JP3150430B2 - Printer control code converter - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[Industrial application] The present invention relates to
Temporarily stores printer control codes for printing with a relatively small personal computer such as the PC-9800 series or the Macintosh series made by Apple Inc. or a relatively large workstation (collectively referred to as a host computer hereinafter). The present invention relates to a printer control code conversion device which is provided between a page buffer (for example, a laser beam printer) and a buffer or other various interfaces for outputting a print signal, and transfers information for printing to the page printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 63-19260 discloses that lines constituting main character information, spaces between lines, and lines constituting additional print information such as underlines and marks are separately controlled. An interface device for alternately sending the main character information, the space between lines, and the additional print information to the page printer for each predetermined number of lines is disclosed, thereby improving the use efficiency and reducing the capacity of the print information buffer capacity. Is possible. On the other hand, by using an application program (hereinafter, application) of the host computer or another program, the same content can be printed by various page printers. That is, conversion is performed on the host computer so that the control code created by the application used by the user of the general computer and the control code of the page printer used by the user match.

An example of conversion of a control code of a printer in the above application is illustrated with reference to FIG. The control code sequence 21 before conversion is expanded as image data in the page memory 24 by the input control code conversion unit 22. At this time, the input code conversion unit 22 develops the character information as image data in the page memory 24 using a font (including a rasterizer) 23 inside the computer. Then, at the point in time when all the developments have been completed, the control code sequence 26 is generated by the output control code generator 25. The control code sequence 26 is data in which a control code is added to image data.

[0004]

The interface device for processing each row is characterized in that the page memory is not expanded. As a result, information such as underlines and marks, which are structured so that information flows in order from the top of the print area, like scanning lines on a display, can be printed, but image information arrives regardless of the vertical position. A very general image-mixed sentence cannot be printed by the interface device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-19260.

On the other hand, when the control code of the printer is converted on an application, a program and a font (including a font rasterizer) for conversion are required on a computer. In addition, since a computer is used for the conversion, the computer cannot perform other processing during the conversion process. Further, the size of the converted control code is larger than the size of the control code before conversion, so that extra time for transmitting the converted control code to the printer is required. An object of the present invention is to provide a printer control code conversion device that solves the above problems.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a printer control code conversion device according to the present invention inputs a printer control code signal for printing and sends it to a printer control code signal input terminal of a page printer. An input control code conversion unit for connecting and converting an input printer control code signal into character information and image information; a character information in the printer control code signal; and a character type information. , Character size information, and character position information to calculate the print area of each character, while calculating the image print area from each image information in the printer control code signal and the image position information, A character information conversion unit that determines whether or not the print area of the image overlaps the print area of the image; A buffer for extracting and storing character information, character type information, character size information, and character position information when it is determined that the character print area and the image print area overlap each other. Output character information, character type information, character size information and character position information, and image information and image position information in the printer control code signal other than the character information stored in the buffer to the printer, and after the operation, The buffer is configured to output the stored information to the printer.

[0007]

The printer control code converter according to the present invention has the following functions.・ The print signal is separated into character information and image information. A print area for image information and character information is calculated from the separated information. It is determined whether or not each of the calculated image information print area and the character information print area overlaps.・ The printing is synchronized for both overlapping printing information. -Further, the image information is developed in the page memory. -Character information is provided with a control signal that can be printed by a page printer.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. [Conditions for Using the Present Invention] The printer control code converter according to the present invention is used by connecting it between a host computer and a page printer.

[Description of Main Configuration of Internal Processing: See FIG. 1] A control code sequence of a signal obtained from a control code signal output terminal on the host computer side is indicated by a block 1. This control code string 1 is a signal before being converted by the printer control code conversion device of the present invention. The control code string 1 is input to the input code conversion unit 2. Here, the character information and the image information are determined from the input control code sequence 1, and the character information and the image information are further separated. The method of separating the character information and the image information will be described in detail below. Data of only image information from the input code conversion unit 2 is input to the image information conversion unit 4. Here, the control code sequence of the image information is converted into bit image information. The signal converted into the bit image information by the image information conversion unit 4 is developed in the page memory 6 under the condition as the bit image. Further, information on the position and area of the image determined by this development is output to the character information conversion unit 3. Note that conversion to bit image information is indicated by adding a symbol “ζ”. The image information developed in the page memory 6 represents one image area by four-point position information surrounding the image with a rectangular area. The conversion of the image area is indicated by adding “η”. In this area designation system, the following overlap determination will be described in detail in the description.

In the character information conversion unit, the character information discriminated and separated in the input code conversion unit 2 is input.
Further, the position information of the image formed in the page memory 6 is connected so as to be searchable. The input character information is added with a control code for the page printer so that a font (including a font rasterizer) built in the page printer 9 can be used. The state to which the control code is added is indicated by adding “δ”. Next, a print area of each character or character string is calculated from the character information, the character type information to be printed, the character size information, and the character position information, and the calculated result and the page memory 6 are obtained. It is determined whether or not the position information of the image overlaps. The details of the method of determining the overlap will be described below. Then, the character information determined to be non-overlapping and the character information in which characters are printed below the image of the overlapping part are input to the printer control code string forming unit 8. On the other hand, the character information determined to overlap the character on the image is temporarily stored in the overlay processing buffer 5. On the other hand, the output control code creation unit 7 has a page memory 6
The order in which the image information and the character information in a standby state in the overlay processing buffer 5 are output to the printer control code sequence forming unit 8 is determined based on the following rules. .. In the case of print information in which characters overlap the image and the image is partially hidden by the characters, the image information is stored from the overlay processing buffer 5 so that the image information is output first and the character information is output thereafter. The character information is extracted and transmitted to the printer control code string forming unit 8. In the printer control code string forming unit 8, the character information determined not to overlap the image information by the character information conversion unit 3 is input, and this character information is immediately output to the page printer 9. Further, since the signal transmitted from the output control code generation unit 7 is a signal obtained through the following processes, the signal is transmitted after being delayed from the character information. If the order is correct, the signal transmitted from the output control code generator 7 is also immediately output to the page printer. Note that the printer control code string forming unit 8 can be configured as a simple connector that combines inputs from two directions and transmits them to the page printer 9.

[... Separation method of character information and image information] As an example of the separation method, a font recorded for full-character information (half-width, full-width, special characters, katakana, alphabet, kanji, romaji, etc.) At least, font name information and code number information are provided on the input code conversion unit 2 and the font name information is input to the input code conversion unit 2 for data in which image information and character information input from the host computer are mixed. The data and the code number information are sequentially searched to determine whether the same data exists, and a determination is made. As a result, if there is the same data, it is transmitted to the character information conversion unit 3,
If there is no identical data, the data is transmitted to the image information converter 4.

[Explanation of Determining Whether Overlap exists] A method of determining whether the print area of the character or character string and the print area of the image overlap will be described below. In order to determine the overlap, it is necessary to first calculate in which area on the same page each of the character information and the image information is to be printed. FIG. 2 shows an example of the calculation. For example, to print the kanji character "
It is assumed that it has been instructed to print “character” and position information forming a pair with the character at (X = A, Y = a) points on the page memory. Further, type information and character size information are also provided. For example, if the character type is a standard Mincho font type and the character size is specified to be H in height and W in width, the print area in which the “character” is printed is (A, a). (A, a + W), (A-H, a) and (A-H, a + W)
Is an area connecting the four points. This printing area is calculated by the character information conversion unit 3.

On the other hand, in the image information conversion section 4, the print area is calculated in the same manner as described above by calculating the image information and the size information. Then, the result is developed on the page memory 6 as bit image information. By the way, at the time when both print areas are calculated, it is determined whether or not there is an overlap. That is, bit image information is searched in the page memory 6 corresponding to the print area of the character information, and if there is at least one image data in the searched area, it is determined that there is an overlap. By the way, if necessary, “overlapping or non-overlapping” may be determined based on whether a character printing area corresponds to a bit image area on the page memory 6.

Further, the image information and the character information having the overlap are examined before and after the image information and the character information having the overlap at the time when they are outputted from the host computer. If it is determined that the image is output earlier, it is the correct printing state that the image is superimposed on the character in the print result. The same processing as described above, that is, processing for sending character information to the printer control code forming unit 8 is performed. In the opposite case, that is, when the image information is output earlier than the character information, the character information is stored in the superposition buffer 5.

[Use Example of the Printer Control Code Conversion Apparatus Having the Above Configuration] A specific use example of this embodiment will be specifically described based on a print example. The example of printing is a control code signal that finally reaches the state shown in the lower left corner of FIG. 1, that is, this printing state will be specifically described below in words.

The character information “X” having a standard size is displayed on the upper left,
The character information “Y” having a standard size is substantially at the center, and the “Y”
A square image is printed below the "Y" so that it is hidden by "Y". Character information "Z" of standard size is printed immediately below the "Y". Character information "G" having a standard size is printed, and a circular image is printed so as to overlap the "G" so that the lower left side of the character information "G" is hidden. In describing this printing example, in FIG. 1, α is character type information, β is character size information, γ is printing position information, δ is an input code conversion unit 2, and Δ is image printing information printer. Ε indicates that the image information transmitted from the page memory 6 has been converted to be compatible with the image information transmitted from the page memory 6 by adding a printer control code to the page printer 9 as print information. Similarly, δ means that the character information transmitted from the input code conversion unit 2 has been converted to be suitable as print information by the page printer 9 by adding a printer control code.

On the software, for example, a printer with a high share in Japan, PC-PR20 manufactured by NEC Corporation
By specifying the output in the 1 (product name) format, the output from the control code sequence is as follows. It should be noted that the product of the respective control codes represents characters that are related to each other, and the information combined with a plus indicates that the information group is simply transmitted following the information group combined with the product. further,
For the sake of simplicity, information transmitted from the control code sequence 1 to the input code conversion unit 2 is represented as “1 → 2 =”.

The first control code sequence is represented as follows. 1 → 2 = αβγX + γ □ + αβγY + αβγZ + αβγ
G + γ ○ The input code converter 2 separates character information and image information. As a result, it is expressed as follows. 2 → 3 = αβγX + αβγY + αβγZ + αβγG 2 → 4 = γ □ + γ ○ The character information conversion unit 3 adds a control code that enables the page printer to use a font (including a font rasterizer) built into the page printer. Further, as described above, the presence or absence of superimposition with the image is determined and separated. As a result, it is expressed as follows. 3 → 8 = (αβγX) δ + (αβγZ) δ + (αβγ
G) δ3 → 5 = (αβγY) δ The image information conversion unit 4 converts the image into a bit image so that it can be developed on the page memory 6. as a result,
It is expressed as follows. 4 → 6 = (γ □) ζ + (γ ○) ζ Since the overlay processing buffer 5 only temporarily stores information waiting for an instruction from the output control code creation unit 7,
The code itself has not changed. Therefore, it is expressed as follows. 5 → 7 = 3 → 5 = (αβγY) δ With respect to the bit image data developed in the page memory 6, only the position or image area information is transmitted to the character information conversion unit. The image information developed here is transmitted to the output control code producing unit 7 as it is. As a result, it is expressed as follows. 6 → 3 = (γ □) ζη + (γ ○) ζη 6 → 7 = 4 → 6 = (γ □) ζ + (γ ○) ζ The output control code creation unit 7 receives the input character and image information that overlap with each other. The order is simply that image information is first and character information is sent later. As a result, it is expressed as follows. 7 → 8 = (γ □) ζε + (γ ○) ζε + (αβγY) δ In the printer control code sequence forming unit 8, the character information converting unit 3
And the printer control code string output from the output control code creation unit 7 are merged and sequentially input to the page printer 9. Note that the timing of information 7 → 8 transmitted from the output control code generator 7 to the printer control code string generator 8 and the timing of information 3 → 8 transmitted from the character information converter 3 to the printer control code string generator 8 are input. It is controlled by the synchronization signal obtained by the control code conversion unit 2, and as a result, 3 → 8, then 7
→ Combined in the order of 8. As a result of the synthesis, the information finally received by the printer is represented as follows. 8 → 9 = (αβγX) δ + (αβγZ) δ + (αβγ
G) δ + (γ □) ζε + (γ ○) ζε + (αβγY) δ

The character information (X, Y, Z) represented by the control code sequence has been treated as one character at a time. However, in some cases, X is "X", Y is "Y", and Z is "Y". It is also possible to treat it as multiple character strings in "Zet". In this case, control information αβγ is given to the first character, for example, “D”, and “X” can inherit the previous control information. Then, when the first character of a different group having the next control information, for example, "W" of "Wai" comes, the type, size and position of the character string are determined again by the new control information. You can also.

[0020]

As described above, the printer control code conversion device according to the present invention has the above-described configuration. For example, the printer control code conversion device does not include a postscript (a product name of a page description language proposed by Adobe Systems). Even in a compatible page printer, that is, a page printer in which the page description language is not unified, the control code string output from the host computer can be code-converted so that the following correct printing can be performed.

Since the page memory is used, image information can be printed accurately.・ There are no printing errors before and after characters and images. -Since the image is developed in the page memory by the printer control code conversion device of the present invention and the font of character information is developed on the page printer, the processing on the host computer becomes unnecessary. The host computer can be opened quickly when printing. -It is possible to process expensive fonts without having them on the printer control code converter and the host computer, which is advantageous for the cost and size of the entire converter.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a conventional technique.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of calculating a print area.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Control code sequence 2: Input code conversion unit
3 Character information converter 4 Image information converter 5 Buffer (overlapping processing buffer) 6 Page memory 7 Output control card generator 8 Printer control code string generator 9 Page printer

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 3/12

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An apparatus for inputting a printer control code signal for printing, connecting to a printer control code signal input terminal of a page printer, and converting the printer control code, comprising: a. An input control code converter (2) that separates the character information into image information and b) character information in the printer control code signal, character type information, character size information, and character position information. On the other hand, the image print area is calculated from each image information in the printer control code signal and the image position information, and it is determined whether the character print area and the image print area overlap each other. C) when the character information conversion unit (3) determines that the character print area and the image print area overlap with each other. A buffer (5) for extracting and storing character information, character type information, character size information, and character position information, wherein the character information conversion unit (3) stores the character information stored in the buffer (5). The character information, character type information, character size information and character position information, and image information and image position information in the printer control code signal other than the above are output to the printer side.After the operation, the buffer (5) stores the stored information. A printer control code conversion device characterized in that information is output to a printer side.