JP2911529B2 - Printing equipment - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, and more particularly, to image data (hereinafter, referred to as wired dot image data) input in an arrangement order of images to be printed by a wired dot method. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that converts image data into variable-magnification (enlarged / reduced) image data and outputs the image data when printing in a raster scan method.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been a raster scan printing apparatus that converts wired dot image data into image data (raster image data) in an arrangement order of pixels to be printed by a raster scan method and outputs the image data. Although there are printers capable of scaling image data, there are many printers in which a scaling factor is designated by a fixed scaling factor (2, 3, or 1.5 times).

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

In the above prior art, since the magnification is a fixed magnification set in advance, it was not possible to change the magnification at a delicate magnification (1.01 × 2.99, etc.).

In addition, in order to perform variable magnification processing at a delicate magnification by changing the magnification, and to convert the wired dot image data to raster image data, the scaled image data must be separated from the image data before magnification. I have to remember.

Therefore, there has been a problem that a large-capacity memory is required for processing image data, and the processing time is prolonged.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-described drawbacks of the related art, and an object thereof is, for example, to enlarge wired-dot image data at a delicate magnification on a small-capacity memory, develop the image at high speed, and output a drawing. It is an object of the present invention to provide a raster scanning type printing apparatus which can perform the above.

[Means for solving the problem]

In order to solve the above-described problem and achieve the object, a printing apparatus according to the present invention includes an input unit for inputting first image data, and a first image data input by the input unit. The image data is a first conversion unit that converts the image into second image data in which the temporal arrangement order of the pixels is different;
A first image processing unit that performs a scaling process on the second image data from the first conversion unit in a first direction and outputs the image data as third image data;
Scaling processing means, and second conversion means for converting the second image data from the first scaling processing means into fourth image data having a temporal arrangement order of pixels different from that of the third image data. And the fourth image data from the second conversion means
And a second scaling unit that performs scaling processing in a second direction different from the direction of (i) and outputs the result as fifth image data.

In the above-described printing apparatus, it is preferable that the printing apparatus further include a setting unit for setting a scaling ratio, and at least one of the first and second scaling processing units performs one-line processing based on the set scaling ratio. And a calculating means for calculating, for each image data of one or a plurality of pixels arranged in the image data, a position at which the image data is to be printed and the number of times the image data is to be drawn continuously.

Further, the raster scanning printing apparatus according to the present invention is a printing apparatus capable of converting wired dot image data into raster image data, performing enlargement / reduction at a variable magnification, and outputting a drawing, wherein A scaling unit for scaling the dot image data in the horizontal direction at a specified magnification, a word-to-dot image data storage unit for storing the scaled wire-dot image data, and raster image data for the wire-dot image data A raster processing unit for storing the raster image data; a scaling processing unit for scaling the image data stored in the raster image data storage at a designated magnification; A temporary storage area for temporarily storing doubled raster image data, and a raster image stored in the temporary storage area And a conversion processing unit for converting the Waiyadotsuto image data.

[Action]

According to the present invention, the first scaling unit converts the first image data input by the input unit into second image data in which the temporal arrangement order of the pixels is converted by the first conversion unit. Is done. That is, for example, when the first image data is wired dot image data,
The converting means converts the wired image data into, for example, raster image data (second image data). Then, the second image data is scaled in the first direction by the first scaling unit and output as third image data. The third image data is converted by the second conversion means so as to have an arrangement order of pixels according to the printing mode, and is converted by the second scaling means in a second direction different from the first direction. Scaled (fifth image data)
Printing is performed based on the fifth image data.

The first and second scaling processing means may be realized by the same configuration, and preferably includes a setting means and a calculating means, and one line is set based on a scaling ratio set to a desired value by the setting means. For each piece of image data of one or more pixels arranged above, the position where the image data should be printed and the number of times that the image data should be drawn continuously are calculated.

According to this configuration, since the scaling process in each direction is performed before and after the conversion of the temporal arrangement order of the pixels, there is no need to store one page of image data before and after each process. The capacity can be reduced, and each process can be executed in parallel.

According to this configuration, the wired dot image data storage unit stores the scaled wired dot image data, and the raster conversion processing unit converts the scaled wired dot image data into raster image data, and stores the raster image data. The unit stores the converted raster image data, and the scaling process scales (enlarges / reduces) the wired image data and the raster image data.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. This printing apparatus can input wired dot image data and perform printing by a raster scan method. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a host computer that sends image data and print data to a printer, and 2 denotes a central processing unit (CPU) that executes normal processing related to printing and copying. 3 is an input buffer for receiving data from the host computer 1, 4 is an output buffer for temporarily storing data output from the CPU 2, and 5 is an interface for sending the data held in the output buffer 4 to the printing unit 6. Reference numeral 9 denotes a raster conversion processing unit for converting the wired dot image data stored in the input buffer 3 into raster image data, and 8 denotes the raster image data converted by the raster conversion processing unit for eight lines (wired dot image data 1).
An image storage unit for storing (for lines).

Numeral 7 changes the magnification in the horizontal direction by the designated horizontal magnification for the data of one line (one raster) of the raster image data stored in the image storage unit 8, and is stored in the temporary storage area 12. The scaling unit 10 performs scaling in the vertical direction at the specified vertical magnification for raster image data for one line (one raster).
A raster image storage unit 13 for storing raster image data for each raster; a conversion processing unit 13 for converting raster image data stored in the raster image storage unit 10 into raster image data in a direction perpendicular to the paper feeding direction; Is a temporary storage area for temporarily storing raster image data converted by the raster conversion processing unit 9.

The raster image data that has been vertically scaled by the scaling unit 7 is output to the printing unit 6 via the output buffer 4.

As shown in FIG. 2, when paper is being conveyed in a landscape (horizontal paper), the wired dot image data is usually drawn for each of a plurality of pixels arranged in a direction (90 degrees) perpendicular to the paper feed direction. The raster image data is also drawn for each of a plurality of pixels arranged in the vertical direction (90 degrees).

Therefore, the data format for each byte sent to the printing apparatus is the same.

Further, the raster scanning type printing apparatus according to the present invention performs scanning (scanning) perpendicularly to the paper feeding direction. Therefore, when the scaling process is not performed, even if the data is sent in the form of the wired image data, the arrangement order of the pixels may be converted for each byte, so that the process is relatively easy. However, in order to easily perform the scaling process, in the present embodiment, the image is converted into raster image data in the paper feed direction and scaled.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, image scaling processing and image data conversion processing are performed. Less than,
The processing operation will be described.

First, in step S31, from the host computer 1,
Set the magnification of the image scaling based on the parameters sent with the command. The parameters include the width in the horizontal direction (in this case, the direction perpendicular to the paper feed) for one bit of the input image data (that is, whether or not to convert one bit in the horizontal direction to some size). The magnification ratio between the horizontal direction and the vertical direction (paper feed direction) is input.

The vertical height of how much to scale one bit in the vertical direction is calculated by the horizontal width and the horizontal / vertical ratio.

Vertical height = horizontal width * vertical ratio / horizontal ratio (Equation 1) However, it is needless to say that the vertical height may be directly input instead of obtaining the vertical scaling height by (Equation 1). No.

Next, in step S32, the wired image data stored in the input buffer 3 is converted into raster image data and stored in the image storage unit 8 (described later with reference to FIG. 7).

Next, in step S33, from the raster image data stored in the image storage unit 8, horizontal scaling is performed for eight lines based on the input parameter values of step S31, and stored in the raster image storage unit 10 (described later). 4 and FIG. 8).

Next, in step S34, the arrangement direction of the pixels of the raster image stored in the raster image storage unit 10 is converted and stored in the primary storage area 12 (described later with reference to FIG. 9).

Then, in step S35, the raster image data in the primary storage area 12 is scaled in the vertical direction and drawn on an output buffer, and printing is performed based on this (described later with reference to FIG. 10).

Printing is started after the above steps S32 to S35 have been performed for all the input wired image data (step S36).

Hereinafter, a detailed description will be given for each of the above steps S32 to S35.

First, from step S32 in FIG. 3, the input wired image data is converted into raster image data by rotating, and stored in the image storage unit 8. FIG.
FIG. 9 is a diagram that best illustrates this processing.

Next, FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the processing operation (step S33) of performing horizontal scaling on the raster image data for eight lines and storing the result in the raster image data storage unit 10.

In step S41, the raster image data fills the image storage unit 8 (full state with no free space),
Alternatively, if the processing of the data for eight lines has been completed, this processing is completed, and the flow shifts to step S32 in FIG.

If "NO" in the step S41, one byte of raster image data is read (step S42), and the process shifts to a step S43.

In step S43, a start position processing routine for processing which address in the image storage unit sets the scaled data is performed.

Here, the start position processing routine will be described.

In step S51 in FIG. 5, the grid size GS is the width of the horizontal scaling of the input parameter. In this embodiment, GS = 24 for the same magnification and GS = 48 for the double magnification. The number of data inputs N is the number of sequentially input wired dot image data.

In step S52, the start address for determining how many steps forward (downward in FIG. 8) from the start position (0) to store the scaled image data is determined by the following equation.

PTR = ((GS * N) +12) / 24 (Equation 2) In this embodiment, the printing resolution is 300 dpi (corresponding to 24 dots per dot).
Assuming that the 19-inch point (one point is 1/72 inch) and the sent wired dot image data is the fifth (downward in FIG. 8), PTR = ((19 * 5) +12) / 24 = 4 .

 Note that, in (Equation 2), fractions below the decimal point are truncated.

That is, the scaled data is stored in the fourth address of the raster image data storage unit 10.

The start address processing routine described above determines this storage address.

Next, in step S44 in FIG. 4, the data subjected to horizontal scaling is stored at the storage address (start position) determined in step S43. Is converted to a dot.

DGS (magnification width <dot>) = (GS + 23) / 24 (Equation 3) In (Equation 3), the decimal part is also rounded down.

In the case described above, DGS (19 + 23) / 24 = 1 (dot) is obtained, so that data having a variable width of 1 dot is stored at the fourth address of the raster image data storage unit 10.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the manner in which data is stored in the raster image storage unit 10 when performing double magnification.

Next, the image data of step S34 in FIG. 3 will be described with reference to FIG.

In the image data stored in the raster image function unit 10, one byte of data at one address represents eight-dot pixels arranged in the paper feed direction. In step S34, such image data is converted so as to be arranged in a direction perpendicular to the paper feeding direction, and stored in the primary storage area 12.

Next, the processing operation of step S35 in FIG. 3 will be described with reference to FIG.

The raster image data converted in step S61 in FIG. 6 is vertically scaled by the width thereof. That is,
As shown in FIG. 10, the raster image data storage section has a width of 8 bits. If the width exceeds this width, the processing is terminated.
If not, in step S62, the start position processing routine is used in the same manner as in the horizontal scaling process, and it is determined at which address of the output buffer the vertically scaled data is to be placed.

Then, the scaling width is converted into the unit (dot) of the printing apparatus by using the following formula, and the vertical scaling width (dot) = (vertical scaling width + 23) / 24 (Equation 4) The address of the output buffer If the variable width has been written into the buffer, the process returns to step S61. Otherwise, the data is written into the output buffer 4 by the variable width (step S61).
S63-S64).

FIG. 10 is a diagram that best illustrates this vertical scaling process.

As described above, by performing the processing from steps S32 to S34 in FIG. 3, printing is performed with horizontal and vertical scaling.

[Other embodiments]

 Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a printing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

By adding a scaling parameter input unit 14 to FIG. 1, a switch such as an external panel of the printing apparatus can be used.
You can enter the horizontal and vertical scaling width, height, and scaling factor. Thus, scaling can be performed freely without adding scaling information to the image data to be sent to the printing apparatus.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, in a raster scan printing apparatus, printing (enlargement / reduction) of wired dot image data can be performed at high speed with a small-capacity memory and printed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a drawing format of wired image data input to the printing apparatus of the present invention and printed by the printing apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 3 shows a drawing format of raster image data, FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the printing apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a processing operation (step) of horizontal scaling in FIG.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining a start position processing routine in FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining a vertical zoom processing operation in FIG. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a mode of converting raster image data from wired dot image data of the present embodiment. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the processing operation of horizontal scaling of raster image data of the present embodiment best. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a processing operation for converting the arrangement of raster image data according to the present embodiment. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing processing from conversion of vertical magnification to wired dot image data and writing to an output buffer according to the present embodiment. FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the configuration of another embodiment of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Host computer, 2 ... CPU, 3 ... Input buffer, 4 ... Output buffer, 6 ... Printing part, 7 ... Scaling processing part,
8 image storage unit, 9 raster conversion processing unit, 10 raster image storage unit, 12 primary storage area, 13 conversion processing unit
14: Variable magnification parameter input section.

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] An input unit for inputting first image data; and a first image data input by the input unit,
The first image data includes a first conversion unit that converts the image into a second image data having a different temporal arrangement order of pixels, and a second image data from the first conversion unit in a first direction. A first process of performing a scaling process and outputting as third image data;
Scaling processing means; and third image data from the first scaling processing means,
The image data of which is different from the image data of FIG.
A second converting means for converting the image data into a second image data, a fourth image data from the second converting means being subjected to scaling processing in a second direction different from the first direction, and output as fifth image data And a second variable magnification processing means. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising setting means for setting a scaling factor, wherein at least one of the first and second scaling processing means adjusts the set scaling factor. Computing means for computing, for each image data of one or a plurality of pixels arranged on one line, a position at which the image data is to be printed and a number of times to continuously draw the image data based on the image data. Printing device. 3. A raster scanning type printing apparatus, comprising: a scaling unit for scaling input wired dot image data; and wired dot image data for storing image data scaled by the scaling unit. A raster conversion processing unit for converting the wired dot image data into raster image data; a raster image storage unit for storing the raster image data; and a scaling processing unit for scaling the raster image data A temporary storage area for temporarily storing the scaled raster image data, and a wired dot conversion processing unit for converting the raster image data into wired dot image data, thereby converting the wired dot image data. Raster scan type printing device that can draw twice.