JP3046478B2 - Printing apparatus and printing method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention has means for providing a character development mechanism, receives font data from an external device,
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method for storing the received font data in a storage device inside the printing apparatus, and performing printing while expanding the stored font data into a character pattern by a character expansion mechanism.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a printing apparatus equipped with a character expanding mechanism, when font data is received (including download) from an external device and stored in a storage device inside the printing apparatus, the font data is expanded into a character pattern. Even if the printing apparatus is not provided with a character development mechanism for performing the operation, the data is stored in a storage device inside the printing apparatus, for example, a RAM which also serves as a work area for printer control.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, in a printing apparatus having means for providing a character development mechanism, when font data is received from an external device and stored in a storage device inside the printing apparatus, the font data is stored in the storage device. If a character expansion mechanism for expanding font data into a character pattern is not provided, the storage device inside the printing apparatus is used by the font data, that is, data that cannot be used for printing. was there.

In the case where these font data, that is, data that cannot be used for printing is deleted from the storage device inside the printing device during printing by the printing device, the data is deleted from the storage device inside the printing device. Has to be given to the printing apparatus.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and it is determined whether or not a printing apparatus is equipped with a character developing mechanism corresponding to received font data. The present invention aims to provide a printing apparatus and a printing method that can efficiently use a memory without storing wasteful font data in a memory by controlling a process of storing received font data in a memory based on the font data. .

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus having a developing means for developing font data into a character pattern by a character developing mechanism, which corresponds to received font data. Determining means for determining whether or not the character developing mechanism is provided in the printing apparatus, and when it is determined that the character developing mechanism corresponding to the font data received by the determining means is not provided in the printing apparatus, Without performing processing for storing the received font data in the memory, and when it is determined that the character expansion mechanism corresponding to the received font data is provided in the printing apparatus, the received font data is stored in the memory. Processing means for performing processing for storing in the memory. A second invention according to the present invention has a printing means for printing characters based on the character pattern developed by the developing means. According to a third aspect of the present invention,
The processing means, when it is determined that the character expansion mechanism corresponding to the font data received by the determination means is not provided in the printing apparatus, by skipping the received font data, the received font data It does not perform the process of storing it in the memory. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, when the processing unit determines that the character developing mechanism corresponding to the font data received by the determination unit is not provided in the printing apparatus, the processing unit converts the received font data. By discarding, the process of storing the received font data in the memory is not performed.

A fifth invention according to the present invention is a printing method in a printing apparatus for developing font data into a character pattern by a character expanding mechanism, wherein the character expanding mechanism corresponding to the received font data is provided in the printing apparatus. A determining step of determining whether the font data is provided, and, if it is determined that the character developing mechanism corresponding to the received font data is not provided in the printing apparatus, the received font data is stored in the memory. A process of storing the received font data in a memory when it is determined that the character developing mechanism corresponding to the received font data is provided in the printing apparatus without performing the storing process; And steps. A sixth invention according to the present invention has a printing step of printing a character based on the developed character pattern. According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the processing step, when it is determined that the character developing mechanism corresponding to the font data received in the determining step is not provided in the printing apparatus, the received font data is By skipping, the process of storing the received font data in the memory is not performed. An eighth invention according to the present invention is characterized in that, when it is determined that the character expansion mechanism corresponding to the font data received in the determination step is not provided in the printing apparatus,
The processing for storing the received font data in the memory is not performed by discarding the received font data.

[0008]

[0009]

[0010]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes a printing apparatus main body (hereinafter simply referred to as a main body), an input interface 101 for inputting print data from an external device 108 such as a host computer, a CPU 102 for controlling the whole main body 100,
A ROM 103 storing the operation processing procedure of the CPU 102, character font patterns, and the like, a RAM 104 used as a frame memory for developing an output image, and an output unit (printer engine) 10 for printing an output image.
6, an output interface 105 for outputting the output image to the output unit 106, and a system bus 107 for transferring data and the like among the components such as 101 to 105. The external device 108 transfers print data conforming to a page description language or print data that has already been bit-mapped to the main body 100 according to a predetermined protocol.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining in detail the data processing configuration of the main unit 100 shown in FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 212 denotes an external device such as a host computer, and reference numeral 200 denotes a main body which is communicable with the external device 212 and receives print data in accordance with a predetermined protocol. 201 is a receiving unit for receiving data, 202
Is a reception buffer for temporarily storing received data, 2
Reference numeral 03 denotes an analysis unit for analyzing input data, reference numeral 204 denotes a page buffer for storing the analysis result of the analysis unit 203, and reference numeral 2 denotes a page buffer.
Reference numeral 05 denotes a developing unit that develops an output image such as a bit map memory based on the contents of the page buffer 204, 2
Reference numerals 06 and 207 denote character expansion mechanism units activated by the expansion unit 205, 208 denotes a frame memory for storing expanded output images, and 209 denotes the frame memory 208.
Output mechanism 210 using, for example, a laser beam.
And 211 is a recording medium.

[0014]

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a character development mechanism type table stored in the ROM 103 shown in FIG.

In the figure, reference numeral 300 denotes a table,
The character development types corresponding to the character development mechanisms 206 and 207 provided in 00 are registered.

FIG. 4 is a view for explaining the data structure of font data received from the external device 108 shown in FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 301 denotes a font data information unit which receives font data from the external device 108 and stores it in the RAM 104 as a storage device in the printing apparatus based on the information unit 301 in the font data. The character expansion mechanism type to be read
Whether the same character expansion mechanism is registered in the CP
It is determined by U102. Hereinafter, the printing method according to the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of a procedure for receiving / destroying font data in a printing method according to an embodiment of the present invention. (1) to (6) show each step, and each procedure is stored in the ROM 103 shown in FIG. 1, and the CPU 102 reads out and executes the steps.

First, when the printing apparatus is in a data reception waiting state, the CPU 102 detects the presence or absence of data output from the external device 108 through the input interface 101 (1). When data reception is detected, the CPU 1
02 determines whether the data is an instruction to store font data on the RAM 104 (2). If it is determined in step (2) that the received data is a command other than the command for storing the font data on the RAM 104, the CPU 102 performs a process corresponding to the received command (3). After the end of the process, the process returns to step (1) to receive the next data, and waits for data reception.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (2) that the received data is a command to store the font data in the RAM 104, the CPU 102 determines that the character expanding mechanism corresponding to the received font data has a main body. 100
(4).

If it is determined that the character expansion mechanism corresponding to the received font data is not provided in the printing apparatus main body 100, the font data is stored in the RAM.
The received font data is skipped and discarded from the reception buffer 202 without performing the process of storing the font data in the buffer 104 (5), and the process returns to step (1) to wait for data reception.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (4) that the character expansion mechanism corresponding to the received font data is provided in the printer main body 100, a process for storing the font data on the RAM 104 is performed. (6). Next, the printing apparatus main body 100 returns to step (1) and waits for data reception to receive the next data.

[0024]

As a result, the font data is stored in the RAM 104
When a command to store the font data is received, it is possible to perform printing while controlling the storage processing of the subsequent font data in the RAM 104 based on the determination result of the presence or absence of the character expansion mechanism corresponding to the phone data to be registered, It is possible to prevent printing processing that may cause a printing error beforehand.

In the above embodiment, the printing apparatus main body 10
Although the case has been described where the RAM 104 is used as the storage device of No. 0, the present invention can be applied to a secondary storage device such as a hard disk (HD) instead of the RAM 104.

The present invention may be applied to a printing system including a plurality of devices, a printing system via a network, a printing system via a network, or an apparatus including a single device. . Also,
It goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to a case where the present invention is achieved by supplying a program to a printing system or apparatus.

Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the output unit 106 shown in FIG. 1 applies the present invention to a printing apparatus which executes an electrophotographic process such as a laser beam printer has been described. For example, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to an ink jet printer, a thermal transfer printer, and the like.

[0029]

As described above, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus having a developing means for developing font data into a character pattern by a character developing mechanism. Determining means for determining whether or not the character developing mechanism is provided in the printing apparatus; and determining that the character developing mechanism corresponding to the font data received by the determining means is not provided in the printing apparatus. In the case where the received font data is not stored in the memory, the received font data is determined to be included in the printing apparatus when the character developing mechanism corresponding to the received font data is determined to be provided in the printing apparatus. Processing means for performing processing for storing data in the memory, so that the memory can be used without storing unnecessary font data in the memory. Rate often available. Further, when it is determined that the character expansion mechanism corresponding to the received font data is not provided in the printing apparatus by the determination unit, by skipping the received font data,
Alternatively, since the process of storing the received font data in the memory is not performed by discarding the received font data, it is not necessary to store the unnecessary font data received in the memory with a simple configuration.

According to the printing method of the present invention, there is provided a printing method in a printing apparatus for developing font data into a character pattern by a character developing mechanism, wherein the character developing mechanism corresponding to the received font data is provided in the printing apparatus. A determining step of determining whether or not the character developing mechanism corresponding to the received font data is not provided in the printing apparatus in the determining step; and storing the received font data in the memory. Performing a process of storing the received font data in a memory when it is determined that the character developing mechanism corresponding to the received font data is provided in the printing apparatus without performing the process of performing the determination. Has
The memory can be used efficiently without storing useless font data in the memory. Further, when it is determined that the character expansion mechanism corresponding to the font data received by the determination unit is not provided in the printing apparatus,
By skipping the received font data or discarding the received font data,
Since the process of storing the received font data in the memory is not performed, there is an effect that unnecessary received font data need not be stored in the memory with a simple configuration.

[0031]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining in detail a data processing configuration of a main unit shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a character development mechanism type table stored in a ROM shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a data structure of font data received from the external device shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure for receiving / destroying font data in a printing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 101 input interface 102 CPU 103 ROM 104 RAM 105 output interface 106 output unit 108 external device

Claims (8)

(57) [Claims] 1. A printing apparatus having expansion means for expanding font data into a character pattern by means of a character expansion mechanism, and determining whether or not the printing apparatus is equipped with a character expansion mechanism corresponding to the received font data. When it is determined that the character developing mechanism corresponding to the font data received by the determining means is not provided in the printing apparatus, the processing for storing the received font data in the memory is not performed. Processing means for performing processing for storing the received font data in a memory when it is determined that the character developing mechanism corresponding to the received font data is provided in the printing apparatus by the determining means. A printing device characterized by the above-mentioned. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising printing means for printing a character based on the character pattern developed by said developing means. 3. When the processing unit determines that the character expansion mechanism corresponding to the font data received by the determination unit is not provided in the printing apparatus, the processing unit skips the received font data. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein processing for storing the received font data in a memory is not performed. 4. When the processing unit determines that the character expansion mechanism corresponding to the received font data is not provided in the printing apparatus, the processing unit discards the received font data. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein processing for storing the received font data in a memory is not performed. 5. A printing method in a printing apparatus for developing font data into a character pattern by a character developing mechanism, wherein it is determined whether or not the character developing mechanism corresponding to the received font data is provided in the printing apparatus. When it is determined that the character expansion mechanism corresponding to the received font data is not provided in the printing apparatus, the processing for storing the received font data in the memory is not performed. And a processing step of storing the received font data in a memory when it is determined in the determining step that the character developing mechanism corresponding to the received font data is provided in the printing apparatus. And printing method. 6. The printing method according to claim 5, further comprising a printing step of printing a character based on the developed character pattern. 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining step determines that the printing apparatus does not include a character developing mechanism corresponding to the font data received in the determining step.
6. The printing method according to claim 5, wherein a process of storing the received font data in a memory is not performed by skipping the received font data. 8. The processing step includes: when it is determined that the character developing mechanism corresponding to the font data received in the determination step is not provided in the printing apparatus,
6. The printing method according to claim 5, wherein the process of storing the received font data in the memory is not performed by discarding the received font data.