printing system, 2 ... Host computer as printing control apparatus, 3 ... Printer as printing apparatus, 4 ... CD-ROM as recording medium, 20 ... CPU, 21 ... ROM, 22 ... RAM, 23 ... Hard disk, 24 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS ... CD-ROM drive, 25 ... Communication interface, 100 ... Application, 200 ... Printer driver, 210 ... Control part, 211 ... Document input part as an input means, 212 ... Data control part, 213 ... Print data output as an output means 220: XML parsing unit, 221 ... Band information adding unit as band information adding unit, 222 ... Drawing command acquiring unit as drawing command acquiring unit, 230 ... Rendering unit as print image generating unit, 231 ... Intermediate code registration , 232 ... intermediate code memory, 233 ... development processing part, 34 ... page memory.

Claims (6)

A printing system comprising: a printing apparatus that sequentially processes a print image to be printed for each band partitioned at a predetermined height to perform printing; and a print control apparatus that controls the printing apparatus,
The print control device includes:
Input means for receiving input of input data in which a plurality of drawing commands representing the print image are described in a markup language;
Band information giving means for giving band information indicating a band included in the drawing range of the drawing command to each of the drawing commands described in the input data;
Based on the band information, the drawing commands are sequentially obtained by preferentially interpreting the drawing command for drawing the first band in the processing order of the band among the plurality of drawing commands described in the input data. A drawing command acquisition means;
Print image generating means for generating the print image by sequentially drawing based on the drawing commands sequentially obtained;
Output means for outputting image data representing the print image for each band to the printing apparatus,
The output means outputs the image data of the first band to the printing device after completion of drawing for all drawing commands obtained from input data after all drawing is completed within the range of the first band. A printing system featuring. A print control device that controls a printing device that performs printing by sequentially processing a print image to be printed for each band partitioned at a predetermined height,
Input means for receiving input of input data in which a plurality of drawing commands representing the print image are described in a markup language;
Band information giving means for giving band information indicating a band included in the drawing range of the drawing command to each of the drawing commands described in the input data;
Based on the band information, the drawing commands are sequentially obtained by preferentially interpreting the drawing command for drawing the first band in the processing order of the band among the plurality of drawing commands described in the input data. A drawing command acquisition means;
Print image generating means for generating the print image by sequentially drawing based on the drawing commands sequentially obtained;
Output means for outputting image data representing the print image for each band to the printing apparatus,
The output means outputs the image data of the first band to the printing device after completion of drawing for all drawing commands obtained from input data after all drawing is completed within the range of the first band. A printing control apparatus characterized by the above. The print control apparatus according to claim 2,
The drawing command acquisition means interprets a plurality of drawing commands described in the input data based on the band information, and sequentially acquires the drawing commands,
The output means, for the bands after the first band, after the completion of drawing for all drawing commands obtained from input data after all drawing within the band range is completed, image data of the band for which drawing has been completed A print control apparatus that sequentially outputs image data for each band. A print control method for controlling a printing apparatus that performs printing by sequentially processing a print image to be printed for each band partitioned at a predetermined height,
Receiving input data describing a plurality of drawing commands representing the print image in a markup language;
Giving band information indicating a band included in a drawing range of the drawing command to each of the drawing commands described in the input data;
Based on the band information, the drawing commands are sequentially obtained by preferentially interpreting the drawing command for drawing the first band in the processing order of the band among the plurality of drawing commands described in the input data. Steps,
Generating the print image by sequentially drawing based on the drawing commands sequentially obtained;
Outputting image data representing the print image for each band to the printing apparatus,
The output means outputs the image data of the first band to the printing device after completion of drawing for all drawing commands obtained from input data after all drawing is completed within the range of the first band. A printing control method characterized by the above. A print control program for sequentially processing a print image to be printed for each band partitioned at a predetermined height and controlling a printing apparatus that performs printing,
Computer
Input means for receiving input data in which a plurality of drawing commands representing the print image are described in a markup language;
Band information giving means for giving band information indicating a band included in the drawing range of the drawing command to each drawing command described in the input data;
Based on the band information, the drawing commands are sequentially obtained by preferentially interpreting the drawing command for drawing the first band in the processing order of the band among the plurality of drawing commands described in the input data. Drawing command acquisition means,
A print image generating means for generating the print image by sequentially drawing in an image memory based on the sequentially obtained drawing commands;
The image data representing the print image for each band is read out from the image memory and functions as output means for outputting to the printing apparatus,
The output means reads out the image data of the first band from the image memory and completes the drawing for all the drawing commands acquired from the input data after all the drawing is completed within the range of the first band. A print control program for outputting to a printing apparatus.   A computer-readable recording medium on which the print control program according to claim 5 is recorded.

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