JP2500647B2 - Printer system - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer system, and more particularly to a printer system which prints out print data using font data possessed by a host computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When registering a download font in a printer device, a host computer of a conventional printer system transmits the download font data regardless of the effective size of the user memory (memory for registering the download font data) of the printer device. Was.

On the other hand, when the printer device receives the download font data exceeding the effective user memory size, the download font exceeding the effective memory size cannot be stored in the user memory and is discarded.

Also, a method of compressing the received downloaded font data and storing it in the user memory has been used. (See Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-92652)

[0005]

However, in this conventional printer system, even if an attempt is made to print out using a download font, the download font that could not be stored in the user memory cannot be used, and therefore an alternative font is used. Was printing. Therefore, there is an inconvenience that the print result is different from what the user intended.

Further, even in the conventional example in which the printer apparatus compresses download font data while receiving it and stores it in the user memory, there is a limit to the size of the download font that can be registered. If the device receives the data while compressing it, the job of the printer device increases and the operation is burdened. Therefore, there is a disadvantage that the processing speed of the printer device decreases.

[0007]

An object of the present invention is to improve the inconvenience of the conventional example, and in particular, to a printer system capable of surely and at high speed even if it is a printout utilizing font data possessed by a host computer. The purpose is to provide.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided a printer device and a host computer connected to the printer device by a bidirectional communication interface. The printer device includes a drawing unit that converts print data transmitted from a host computer into raster image data using bitmap font data, and the first font data or user memory stored in the user memory in response to a request from the drawing unit. The second font data is expanded into a bitmap and the bitmap font data is output to the drawing unit, and a first font expansion unit that is attached to this first font expansion unit stores the first font data. It is provided with one font storage section and a user memory that is installed in the first font expansion section and stores the second font data received from the host computer. The host computer converts the text data and graphic data created by a predetermined application into print data that can be interpreted by the drawing unit, and outputs a printer driver that outputs to the host interface, and second font data in response to a request from this printer driver. It is provided with a second font expansion unit for expanding the bitmap and a second font storage unit that is provided in parallel with the second font expansion unit and stores the second font data.
Further, the printer driver inquires about the remaining capacity information of the user memory when there is a request from the predetermined application to use the second font data stored in the second font storage unit, and this inquiry means The capacity comparison means for comparing the remaining capacity of the user memory with the capacity of the second font data requested to be used and the capacity of the second font data as a result of the comparison by the capacity comparison means When the capacity is exceeded, a second font expansion unit is activated to expand the second font data into a bitmap font, and a font expansion means, and the output of the second font data to the user memory is stopped. Print data editing means for combining the bitmap font data of the second font with print data For example was, it adopts a configuration and the like. This aims to achieve the above-mentioned object.

[0009]

The printer driver 26, which has received the data to be printed from the predetermined application, confirms whether or not the application requests the transmission of the download font data. When there is a transmission request, the inquiry means 26A of the printer driver 26 inquires of the free size of the user memory 14 via the host interface 18. On the other hand, in response to this inquiry, the printer control unit calculates the remaining capacity of the user memory and outputs it to the host interface unit 18.

When the printer interface 28 of the host computer 20 receives the remaining capacity information of the usable user memory from the printer device 10, the printer interface 28 delivers the size to the printer driver unit 2. Printer driver unit 26
The capacity comparing means 26B compares the received remaining capacity of the user memory with the size of the downloaded font data, and when the size of the downloaded font data is smaller than the size of the user memory, transmits the downloaded font data to the printer device 10. . On the contrary, when the size of the font data exceeds the size of the user memory, the font expansion means 26C of the printer driver unit 26 activates the second font expansion unit 21 and stores it in the second font storage unit 23. The downloaded font 22A is expanded into a bitmap font. Font expansion means 2
6C outputs the bitmap font to the print data editing means 26D, and the print data editing means 26C adds the bitmap font data to the print data.

The printer driver 26 changes the data received from the application into print data that can be interpreted by the drawing unit of the printer device 10. If the size of the font data exceeds the size of the user memory, the print data is printed. The editing means 26D is the font expanding means 2
The print data is edited so as to synthesize the bitmap font developed by 6C. The printer driver 26 outputs this print data to the printer device 10 via the printer interface 18.

The print data received by the host interface 18 of the printer device 10 uses the bitmap font generated by the first font expansion unit 11 or the bitmap font generated by the second font expansion unit by the drawing unit 16. Raster image data. The raster image data generated by the expansion of the print data of the drawing unit is stored in the drawing memory 17, and the printing unit 15 prints out the raster image data.

[0013]

The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2 are block diagrams of a printer system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Printer device 10 and host computer 20 connected to the printer device 10 via a bidirectional communication interface
It has and.

In the present embodiment, the printer device 10 converts the print data transmitted from the host computer 20 into raster image data using the bitmap font data, and a rendering unit 16 in response to a request from the rendering unit 16. A first font expansion unit 11 that expands the first font data 12 or the second font data 22 stored in the user memory into a bitmap and outputs the bitmap font data to the drawing unit 16; A user who stores the first font data 12 that is installed in the font expansion unit 11 and that stores the first font data 12, and the second font data 22 that is installed in the first font expansion unit 11 and that is received from the host computer. And a memory 14. Further, the printer device 10 includes a host interface 18 for temporarily receiving print data transmitted from the host computer 20, and a drawing memory 17 for storing raster image data generated by the drawing unit 16.
The printer 15 includes a printing unit 15 that prints out the raster image data stored in the drawing memory 17, and a printer control unit 19 that controls the operation timing of each unit and allocates memory.

The host computer 20 changes the text data and graphic data created by a predetermined application 25 into print data which can be interpreted by the drawing unit 16 and outputs the printer driver 26 to the host interface 18.
And a second font expansion unit 21 that expands the second font data 22 into a bitmap in response to a request from the printer driver 26, and a second font data unit 22 that is attached to the second font expansion unit 21 and stores the second font data 22. And a second font storage unit 23.

Further, the printer driver 28 inquires about the remaining capacity information of the user memory 14 when a predetermined application 25 requests the use of the second font data 22 stored in the second font storage section 23. The means 26A compares the remaining capacity of the user memory 14 obtained by the inquiry means 26A with the capacity of the second font data 22 requested to be used, and the capacity comparison means 26B. As a result, when the capacity of the second font data 22 exceeds the remaining capacity of the user memory 14, the font expanding means for activating the second font expanding unit 21 to expand the second font data 22 into a bitmap font. 26
C and the user memory 1 of the second font data 22
4 and the print data editing means 26D for synthesizing the bitmap font data of the second font 22 into print data.

Further, the drawing unit 16 has a second conversion means for converting the print data into raster image data by using the bitmap font when the print data includes the bitmap font data. The control unit 19 has a response unit for calculating and outputting the remaining capacity of the user memory when the inquiry about the remaining capacity of the user memory by the inquiry unit of the printer driver is received via the host interface.

The host computer 20, which will be described in detail, is a device for creating and editing sentences and figures, and is a personal computer or a workstation driven by predetermined application software. The text and graphics created and edited using the application software are the printer driver 26 that operates on the host computer 20.
Is changed to the print data that can be analyzed by the expansion unit 2 of the printer device 10, and the printer device 1 is connected via a cable or the like.
It is output to 0.

The predetermined application 25 is software for driving and controlling a workstation or a personal computer, such as word processing software for creating sentences and graphic software for creating images. A user who uses this predetermined application is the printer device 10.
A predetermined application 2 is used when using a font stored in the host computer 20 that is not stored in
5 requests the printer driver 26 to download the font to the printer device 10. The font stored in the host computer 20 and output to the printer device 20 is a download font. The predetermined application outputs a request for using the downloaded font to the printer driver 26.

The second font storage unit 23 stores the second font data 22. The second font data 22 outputs characters to a display means such as a CRT installed in the host computer 20. It is also used to output print data as a download font. In addition, external characters defined by the user are also stored in the font storage unit 23. The second font storage unit 23 is a storage means, and there are various media such as a hard disk, a magneto-optical disk, a floppy disk, and a RAM that can be the second font storage unit 23, but here, a hard disk whose area is reserved in the operating system is used. Partially functions as the second font storage unit 23, and its operation is controlled by the hard disk driver of the operating system.

The second font expansion unit 21 converts the font data into a format required by the device that wants to use the font data and outputs it. Here, the device is a display means attached to the host computer,
Alternatively, it is a printer device. Further, for example, font data may be expanded and supplied to a FAX modem, graphic software, or the like. The second font expansion unit 21
Depending on the type of operating system, there are a wide range of configurations, such as a case in which various devices are independently supported and a case in which a plurality of means are independently compatible with various devices. Here, the second font expansion unit 21
Supplies the font data to the printer driver 26 after expanding the font data into a bitmap according to the resolution or the like required by each printer device 10.

The second font data 22 may be large and may be an outline font or a bitmap font, each of which is stored in a special format to reduce the data capacity, and is passed through the expansion means. By doing so, it is used as bitmap data in each device. The first font data stored in the printer device 10 is similar in this respect.

The printer driver 26 converts print data edited by a predetermined application into a print command that can be interpreted by the printer. The printer driver 26 is usually called by an application and generates print data according to the type of the printer device 10 used.

Here, the printer driver 26 inquires about the remaining capacity information of the user memory, and inquires about the remaining capacity of the user memory that obtains this remaining capacity information, and the remaining capacity of the user memory and the usage request. A capacity comparing means 26B for comparing the capacity of the downloaded font, and the second font expanding unit 21 is activated when the capacity of the downloaded font exceeds the remaining capacity of the user memory to convert the downloaded font into a bitmap font. It has a font expanding means 26C for expanding and a print data editing means 26D for stopping the output of the download font and synthesizing the bitmap font data of the download font with the print data and outputting it to the printer device 10.

The inquiry unit 26A issues an inquiry to the printer control unit 19 through the interface, and the printer control unit 19 receiving the inquiry issues the download font registered from the initially allocated capacity of the user memory. The capacity is subtracted, and the remaining capacity of the user memory is output to the printer interface 28 via the host interface 18.

The capacity comparing means 26B totals the capacities of the download fonts requested to be used, and compares the total size with the remaining capacity of the user memory. When the capacity of the downloaded font exceeds the remaining capacity of the user memory 14, the capacity comparison means 26B causes the font expansion means 26 to operate.
C is started, and conversely, when the capacity of the downloaded font is less than the user memory 14, the process shifts to the normal download font registration process.

The font expanding means 26C activated by the capacity comparing means 26B outputs to the second font expanding section 21 a code for specifying the download font and a setting concerning the expansion of the font. In response to this, the second font expansion unit 21 calls the actual font data from the second font storage unit 23 from the code that specifies the downloaded font. This downloaded font is expanded to generate a bitmap font, and then this bitmap font is output to the print data editing means 26D.

The print data editing means 26D includes a drawing unit 16
Edit the font-related part of the print data that has been converted to an interpretable state. This edit is a change of the expression in the code designating the download font to the actual bitmap font data, and the bitmap data of the download font used by this page is added to each page of the print data. The printer driver 26
The print data edited in this way is output to the printer device 20 via the interface.

The host interface 18 is provided with a reception buffer (not shown), and print data from the host computer is first stored in this reception buffer. The reception buffer is provided for the purpose of improving the speed of data transfer processing between the host computer 1 and the printer device 10 and releasing the host computer 1 early. The host interface 18 and the printer interface 28 are connected by a bidirectional communication cable.

The first font expanding unit 11 expands the font specified in the print data into bitmap font data. The font data necessary for this bit map expansion is supplied from the first font storage means 3 or the user memory 14. When the font data is an outline font, the font expansion processing is performed, and then bitmap font data, which is image data, is generated based on the format described in the print data. If the font data is a bitmap font,
The bitmap font is converted into a bitmap font data format that can be used by the drawing unit 16 according to the format.

The drawing unit 16 converts the print data into raster image data using the bitmap font data and draws it in the drawing memory 17 page by page or line by line. The drawing unit 16 includes a first expansion unit that expands print data using the bitmap font generated by the first font expansion unit 11, and a bitmap font generated by the second font expansion unit 21 of the host computer 20. It has a second expanding means for expanding the print data by using. In the print data in the first expanding means, the part relating to the font is represented by the font ID and the character code, and the drawing unit 16 sets the bitmap font data of the font specified by the font ID and the character code as the first. Request to the font expansion unit 11. When the print data directly includes the bitmap font, the drawing unit 16 expands the print data using the bitmap font.

The raster image data drawn in the drawing memory 17 is printed out on the medium by the printing unit 15. The printer device 10 is classified into a laser printer, an inkjet printer, a thermal printer, a dot impact printer, and the like according to the configuration of the printing unit 15, but the present invention is not limited by the configuration of the printing unit 7. Here, the printing unit 15 exposes the photoconductor surface with a laser beam to form an electrostatic image, attaches toner to the image to develop the image, and then melts the image with heat or pressure to fix the image on the sheet. It uses a laser printer method.

The user memory 14 stores downloaded font data. The printer device 10 normally has font data used for its print output, but there is a demand to print out using the font data specially defined by the user of the printer device 10 or the font data stored only in the host computer. At that time, the font data stored in the host computer 1 is downloaded to the printer device 10 and printed out. Even when the host computer 1 has font data that the printer device 10 does not have, the font data is downloaded to the printer device 10 and is printed out using this font data. Therefore, the font data stored in the font storage unit 5 is used for printout with priority over the first font data included in the printer device 10.

The printer control section 7 controls the operation timing of each section of the printer device and allocates a memory to each section. For example, the operation of the printing unit 15 is controlled, and the drawing memory 17 and the host interface 1 are also controlled.
A storage area is allocated to the reception buffer and the user memory that are installed side by side. Also, the remaining capacity information of the user memory is output to the inquiry means 26A of the printer driver 26.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 3, focusing on the operation of the printer driver.

Upon receiving the data to be printed from the predetermined application, the printer driver 26 confirms whether or not the application requests the transmission of the download font data (step S1). When there is a transmission request, the inquiry unit 26A of the printer driver 26 inquires the free size of the user memory 14 via the host interface 18 (step S).
2). On the other hand, in response to this inquiry, the printer control unit calculates the remaining capacity of the user memory and outputs it to the host interface unit 18.

When the printer interface 28 of the host computer 20 receives the remaining capacity information of the usable user memory from the printer device 10 (step S3),
The size is passed to the printer driver unit 2. The capacity comparison means 26B of the printer driver unit 26 compares the received remaining capacity of the user memory with the size of the downloaded font data (step S4). If the size of the downloaded font data is smaller than the size of the user memory, the downloaded font is downloaded. Data to printer device 1
Send to 0. On the contrary, if the size of the font data exceeds the size of the user memory, the printer driver unit 26
The font expanding means 26C of the second font expanding unit 21
Is started to develop the download font 22A stored in the second font storage unit 23 into a bitmap font (step S6). Further, the print data editing means 26D edits so that the bitmap font developed by the font developing means 26C is combined with the print data.
(Step S7).

If there is a print start instruction from the application (step S8), the printer driver 26 changes the received print data into print data that can be interpreted by the drawing unit of the printer device 10 (step S9). Is output to the printer device 10 via the printer interface 18 (step S10).

The print data received by the host interface 18 of the printer 10 uses the bitmap font generated by the first font expansion unit 11 or the bitmap font generated by the second font expansion unit by the drawing unit 16. Raster image data. The raster image data generated by the expansion of the print data of the drawing unit is stored in the drawing memory 17, and the printing unit 15 prints out the raster image data.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, even when the remaining capacity of the user memory 14 is too small to store the downloaded font, the printer driver 26 sets the bit of the downloaded font required for printing on the host computer. Since the map data is controlled to be generated, it is possible to print out using only the memory that the printer device 20 is assigned to the normal expansion process.

A second embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.

In the second embodiment, the second font expansion unit 2
1 has a resolution setting function of expanding font data into bitmap font data according to the resolution of the printer device 10 set or connected on the host computer 20. Other configurations are similar to those of the first embodiment.

In the first embodiment, the font expanding means 26C activated by the capacity comparing means 26B outputs to the second font expanding section 21 a code for specifying the download font and settings related to the font expansion. In response to this, the second font expansion unit 21 calls the actual font data from the second font storage unit 23 from the code that specifies the downloaded font. This downloaded font is expanded to generate a bitmap font, and then this bitmap font is output to the print data editing means 26D.

In the second embodiment, the setting relating to the font expansion includes not only the character style such as the typeface and character size but also the resolution of the printer device 20 which is going to output the bitmap font. This resolution is the resolution of the connected printer device 20 included in the printer driver 26 or the resolution of the printer device 20 declared to be used by a predetermined application.

The second font expansion unit 21 executes the font expansion process based on this resolution setting, especially when the font data is an outline font. Therefore, in the second embodiment, a printer system that can reliably and rapidly print out even if the printout uses the font data possessed by the host computer without reducing the quality of the printout at all. Can be provided.

[0047]

As described above, according to the present invention, even when the remaining capacity of the user memory of the printer is less than the capacity of the downloaded font, the error of the printer does not occur and the user can surely operate as intended. Since it is possible to print and it is not necessary to compress and decompress font data inside the printer, the processing speed of the printer is faster than when it is compressed. Therefore, high-speed print output has never been possible. An excellent printer device can be provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a printer driver.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of this embodiment.

[Brief description of reference numerals]

 10 Printer Device 11 First Font Development Unit 12 First Font Data 13 First Font Storage Unit 14 User Memory 14a User Memory Remaining Capacity Information 15 Printing Unit 16 Drawing Unit 17 Drawing Memory 18 Host Interface 20 Host Computer 21 Second font development unit 22 Second font data 23 Second font storage unit 25 Predetermined application 26 Printer driver 26A Inquiry unit 26B Capacity comparison unit 26C Font development unit 26D Print data editing unit 28 Printer interface

Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-5-16450 (JP, A) JP-A-5-270096 (JP, A) JP-A-2-92652 (JP, A) JP-A-2-112017 (JP , A) JP 2-291014 (JP, A) JP 3-121870 (JP, A) JP 5-46149 (JP, A) JP 2-220095 (JP, A) JP 5-84986 (JP, A)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A drawing unit for converting print data transmitted from a host computer into raster image data using bitmap font data, and storing in the first font data or user memory in response to a request from the drawing unit. A first font expansion unit that expands the generated second font data into a bitmap and outputs the bitmap font data to the rendering unit; and the first font expansion unit that is attached to the first font expansion unit A printer device having a stored first font storage unit and a user memory that is installed in the first font expansion unit and stores the second font data received from the host computer is provided. Change the created text data and graphic data into print data that can be interpreted by the drawing unit. A printer driver that outputs to the host interface, a second font expansion unit that expands the second font data into a bitmap in response to a request from this printer driver, and a second font expansion unit that is installed side by side with the second font expansion unit. In a printer system including a host computer having a second font storage unit that stores font data, the printer driver includes a second font stored in the second font storage unit from a predetermined application. An inquiry unit for inquiring the remaining capacity information of the user memory when a data use request is made, a remaining capacity of the user memory obtained by the inquiry unit, and a capacity of the second font data requested to be used. The capacity comparison means for comparison and the result of the comparison by this capacity comparison means A font expanding unit for activating the second font expanding unit to expand the second font data into a bitmap font when the capacity of the font data exceeds the remaining capacity of the user memory; A printer system comprising: print data editing means for stopping output of font data to the user memory and synthesizing bitmap font data of the second font with the print data. 2. The second font expansion unit has a resolution setting function for expanding font data into bitmap font data according to the resolution of a printer device set or connected on the host computer. The printer system according to claim 1.