JP2806680B2 - Printer device - 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 device, and more particularly to a printer device which receives data (hereinafter referred to as print data) composed of coded characters and ruled lines sent from a computer system and edits the data in page units. Printer device that performs printing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a document having a fixed format is printed on a plurality of pages by a printer device, common rules and characters are generated between different documents because the format is the same even if the contents of the documents are different. There is. In such a case, in order to improve printing efficiency, a conventional printer holds print data (hereinafter, referred to as format data) of ruled lines and characters that are common between documents in a memory. A method of transmitting print data of characters and ruled lines that are not common between documents (hereinafter, referred to as document data) from a computer system, combining the print data with format data, and printing the data. When there are a plurality of types of formats, format data is held for each format and switched for use.

The above-mentioned conventional printer will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a conventional printer. The computer system 2 sends print data for causing the printer device 13 to perform printing.
When printing a document in two different formats, the printer 13 controls the printing operation according to the print data sent from the computer system 2. The format memory 15 is a memory for holding format data. The image memory 16 is a memory for temporarily storing images of characters and ruled lines obtained from the analysis result of the print data from the computer system 2.
With the image data of the image memory 16 as input, an image of characters and ruled lines is printed on printing paper. Image memory control circuit 18
Controls the image storage in the image memory 16 and the output of the image data in the image memory 16 to the printing unit 17 in accordance with an instruction from the processor 14.

FIG. 5 shows the structure of data in the format memory 15 shown in FIG. 4, in which format data 19 is stored at an address 20 and after, and format data 21 different from the format data 19 is stored at an address 22 and after. A case will be exemplified.

When printing a document in a predetermined format during operation, format data is sent from the computer system 2 to the printer 13 in advance. The printer device 13 stores the format data from the computer system 2 in the format memory 15 (format data 19 in FIG. 5).
The processor 14 holds the start address (the address 20 in FIG. 5) of the format data in the internal register. If a document in a different format is to be printed, the format data in that format is further transmitted from the computer system 2.
The printer device 13 stores the format data in the format memory 15 similarly to the previous format data (format data 2 in FIG. 5).
6). In response, the processor 14 holds the start address (address 22 in FIG. 5) of the second format data in an internal register different from the first format.

At the time of printing, first, the computer system 2 instructs the printer device 13 to select one of the two formats described above. For example, when printing a document in the first format, the processor 14 obtains an address 20 from an internal register in accordance with a format selection instruction from the computer system 2, retrieves format data 19 from the format memory 15, and The image data is analyzed while being synthesized with the document data from the image data 2, and an image of characters and ruled lines is drawn in the image memory 16 via the image memory control circuit 18. When the document data is completed for one page, the completed one-page image is sent from the image memory 16 to the printing unit 17 via the image memory control circuit 18 according to the instruction of the processor 14. When receiving the image data, the printing unit 17 prints the image on printing paper. Subsequently, to print the document in the second format, the format selection is instructed from the computer system 2 to the printer device 13, and then the document data is transmitted from the computer system 2 as in the case of the first format. . In response to this, the processor 14 obtains the address 22 from the internal register, retrieves the format data 21 from the format memory 15 and analyzes it while synthesizing it with the document data. Drawing is performed on the memory 16. Subsequent printing operations are the same as for the first format document.

In the case of printing a document in the same format repeatedly, printing is repeated only by sending document data without repeating the format selection instruction from the computer system 2. When printing two formats in succession as described above, The format data is stored in the format memory 15, and the format data is selected according to an instruction from the computer system, and is combined with the document data and printed.

[0008]

In the above-described conventional printer, a plurality of format data are stored in a format memory.
When printing a document without switching the format, the computer system 2 does not instruct the selection of a format, and only the document data is sent out to combine and print the format data. To do so, the computer 13 instructs selection of a format, the printer device 13 obtains the address of the format data from the internal register of the process 14, and sends out the document data from the computer system 2 so that the selected format data and Therefore, there is a drawback that the time for occupying the processor 4 in the process of selecting the format data in the format memory 15 at the time of format switching is increased because of the synthesis and printing operations of the format.

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided a printer apparatus comprising: an insertable / removable case having a built-in format memory for storing format data at the time of printing together with unprinted cut-out paper; And printing means for combining and printing the print data from the printer and the format data in the format memory.

[0010]

[0011]

Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the first invention of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a printer of the present embodiment for efficiently printing when two documents in different formats are simultaneously printed, and 2 denotes print data for causing the printer 1 to perform printing. A computer system, 3 a processor for controlling a printing operation according to the print data sent by the computer system 2,
Reference numeral 4 denotes an image memory for temporarily storing an image of a character or a ruled line obtained from the analysis result of the document data from the computer system 2. Reference numeral 5 denotes a print for printing the image of the character or the ruled line on a print sheet by inputting the image data. Part, 6 is processor 3
Image storage in the image memory 4 and the printing unit 5
An image memory controller for outputting image data to a computer; 7 and 9 image memories for temporarily storing character and ruled line images obtained from analysis results of format data from the computer system 2; The image memory control circuit 11 stores the image in the image memories 7 and 9 and outputs the image data to the printing unit 5 in accordance with the instruction of. A selection circuit for selecting one of the two image data;
Reference numeral 2 denotes an OR circuit that performs OR operation on the image data selected by the selection circuit 11 and the image data from the image memory control circuit 6 and combines them.

In this embodiment, when printing a document having a predetermined format, the format data is sent in advance from the computer system 2 to the printer 1. In the printer 1, the format data from the computer system 2 is sent to the processor. The analysis is performed in step 3 and an image of a character or a ruled line is drawn in the image memory 7 via the image memory control circuit 8. At the same time, if you want to print documents in different formats,
The format data is also sent from the computer system 2 to the printer. In the printer device, as in the case of the first format, the processor 3 analyzes the image and draws an image of a character or a ruled line on the image memory 9 through the image memory control circuit 10.

At the time of printing, the computer system 2 instructs the printer 1 to select one of the two formats described above. For example, when the first format is selected, in the printer 1, the processor 3 outputs the selection instruction from the computer system 2 to the selection circuit 11 as it is. In response, the selection circuit 11 enters a state in which only the image data from the image memory control circuit 8 is passed. When the document data is transmitted from the computer system 2, the processor 3 analyzes the document data, and draws an image of characters and ruled lines obtained as a result of the analysis on the image memory 4 via the image memory control circuit 6. When the document data is completed for one page,
The processor 3 instructs the image memory control circuits 6, 8, and 10 to output image data. Among them, the selection circuit 1
1 passes only the image data from the image memory control circuit 8. Image memory 4 output from image memory control circuit 6
The image data 12 and the image data passed through the selection circuit 11 are OR-computed by the OR circuit 12 and combined, output to the printing unit 5 and printed on paper.

When the second format is selected and printing is performed, the computer system 2 instructs the format selection as in the case where the first format is selected. Processor 3
The selection instruction from the computer system 2 is output to the selection circuit 11 as it is. Unlike the case where the first format is selected, the selection circuit 11 allows only the image data from the image memory control circuit 10 to pass. The operation of the printer 1 when the document data is sent from the computer system 2 is the same as that of the first format, but the image data to be OR-operated by the OR circuit 12 is the same as that of the image data from the image memory control circuits 6 and 8. Data.

When printing a document in the same format repeatedly, printing is repeated only by sending document data without issuing a format selection instruction from the computer system 2. When two formats are printed in succession in this way, the images obtained by analyzing the format data are stored in the image memories 7 and 9,
The image data of the format is selected according to an instruction from the computer system 2, and is combined with the document data and printed.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the processor 3 outputs the format selection instruction from the computer system 2 to the selection circuit 11 as it is, and executes the selection. Is reduced as compared with the pre-printer device.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 23 denotes a printer device of the present embodiment, and 28 denotes an insertable / removable cut sheet for supplying unprinted cut sheet 30 to be printed by the printer 23 to the printer 23. The storage case 27 is included in the printer device 23, a printing unit for feeding and printing the cut sheet 30 from the cut sheet storage case 28, a computer system 2 for causing the printer device 23 to perform printing,
Reference numeral 29 denotes a format memory which is built in the cut-sheet storage case 28 and stores ruled lines and characters commonly used as format data in a document having a predetermined format, and 24 denotes print data from the computer system 2. 26 is a processor for controlling the printing operation in accordance with the instruction.
An image memory control circuit for outputting image data to the memory is shown.

FIG. 3A illustrates print data provided from the computer system 2 in this embodiment.
FIG. 3B shows the format data stored in the format memory 29 and adapted to the size of the unprinted cut sheet 30, and FIG.
(C) illustrates a print result obtained by synthesizing the print data and format data of (a) and (b) at the same time. Prior to printing, first, a cut-sheet paper storage case 28 containing a format memory 29 storing the format data of FIG. 3B and storing cut-sheet paper 30 of a target size is inserted into the printer device 23. Insert. Next, FIG.
The print data of (a) is transferred, and the processor 24 combines the print data with the format data of FIG. 3 (b) and sends it to the image memory control circuit 26. To print the composite result.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the format memory 29 storing desired format data is stored in the cut-sheet storage case 3 storing cut-sheet paper 30 of a required size, and the format memory 29 is stored at the time of printing. By attaching this to the printer device 23, the processing load time of the processor 24 at the time of format switching can be reduced as compared with the related art.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, the processing load time of the printing apparatus due to the format switching can be reduced as compared with the related art.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 3A to 3C are top views showing examples of the format in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a conventional device.

FIG. 5 is a memory configuration diagram of a conventional device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,13,23 Printer device 2 Computer system 3,14,24 Processor 4,7,9,16,25 Image memory 5,17,27 Printing unit 6,8,10,18,26 Image memory control circuit 11 Selection circuit 12 OR circuit 28 Cut sheet storage case 29 Format memory 30 Cut sheet

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-3-113691 (JP, A) JP-A-63-307976 (JP, A) JP-A-4-217550 (JP, A) JP-A-4- 67973 (JP, A) JP-A-60-232973 (JP, A) JP-A-62-133521 (JP, A) JP-A-50-87239 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. ⁶ , DB name) B41J 21/00 B41J 13/00 B65H 1/00 501 G06F 3/12

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An insertable / removable case having a built-in format memory storing format data at the time of printing together with unprinted cut-sheet paper, a print data from a computer system when the case is inserted and a format in the format memory. A printing unit for combining and printing data.