JP3441749B2 - Print control method and apparatus - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print control method and apparatus for processing print data input from an external device such as a host computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, data received from an external device such as a host computer is converted into a data format used in a printing device, and data in page units is developed into an output image of a bitmap memory or the like based on this data. The created data, further the data necessary for printing, etc. are all stored in the main storage device (RAM) provided in the printing device.

Further, conventionally, when a printing process is interrupted in order to preferentially perform a printing process having a high priority with respect to a printing apparatus which is in the process of printing, the interrupted printing process is not performed. Since the print data and the print environment are either stored in the main memory of the printing device or are discarded, the work up to that point is wasted.

Therefore, in the conventional example, it is necessary to use the main memory (RAM) without fail when printing, and the CPU has a RAM larger than the capacity required for the printing process. It's a reality.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional example. By using a secondary storage device instead of the main storage (RAM) at the time of printing, the main storage ( Print control that minimizes the use of RAM)
To propose a device .

Further, the data stored in the secondary storage device is stored.
We propose a print control device that can restrict printing using a printer.
There is something to do .

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the printing apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, a print control device for processing print data, using storage means for storing the first print data received from the host computer and the first print data stored in the storage means. receiving means for receiving the second print data to be printed from the host computer, the
Whether the first print data has the first password information
And password determination means for determining, said first of said first password information and second password information attached to the received second print data by the receiving unit of the print data stored in said storage means When the determination means determines whether the first password information and the second password information match, the determination means that determines whether or not and the first password information stored in the storage means are stored in the storage means. If the determination unit determines that the first password information and the second password information do not match, using the print data to print the second print data received by the reception unit, Without printing the second print data received by the receiving means , the password determining means causes the storing means to store the second print data.
The first password is stored in the stored first print data.
If it is determined that there is no code information,
Received by the receiving means using the first print data.
And a print control means for performing printing of the second print data .

Further, in order to achieve the above object, the print control method of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, a print control method for processing print data, comprising a storage step of storing first print data received from a host computer, and the first storage step stored in the storage step.
A receiving step of receiving the second print data to be printed using the print data from the host computer, the
Whether the first print data has the first password information
A password determining step of determining, the first password information of the first print data stored in the storing step, and second password information added to the second print data received in the receiving step. A determination step of determining whether or not
When it is determined in the determining step that the password information and the second password information match, the second print information received in the receiving step using the first print data stored in the storing step is used. If it is determined in the determination step that the first password information and the second password information do not match, the print data is printed, and the second print data received in the reception step is printed. Align not, the path
In the word determination step, stored in the storage step
The first password is added to the first print data that is stored.
If it is determined that there is no information, the stored first
Received by the receiving step using the print data of
And a print control step for causing the second print data to be printed.

[0009]

[Action] In the above configuration, the received first password information of the first print data stored in the storage means
When it is determined that the second password information added to the second print data matches, the second print data
If it is determined that the first password information and the second password information do not match, the received second print data is not printed.

The first means stored in the storage means
If the first print information does not include the first password information , the second print data is printed.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the schematic arrangement of the printing apparatus of this embodiment.

The printing apparatus 100 of this embodiment has an input interface 101 for inputting print data from a host computer 200 and a C for controlling the entire printing apparatus 100.
The PU 102, the ROM 103 storing the operation processing procedure of the CPU 102, the character font pattern, etc., and the CPU 1.
02 R as a work area for software executed by
The AM 104 is provided. Furthermore, the host computer 200
A secondary storage device 105 used as a reception buffer for storing the received print data, a page buffer for constructing an output image for one page from the print data, a frame memory for expanding the output image, and the like. And an output unit 1 for printing an output image
07, an output interface 106 that outputs the output image to the output unit 107, and a system bus 108 that transfers data and the like between these components. Here, the storage capacity of the secondary storage device 105 is RAM
It is assumed to be equal to or greater than 104.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram for explaining the reception, analysis, development and output of print data, showing an example of the printing procedure in the printing apparatus of this embodiment.

Here, in order to simplify the configuration, the CPU
102 is omitted. The data received by the receiving unit 101a of the input interface 101 is stored in the secondary storage device 105.
A ROM that stores a reception buffer 105-1 provided in the inside, analyzes by the CPU 102 that functions as the analysis unit 102a, and functions as the expansion unit 103a according to the analysis result.
It is expanded into a bitmap by the control program 103. The expanded bitmap data is stored in the frame memory 11 that functions as a bitmap memory in the secondary storage device 105.
It is written in 05-3. In this way, print data for one page is created and written in the page buffer 105-2. Reference numeral 107 denotes an output mechanism 10 such as a laser beam printer according to the contents of the frame memory 105-3.
8 is an output unit for controlling 8 and 109 is a recording medium.

To summarize the operation based on the above configuration, the print data output from the external device 200 is received by the data receiving unit 101a and stored in the reception buffer 105-1 on the secondary storage device 105. The analysis unit 102a analyzes the data in the reception buffer 105-1 and, as a result,
Data that gives an instruction to the expansion unit 103a, that is, data to be stored in the page buffer 105-2 is stored in the secondary storage device 10.
Create in 5. In accordance with the contents of the page buffer 105-2, the expansion unit 103a creates an output image for one page in the frame memory 105-3 of the secondary storage device 105, for example, in the form of a binary bit map memory. A label is attached to the print data thus created, for example, for each specific form (meaningful in relation to the embodiment of FIG. 5). In this way, when there is a request to combine the form with other print data that occurs later, it is possible to determine whether or not the form can be used based on this label.

The output unit 107 is a frame memory 105-3.
According to the above, the print result is recorded on the recording medium 109 such as a recording sheet by performing on / off control of the laser beam for the output mechanism 108.

<Second Embodiment> In addition to the functions of the above-described embodiment, by adding a function of suspending and resuming printing, print data is externally supplied during printing processing using the secondary storage device 105. When input, the printing that is being performed at that time is interrupted and the data input from the outside is read.
The AM 104 can be used to preferentially and quickly print, and after the printing is completed, the interrupted printing process can be restarted.

The second embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. For convenience of explanation, it is assumed that the data currently being printed is print data 1 and the data input while the print data 1 is being printed is print data 2. Further, it is assumed that information for discriminating the priority of the print data is added to the head of each print data.

When print data (hereinafter referred to as print data 1) is input to the non-printing printing device 100 from an external device such as the host computer 200 to the input interface 101, it is added to the print data 1 in step S11. Analyze the data indicating the priority of the printing process,
Information regarding the priority of the analyzed print data 1 is stored in the RAM.
It is stored in 104. Next, in S12, print processing of print data is performed. In step S12, new print data (hereinafter referred to as print data 2) is input from the external device such as the host computer 200 to the printing apparatus 100 on which the print processing of the print data 1 is performed.
If it is input to 1, the print process of the print data 1 is interrupted and the interrupt process shown in FIG. 3 is started.

In the interrupt process of FIG. 4, data indicating the priority of the print process added to the head of the print data 2 is analyzed in S21, and stored in the RAM 104 and the priority of the print data 2 in S22. The priority of the print data 1 is compared. When it is determined in S22 that the priority of the print data 2 is lower than that of the print data 1, the interrupt process of FIG. 3 is ended, and the print process of the print data 1 interrupted in S12 is restarted.

On the other hand, in the determination of S22, if the priority of the print data 2 is higher than that of the print data 1, S23
In the secondary storage device 105, the contents stored in the RAM 104 and the information necessary to reproduce the state of the printing process performed at that time are stored in the secondary storage device 105, and the portions other than the portion related to the print data 2 of the printing device are initialized. To do. In S24, the print processing of the print data 2 is performed, and after the print processing is completed, the secondary storage device 108 is processed in S23.
The contents stored in step S25 are transferred to the RAM 104 and the necessary part, and the state of the printing apparatus is set to the same state as that immediately before executing step S23 (excluding the part relating to data 2).
The interrupt process of FIG. 4 is ended, and the process of S12 in FIG. 3 (the continuation of the print process of the print data 1) is restarted.

Further, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

Since independent data can be separately stored in the secondary storage device 105, this data is created by the method described above, and newly input data is merged to
Although it is convenient to create one print data, it may be better to restrict access depending on the type of data. The embodiment described here is an example in which access to specific data in the secondary storage device can be permitted or denied.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the printing procedure of the printing apparatus of the third embodiment. However, here, in the print data for accessing the contents of the secondary storage device 105,
It is assumed that the password information of the data stored in the secondary storage device 105 is explicitly designated. For convenience of explanation, the data stored in the secondary storage device 105 will be described as data 1, and the data to be printed using the data 1 will be described as data 2.

Print data for printing using data 1 in print data input from the outside (hereinafter, data 2)
When it is detected, in S31, it is determined whether or not there is password information of data 1, and when it is determined that there is password information, the password information of data 1 and the password information added to data 2 are determined in S32. If the two are equal, the data 2 is printed using the data 1 in S35.

On the other hand, when the password information does not exist in the data 1 in S31, the data 2 is printed using the data 1 without comparing the password information of the data 1 and the data 2. Further, in S22, if the password information of the data 1 and the data 2 is different, or if the password information does not exist in the data 2, the data 2 cannot be printed using the data 1. Therefore, in this case, S24
At, the printing process is interrupted.

As described above, according to the third embodiment,
If the password of the data stored in the secondary storage device 105 is not known in advance, the data stored in the secondary storage device 105 cannot be used for printing, and the data is stored in the secondary storage device 105. It is possible to restrict the creation of print data that uses the contents.

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

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Received using print data stored in storage
It is possible to print based on print data
The password of the print data stored in the storage means.
Can be restricted by

[0031]

[0032]

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a functional configuration of the printing apparatus of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a printing procedure according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an interrupt process when new print data is received in the second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an outline of a printing procedure in the printing apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

100 Printer main body 101 Input interface 102 CPU 103 ROM 104 RAM 105 Secondary storage device 106 output interface 107 Output section 108 data bus 200 host computer

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Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A print control device for processing print data, comprising: storage means for storing first print data received from a host computer; and the first print data stored in the storage means. Receiving means for receiving from the host computer the second print data to be printed by using, and whether or not the first print data has the first password information.
A password determining means for determining whether or not the first print data stored in the storage means
Determining means for determining whether the second password information attached to the received second print data by said first password information and said receiving means are identical, the said first password information first When the determination means determines that the two password information match, the first print data stored in the storage means is used to print the second print data received by the reception means. Perform the first password information and the second password information.
When the determination means determines that the password information does not match, the second information received by the reception means
The password judgment procedure is performed without printing the print data of
The first mark stored in the storage means by a step.
It is determined that the first password information is not included in the print data.
In that case, using the stored first print data
Of the second print data received by the receiving unit.
Print control apparatus characterized by comprising a print control means for causing the printing. 2. The print control means prevents the second print data from being printed when the second print data received by the receiving means does not include the second password information. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print control apparatus is a print control apparatus. Wherein the print control device, also claim 1, characterized in that a print control apparatus of a laser beam printer
Is the print control device according to claim 2 . 4. A print control method for processing print data, the method comprising: storing a first print data received from a host computer; and using the first print data stored in the storage step. The receiving step of receiving the second print data for performing the printing from the host computer, and whether the first print data has the first password information.
A password determining step for determining whether or not the second password added to the second print data received in the receiving step and the first password information of the first print data stored in the storing step.
A determination step of determining whether or not the password information matches; and a determination step of determining that the first password information and the second password information match, the first stored in the storage step. The second received by the receiving step using one print data.
If the first password information and the second password information do not match in the determining step, the second print data received in the receiving step is printed. Without doing
In the password determination step, the memory step
The first print data stored in the
If it is determined that there is no password information,
According to the receiving step, the received first print data is used.
A print control step of causing the second received print data to be printed . 5. The printing control step includes adding the second print data to the second print data received by the receiving step.
The print control method according to claim 4 , wherein the second print data is not printed when there is no password information. 6. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the print control method is executed by a laser beam printer.
The printing control method according to item 5 .