JP2707963B2 - Printing 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 printing system,
In particular, it relates to a printing system in which a host device and a printer device are connected via a bidirectional network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a printing system in which a host device and a printer device are connected via a bidirectional network, when print output processing is being performed by a printing device, print data is newly sent from another host device. Even if the print data is transmitted, print processing of new print data is performed after the print processing that is currently being performed is completed.

[0003]

In a conventional printing system including a host device and a printer connected via a network, a new printing process is performed after the current process, so that one printing device is provided on the network. There is print data B that needs to be output urgently when print output processing A of print data that occupies the printer device for a long time, such as including a large amount of image data, is performed in an environment where only a large amount of image data is contained. When printing the print data B, wait until the output of the current print output processing A is completed, or interrupt the current print output processing A and forcibly interrupt the output, and output the urgent print data B. I had to do it,
There was an inconvenience. Further, in the case of the method of forcibly interrupting, there is a problem that the print output A which has progressed to the middle must be newly performed from the beginning.

The inconvenience of occupying the printer device for a long time is due to the fact that it takes time to develop print data. At this time, the printer engine unit that prints out the drawing image data on the medium is in a state of waiting for the expansion processing and is in a state where the printout is possible, but the printer engine unit is effectively used. There was a disadvantage that it did not.

[0005]

The object of the present invention is to improve the disadvantages of the prior art, and in particular, even if the printer is currently in use,
The current print output process can be temporarily interrupted, other print data can be urgently printed out, and this priority output can be performed while making full use of the hardware resources. It is an object to provide a printing system.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there are provided a plurality of host devices connected to a network, and a printer device for printing out print data transmitted from the plurality of host devices via the network. Printing system.

In this printing system, a plurality of higher-level devices each generate drawing image data corresponding to each dot requested by a printer engine from print data and store the generated drawing image data in a first drawing memory. Department and
A printer driver that receives a priority print command from the outside and outputs the priority print request signal to the printer device.

In addition, a printer device generates a drawing image data from print data received from a plurality of higher-level devices and stores the image data in a second drawing memory via a network and a data bus. First drawing method
A printer engine that normally prints by reading the drawing image data from the second drawing memory of the printer device is connected Mori directly, first when it receives a priority print request signal from the printer driver of the host apparatus And a circuit control unit for directly connecting the drawing memory and the printer engine unit via a network and a data bus. This aims to achieve the above-mentioned object.

Here, the first drawing data creation unit and the first drawing memory are those provided in the host device, and the second drawing data creation unit and the second drawing memory are:
This refers to the one provided in the printer device.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the printer driver of the higher-level device has a print data information output function of outputting information relating to the components of the print data to the print time calculation unit. A configuration is adopted in which a print time calculation unit that calculates the time required for printing data to be output by the printer device from the component information of the print data is provided. This aims to achieve the above-mentioned object.

[0011]

In the printing system according to the first aspect, the host device 2
When the printer driver 12 receives a command for priority printing and the printer device 3 is currently outputting other print data, the printer driver 12 writes Output to the data creation unit. The first drawing data generation unit generates data corresponding to each dot requested by the engine unit 8 of the printing apparatus from the print data.

After the drawing image data creation processing of the drawing data creation section of the host device 2 and the storage process to the first drawing memory are completed, the printer driver 12 of the host device 2
Sends a request to the line control unit 4 of the printer device 3 to temporarily suspend the current processing and give priority to printing from the higher-level device 2 by sending a priority print request signal. .

When the line control unit 4 of the printer device 3 that has received the request recognizes that the signal from the higher-level device 2 is an urgent print request signal different from the normal print request signal, for example, If the data is transmitted from the host device 1, the host device 1 requests the host device 1 to stop the transfer, and temporarily stops the operation related to the process A on the printer device 3. Next, the line control unit 4 enables the data bus 9 directly connected to the engine unit from the network 16, and furthermore, the line control unit 4 sends a signal indicating that the transfer can be started to the host device 2. In response, the printer driver on the host device 2 directly transfers the drawing image data on the storage device 10 to the engine unit 8 of the printer device from the network 16 via the data bus 9. Printer device 3
Starts the output process of the directly transferred drawing image data.

After the priority printing process is completed, the line connection unit 4 of the printer device 3 sends a transfer connection enable signal to the host device 1 and, at the same time, performs an operation relating to the interrupted print data processing of the host device 1. To resume.

According to the present invention, when the printer driver outputs the components of the print data to the printing time calculation unit, the printing time calculation unit calculates the time required for the printing process for each of the components. . This calculated time is
Usually, it is output to a printing device together with print data.

When the printer driver receives the priority print command, the printer driver takes the time when the print data is subjected to the priority processing of expanding the print data into the drawing image data by the host device and the time when the printer device performs the print data expansion processing. Is calculated. This is mainly due to the difference between the CPUs mounted on the host device and the printer device. Next, from the printer device, the expected end time of the print data currently being processed is received, and the time required until the end of the output process of the print data currently being performed and the print data to be subjected to priority printing are determined by the printer device. Calculate the sum of the time and the time when the output was made. Further, the processing time for printing without using the priority print processing and the processing time for performing the priority print processing are compared.

According to the result of the above-described processing time comparison, when the printer driver receives the priority print command, the printer driver prints out by the priority print process or performs the normal print process, and is currently performed by the printer device. It is determined whether to wait for the end of the printing process.

[0018]

Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the printing system includes a plurality of host devices 1 and 2 connected to a network 16,
And a printer device 3 that prints out print data transmitted from the plurality of higher-level devices 1 and 2 via the printer.

In this printing system, a plurality of higher-level devices 1 and 2 each generate a drawing image data from print data and store the drawing image data in a first drawing memory 14; And a printer driver 12 for receiving the priority print request signal to the printer device 3.

In addition, the printer device 3 generates drawing image data from print data received from a plurality of higher-level devices and stores the drawing image data in the second drawing memory 7. A printer engine unit 8 that reads out the drawing image data from the second drawing memory 7 and prints out the image data;
And a circuit control unit for directly connecting the network 16 and the printer engine unit 8 via the data bus 9 when a priority print request signal is received from the control unit 2.

Next, a description will be given of a normal operation of the printing system and a case of performing priority printing.

First, a normal operation will be described. Host device 2
The operating system 11 outputs the information created by using the application software to the printer driver 12, and the printer driver 12 edits the information into a format that can be interpreted by the second drawing data creation unit of the printer device 3. This is transferred to the printer device 3 as print data.

The printer 3 which has received the print data
First, print data is stored in the reception buffer 5.
The drawing data creation unit 6 analyzes a command in the print data and generates drawing image data. The drawing image data, which is data corresponding to each dot of the engine unit 8, is stored in the drawing memory 7, and when a predetermined condition is satisfied, for example, when the drawing data creation unit 6 reads out a page end command, When the one-page sentence drawing image data is stored in the drawing memory, it is printed out by the engine unit 8.

The printing system according to the present embodiment operates as follows when performing priority printing. First, on the host device 2, the printer driver 12 receives a command from the operating system 11 indicating that priority printing is to be performed.
When the printer 3 is currently outputting other print data, the printer 3 edits data from the application software into print data, and outputs the print data to the first drawing data creation unit. The first drawing data generation unit generates data corresponding to each dot requested by the engine unit 8 of the printing apparatus from the print data. That is, the expansion processing is performed on the host device 2 without being performed by the printing device 3.

The drawing image data generated by the drawing data creation unit of the host device 2 is temporarily stored in the storage unit 10. After the data creation processing and the storage processing are completed, the printer driver 12 of the higher-level device 2 temporarily interrupts the current processing to the line control unit 4 of the printer device 3 and prints from the higher-level device 2. A request to give priority is made by sending a priority print request signal.

When the line controller 4 of the printer device 3 that has received the request recognizes that the signal from the host device 2 is an urgent print request signal different from the normal print request signal, for example, If the data is transmitted from the host device 1, the host device 1 requests the host device 1 to stop the transfer, and temporarily stops the operation related to the process A on the printer device 3. Next, the line control unit 4 enables the data bus 9 directly connected to the engine unit from the network 16, and furthermore, the line control unit 4 sends a signal indicating that the transfer can be started to the host device 2. In response to this, the printer driver on the host device 2 converts the drawing image data on the storage unit 10 into
The data is directly transferred from the network 16 to the engine unit 8 of the printer via the data bus 9. The engine unit 8 of the printer device 3 starts output processing of the directly transferred drawing image data.

After the priority printing process is completed, the line connection unit 4 of the printer device 3 sends a signal indicating that transfer connection is possible to the host device 1, and at the same time, resumes the operation related to the interrupted process A.

In the priority printing process, the rendering process of the print data transmitted from the host device 1 by the second drawing data creating unit is performed by the engine unit 8 of the drawing image data from the host device 2. The output processing may be performed in parallel. In this case, the print image data from the higher-level device 2 can be printed out without substantially affecting the print data output process from the higher-level device 1. it can.

Next, a second embodiment corresponding to claim 2 will be described with reference to the drawings. In the second embodiment, the host device 1,
The second printer driver 12 has a print data information output function of outputting information related to the components of the print data to a print time calculation unit, and also provides the printer driver with a time required for the print device to output the print data. A print time calculation unit for calculating from the component information of the print data is also provided.

In the second embodiment, the storage unit 1 of the host device
0, the time required for information processing required for the expansion processing of graphics, characters, images, and the like, which are the components of print data, in the higher-level device, and processing on the printer device, and the transfer time of each data. It is remembered. Printer driver 12
When receiving the priority print command, before starting the priority print processing, the printer checks the contents of the print data and outputs the components of the print data to the print time calculation unit. The printing time calculation unit 15 determines the host devices 1 and 2 based on the information amount of each component.
Calculates the time in the case of the priority print processing for expanding the print data into the drawing image data and the time when the print data is expanded in the drawing image data in the second drawing data creation unit 6 provided in the printer device. .

The operation is as follows.
However, when the components of the print data are output to the printing time calculation unit 15, the printing time calculation unit 15 calculates the time required for the printing process for each of the components. The calculated time is usually output to the printing device together with the print data.

When the printer driver 12 receives the priority print command, the printer driver 12 determines the time when the print data is subjected to the priority processing of expanding the print data into the drawing image data in the higher-level devices 1 and 2, and the print data of the print data by the printer device. Calculate the time when the expansion processing is performed. The difference in the processing speed is mainly due to the difference in the processing speed of the CPUs mounted on the host devices 1 and 2 and the printer device 3. Next, the scheduled end time of the print data currently being processed is received from the printer device 3, and the time required until the end of the print data output process currently being executed and the print data to be printed preferentially are determined by the printer. The total with the time when the output is performed by the device 3 is calculated. Further, the processing time for printing without using the priority print processing and the processing time for performing the priority print processing are compared.

When the printer driver 12 receives the priority print command according to the result of the above-described processing time comparison, the printer driver 12 prints out by the priority print process or performs the normal print process. It is determined whether to wait for the end of the current print processing.

This will be described in detail. For example, the host device 1 outputs a large amount of print data, which takes a long time to output, to the printer device.
And it has done such a printing process A. At this time, if it is necessary to perform the urgent print processing B on the higher-level device 2, the printer driver 12 of the higher-level device 2 first executes the priority print process to output the print process B faster. Determine whether or not.

The criterion for determining whether or not to execute the priority printing process will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a graph showing the time required for the normal processing and the priority printing processing.

When print processing B occurs, the host device 2
The upper printing time 15 is the remaining output time t1 of the printing process A obtained by subtracting the time required up to the present time from the total output predicted time output together with the print data by the host device 1. The printer driver 12 receives the remaining output time t1 from the drawing data creation unit of the printer device 3, and transmits the data transfer time t2 of the normal print processing A and the processing time t3 in the printer.
, Printer output time t4. Further , the development time t5 of the priority print processing B to the drawing image data in the host device, the data transfer time t6 of the drawing image data,
, Printer output time t7.

When printing is performed in the normal print output processing, the print processing is performed at the end of the processing A. Therefore, the printing time calculation unit 15 calculates the total processing time t1 + t2 + t3 + t4 of the normal processing.
And the total processing time t5 + t6 + t7 by the priority processing, and when the latter time is short as in the example of FIG. 2, the priority processing is executed.

[0038]

The present invention is constructed and functions as described above. According to this, according to this, the line control unit which has received the priority print signal from the printer driver is connected to the network and data bus.
The printer engine and the drawing memory of the host device are directly connected via <br/>, so that emergency priority printing can be performed without wasting the development of the print data currently being processed, and Therefore, the printer engine, which is an important hardware resource, can be effectively used, and thus, an excellent printing system that has never before been provided, in which the operability of the printing system is dramatically improved. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a graph for explaining the operation of a printing time calculation unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Upper device 2 Upper device 3 Printer device 4 Circuit control unit 5 Receive buffer 6 Second drawing data creation unit 7 Second drawing memory 8 Printer engine unit 9 Data bus 10 Storage unit 11 Operating system 12 Printer driver 13 First Drawing data creation unit 14 First drawing memory 15 Printing time calculation unit 16 Network

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A printing system comprising: a plurality of higher-level devices connected to a network; and a printer having a printer engine for printing out print data transmitted from the plurality of higher-level devices via the network. A plurality of higher-level devices each generating, from the print data, drawing image data corresponding to each dot requested by the printer engine unit and storing the drawing image data in a first drawing memory; And a printer driver that outputs the priority print request signal to the printer device, the printer device generates drawing image data from print data received from the plurality of higher-level devices, and generates a second drawing memory. a second rendering data generation unit to be stored in said via the network and the data bus first Memory of drawing
A printer engine unit that is directly connected to and usually reads out and prints out the drawing image data from the second drawing memory of the printer device, and receives the priority print request signal from the printer driver of the higher-level device. A printing system comprising: a circuit control unit that directly connects the first drawing memory and the printer engine unit to the network via a data bus. 2. The printer driver of the higher-level device has a print data information output function of outputting an information amount of each component of the print data, and the higher-level device outputs the print data output from the printer driver. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, further comprising a printing time calculation unit configured to calculate a time required for printing data to be output by the printer device from an information amount of each data component.