JP3174624B2 - Print information management method in printer device and 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 for inputting print information output from a higher-level device and performing printing on a recording medium such as paper. The present invention relates to a method for managing print information.

[0002] With the increasing complexity of information handled by computer systems, printing information sent from a higher-level device to a printer has also become more complex. That is, in order for the host device to obtain a required print result using the printer device, in addition to the print data (print data), environment setting data for setting a print environment (format) such as a paper size or a margin. It is necessary to give various instructions to the printer device based on various attribute data such as print position, font type, rotation position, and color.

On the other hand, the demand for higher reliability of computer systems is increasing year by year, and a printer device is also required to have higher reliability for printing results. Therefore, when a printing failure such as a stoppage of the apparatus due to a paper jam or a shortage occurs during use of the printer apparatus, recovery (reprinting) can be reliably and easily performed so that the print result is not excessive or insufficient. It is necessary.

However, as described above, since the print information is complicated, when the print information is lost in the printer device, the procedure for retransmitting the print information from the host device is also complicated.

That is, in this case, the printer apparatus notifies the host apparatus of the loss of the print information, and the host apparatus having received the print information retransmits the print information. Complicated procedures are required between the printer and the device, and a higher-level device that receives a request to retransmit print information searches for the data necessary to reprint lost pages back to the beginning of the print information. And resend it,
In many cases, it takes a long time to start reprinting.

[0006] Therefore, it is desired that the print information once received be properly managed on the printer side, and the recovery be performed by itself without increasing the memory capacity.

[0007]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional printer device, in order to hold print information received (input) from a host device in the printer device, the print information is buffered in the received format as it is, and is stored in a bitmap format. After drawing in a page buffer, memory for buffering is released to erase original print information.

[0008]

Therefore, in such a conventional method, it is necessary to hold the data (image data) drawn in the page buffer until printing is completed.

However, for example, in the case of a desktop type low-speed printer device which transfers image data drawn in a page buffer one by one (one physical page) onto paper and discharges the paper, printing is completed. There is no problem since the page buffer used (constrained) is only one page, but a number of sheets (for example, 10 sheets) are continuously stacked until the sheet is discharged from the transfer position. In a high-speed printer device to be arranged, a page buffer for the page is restricted until printing is completed, and there is a problem that a large memory capacity is required.

In addition, since a page buffer for one page is required even if the print data to be printed in one page is small, a large buffer that requires the best buffer to ensure the performance of the printer is required. This printer device requires a huge amount of page buffer, which is not practical.

When the print information is buffered in the format as received, it is not easy to handle large (long) print data, and it is not easy to manage the print environment history. There is a problem that it is not easy to reconstruct a printing environment for restoration or to restore attribute data.

That is, the format of data handled by the printer device has been diversified, and printing functions for graphic data or image data have become common. These data may have a logically infinite length of data in one page. In such a case, the data overflows from the memory for buffering and recovery may not be possible.

For example, when printing is performed while assigning a different pattern to a specific character code and a printing failure occurs, print information for specifying the pattern may be lost. Recovery on the basis of this is not possible.

According to the present invention, even when a print failure occurs, recovery can be performed by the printer itself without losing print information, and the interface between the host device and the printer can be simplified and combined. To shorten the time until the start of reprinting.

[0015]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for inputting print information PI output from a host device 5 as shown in FIGS. In the printer device 1 for performing printing on a recording medium, the input print information PI is converted into page attribute data PAD for managing print contents in physical page units on the recording medium, and print contents in logical page units. Is stored in the page attribute memory 31 and the logical page memory 32 as the logical page data LPD, and based on the page attribute data PAD and the logical page data LPD, the data is transferred to the page buffer 33 in the bitmap format in physical page units. After the image is transferred onto the recording medium based on the drawn contents of the page buffer 33, Releasing the buffer 33, the after printing on the recording medium has ended normally based on the content of the rendered page buffer 33 the page attribute memory 31
And the logical page memory 32 is released.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the method, the input print information PI is converted into page attribute data P for managing print contents in physical page units on the recording medium.
AD and logical page data LPD, which is the print content of a logical page, are stored in the page attribute memory 31 and the logical page memory 32, and the logical page data LPD is rendered in the drawing function data SFD which is the print data of the logical page. And rendering attribute data SAD, which is attribute data for rendering the rendering function data SFD.
And font data FPD, which are separately managed, and based on the page attribute data PAD and the logical page data LPD, drawing is performed on the page buffer 33 in the bitmap format on a physical page basis, After performing transfer onto the recording medium based on the drawn contents of the page buffer 33, the page buffer 33 is released, and printing on the recording medium is normally performed based on the drawn contents of the page buffer 33. After that, the drawing function data SFD and the drawing attribute data S
For each used data of the AD or the font data FPD, the memory holding those data is released.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, when the logical page data LPD cannot be created in the process of creating the logical page data LPD based on the print information PI, the logical page data LPD is The whole or a part is drawn and stored in the memory 33f in a bitmap format.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, when a printing failure occurs after the end of the transfer and before the end of the printing,
The page attribute memory 31 and the logical page memory 3
Based on the page attribute data PAD and the logical page data LPD held in No. 2, drawing is performed again on the page buffer 33.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a page attribute memory 31 for storing page attribute data PAD for managing print contents in physical page units on the recording medium, and a logical unit of print contents in logical page units. A logical page memory 32 for storing page data LPD, a data memory 12 including a page buffer 33 in a bitmap format, and the print information PI are analyzed, and all information necessary for printing in physical page units is analyzed. An analysis conversion unit 14 for converting the page attribute data PAD and the logical page data LPD, which are intermediate format data containing the data, and the page attribute data PAD and the logical page data LP
A drawing unit 15 for drawing the image data IMD in the page buffer 33 with reference to D, and controlling the printing operation on the recording medium based on the image data IMD drawn in the page buffer 33; A print promotion unit 16 that performs control for reprinting by referring to the page attribute data PAD and the logical page data LPD when a print failure occurs, and manages the data memory 12 and draws data in the page buffer 33. A memory management unit 13 for releasing the page buffer 33 after the transferred image data IMD is transferred onto the recording medium and releasing the page attribute memory 31 and the logical page memory 32 after printing is completed. Be composed.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, when the logical page data LPD overflows from the logical page memory 32, all or a part of the logical page data LPD is drawn in the bitmap format in the memory 33f. And an overflow processing unit 54 for the purpose.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the apparatus, the page attribute data PAD specifies environment setting data ESD for setting a printing environment of the physical page and a logical page to be used as a print content of the physical page. The logical page link data LPL for performing the rendering of the physical page and the page buffer link data PBL for designating the page buffer 33 for drawing the physical page.

[0022]

When the print information PI is received from the host device 5, it is sent to the analysis and conversion unit 14 through the interface unit 11. The analysis conversion unit 14 requests and acquires a necessary memory from the memory management unit 13.

The page attribute data PAD is created on the acquired page attribute memory 31, and the logical page data LPD is created on the logical page memory 32. In this process, the drawing function memory 34 used as the contents of the one page is transferred from the page attribute memory 31 to the drawing function memory 34.
Are linked to the drawing attribute memory 35 and the font memory 36 referred to in the drawing function data SFD.

If a shortage of memory occurs during the process of creating a logical page and the creation of the drawing function data SFD cannot be continued, the analysis and conversion unit 14 executes a resource overflow processing routine 54, thereby executing the memory management unit 13 , A page buffer 33f is obtained, and the contents of the logical page being created are drawn in the page buffer 33f.

At the start of printing, a page buffer 33 for drawing based on the logical page data LPD is obtained, and the image data IMD is drawn there.
When the drawing is completed, the image is transferred to the recording medium, and when the transfer is completed, the page buffer 33 is released. When printing is completed normally by discharging the recording medium after transfer,
Used page attribute memory 31 or logical page memory 3
2 is released.

If a print failure occurs before the end of printing, the page buffer 33 is reacquired for the page at the end of printing, and the drawing is performed again based on the logical page data LPD, and printing is performed.

[0027]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printer 1 according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of a data memory 12, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing details of a main part of the data memory 12, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the memory management unit 13, FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the analysis conversion unit 14, and FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the print promotion unit 16.

In FIG. 1, the printer 1 is connected to a higher-level device 5 via a communication line 6.
Receives (inputs) the print information PI sent from the printer and prints it on paper or another recording medium.

The print information PI includes code data requiring a font such as a character code or a graphic code, graphic data including all information required for drawing a graphic, compressed or uncompressed image data, a format, Environment setting data for setting a printing environment such as paper size, binding margin, margin, and color are included.

The printer device 1 includes an interface unit 11 for performing processing relating to communication, a data memory 12, a memory management unit 13, an analysis conversion unit 14, a drawing unit 15, and a print promotion unit 1.
6 and a printing mechanism unit 17. These are MPU,
It is realized by a hardware circuit including a memory and other peripheral elements, a program stored in a ROM or the like, various mechanical components for executing an electrophotographic process and the like, and other mechanical components.

The data memory 12 is composed of a plurality of memory groups necessary for holding print data as intermediate data obtained by converting print information into independent information for each page or image data IMD as a final format.

In FIG. 2, the data memory 12 includes a page attribute memory 31, a logical page memory 32, and a page buffer 33. The page attribute memory 31 stores page attribute data PAD for managing the print content of each physical page in units of physical pages corresponding to one page of a sheet.

Referring to FIG. 3, page attribute data PAD
Are environment setting data ESD for setting a printing environment of each physical page, logical page link data LPL for specifying a logical page used as a print content of each physical page, and a page buffer used for drawing each physical page. 33 page buffer link data P
BL.

The logical page link data LPL includes a page buffer 3 in overflow processing as described later.
3 is also included. Logical page memory 32
Is composed of a drawing function memory 34, a drawing attribute memory 35, and a font memory 36.

The drawing function memory 34 is a memory for storing drawing function data SFD, which is print data for each logical page. The drawing function data SFD is, for example, a data string in which coordinate values or addresses indicating printing positions, codes for specifying fonts or patterns, the number of characters, and a plurality of character codes are arranged. , The drawing unit 15 performs drawing on the page buffer 33.

The drawing attribute memory 35 stores drawing attribute data SAD which is attribute data necessary for the drawing unit 15 to perform drawing based on the drawing function data SFD. The drawing attribute data SAD includes a character rotation position, gradation, color,
This is data for specifying an outline or the like.

The font memory 36 stores font data F
Store PD. The font data FPD includes various graphic pattern data such as a halftone pattern in addition to the character font. The font memory 36 is usually a resident resource that always exists in the printer device 1. Note that external character registration data, download fonts, and the like are also stored in the font memory 36.

Drawing function memory 34, drawing attribute memory 3
5, and a plurality of font memories 36 can exist independently, and are managed independently by the memory management unit 13. The drawing function memory 34 is linked to the page attribute memory 31, and the drawing attribute memory 35 and the font memory 36 are linked to the drawing function memory 34.

The page buffer 33 is a memory of a bitmap format, in which the image data IMD is drawn based on the drawing function data SFD. The page buffer 33 is used for two types of uses. One of them is
In a normal processing sequence, this is acquired by a later-described drawing control routine 66 in the print promotion unit 16, and is linked to the page attribute memory 31 by page buffer link data PBL.

The page buffer 33 of this type is requested to be released by a transfer end interrupt routine 68 in the print promotion unit 16. That is, the page buffer 33
Is acquired just before drawing starts, and is released immediately after transfer ends.

The other one is obtained by the resource overflow processing routine 54 in the analysis and conversion unit 14 when a resource overflow occurs in the analysis and conversion unit 14 and it becomes necessary to store the data as the image data IMD. And the page attribute memory 31 according to the logical page link data LPL.
Linked to.

That is, in the analysis and conversion unit 14, the drawing function data SFD is written in the drawing function memory 34 based on the print information PI, but the drawing function memory SFD is acquired because the drawing function data SFD is large (long). 34, the drawing function data SFD
Instead, the page buffer 33 is obtained and the image data IMD is drawn and stored therein.

In this type of page buffer 33, the printing completion interrupt routine 69 in the printing promotion unit 16 performs the printing completion interruption until the printing is completed normally by discharging the printed paper to the stacker. It will be saved until it is activated.

In the former type of page buffer 33,
.. may be distinguished by adding a subscript including “f” such as f, fa, fb, etc. to the page buffer 33 of the latter type. See the description of FIG. 7 described later.

The page attribute memory 31 may link a plurality of drawing function memories 34 as necessary, and conversely, one drawing function memory 34 may be shared by a plurality of page attribute memories 31.

Similarly, the drawing function memory 34 may link a plurality of drawing attribute memories 35 or font memories 36 as necessary. Returning to FIG. 1, the memory management unit 13
Allocates a memory of a required capacity from the memory configuring the data memory 12 in response to a request from another processing unit, and reallocates the unnecessary memory.

In FIG. 4, a memory allocation routine 41 of the memory management unit 13 allocates and releases a memory according to an external request. Release synchronization A counter 42
Counts the pulses sent at the breaks of the process from the component receiving the memory allocation. Release synchronization B
The counter 43 counts pulses transmitted from other components, similarly to the release synchronization A counter 42.

The difference between the release synchronization B counter 43 and the release synchronization A counter 42 is that the pulse transmission source is transmitted not from the component receiving the memory allocation but from the component controlling the release timing of the memory.

If it is determined that it is not time to release the memory for which the memory release instruction has been received, the information of the memory is connected to the release request queue 44 together with the value of the release synchronization A counter 42 at the time of receiving the release instruction. Is done.

Upon receiving the memory release instruction, the memory release control routine 45 first compares the values of the release synchronization A counter 42 and the release synchronization B counter 43, and if the values match, the memory release routine 41 is sent to the memory allocation routine 41. Immediately issue a release instruction. Otherwise, the information of the memory that received the release instruction is connected to the release request queue 44. Further, the memory release control routine 45 is also called when the release synchronization B counter 43 is updated, and compares the respective counter values connected to the release request queue 44 with the value of the release synchronization B counter 43, and determines that they match. For example, it instructs the memory allocation routine 41 to release the memory.

Returning to FIG. 1, the analysis and conversion unit 14 analyzes the print information PI sent from the host device 5 via the interface unit 11 and includes all information necessary to construct a page. In addition, the intermediate-format data processed so as to increase the processing effect is stored in the logical page memory 32 acquired by the memory management unit 13.

In FIG. 5, the analysis and conversion unit 14 includes a media A conversion routine 51 and a media B conversion routine 52.
Having. These two media conversion routines 51 and 5
2 has a role of converting the print information PI into data of an intermediate format and storing it in the logical page memory 32 obtained through the memory management unit 13.

The analysis routine 53 is executed by the interface unit 1
The print information PI received from 1 is distributed to the media conversion routines 51 and 52 or the page break processing routine 55 for each meaningful function type.

The resource overflow processing routine 54 executes the logical page memory 32 (for example, the drawing function memory 3) during the creation of the intermediate format data in the media conversion routines 51 and 52.
When the data creation cannot be continued due to insufficient capacity in 4), the media conversion routines 51 and 52 are called to process and release the already created intermediate format data.

The called resource overflow processing routine 54
First checks whether the page buffer 33f of the page has already been acquired, and if not acquired, requests the page buffer 33f from the memory management unit 13 to acquire the page buffer 33f.

Further, data of the final format (image data IMD) is created on the acquired page buffer 33f. Thereafter, the logical page memory 32 storing the data of the intermediate format is released. The capacity of the page buffer 33f is
Since the finite value is determined by the paper size, the printing density, and the amount of information for each pixel, it is possible to avoid a memory shortage by performing these processes, and by reusing the released logical page memory 32, The media conversion routines 51 and 52 can continue to create intermediate format data.

When the page break processing routine 55 receives a page break request from the analysis routine 53, the memory management unit 1
3. A memory required for storing information of the physical page is acquired from 3, and information of the print data in the intermediate format or the final format and various attribute values (attribute data) required for printing are written into the memory. A print request is issued to the client 16.

Thereafter, a pulse (memory release synchronization pulse) necessary for synchronizing the memory release is sent to the memory management unit 13, and further, the memory management unit 13 is instructed to release the memory used in the page. And terminate the processing.

Returning to FIG. 1, the drawing unit 15 draws the data in the intermediate format created by the analysis conversion unit 14 on the page buffer 33 as image data IMD. The image data IMD on the page buffer 33 drawn by the drawing unit 15 becomes the final format information to be printed.

The print promotion unit 16 draws the components of the page sent from the analysis conversion unit 14 on the page buffer 33 by using the drawing unit 15, and further activates the printing mechanism unit 17 to print it on paper. . Further, when a print failure occurs, the print promotion unit 16 executes a process necessary for reprinting information or paper lost due to the print failure. If the printing has been completed normally, the print promotion unit 16
Is notified that the data memory 12 related to the page has become unnecessary.

In FIG. 6, the print promotion section 16 generates a waiting queue by various routines. The print request receiving routine 65 connects the print request sent from the analysis and conversion unit 14 to the drawing waiting queue 61. If there is a drawing waiting page in the drawing waiting queue 61, the drawing control routine 66 removes one of the drawing waiting pages from the drawing waiting queue 61, and converts the print data of the page into the image data IM.
Convert to D

In this process, the drawing control routine 66
Uses the memory management unit 13 and the drawing unit 15. When the conversion into the image data IMD is completed, the drawing control routine 66 connects the page to the print queue 62.

If there is a print waiting page in the print waiting queue 62, the print control routine 67
One of them is removed from the print waiting queue 62, and after instructing the printing mechanism 17 to perform printing, the page is connected to the transfer end waiting queue 63.

The transfer end interrupt routine 68 is started by an interruption at the end of transfer to the sheet from the printing mechanism 17, moves the page connected to the transfer end wait queue 63 to the print end wait queue 64, and Of the page buffer 33 acquired by the drawing control routine 66 to the memory management unit 13.

The print end interrupt routine 69 is started by an interrupt from the print mechanism unit 17 at the end of printing, and removes one of the print queues connected to the print end queue 64 from the print end queue 64. A memory release synchronization pulse is sent to the memory management unit 13.

When a printing failure occurs in the printing mechanism section 17 or the like and printing cannot be continued, the printing mechanism section 17 generates an interrupt signal, and in response thereto, the printing failure interrupt routine 70 is executed.

The print failure interrupt routine 70 rebuilds each of the drawing queue 61, the print queue 62, the transfer end queue 63, and the print end queue 64 in preparation for the start of reprinting. It requests the memory management unit 13 to release the unused page buffer 33 and releases it.

In FIG. 1, the printing mechanism 17 stores image data I which has been drawn on the page buffer 33 in advance.
A character or an image is printed on paper based on the MD. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the relationship between the respective units with the memory management unit 13 at the center.

As described above, the memory management unit 13 manages the data memory 12 composed of various memories or memory areas according to the print information PI handled by the printer device 1 and the processing mode inside the printer device 1. Yes,
The memory management unit 13 is an aggregate of a plurality of memory management units.

The memory management unit 13 has management units 40a to 40e for managing each memory in the data memory 12, and the memory allocation routines 41a to 41e are managed by the management units 40a to 40e. Is provided.

The page buffer 33 in the data memory 12 is used for two purposes as described above. Here, once again, one of them is used for storing the image data IMD created by the print promotion unit 16 prior to printing, and the other is the logical page data LPD output by the analysis conversion unit 14. Is used as a memory for storing

In the former case, since the image data IMD can be reproduced by using the stored logical page data LPD even when a print failure occurs, it is temporarily used by the print promotion unit 16. In the latter case, it is used to hold the data until printing of each logical page ends normally.

Therefore, in the former case, the management is performed by a normal memory allocation method. For this reason, in the present embodiment, the page buffer allocation routine 41e executes the request from the page buffer management unit 40e and the drawing control routine 66e.
It can handle requests from both.

Next, the operation of the printer 1 configured as described above will be described. First, when the apparatus is started up, font data FPD is stored in the font memory 36, and is stored as a resident resource until the power of the printer apparatus 1 is turned off.

Thereafter, when the print information PI is received from the host device 5, the print information PI is sent to the analysis and conversion unit 14 through the interface unit 11, and the analysis and conversion unit 14 receiving the print information PI stores the necessary memory in the memory management unit. 13, the drawing function data SFD is created in the drawing function memory 34 while obtaining the request.

In this process, the drawing function data SFD
Are linked from the drawing function memory 34 to the drawing attribute memory 35 and the font memory 36 referred to in the above. In this way, the drawing function data SFD managed by grouping in units of logical pages is created on the drawing function memory 34.

Each logical page is independent of other logical pages itself, does not require information of another logical page when drawing by the drawing unit 15, and can be drawn at an arbitrary position. Has become.

If a memory shortage occurs during the process of creating a logical page and the creation of the drawing function data SFD cannot be continued, the resource overflow processing routine 54 is executed in the analysis and conversion unit 14, and the page is passed through the memory management unit 13. The buffer 33f is acquired, and the page buffer 3
At 3f, the contents of the logical page being created are drawn.

When the drawing is completed, the drawing function memory 34 storing the data of the logical page becomes unnecessary, and this memory is immediately released through the memory management unit 13.
With such a mechanism, even for information such as graphic information for which the maximum value of the data amount is not specified, it is possible to avoid a situation in which processing is stopped due to lack of memory.

At the time of a page break, the analysis conversion unit 14
The page attribute memory 31 corresponding to one physical page (print unit) is acquired through the memory management unit 13, and several logical pages constituting the physical page are linked to this.

As described above, the print information PI is stored and managed in the hierarchical data memory 12 inside the printer device 1, so that the effective use of resources is promoted and the data for each page is promoted. Independence is ensured, and necessary redrawing can be performed in the event of a printing failure.

Next, acquisition or release of each memory in the data memory 12 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the flow of processing of print data in physical page units in the print promotion unit 16.

In the figure, a logical page memory 32 is an aggregate of a drawing function memory 34, a drawing attribute memory 35, and a font memory 36 that store logical page data LPD necessary for one physical page specified by the page attribute memory 31. If the overflow processing is performed, the page buffer 33f is added to the overflow processing.

For the page attribute memory 31 and the logical page memory 32 linked to it (# 1), the page buffer 33 is acquired in the print promotion unit 16 and linked by the page buffer link data PBL (#).
2). After that, the image data IMD is drawn in the page buffer 33 (# 3).

When the drawing is completed, the printing promotion unit 16 activates the printing mechanism 17 to perform the transfer onto the paper, and waits for the completion of the transfer from the printing mechanism 17 (# 4). When there is a transfer end interrupt from the printing mechanism unit 17 (# 5), the printing promotion unit 16 releases the acquired page buffer 33 (# 5).
6) Wait for a print end interrupt from the printing mechanism unit 17.

Thereafter, if there is a normal print end interrupt (# 7), the print promotion unit 16 determines that printing has been performed normally, releases the used page attribute memory 31 and the logical page memory 32, and performs processing. The process ends (# 8).

However, if the occurrence of a printing failure is detected before the end of printing (# 9), the print promotion unit 16 reprocesses the page (physical page) of the end of printing by going back to the acquisition of the page buffer 33 (step 9). # 10).

By performing the above-described processing in the print promotion unit 16, reprinting after a print failure has occurred can be performed reliably and promptly. Therefore, recovery (reprinting) after the occurrence of a printing failure can be executed by the printer device 1 itself without the assistance of the host device 5.

That is, it is possible for the printer device 1 to perform reprinting alone due to the occurrence of a printing failure independently of the host device 5, and the host device 5 does not need a mechanism for reprinting. .

Further, the interface between the host device 5 and the printer device 1 is simplified, and the use efficiency of the line 6 is improved. In addition, by performing reprinting, which used to be divided between the printer device and the host device in the past, and performed processing separately, the printer device alone can improve the prospect of system design and shorten the development period required for system design. In addition, a highly reliable computer system can be easily constructed.

When a plurality of page attribute memories 31 (that is, a plurality of physical pages) refer to a common logical page or resources required for the same, a single logical page is used instead of holding the resources for each physical page. Only exists and is referred to from a plurality of physical pages, so that the data memory 12 is effectively used.

There are various triggers for erasing the data in the data memory 12 depending on the type of the target data. For example, data necessary only for a specific page becomes unnecessary as the printing of that page ends. Data that extends over a plurality of pages, such as a character pattern, becomes unnecessary when printing of the last page using the data is completed. In the printer device 1, these data are classified and hierarchized according to the contents, and the unnecessary data can be deleted at an early stage to make effective use of resources.

The logical page data corresponding to the page attribute memory 31 is held until the printing is normally completed. The memory capacity necessary for storing the logical page data is transmitted from the host device 5. There is a positive correlation with the print information PI (raw data). Therefore, when the amount of the print information PI is small, the required memory capacity is small,
In this regard, the data memory 12 can be effectively used.

According to the above-described embodiment, the logical page data overflowing from the logical page memory 32 is stored in the image data IM.
D and hold it in the page buffer 33f,
Recovery can be reliably performed even on extremely large data.

According to the memory management unit 13 described above, the trigger for performing the actual release operation is specified independently of the release request without directly releasing the data memory 12 according to the instruction from the component requesting the memory. The data stored in the memory can be guaranteed from the end of the release request until the release trigger is issued. In the above-described embodiment, the page buffer 33f for overflow processing is configured in the same manner as the page buffer 33 for normal processing.
The configuration may be different from that of the page buffer 33 for normal processing or provided in another area. Although an example using paper as a recording medium has been described, various other recording media such as a printing plate may be used. In addition, the configuration of the printer 1 or the configuration and processing of each unit thereof can be variously changed in accordance with the gist of the present invention.

[0096]

According to the present invention, even when a print failure occurs, recovery can be performed by the printer itself without losing print information. This simplifies the interface between the host device and the printer device, and shortens the time until the start of reprinting.

According to the third and sixth aspects of the present invention, recovery can be reliably performed even on extremely large data.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a data memory.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing details of a main part of a data memory.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a memory management unit.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an analysis conversion unit.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing promotion unit.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between respective units centering on a memory management unit;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a flow of processing of print data in physical page units in the print promotion unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 printer device 5 host device 12 data memory 13 memory management unit 14 analysis conversion unit 15 drawing unit 16 print promotion unit 31 page attribute memory 32 logical page memory 33 page buffer 33f page buffer (memory) 54 resource overflow processing routine (overflow processing unit) ) PI print information PAD Page attribute data LPD logical page data IMD image data FPD font data SFD drawing function data SAD drawing attribute data ESD environment setting data LPL logical page link data PBL page buffer link data

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-4-364587 (JP, A) JP-A-5-42724 (JP, A) JP-A-1-178474 (JP, A) JP-A-3- 224761 (JP, A) JP-A-4-156356 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B41J 5/30 G06F 3/12

Claims (7)

(57) [Claims] 1. A higher Oite printer equipment for printing on instrumentation placed et the outputted printed information on the recording medium to input, the print information that is input, each physical page on the recording medium and the page attribute data for managing the print contents of, as a logical page data is printing the contents of the logical pages, page attribute memo
May be held to re及 beauty logical page memory, the page attribute data及 beauty said have logical page data based Dzu <br/>, page buffer <br/> off § bitmap each physical page performs drawing on, the page buffer is released after the transfer onto the recording medium based on the content of the rendered page buffer, the recording based on the contents of the drawing pages buffer After printing on the medium is completed normally,
Managing print information in the printer apparatus characterized by releasing the re及 beauty the logical page memory. Wherein the upper Oite printer equipment for printing on instrumentation placed et the outputted printed information on the recording medium to input, the print information that is input, each physical page on the recording medium and the page attribute data for managing the print contents of, as a logical page data is printing the contents of the logical pages, page attribute memo
Holds the re及 beauty logical page memory, the logical page data, and drawing function data is print data of each logical page,
Said drawing and drawing attribute data is attribute data when drawing the function data, leave each managed separately divided into the font data, the page attribute data及 beauty the logical page data based on Dzu <br/> you are, performs drawing to a bitmap format of the page buffer <br/> off § each physical page, it was transferred onto the recording medium based on the content of the rendered page buffer after the release the page buffer, printing on the recording medium has ended normally based on the content of the rendered page buffer after said drawing function Day
Data, the rendering attribute data, or short <br/> to Chino each spent data of the font data, print information in the printer apparatus characterized by releasing the memory holding these data Management method. 3. The method of claim 1 or claim 2 method described, when it becomes impossible to create the logical page data in the creation process of the logical page data based on the print information, the logical managing print information in the printer apparatus characterized by retaining all or part of the page data to draw the memory in a bitmap format. 4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, when a print failure and before the end of printing even after completion transfer occurs, the page attribute memory及 beauty said logic Pejime <br/> mode based on Li to held the said page attribute data及 beauty the logical page data, management method of printing information in the printing apparatus and performs again drawing into the page buffer . 5. The upper instrumentation placed et the outputted printed information Oite paper in the printer equipment for printing by entering onto a recording medium, a page for managing print contents of the physical page unit on the recording medium page attributes menu <br/> mode re storing the attribute data, logical page data is printed the contents of the logical pages
Logical page memory, and data memory configured to include a page buffer in a bit map format for storing data
When the analysis to convert the analyzes the print information, the page attributes <br/> data及 beauty logical page data is an intermediate form of the data that contains all the information necessary to print the physical page unit conversion
Parts and the page attribute data及 beauty said logical pages and drawing unit for drawing an image data in the page buffer with reference to the data, the page buffer group rendered image data to Dzu performs control of printing operation onto the recording medium have <br/>, printing promotion for controlling for referring to reprint the page attribute data及 beauty the logical page data in the event of a print failure and parts, as well as managing the data memory, the page buffer <br/> releasing the page buffer after transfer onto the recording medium of the drawn image data to off §, the page after printing printer apparatus characterized by comprising a memory management unit for releasing the attribute memory及 beauty the logical page memory. 6. Oite printer equipment according to claim 5, wherein when a logical page data is the logical page memory or al overflowing, the whole or part of its logical page data in the bitmap format overflow processing unit for drawing in memory
Printer apparatus characterized by comprising a. 7. A printer equipment according to claim 5 or claim 6, wherein
The Oite, the page attribute data includes a configuration de <br/> over data for setting the printing environment of the physical page, logical for specifying the logical pages to be used as a printing content of the physical page and page link data, the printer apparatus characterized by a page buffer for drawing of the physical page comprising a page buffer link data for finger <br/> constant.