JP2735073B2 - Character data management computer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for handling character data in a system for processing and outputting text in a distributed processing environment. More particularly, the present invention relates to a character data management system and method suitable for managing a large amount of character data in a network to which a device for outputting high-quality characters such as a laser beam printer is connected.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 62-44791, a conventional apparatus manages character data by a single workstation. This method has been devised to overcome this drawback because it takes a lot of time to retrieve information from the mass storage means.

A device simply for sharing general data between devices connected to a network is widely known as a file server.

[0004]

The above-mentioned prior art is used in a system for obtaining high-quality character output when the amount of character data is increased or when a plurality of workstations connected to a network are used. The following disadvantages occur.

In the case of Japanese, it is necessary to have data of about 7000 characters for one type of character data, and to obtain various character outputs, it is necessary to have various typefaces and character data of many sizes. There is. Therefore, an advanced document creation system requires an extremely large amount of character data. In a document creation system using a network, a document created by a workstation is sent to a printer via a network and output. The workstation proceeds with checking the image output to the printer using the display. Further, since work is performed using a plurality of workstations, a large amount of the same character data is stored in all the workstations or printers, resulting in a waste of storage area. Further, when a new character type is added to the system, it is necessary to add a new character to the character data held in all workstations and printers. In the latter conventional technique, character data is handled as a file, so that there is a problem that character data can be handled only as one block of data.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a character data management system and a character data management method capable of centrally managing a huge amount of character data.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a character data management device having a function of centrally managing a huge amount of character data.

[0008]

The object of the present invention is to provide a font
A character data management device that centrally manages character data called a server is connected to a network, and each character output device is called a font cache. This is achieved by providing a high-speed temporary storage device for temporarily storing character data.

[0009] Character data commonly used in the system is stored in a font server. When the character data is needed at the time of output, each workstation or printer as the above character output device requests the font server to transfer the character data via the network. The font server transfers the requested character data to the requestor.

When a character output request is issued on the character output device side, a font cache in the character output device is checked first, and if desired character data is found, the character data is used to convert the character. Output. If not found, a transfer of character data is requested to the font server via the network. When character data is transferred from the font server, the character data is output using the character data, and the character data is stored in the font cache in preparation for reuse. Note that character data in the font cache that has not been used for a certain period of time is automatically deleted.

According to this system and method, since character data can be shared by all character output devices, the same type of character output can be obtained from, for example, a workstation or a printer. Even a huge amount of character data can be stored in the system
Since only the set needs to be stored, the data amount is greatly reduced when viewed from the whole system. In order to make character data of a new character type or character size available in the system, it is only necessary to register the character data in the font server. Depending on the expression format of the character data, special hardware may be required when the character data is used to develop on a screen or paper.
By incorporating such special hardware in the font server, the character data can be used without having special hardware on the character output device side.

By temporarily storing frequently used character data on the character output device side, the time required for character output can be shortened, and the burden on the font server can be reduced. .

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. In this embodiment, the present invention is applied to a network in which one font server, a plurality of workstations and one font server are connected.
It is used for a document processing system to which two printers are connected. Reference numeral 101 denotes a font server, which contains a large amount of character data and hardware for converting character data. Reference numerals 102 to 104 denote known workstations each having a built-in font cache for temporarily storing character data therein.
Used to check the finish. A known printer 105 is a device that receives and outputs a drawing command, and also has a built-in font cache for temporarily storing character data. Reference numeral 106 denotes a communication line for connecting the font server, each workstation, and the printer.

Next, the operation of the entire system and the flow of signals will be described with reference to FIG. A user uses the workstations 102 to 104 to create a new document or edit an existing document. If it is necessary to display character data on a display during document creation or document editing at the workstations 102 to 104,
First, the corresponding character data is transmitted from the workstation 102 to
Check if it exists in the font cache inside 104. If there is, the character is output immediately using the character data. If the character data does not exist, the necessary character data is transmitted via the communication line 106 to the font server 10.
1 (107). The font server 101 transmits the requested character data or the data obtained by converting the requested character data to the workstations 102 to 104 via the communication line 106 (108). The workstations 102 to 104 output characters using the received character data, and simultaneously prepare the workstations 102 to 104 in case a request to output the same character occurs later.
Character data is stored in a font cache inside 104. Created using workstations 102-104. Alternatively, the edited document is sent to the printer 105
In order to output to the printer 105, the document data is converted into a command sequence for controlling the printer 105 on the workstations 102 to 104, and the command sequence is converted to the printer 105.
Or transfer the document data itself to the printer 1
05 to request printing (111). Upon receiving the print request, the printer 105 checks whether character data in the document specified to be printed exists in a font cache inside the printer 105. If there is, a character is output using the character data. If it does not exist, the necessary character data is
A request is made to the font server 101 (110). The font server 101 transmits the requested character data or data obtained by converting the requested character data to the communication line 10.
6 to the printer 105 (109). The printer 105 outputs characters using the received character data, and at the same time, stores the character data in the font cache in case a request to output the same character occurs later.

In the font server 101, for example, a dot font, a stroke font, an outline font,
Fonts, meta fonts, etc. are stored. From the workstations 102 to 104 or the printer 105, the character type (Mincho, Gothic, etc.), character size, character shape (Italic, straight three-dimensional, etc.) are specified to the font server 101. And request character data.
The font server 101 selects predetermined font data, converts data such as a stroke font, an outline font, and a meta font into a font format such as a dot font, and converts the data into a workstation 102 to 104 or a printer. Transfer to 105.

Next, FIG. 1 shows another embodiment which can be applied when the font to be used constantly in the system is determined to some extent. When the system shown in FIG. 1 starts up, the font server 101 voluntarily outputs character data confirmed to be used in the system to the network 106. Workstation 102 ~
When the character data output to the network 106 is necessary, the character data 104 and the printer 105 fetch the character data and store the character data in a font cache inside the workstations 102 to 104 and the printer 105. The stored font data is used in a character output operation to be performed later.

Next, still another embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the font server 101, for example, a dot
The workstations 102 to 104 or the printer 105, which stores fonts, stroke fonts, outline fonts, meta fonts, and the like, sends character types (Mincho, Gothic, etc.) to the font server 101. ), Character size, character shape, etc., are specified, and character data is requested. Font server 10
1 selects predetermined font data, converts data such as a stroke font, an outline font, and a meta font into data such as a dot font, and further compresses the converted dot font. The data is converted into a format and transferred to the workstations 102 to 104 or the printer 105. Workstation 1
02 to 104 or the printer 105 stores the received character data in the font cache as it is or after expanding it. If character data is stored in the font cache without being expanded, expansion is performed at the time of character output.

Further, an embodiment similar to the above-mentioned embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The font server 101 stores, for example, dot fonts, stroke fonts, outline fonts, meta fonts, and the like. The workstations 102 to 104 or the printer 105 requests the font server 101 for character data by designating the character type, character size, character shape, and the like. The font server 101 selects predetermined font data, converts data such as stroke fonts, outline fonts, and meta fonts into, for example, out-life fonts and the like, and sends them to the workstation 102.
To 104 or the printer 105. The workstations 102 to 014 or the printer 105 stores the received character data as it is or in a format such as a dot font. If the character data is stored in the font cache without conversion, the conversion from outline font to dot font is performed at the time of character output.

Next, the font server 101 will be described with reference to FIG.
Is described below.

Reference numeral 201 denotes a known network control device which receives data from or transmits data to the external network 106 and, at the same time, exchanges data with the internal bus 205 of the font server. 202 is a character data conversion device. As described above, the character data may be in various formats such as a dot font format, a stroke font format, and an outline font format. A dot font is character data that expresses a character by turning on and off a dot, and can be displayed at high speed, but has a characteristic that it is not suitable for deforming a character. In the case of a large-size character, the total character data amount becomes extremely large. Also, it is difficult to beautifully enlarge and deform characters. A stroke font is a representation of a character skeleton represented by vector data on normalized coordinates. It takes a lot of time to display, but it is possible to easily and beautifully enlarge and deform characters. is there. An outline font is a representation of the outline of a character as vector data on normalized coordinates. When displaying the outline font, the outline is drawn and then the interior is filled to generate the character. It takes a lot of time to display, but the character can be freely enlarged and deformed, and the output character is beautiful. Although it takes time to display a stroke font format, an outline font format, and the like inside the font server 101, character data is stored in a data format that allows enlargement and deformation of a character at an arbitrary magnification. Character data converter 202
Is an apparatus for converting the font data into a data format such as a dot font and compressing the converted data in some cases. The overall control device 203 is a mechanism that controls each part in the font server 101. The character data storage device 204 is a large-capacity storage device such as a hard disk, for example, and stores a large amount of character data. The main bus 205 is a bus inside the font server 101.

When network controller 201 receives a character data request command via network 106, overall controller 203 selects predetermined character data from character data storage 204 and transfers the data directly to network controller 201. Then, the data is sent to the network 106 or the character data is transferred to the character data converter 202. The character data converter 202 converts character data according to a predetermined procedure, and further compresses the converted data in some cases. The converted character data is output to network 106.

Next, with reference to FIG.
05 will be described. Reference numeral 301 denotes a known network control unit which receives data from the external network 106 or transmits data. 3
A known main controller 02 controls the entire printer. Reference numeral 303 denotes a known image storage device that holds data for one output sheet in a bitmap format. Reference numeral 304 denotes a known mechanism for actually printing on paper using data stored in the image storage device 303. 305 is a print control device 3
04 is a print result output. Reference numeral 306 controls the font cache and the font converter to create dot format data of the requested font. It is a font data control device. Reference numeral 307 denotes the font data other than the dot font received from 301.
This is a font conversion device for converting font data into 8- to 311-dot format fonts, and is controlled by a font data control device 306. Reference numerals 308 to 311 denote fonts in a dot format that are temporarily stored, and are managed by the cache control table 313. 312 is 3
To temporarily store the dot fonts of 08-311,
Font cache. Reference numeral 313 denotes a cache control table for managing dot-format fonts stored in the font cache 312.

Next, an outline of the whole operation will be described. When the network control device 301 receives a command for outputting a character from the outside, the main control device 302 analyzes the command and determines the font, form, size, and character type of the character to be output, and determines the font / character. It requests the data control device 306 for a dot font of a predetermined font. The font data control unit 306 uses the cache control table 313 to check whether the requested font has already been converted to the dot font format and stored in the font cache 312. Font cache 312
If the font is not stored in the font cache 312, the required character code, font, thickness, character, etc. are stored. The command is transmitted to the network control device 301 to request the font server 101 for character data by designating the shape of the output device, the line density of the output device, and the like, and is output to the network 106. Font data sent through the network 106
If necessary, the data is stored in the font cache 312 after being converted by the font conversion device 307, and a dot font corresponding to the data is returned as a result. The main control device 302 transfers the received dot format font to a designated area of the image storage device 303. After the transfer of a series of characters is completed, the print control device 304 outputs the characters using the data stored in the image storage device 303.

With the above configuration, a method for centrally managing character data in a system for processing and outputting documents in a distributed processing environment has been described.

Next, an embodiment in which the present invention is adapted to an environment of a centralized processing type, that is, an environment of a large computer will be described with reference to FIG.

This embodiment is a document processing system composed of one large computer, a plurality of workstations, and one printer. Reference numeral 401 denotes a known large-sized computer, and in this embodiment, manages large-sized data, converts a character data format, and the like. A character data storage device 402 stores character data. Reference numerals 403 to 405 denote known workstations each having a built-in font cache for temporarily storing character data therein.
Checking the finish etc. is performed by the workstation alone. 4
Reference numeral 06 denotes a known printer which receives and outputs a drawing command, and also has a built-in font cache for temporarily storing character data. Next, the manner of operation of the entire system and the flow of signals will be described with reference to FIG. The user uses the workstations 403 to 405 to create a new document or edit a known document. When it is necessary to display character data on a display while a document is being created or edited at the workstations 403 to 405, the corresponding character data first exists in a font cache inside the workstations 403 to 405. Confirm whether or not. If there is, the character is output immediately using the character data. If it does not exist, it requests the large computer 401 for necessary character data. The large computer 401 transmits the requested character data or data obtained by converting the requested character data to the workstations 403 to 405. Workstation 403
405 output characters using the received character data, and simultaneously store the character data in a font cache in the workstations 403 to 405 in case a request to output the same character occurs later. Created using workstations 403-405. Alternatively, in order to output the edited document to the printer 406, the document data is converted into a command sequence for controlling the printer 105 on the workstations 403 to 405, and the command sequence is temporarily transferred to the large-scale computer 401 and transmitted to the printer 406. Transfer method, document data of large computer 401
To the printer 105, and converts the command sequence into a command sequence for controlling the printer 105.
And a method of directly transferring the document data to the printer 406 via the large computer 401. Upon receiving the print request, the printer 406 checks whether character data in the document specified to be printed exists in a font cache inside the printer 406. If there is, a character is output using the character data. If it does not exist, it requests the large computer 401 for necessary character data. The large computer 401 transmits the requested character data or data obtained by converting the requested character data to the printer 406. The printer 406 outputs the character using the received character data, and at the same time, stores the character in the font cache in case a request to output the same character occurs later.

With the above arrangement, a method for centrally managing character data in a system for processing and outputting documents in a centralized computer processing environment has been described.

[0028]

According to the present invention, since a huge amount of character data can be centrally managed in one place, the following effects can be obtained.

1. Significant resource savings can be achieved since there is no need to have multiple identical font data in the system.

2. Because multiple character output devices in the system share the same character data, a workstation,
The same output result can be obtained regardless of the printer.

3. In order to centrally manage character data in one place, a character data conversion device may be provided in only one place.

4. When character data is changed in order to centrally manage the character data, if only one character data is changed, the character data of the entire system is changed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a document processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an internal configuration diagram of the font server of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an internal configuration diagram of the character output device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an overall configuration diagram of a document processing system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: Font server, 102 to 104: Workstation, 105: Printer, 106: Network, 201, 301: Network control device, 202:
Character data conversion device, 203 ... Overall control device, 204 ...
Character data storage device, 302: main control device, 303: image storage device, 306: font data control device, 30
7 font conversion device, 312 font cache.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI B41J 5/30 B41J 5/30 Z G06F 3/12 G06F 3/12 G G09G 5/22 670 G09G 5/22 670B 5/26 5 / 26 Z (72) Inventor Yuji Taki 4026 Kuji-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Pref.Hitachi, Ltd.Hitachi Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. (72) Inventor Yoshiki Kobayashi 4026 Kuji-cho, Hitachi, Ibaraki Pref.Hitachi, Ltd. Inventor Shinya Yato 4026 Kuji-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture Hitachi, Ltd. Hitachi Research Laboratory (56) References JP-A-59-97179 (JP, A) JP-A-60-69688 (JP, A) JP-A 60 -45835 (JP, A) JP-A-61-264377 (JP, A) JP-A-55-87234 (JP, A) JP-A-58-3025 (JP, A) JP-A-58-101383 (JP, A ) JP JP-A-55-966 (JP, A) JP-A-59-99484 (JP, A) JP-A-61-91719 (JP, A) JP-A-61-200578 (JP, A)

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of character output devices connected via a transmission line.
Characters that provide character data to multiple character output devices
A data management calculation device, wherein the character data management calculation device can be arbitrarily expanded and deformed.
Format for multiple character types
Storage means for storing character data for a plurality of characters
And a request from each character output device of the plurality of character output devices.
The type of character to be provided and the
Identify the character data and use each sentence for the specified character data.
Character data in the format required by the character output device.
To each character output device via the transmission line,
Character data management computer. 2. The character data management / calculation device according to claim 1 , wherein
From the output device, reduce the character size or character shape
Request for character data of the required character type
Character data in a format that can be
Stroke font, outline phone
Font or at least one of the fonts
The character data in the font format is stored in the storage means,
Output the character data stored in the storage means to each character
Deform to the size or shape according to the requirements of the device,
Converted to the dot font format character data,
Character data in the format required by the character output device.
2. The character according to claim 1, which is provided to each character output device.
Data management computing device. 3. The character type is at least Mincho type.
Or Gothic typeface,
The shape of the character is at least
3. The character data according to claim 2, wherein the character data has a character shape including at least one of them.
Data management computer. 4. The workstation according to claim 1, wherein the character output device is a workstation.
2. The character data management device according to claim 1, wherein the character data management device is a printer.
Arithmetic device. 5. The character data management / calculation device according to claim 1, wherein
It includes a font cache for storing character data, each
The character data requested by the character output device is
Sentence in font cache if already in cache
Providing characters using character data, and sentences necessary for character output
If character data is not in the font cache,
Type of character to be provided in response to a request from the character output device
And character data of that type, and the specified character
Characters in the format required by each character output device for data
The data is converted into data and provided to each character output device.
The described character data management and calculation device.