JP3885282B2 - Print data processing apparatus and print data processing method - Google Patents

Description

【００５２】
画像処理部１０５は、命令実行部１０３から入力された命令の引数である入力画像ヘッダと入力画像データを、描画状態記憶部１０４から獲得した変換マトリックスを使ってアフィン変換したり、入力画像の色空間を出力装置の色空間に変換する色空間変換などの処理を行い、出力画像ヘッダと出力画像データを生成して台形データ管理部１１２へ転送する。
【００５３】
描画状態記憶部１０４は、命令実行部１０３から受け取った命令に含まれる引数の値で、例えば表１に示したアンダーラインの無い情報についての値の設定を行い、それらを記憶する。また、画像処理部１０５、ベクターデータ生成部１０６、マトリックス変換部１０８、ショートベクター生成部１０９、台形データ管理部１１２などの要求に従って、それらの値を転送する。
【００５４】
ベクターデータ生成部１０６では、命令実行部１０３から送られてきた命令と引数、描画状態記憶部１０４の値を使用して、塗りつぶし描画を除く、新たに描画するためのベクターデータを生成する。まず文字描画の場合について説明する。引数で与えられた文字コードと描画状態記憶部から獲得したフォントＩＤをフォント管理部へ転送して、文字のアウトラインデータを獲得する。獲得したアウトラインデータには、描画原点（カレントポイント）の情報が含まれていないので、描画状態記憶部１０４から獲得したカレントポイントのオフセットをアウトラインデータに加えることによって、目的のベクターデータを生成する。画像描画の場合には、引数で与えられた画像ヘッダの縦と横のサイズからそれに対する矩形ベクターを生成し、描画状態記憶部１０４から獲得したカレントポイントのオフセットを加えることで目的のベクターデータを生成する。ストローク描画の場合は、引数で与えられたベクターと描画状態記憶部１０４から獲得した各種の線属性から、太さを持った線のアウトラインベクターを生成する。このように生成したベクター（塗りつぶし描画の場合は命令実行部１０３から直接受け取ったベクター）を、マトリックス変換部１０８へ転送する。
【００５５】
フォント管理部１０７は、各種フォントに対するアウトラインベクターデータを記憶するとともに、与えられた文字コードとフォントＩＤによって、その文字に対するアウトラインベクターデータを提供する。
【００５６】
マトリックス変換部１０８は、ベクターデータ生成部１０６から受け取ったベクターデータを、描画状態記憶部１０４から獲得した変換マトリックスによってアフィン変換する。このアフィン変換の主な目的は、アプリケーションの解像度（座標系）からプリンタの解像度（座標系）に変換するためのものである。変換マトリックスには下式（１）に示すような３ｘ３のものが使われ、入力ベクターデータ（Ｘｎ，Ｙｎ）は、出力ベクターデータ（Ｘｎ’，Ｙｎ’）に変換されてショートベクター生成部１０９へ送られる。
【００５７】
【数１】

【００５８】
ショートベクター生成部１０９は、入力されたベクターの中に曲線のベクターがある場合にその曲線のベクターを、誤差が描画状態記憶部１０４から獲得したフラットネス（ｆｌａｔｎｅｓｓ）値より小さくなるように、複数のショートベクターで近似する処理を行う。例えば曲線のベクターには、４つの制御点で表現されるベジエ曲線が使われる。この場合ショートベクター化の処理は、ベジエ曲線を再帰的に分割し、高さがフラットネスで与えられた値より小さくなった時点で分割を終了する。そして分割された各ベジエ曲線の始点と終点を順番に結ぶことにより、ショートベクター化が完了する。生成されたショートベクターは、台形データ生成部１１０へ送られる。
【００５９】
台形データ生成部１１０は、入力されたベクターデータから、描画領域を示す台形データ（三角形の場合もあるがデータ構造は台形と同じである）の集合を生成する。例えば図６（ａ）に示す太線で示された多角形のベクターは、４つの台形により描画領域が示される。尚、この台形は出力装置のスキャンラインに平行な２辺を持った台形であり、１つの台形は図６（ｂ）に示すように（ｓｘ，ｓｙ，ｘ０，ｘ１，ｘ２，ｈ）の６つのデータで表現される。生成された台形は、バンド分解部１１１へ送られる。
【００６０】
バンド分解部１１１は、入力された台形データのうち複数のバンドにまたがる台形データをバンド毎の台形データに分割し、バンド毎に台形データを台形データ管理部１１２へ転送する。例えば図７では、４つの台形データがバンド分解部によって６つの台形データに分割される。
【００６１】
台形データ管理部１１２は、バンド毎に入力された台形データに付加情報をつけて印刷データを生成し、バンド毎に印刷データを印刷データ記憶部１に書き込む処理を行う。付加情報は、印刷データを管理するための管理情報と、台形データを何色で塗りつぶすかを示す色情報である。文字／図形の描画命令に対する管理情報は、オブジェクトＩＤ，オブジェクトの種類，台形数のデータであり、例えばＣＭＹＢｋの値が色情報である。これらのデータは、図８（ａ）に示すように、描画命令によって生成されたバンド毎の台形データの前に付加される。画像の描画命令に対する管理情報は文字／図形と同じであるが、色情報は画像ヘッダと画像データとなる。また図８（ｂ）に示すように、画像ヘッダと画像データは、描画命令によって生成されたバンド毎の台形データそれぞれに対して１つずつ付加される。また画像データは容量が大きくなるため、圧縮された形で格納されていてもよい。以上の各台形データは記録色毎、バンド毎にまとめられ、各バンドの最終データにＥＯＤ（Ｅｎｄ Ｏｆ Ｄａｔａ）を表すデータを付加して、バンドデータの終了を明確にしている。
【００６２】
印刷データ記憶部１は、描画命令毎に台形データ管理部１１２で生成された印刷データをバンド単位に記憶し、展開処理部６や印刷データ評価部２の要求に応じて印刷データを転送する。
【００６３】
次に、本発明の印刷データ処理装置を構成する各部の詳細について説明する。
【００６４】
初めに印刷データ評価部２について説明する。図９は、本実施例の印刷データ処理装置における印刷データ評価部２の構成例を示すブロック図である。印刷データ評価部２は、印刷データ記憶部１の出力を受け取ってそこから展開処理量を評価する処理量評価部２１と、処理量評価部２１が必要とする係数を格納する係数テーブルと、記録色毎に、バンド単位で評価結果を格納する評価テーブル２２とから構成されている。
【００６５】
印刷データ記憶部１において記録色毎に、バンド単位で記憶された印刷データは、処理量評価部２１に入力され、各印刷データに含まれる台形毎に展開処理量の予測が行われて積算され、記録色毎にバンド当たりの展開処理量が得られる。この記録色毎バンド単位の展開処理量評価データは、順次評価テーブル２２に記録される。展開処理量評価の計算について、図１０のフローチャートを参照して詳細に説明する。尚、入力される台形データは、図６（ｂ）に示すデータ構造により記述されているものとする。
【００６６】
初めにステップ１において、展開処理量Ｒを０に設定する。
【００６７】
次にステップ２において、処理すべき台形データが残っているかどうかを判定し、もし残っていないならばステップ８に移って展開処理量Ｒを評価テーブル２２に出力して処理を終了し、台形データが残っている場合はステップ３以降の処理に移る。
【００６８】
次にステップ３において、バンド単位の台形データ群の中から次の台形データ（ｓｘ，ｓｙ，ｘ０，ｘ１，ｘ２，ｈ）を読み出す。
【００６９】
次にステップ４において、台形データからその台形の面積Ｓを計算する。面積Ｓは図６（ｂ）の台形データから、ステップ４に記載の式により求めることができる。
【００７０】
次にステップ５において、この台形のタイプが文字／図形か画像かを判定し、もし文字／図形ならばステップ６に、画像ならばステップ７に移る。
【００７１】
ステップ６では、台形データとステップ４で求めた台形の面積Ｓとからステップ６に記載の式による計算を行って展開処理量Ｒを更新し、ステップ２に制御を移す。同様にステップ７では、台形データとステップ４で求めた台形の面積Ｓとからステップ７に記載の式による計算を行って展開処理量Ｒを更新し、ステップ２に制御を移す。
【００７２】
上記の説明において、台形の展開処理量は、図１０のステップ６及びステップ７に示すように台形の高さｈと台形の面積Ｓを加重加算して求められているが、これは本実施例における台形の描画処理方式に依存して定められたものであり、他の方式を用いる場合には異なる計算方法となる。
【００７３】
図１０に記載の計算について説明すると、ＤＤＡ（差分解析器）などによって台形の左辺／右辺座標を求める処理の１行分の展開処理量をａとすると、高さｈの台形の左辺／右辺座標の計算に必要な展開処理量はａｈとなる。また、台形内部を描画する処理の１画素分の展開処理量をｂとすると、面積Ｓの台形の描画に必要な展開処理量はｂＳとなる。この１画素当たりの展開処理量ｂは、同一の画素値を描画する文字／図形データの場合と、原画像データを参照しながら１画素毎に異なった画素値を描画する画像データの場合では大きく異なるので、ステップ５において文字／図形と画像を判定して、画像の場合には異なる係数ｃを用いるように構成している。これらの係数ａ，ｂ，ｃは、予め係数テーブルに設定されており、必要に応じて処理量評価部２１に読み出されて使用される。
【００７４】
次に展開処理再構成部３について説明する。図１１は、本実施例における展開処理再構成部３の構成例を示すブロック図である。展開処理再構成部３は、印刷データ評価部２の評価テーブル２３に格納された記録色毎、バンド毎の展開処理量と、タンデム方式のカラーページプリンタ７の各印字装置の印字タイミングとから同時に展開処理されるバンド毎の処理量を評価する同時処理量評価部３１と、同時処理量評価部３１の出力に基づいて展開処理部６の処理構成を選択する処理構成選択部３２と、処理構成選択部３２において選択された処理構成に基づいて展開処理部６の処理構成変更の指示を行う処理構成指示部３３とから構成されている。
【００７５】
図１２にタンデム方式のカラーページプリンタ７の各印字装置の印字タイミングの典型的な例を示す。縦軸に各印字装置、横軸に時間Ｔを設定し、時間経過にともなう各印字装置の動作状況を示している。図１２の例では、各印字装置の印字タイミングは１色毎に１／２記録用紙サイズ分ずれており、且つ１ページ内は８つのバンドに分割されている例を示している。また、記録用紙搬送の間隔は２バンド分である。図１２において、１ページ目のＢｋの印刷データと、１ページ目のＭの印刷データ及び１ページ目のＣの印刷データが同時に展開処理部６において展開処理されることがないことを示している。図１２の例では、４色分の印刷データが同時に展開処理されるのは、２ページ目のＢｋの５バンド目、２ページ目のＹの１バンド目、１ページ目のＭの７バンド目、１ページ目のＣの３バンド目が始めてであり、また２バンド分の処理の後１ページ目のＣの印刷データの展開処理は終了する。従って、もし特定のページに処理の重い画像データが含まれていても同時に展開処理されることはない。同時処理量評価部３１では、評価テーブル２３に格納された記録色毎、バンド毎の展開処理量を図１２に示すような各印字装置の印字タイミングに基づいて、バンド単位で整理する。
【００７６】
処理構成選択部３２では、同時処理量評価部３１の記録色毎の処理量比に基づいて、処理構成を選択する。例えば、展開処理部６の処理資源が均等に４つに分割可能であり、同時に処理するバンド単位のＢｋの処理量：Ｙの処理量：Ｍの処理量：Ｃの処理量の比が約１０：０：１：１の割合であれば、Ｂｋの処理のために３の処理資源を割当て、残りの３色に１の処理資源を割当てる。処理構成選択部３２では、例えば処理量比に対する処理構成テーブルデータを予め備えることにより、簡易に処理構成の選択が可能である。
【００７７】
次に展開時間予測部４について説明する。展開時間予測部４では、上述した同時に展開処理するバンド単位の記録色毎の展開処理量と、上記展開処理部６での処理構成に基づいて、各バンド毎の展開時間を予測するものである。展開処理部６での処理構成が、各記録色独立に均等に割当てられているとすれば、展開予測時間Ｔは、記録色毎、バンド毎の処理量Ｒに対して、以下の式（２）で算出される。
【００７８】
【数２】
Ｔ＝ａ×Ｒ （２）
【００７９】
ここで、ａは処理量１単位に対する独立した１ケの展開処理資源の展開処理時間である。一方、展開処理部６での処理構成が、特定色に対して複数の展開処理資源が割当てられ並列に動作するとすれば、展開予測時間Ｔは、記録色毎、バンド毎の処理量Ｒに対して以下の式（３）で算出される。
【００８０】
【数３】
Ｔ＝ａ×Ｒ×ｃ／ｐ （３）
【００８１】
ここで、ａは処理量１単位に対する独立した１ケの展開処理資源の展開処理時間、ｐは並列に動作する展開処理資源の数、ｃは並列動作における各展開処理資源の待ちによって生じる並列動作性能の低下を示す補正係数である。本発明に係わる２次元の描画処理では、一般的に各描画要素の重なりを許し順次上書きするモデルで構成されているため、後で記述されている印刷データを先に展開処理部６の出力バッファメモリに書き込むことはできない。また、本実施例に示す印刷データは、個々の印刷データで処理量がことなるため、上記したように展開処理資源の待ちが発生する。上記補正係数ｃは、統計的に算出される。尚、補正係数ｃの値を小さくするためには、印刷データの基本図形のサイズを一定に揃えることは有効である。
【００８２】
次に印字速度制御部５について説明する。印字速度制御部５では、上記同時に展開処理するバンド単位の展開予測時間Ｔに基づいて、カラーページプリンタ７の選択可能な複数の印字速度から一つの印字速度を選択する。本実施例の印字速度選択を示すフローを図１３に示す。図１３において、先ずステップＳ１３１で印刷データの各ページ（１〜ｎ）に対して全てのバンド単位の展開予測時間Ｔで出力可能な印字速度ＰＳ１〜ＰＳｎが算出される。ステップＳ１３２において、これら算出されたＰＳ１〜ＰＳｎの比較が実行される。もし、印字速度ＰＳ１〜ＰＳｎが同一ならば、その共通する印字速度に基づいて印字速度は決定される。もし、印字速度ＰＳ１〜ＰＳｎが同一で無いならば、ステップＳ１３３において、印字速度ＰＳ１〜ＰＳｎの最低速度を選択した場合の全体の印字時間Ｔ１が算出され、ステップＳ１３４において、印字速度ＰＳ１〜ＰＳｎ中の最低速度とそれ以外の速度の２段階の速度に分割し、さらにプロセス速度変更時間を含めた場合の全体の印字時間Ｔ２が算出される。ステップＳ１３３で算出された印字時間Ｔ１とステップＳ１３４で算出された印字時間Ｔ２との比較（ステップＳ１３５）において、より短い印字時間が選択され、全体の印字速度が決定される。
【００８３】
図１３では２段階の印字速度の設定を前提としているが、本発明はこれに限定されるものではなく、さらに３段階以上の速度設定についても比較対象とすることが可能である。特に、プロセス速度変更によるロスタイムが小さくなるよう各印字装置間距離が小さくなるタンデム方式のカラーページプリンタ構成が実現されれば、複数段階の印字速度の選択は有効である。
【００８４】
最後に展開処理部６について説明する。図１４は、展開処理部６の構成を示すブロック図である。展開処理部６は、印刷データ記憶部１から後段の入力バッファへの印刷データ入力を制御する印刷データ転送制御部６１と、Ｃ，Ｍ，Ｙ，Ｂｋの４色の記録色にに対応した入力バッファ１Ａ／１Ｂ〜４Ａ／４Ｂ，６２１〜６２４と、展開処理再構成部３の指示に基づいて入力バッファ１Ａ／１Ｂ〜４Ａ／４Ｂ，６２１〜６２４の後段のどの演算処理部に配分するかを指示する演算処理選択制御部６３と、演算処理部１，６４１〜演算処理部４，６４４と、展開処理再構成部３の指示に基づいて演算処理部から後段の出力バッファへの印字データ出力を制御する出力バッファ書き込み制御部６５と、タンデム方式のカラーページプリンタの各印字装置に対応した出力バッファ１Ａ／１Ｂ〜４Ａ／４Ｂ，６６１〜６６４と、印字データ転送制御部１〜４，６７１〜６７４とから構成されている。尚、本実施例では、演算処理部１〜４，６４１〜６４４は、ハードウェアで構成された論理回路で構成されているが、汎用的な中央演算処理装置を備えソフトウェア的に実装されていても良い。
【００８５】
図１４に示す展開処理部６において、演算処理部の再配分のない場合は４ケの演算処理部１〜４，６４１〜６４４は、Ｃ，Ｍ，Ｙ，Ｂｋの４色の記録色に対応し独立して印刷データの展開処理を行う。この場合、バンド毎に入力バッファＡ，Ｂに交互に記録色に対応し、且つ同時に展開処理する印刷データが入力される。入力バッファＡ，Ｂの印刷データは、記録色に対応した演算処理部より読み出され順次展開処理され、出力バッファＡ，Ｂに交互に出力される。出力バッファＡ，Ｂに書き込まれた印字データは、タンデム方式のカラーページプリンタの各印字装置の印字タイミングに応じて、印字データ転送制御部１〜４，６７１〜６７４を介して出力される。
【００８６】
次に演算処理部の再配分が行われる場合について説明する。この場合展開処理再構成部３の指示に基づいて、演算処理選択制御部６３が記録色に対して利用する４ケの演算処理部１〜４，６４１〜６４４に対して印刷データを配分する。例えば、Ｂｋの印刷データに対して演算処理部２〜４，６４２〜６４４、残りのＣ，Ｍ，Ｙの印刷データに対して演算処理部１，６４１を配分する。さらに詳しく説明すると、Ｂｋの印刷データに対しては、演算処理選択制御部６３により入力バッファ４Ａ／４Ｂから演算処理部２〜４，６４２〜６４４にサイクリックに印刷データが順次入力され、印字データに展開処理される。展開された印字データは、出力バッファ書き込み制御部６５により、先に入力された印刷データが先に出力バッファ４Ａ／４Ｂ，６６４に書き込まれるよう制御される。また、残りのＣ，Ｍ，Ｙの印刷データに対しては、演算処理選択制御部６３により入力バッファ１Ａ／１Ｂ〜３Ａ／３Ｂ，６２１〜６２３からサイクリックに印刷データが演算処理部１，６４１に入力され、印字データに展開処理される。展開された印字データは、出力バッファ書き込み制御部６５により演算処理選択制御部６３と同期をとって、対応する出力バッファ１Ａ／１Ｂ〜３Ａ／３Ｂ，６６１〜６６３に書き込まれる。また、入力バッファ１Ａ／１Ｂ〜３Ａ／３Ｂに読み込まれるデータがなくなった場合読み飛ばしが行われる。
【００８７】
次に演算処理部１〜４，６４１〜６４４の構成および動作についてより詳しく説明する。演算処理部１〜４，６４１〜６４４は力した印刷データをなす台形データ（ｓｘ，ｓｙ，ｘ０，ｘ１，ｘ２，ｈ）を、図１６に示されるような４点からなるデータ形式に変換して台形領域を描画するものである。図１５に、演算処理部１〜４，６４１〜６４４のブロック図を示す。印刷データ入力部６４１０は、入力バッファから１つ１つの台形をなすデータを読み込んで、座標計算部Ａ６４１１および座標計算部Ｂ６４１２に台形データを出力する。座標計算部Ａ６４１１は、台形の左側のエッジ（図１６のエッジＰ０Ｐ１）の座標計算を担当し、エッジ上の座標値をＰ０からＰ１に向かって順に出力する。座標計算部Ｂ６４１２は、台形の右側のエッジ（図１６のエッジＰ２Ｐ３）の座標計算を担当し、エッジ上の座標値をＰ２からＰ３に向かって順に出力する。エッジ描画部６４１３は、座標計算部Ａ６４１１及び座標計算部Ｂ６４１２から入力される座標値により、台形のｘ軸に平行な直線を描画する。
【００８８】
図１７に、座標計算部のブロック図を示す。入力された台形データ（ｓｘ，ｓｙ，ｘ０，ｘ１，ｘ２，ｈ）はＤＤＡパラメータ計算部６４１４で４点の台形データ（Ｐ０，Ｐ１，Ｐ２，Ｐ３）に変換されて、傾きや残差の初期値などのＤＤＡのパラメータを計算し、ＤＤＡ処理部６４１５に出力する。ＤＤＡ処理部６４１５は、入力されたパラメータに基づいてＤＤＡ処理を行い、最後に求めた点に対する移動方向と移動量を出力する。座標更新部６４１６は、入力された移動方向と移動量から現在保持している座標値を更新して出力する。座標の初期値は、図示されていないＣＰＵなどであらかじめ設定されているものとする。
【００８９】
図１８は、エッジ描画部６４１３のブロック図である。エッジ描画部６４１３は、座標値Ａ／Ｂ及び画像データを入力して台形の内部領域を塗りつぶす。アドレス計算部６４１７は、座標値Ａ／Ｂを入力して、描画するエッジ成分のアドレスを計算する。マスク演算部６４１８は、座標値Ａ／Ｂの値を入力して、描画するワード中の有効なビットを表すマスクを出力する。データ演算部６４１９は、入力されたデータが文字／図形の場合には台形領域によって固定的な色を表す色データを入力し、この値を用いてスクリーン処理をして出力する。入力されたデータが画像データの場合には、画像データ入力に対してスクリーン処理をして出力する。ＲｍｏｄＷ部６４２０は、入力されたアドレス、マスク、データを用いて以下の処理をすることにより描画を行う。まず、アドレスにより、バンドバッファをリードする。これにより読み込まれたデータをＳｏｕｒｃｅ、マスクデータをＭａｓｋ、描画データをＤａｔａとすると、（Ｍａｓｋ＊Ｄａｔａ＋Ｍａｓｋ＃＊Ｓｏｕｒｃｅ）の値を演算して同一アドレスに書き戻す。ただし、＊は論理積、＋は論理和、＃は論理否定をそれぞれ表す。この処理は、描画するエッジが含まれるワード毎に繰り返し行われる。
【００９０】
［実施例２］
次に、本発明の印刷処理装置の第２実施例について説明する。図１９は、本発明の印刷データ処理装置の展開処理部６についての、第２実施例の形態を示すブロック図である。本実施例において、展開処理部６は、印刷データ記憶部１から後段の入力バッファへの印刷データ入力を制御する印刷データ転送制御部６１と、Ｃ，Ｍ，Ｙ，Ｂｋの４色の記録色毎の処理量に応じてサイズの変更が可能な入力バッファＡ／Ｂ１６１と、展開処理再構成部３の指示に基づいて入力バッファＡ／Ｂの記録色毎のアドレスを制御する入力バッファドレスパターンＲＯＭ１６２と、Ｃ，Ｍ，Ｙ，Ｂｋの４色の記録色毎の処理量に応じて処理するハードウェア量が再構成可能な演算処理部１６３と、展開処理再構成部３の指示に基づいて演算処理部１６３のハードウェア量を決定する処理構成パターンＲＯＭ１６４と、タンデム方式のカラーページプリンタの各印字装置に対応した出力バッファ１Ａ／１Ｂ〜４Ａ／４Ｂ，６６１〜６６４と、印字データ転送制御部１〜４，６７１〜６７４とから構成されている。
【００９１】
上記再構成可能な演算処理部１６３は、所謂ＦＰＧＡ（Ｆｉｅｌｄ Ｐｒｏｇｒａｍｍａｂｌｅ Ｇａｔｅ Ａｒｒａｙ）と呼ばれるもので、書き換え時間が１セル当たり１ｎｓの高速書き換えのものが実現されており、バンド単位で演算処理部１６３のハードウェア全体の書き換えが可能である。また、高速書き換えのＦＰＧＡはＦＰＧＡ内部にＦＰＧＡの配線ネットワークデータを保持するＳＲＡＭを備えており、図１９に示すようにＲＯＭデータをＳＲＡＭにロードすることにより書換えが行われる。
【００９２】
処理構成パターンＲＯＭ１６４は、印刷データを印字データに展開するためのハードウェアを構成するための配線ネットワークデータが複数設けられており、同時に展開処理される記録色毎の処理量に応じて、最適なものが選択される。本実施例では、ハードウェア構成のこまかな設定、制御が可能であり、実施例１で示した並列化構成のみでなく、パイプライン処理による処理構成も選択することが可能である。
【００９３】
同様に入力バッファドレスパターンＲＯＭ１６２は、入力バッファＡ／Ｂ１６１の記録色毎のアドレスを展開処理再構成部３の指示に基づいて制御するものであるが、演算処理部１６３の処理構成パターンに応じて、必要量のデータを効率的に供給できるように制御することも可能である。
【００９４】
【発明の効果】
以上説明したように本発明の印刷データ処理装置および印刷データ処理方法によれば、タンデム方式のカラーページプリンタで出力可能なデータ構造への印刷データの展開処理において、画像品質を低下させること無く、且つ印刷情報のラスタ化で必要とされる大量のメモリを削減することが可能となるとともに、タンデム方式のカラーページプリンタの印字装置の構成や印刷データの内容に応じた展開処理資源の再構成により、展開処理資源の効率的利用が達成され、高速展開処理および高速印字処理が可能となる。
【００９５】
さらに、本発明の印刷データ処理装置および印刷データ処理方法によれば、展開処理資源利用の効率を上げることにより、小型・高性能の印刷データ処理が可能となる。
【図面の簡単な説明】
【図１】 本発明の印刷データ処理装置の原理構成を示すブロック図である。
【図２】 シングル方式の展開処理手段をタンデム方式のカラーページプリンタに適用した印刷データ処理装置の構成例を示すブロック図である。
【図３】 本発明の印刷データ処理装置を含む印刷処理システムの構成例である。
【図４】 本発明に係わる一般的なタンデム方式のカラーページプリンタの構成を示す説明図である。
【図５】 印刷データ生成部の構成例を示すブロック図である。
【図６】 台形データを説明する図である。
【図７】 台形データのバンド境界での分割を説明する図である。
【図８】 台形データのデータ表現の一例を説明する図である。
【図９】 印刷データ評価部の構成例を示すブロック図である。
【図１０】 印刷データ評価部の動作を示すフローチャートである。
【図１１】 展開処理再構成部の構成例を示すブロック図である。
【図１２】 タンデム方式のカラーページプリンタ７の各印字装置の印字タイミングの典型的な例を示す説明図である。
【図１３】 印字速度制御部における印字速度選択を示すフローチャートである。
【図１４】 本発明の第１実施例に係る展開処理部の構成を示すブロック図である。
【図１５】 展開処理部内の演算処理部の構成を示すブロック図である。
【図１６】 演算処理部での台形データの描画を説明する図である。
【図１７】 座標計算部を示すブロック図である。
【図１８】 エッジ描画部を示すブロック図である。
【図１９】 本発明の第２実施例に係る展開処理部の構成を示すブロック図である。
【符号の説明】
１ 印刷データ記憶手段
２ 印刷データ評価手段
３ 展開処理再構成手段
４ 展開時間予測手段
５ 印字速度制御手段
６ 展開処理手段
７ タンデム方式カラーページプリンタ
２１ 処理評価部
２２ 係数テーブル
２３ 評価テーブル
３１ 同時処理評価部
３２ 処理構成選択部
３３ 処理構成指示部
６１ 印刷データ転送制御部
６２１〜６２４ 入力バッファ
６３ 演算処理選択制御部
６４１〜６４４ 演算処理部
６５ 出力バッファ書き込み制御部
６６１〜６６４ 出力バッファ
６７１ 印字データ転送制御部
１６１ 入力バッファ
１６２ 入力バッファアドレスパターンＲＯＭ
１６３ 演算処理部
１６４ 処理構成パターンＲＯＭ
７１ シアン（Ｃｙａｎ）データ印字装置
７２ マゼンタ（Ｍａｇｅｎｔａ）データ印字装置
７３ イエロー（Ｙｅｌｌｏｗ）データ印字装置
７４ ブラック（Ｂｌａｃｋ）データ印字装置[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a so-called tandem type color page printer in which a plurality of printing devices are arranged along a paper conveyance path on which printing is performed, and printing on the paper is performed simultaneously by the plurality of printing devices. The present invention relates to a print data processing apparatus and a print data processing method for supplying print data. More specifically, a print data processing apparatus that can efficiently use development processing resources such as a processor or LSI according to the configuration of the printing device of the color page printer and the contents of the print data, and enables high-speed development processing and printing processing. And a print data processing method.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Along with the development of electrophotographic color page printers suitable for small and high-speed digital printing, as a printing method developed from the conventional printing centered on character information, different print information such as images, graphics, and characters are handled in the same way. In general, print processing apparatuses using a description language that can freely control the expansion, rotation, and deformation of characters and the like have been widely used. Typical examples of this description language include PostScript (trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc.), Interpress (trademark of Xerox, USA), Acrobat (trademark of Adobe Systems, USA), and GDI (GraphicsDicesD). And Microsoft (trademark of Microsoft Corporation).
[0003]
The print information created in the description language is composed of drawing commands that represent images, figures, and characters at arbitrary positions in the page in any order, and can be printed with the color page printer according to the present invention. Must rasterize the print information before printing. Rasterization is the process of developing raster scan lines into a series of individual dots or pixels across a page or part of a page, and successively generating scan lines below the page. A conventional page printer rasterizes print information for the entire page before printing and stores it in a page buffer memory. However, a large amount of memory is required to store raster data for the entire page. In particular, the latest electrophotographic color page printer uses four color toners of C (Cyan (cyan)), M (Magenta (magenta)), Y (Yellow (yellow)), and Bk (Black). Since corresponding raster data is required and image quality is required to be higher than that of a monochrome page printer, it is common to have a plurality of bit information per pixel, and a larger amount of memory is required.
[0004]
Conventionally, a color page printer that has been widely used is a so-called single engine type color page printer, and a developing device that supports four colors of C (Cyan), M (Magenta), Y (Yellow), and Bk (Black). In this method, exposure and development are repeated for four colors of C, M, Y, and Bk by one printing device, and then transferred to a sheet and printed. On the other hand, a printing device corresponding to four colors of C, M, Y, and Bk is provided along the paper conveyance path, and each printing device performs exposure, development, and paper transfer, and a printing device having four colors of paper. So-called tandem color page printers have emerged that enable full-color printing with a single pass.
[0005]
However, many print data processing apparatuses that supply print data to a tandem color page printer capable of high-speed recording have the same configuration as a single-engine color page printer. It was not possible to take advantage of the high speed properties. As a conventional print data processing apparatus for supplying print data to a tandem color page printer, an apparatus described in JP-A-8-192542 is known. In JP-A-8-192542, print information created in a description language is rendered by one central processing unit, and print data corresponding to four colors of C, M, Y, and Bk is stored in a frame buffer. A print data processing apparatus to be stored is described.
[0006]
On the other hand, as a prior application that discloses a technique for reducing a large amount of memory required for rasterizing print information without degrading image quality in a single engine type color page printer, Japanese Patent Application No. 8-32280 is disclosed. There is a number. This prior application has a higher level of abstraction than the data structure that can be output by the image output device, and is created in a description language using print data expressed in a format including at least one basic figure such as a trapezoid as intermediate data. A print data generation unit configured to generate the print data from the print information, a development processing unit that expands the print data into a data structure that can be output by the image output apparatus, and a print data generated by the print data generation unit It has means for predicting the development time of the print data in the development processing means based on the number and size of basic figures, and further the printing speed of the image output device according to the prediction time predicted by the development time prediction means Control means for determining the image is output, and image output in accordance with the development time is enabled.
[0007]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
The above-mentioned prior application is applied to a tandem color page printer, and the configuration shown in FIG. 2 is possible as a configuration that reduces the large amount of memory required for rasterizing print information without degrading the image quality. It is. The configuration shown in FIG. 2 includes independent development processing units 61 to 64 for each of the printing apparatuses corresponding to the four color toners of C (Cyan), M (Magenta), Y (Yellow), and Bk (Black). It is provided.
[0008]
In the print processing apparatus shown in FIG. 2, the print data stored in the print data storage means 1 is stored for each color in independent development processing means 61, 62, 63 and 64, which are fixedly assigned for each recording color. The expansion process is executed independently. Further, the development time predicting means 41 calculates the time required for these development processes based on the print data. However, the unfolding processing time predicted here is predicted based on the longest time among the unfolding processing means. A printing speed is set by the printing speed control means 5 based on the predicted development time. The printing devices 71, 72, 73, and 74 are operated for each recording color of the printer 7 at the set printing speed, and printing is executed.
[0009]
However, when considering the printing timing of four colors in the tandem color page printer or the drawing elements included in the printing information, as shown in FIG. It does not necessarily lead to efficient use of development processing resources for the whole development processing means. For example, when image data with a heavy processing load is included in a part of print data to be processed and a long time is required for the development process, the recording position of the four-color printing device of the tandem color page printer is the position of the image data. If the separation is larger than the size, the expansion processing means executing the expansion processing of the portion with a large processing load and the expansion processing means for expanding the data with relatively small processing load related to the print data before and after the expansion processing means Will be executed. As a result, the development processing means with a light processing load must wait for the end of the development processing by the development processing means with a heavy processing load even after the completion of the development processing. When the recording positions of the four-color printing device of the tandem color page printer are more than the size of the processing unit image data, the independent development processing means assigned to each color simultaneously has a heavy processing load. Will not process. Therefore, in the configuration of FIG. 2, the processing time of the developing processing means executing heavy processing is limited, and the overall printing speed is lowered.
[0010]
Furthermore, there are cases where print data to be processed is concentrated on a specific color as in a general business document based on black and expressed in about one plus color. Even in such an example, only the development processing unit for a specific color performs processing intensively, and the processing time of the development processing unit for a specific color is limited, so that the overall printing speed decreases.
[0011]
The present invention has been made in view of the inefficient use of processing resources in the conventional system as described above, and has an expansion means for expanding print data into a data structure that can be output by a tandem color page printer. In the print data processing apparatus, the image quality is not deteriorated and a large amount of memory required for rasterizing the print information is reduced, and the configuration of the print apparatus of the tandem color page printer and the print data An object of the present invention is to provide a print data processing apparatus and a print data processing method that enable high-speed development processing by efficiently using development processing resources according to contents, and achieve high-speed printing.
[0012]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
  In order to achieve the above object, a print data processing apparatus of the present invention is a print data processing apparatus for supplying print data to an image output apparatus having a plurality of printing apparatuses corresponding to a plurality of printable recording colors. Print data storage means for storing print data;At least a plurality of arithmetic processing units for converting print data into print data, a plurality of input buffer memories corresponding to recording colors for storing the print data, and a plurality of recording colors corresponding to the recording colors for storing the developed print data Output buffer memory,The print data is read from the print data storage means in units of bands, and development processing means for developing the print data that can be output by the image output apparatus in parallel for a plurality of recording colors, and development of the print data by the development processing means Based on the print data evaluation unit that evaluates the processing amount for each band and the recording color, and the evaluation of the development processing amount for each band and the recording color by the print data evaluation unit,In order to allocate more processing resources for processing units to print data with a large amount of processing processing for recording colors, allocate multiple processing units to each recording color.Based on the reconstruction unit to be changed, the band unit of the print data evaluated by the print data evaluation unit and the development processing amount for each recording color, and the reconstruction information by the reconstruction unit, the development processing time in band unit is calculated. A development processing time prediction means for predicting; and a printing speed control means for controlling the printing speed of the image output device based on the development processing time in band units predicted by the development processing time prediction means. To do.
  Furthermore, the print data processing apparatus of the present invention is a print data processing apparatus that supplies print data to an image output device having a plurality of printing devices corresponding to a plurality of printable print colors, and stores the print data. Stores print data storage means, a reconfigurable hardware logic unit for converting print data into print data, a plurality of input buffer memories corresponding to recording colors for storing print data, and expanded print data A plurality of output buffer memories corresponding to the recording colors; print data is read from the print data storage means in units of bands, and is developed into print data that can be output by the image output device in parallel for the plurality of recording colors. A development processing means for processing, a print data evaluation means for evaluating the development processing amount of the print data in the development processing means for each band and each recording color, and print data Based on the evaluation of the development processing amount for each band by the evaluation means and for each recording color, so as to allocate more development processing resources of the hardware logic unit to the print data of the recording color having a large development processing amount, Reconfiguring means for changing the hardware distribution of the reconfigurable hardware logic unit assigned for each recording color, print data evaluated by the print data evaluating means, and a development processing amount for each recording color, An expansion processing time prediction unit that predicts a band-by-band expansion processing time based on reconstruction information by the reconstruction unit, and an image output device based on the band-by-band expansion processing time predicted by the expansion processing time prediction unit A printing speed control means for controlling the printing speed of
It is provided with.
Furthermore, the print data processing apparatus of the present invention is a print data processing apparatus that supplies print data to an image output device having a plurality of printing devices corresponding to a plurality of printable print colors, and stores the print data. Stores print data storage means, a reconfigurable hardware logic unit for converting print data into print data, a plurality of input buffer memories corresponding to recording colors for storing print data, and expanded print data A plurality of output buffer memories corresponding to the recording colors; print data is read from the print data storage means in units of bands, and is developed into print data that can be output by the image output device in parallel for the plurality of recording colors. A development processing means for processing, a print data evaluation means for evaluating the development processing amount of the print data in the development processing means for each band and each recording color, and print data Based on the evaluation of the development processing amount for each band by the evaluation unit, and for each recording color, a larger allocation buffer amount is allocated to the print data of the recording color having a large development processing amount. Based on the reconstruction means for changing the allocated input buffer memory amount, the band processing amount of the print data evaluated by the print data evaluation means and the development processing amount for each recording color, and the reconstruction information by the reconstruction means. An unfolding processing time predicting unit for predicting the unfolding processing time in units; a printing speed control unit for controlling the printing speed of the image output device based on the unfolding processing time in units of bands predicted by the unfolding processing time prediction unit; , Provided.
[0014]
Further, the reconstruction means in one embodiment of the print data processing apparatus of the present invention is characterized in that the reconstruction processing means is reconfigured in band units.
[0015]
Further, the print data of the print data processing apparatus of the present invention is drawing data generated from print information having at least one of characters, graphics, and images and described by a predetermined drawing command. The data structure can be expressed in the form of intermediate data including at least one kind of basic figure.
[0021]
  Furthermore, the print data processing method of the present invention is a print data processing method in a print data processing device for supplying print data to an image output device having a plurality of printing devices corresponding to a plurality of printable print colors,
  A step of reading out print data in band units from a print data storage means for storing print data;
  At least a plurality of arithmetic processing units for converting print data into print data, a plurality of input buffer memories corresponding to recording colors for storing the print data, and a plurality of recording colors corresponding to the recording colors for storing the developed print data Output buffer memory, and in parallel for multiple recording colors,A print data evaluation step for evaluating the print data expansion processing amount in the expansion processing means for expanding the print data that can be output by the image output apparatus, for each band and for each recording color;
  Based on the band processing in the print data evaluation step and the evaluation of the development processing amount for each recording color,Allocation of multiple arithmetic processing units assigned to each recording color so that more processing resources of arithmetic processing units are allocated to print data of recording colors with a large amount of development processingA deployment processing means reconfiguration step for changing
  A development process for predicting the development processing time for each band based on the development processing amount for each recording color of the print data evaluated in the print data evaluation step and the reconstruction information obtained by the development processing means reconstruction step. A time prediction step;
  A printing speed control step for controlling the printing speed of the image output device based on the development processing time in band units predicted by the development processing time prediction step;
  A print data processing method characterized by comprising:
  Further, the print data processing method of the present invention is a print data processing method in a print data processing apparatus for supplying print data to an image output apparatus having a plurality of printing apparatuses corresponding to a plurality of printable recording colors. A step of reading out the print data in band units from the print data storage means for storing data, a reconfigurable hardware logic unit for converting the print data into print data, and a plurality of colors corresponding to recording colors for storing the print data Print data that has an input buffer memory and a plurality of output buffer memories corresponding to recording colors for storing the developed print data, and that can be output by the image output device in parallel for the plurality of recording colors A print data evaluation step for evaluating the print data expansion processing amount in the expansion processing means for performing the expansion processing for each band and each recording color; Based on the evaluation of the development processing amount for each band in the evaluation step and for each recording color, so as to allocate more development processing resources of the hardware logic unit to the print data of the recording color having a large development processing amount, Expansion processing means reconfiguration step for changing the hardware distribution of the reconfigurable hardware logic unit assigned for each recording color, and the expansion processing for each band of the print data evaluated in the print data evaluation step, and for each recording color A development processing time prediction step for predicting a development processing time for each band based on the amount and the reconstruction information obtained by the reconstruction processing means reconstruction step, and a development processing time for each band predicted by the development processing time prediction step. And a printing speed control step for controlling the printing speed of the image output apparatus.
Further, the print data processing method of the present invention is a print data processing method in a print data processing apparatus for supplying print data to an image output apparatus having a plurality of printing apparatuses corresponding to a plurality of printable recording colors. A step of reading out the print data in band units from the print data storage means for storing data, a reconfigurable hardware logic unit for converting the print data into print data, and a plurality of colors corresponding to recording colors for storing the print data Print data that has an input buffer memory and a plurality of output buffer memories corresponding to recording colors for storing the developed print data, and that can be output by the image output device in parallel for the plurality of recording colors A print data evaluation step for evaluating the print data expansion processing amount in the expansion processing means for performing the expansion processing for each band and each recording color; Based on the evaluation of the development processing amount for each band and each recording color in the evaluation step, a larger allocation buffer amount is allocated to the print data of the recording color having a large development processing amount for each recording color. The expansion processing means reconfiguration step for changing the allocated input buffer memory amount and the print data evaluated in the print data evaluation step A development processing time prediction step for predicting a development processing time for each band on the basis of a development processing amount for each recording band and recording color and reconstruction information obtained by the development processing means reconstruction step; and a development processing time prediction A printing speed control step for controlling the printing speed of the image output device based on the band-by-band development processing time predicted by the step.
[0022]
In the print data processing method of the present invention, the print data is at least one of a character, a figure, and an image, and is drawing data generated from print information described by a predetermined drawing command. The evaluation of the development processing amount for each band and recording color executed in the evaluation step is based on a format of intermediate data that has a higher abstraction level than the data structure that can be output by the image output apparatus and includes at least one basic figure. It is characterized by being executed.
[0023]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Examples of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a print data processing apparatus according to the present invention.
[0024]
In the figure, a print data processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a storage means 1 for storing print data, and an expansion process for reading the print data from the storage means in predetermined band units and converting the print data into print data that can be output by the image output apparatus. Means 6; print data evaluation means 2 for evaluating the development processing amount of print data in the development processing means for each recording color in band units for executing development processing in parallel; and recording colors in band units by at least the print data evaluation means Based on the processing amount for each band, the development processing reconstruction means 3 for reconfiguring the development processing means, and at least the development processing amount for each recording color in band units by the print data evaluation means and the reconstruction information of the reconstruction unit The development time predicting means 4 for predicting the development processing time for each band, and the printing speed of the image output device based on the development processing time for each band by the prediction means. Gosuru is configured as print data processing apparatus and a printing speed control means 5.
[0025]
Further, the printing speed of the tandem color page printer 7 to which the printing data processing apparatus according to the present invention is applied can be selected from a plurality of printing speeds, and the printing speed is controlled by the printing speed control means 5. . Print data is transferred from the development processing means 6 for each recording color to each printing device (Cyan data printing device 71, Magenta data printing device 72, Yellow data printing device 73, Black data printing device 74) of the color page printer 7. , Each printing is configured to be executed.
[0026]
In the print data storage unit 1 of the print data processing apparatus having the above-described configuration, print data is generated from the print information by a print information drawing processing apparatus (not shown), and is stored in a predetermined band unit and for each recording color. . Here, the predetermined band unit indicates one band width obtained by dividing a page to be printed into bands that are a plurality of areas in the paper conveyance direction of the color page printer 7. The print data is at least one of a character, a figure, and an image, is drawing data generated from print information described by a predetermined drawing command, and is a data structure that can be output by the image output device described above It has a higher level of abstraction and is expressed in a so-called intermediate data format including at least one basic figure.
[0027]
The print data evaluation unit 2 evaluates the expansion processing amount of the expansion processing unit 6 for each print color of the print data for each band. The development processing amount of print data is evaluated by the type, number, and size of basic figures, for example. The reconstruction means 3 takes into consideration the printing positions of the printing devices (Cyan data printing device 71, Magenta data printing device 72, Yellow data printing device 73, Black data printing device 74) of the tandem color page printer 7, The configuration is changed so that the development processing resources of the development processing means 6 are efficiently used based on the processing amount comparison for each recording color that is simultaneously developed. Further, the development processing means 6 of the present invention has a flexible configuration in which the allocation of processing resources can be changed for each recording color based on an instruction from the reconstruction means 3.
[0028]
The development time prediction unit 4 is based on the processing amount for each recording color to be simultaneously developed and evaluated by the print data evaluation unit 2, and the reconstruction information of the development processing unit 6 determined by the development processing reconstruction unit 3. Thus, the expansion processing time of each page is predicted. The printing speed control means 5 selects one printing speed from a plurality of printing speeds that can be selected by the color page printer 7 based on the predicted development time of each page. In general, the fastest printing speed in time for the predicted development processing time is selected. In the system configured as described above, print data is continuously supplied from a print data processing device to a plurality of pages for which the same print speed is selected, and printing is performed. For pages with heavy processing, the print data is supplied from the print data processing device, and the printing is executed after changing the print speed to a speed in time for the processing.
[0029]
Therefore, in the print data processing apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to prevent the image quality from being deteriorated by reducing the printing speed for heavy processing print data. In addition, since the print data is sequentially developed in band units, a large amount of memory required for rasterizing print information can be reduced. Furthermore, in consideration of the printing timing of four colors in the tandem color page printer or the drawing elements included in the printing information, the development processing resources are rearranged so that more processing resources are allocated to the data with a large amount of processing. As a result, the development processing resources can be used efficiently, and printing can be performed at a higher speed.
[0030]
【Example】
[Example 1]
FIG. 3 shows a configuration example of a print processing system having the print data processing apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 3, the print processing system is composed of a personal computer and a workstation connected to the network 11, and an image output comprising a server device 12 on which the print data processing device according to the present invention is mounted and a tandem color laser printer. The apparatus 7 is comprised. The server device 12 and the image output device 7 are connected by a dedicated video line 13.
[0031]
The server device 12 includes a network interface unit 8 (network I / F is omitted in FIG. 3), a print information storage unit 9, a print data generation unit 10, a print data storage unit 1 related to the print data processing apparatus of the present invention, a print The data evaluation unit 2, the development processing reconstruction unit 3, the development time prediction unit 4, the printing speed control unit 5, and the development processing unit 6 are configured.
[0032]
For example, a print information file expressed in a postscript is transferred to the server apparatus 12 from a client apparatus (not shown) such as a personal computer or a workstation via the network interface unit 8 and is transferred to the print information storage unit 9. Temporarily stored.
[0033]
The print data generation unit 10 sequentially reads out the print information file temporarily stored in the print information storage unit 9 in units of pages, and generates, for each drawing command, print data having, for example, a trapezoid as a basic unit in a predetermined band unit. The data is output to the print data storage unit 1. The purpose of generating print data is to enable high-speed expansion processing in the expansion processing unit 6 and to simplify processing amount prediction in the print data evaluation unit 2. Therefore, the print data is represented by a set of simple figures (trapezoids), and is classified into band units.
[0034]
The print data evaluation unit 2 reads the print data generated by the print data generation unit 10 from the print data storage unit 1, and performs weighted addition from the type of print data (characters, graphics, or images) and the area of each trapezoid, The processing amount for each recording color in band units is obtained.
[0035]
The development processing reconstruction unit 3 performs development processing simultaneously in consideration of the processing amount for each recording color in band units evaluated by the print data evaluation unit 2 and the printing position of each printing device of the tandem color page printer 7. Based on the processing amount comparison for each recording color, the presence or absence of the processing configuration change in the development processing unit 6 is evaluated. If the difference in the processing amount for each recording color in band units is equal to or greater than the threshold value, an instruction to change the processing configuration in the development processing unit 6 is given in band units. Here, the processing configuration change in the development processing unit 6 means that more development processing resources are allocated to print data for a recording color with heavy processing. In this embodiment, the processing configuration change in the development processing unit 6 is performed on a band basis in order to obtain an effect by using the difference in the printing position of each printing device of the tandem color page printer 7.
[0036]
The development time prediction unit 4 determines the processing amount for each recording color in band units to be simultaneously developed evaluated by the print data evaluation unit 2 and the processing configuration in the development processing unit 6 determined by the development processing reconstruction unit 3. Based on this, the development time for each band is predicted.
[0037]
The printing speed control unit 5 controls the printing speed of the image output device 7 based on the band-by-band expansion time prediction of the expansion time prediction unit 4. It should be noted that the printing speed of the image output device 7 needs to be constant during the formation of at least one page image. The print speed control unit 5 determines the print speed in consideration of the number of pages of the print information file to be processed and the time required for changing the print speed.
[0038]
The development processing unit 6 reads the print data stored in the print data storage unit 1 in band units, and develops the print data in the output buffer memory for each recording color in the development processing unit 6. The configuration of the development processing unit 6 can be changed for each recording color, and can be changed based on an instruction from the development processing reconstruction unit 3. The print data stored in the output buffer memory is alternately output to the image output device 7 in response to a print data request from the image output device 7. In this embodiment, the development processing unit 6 and the image output device 7 are connected by a dedicated video line 13, and high-speed data transfer is possible.
[0039]
Note that each block of the print data generation unit 10, the print data evaluation unit 2, the development process reconstruction unit 3, the development time prediction unit 4, and the print speed control unit 5 is a personal computer or workstation constituting the server device 12. Are processed in software execution in a central processing unit (CPU). The print information storage unit 9 needs a large capacity because it needs to receive a plurality of print information files from a plurality of client devices at the same time, and is generally composed of a magnetic disk. On the other hand, since the print data storage unit 1 is required to read and write at high speed, it is generally composed of a DRAM.
[0040]
The image output device 7 is a tandem system in which the printing speed is controlled based on the control of the printing speed control unit 5, receives print data output from the band buffer memory of the development processing unit 6, prints it on recording paper, and outputs it. It is a color laser printer. The configuration and operation of a general tandem color page printer will be described with reference to FIG.
[0041]
In FIG. 4, the tandem color laser printer includes printing devices corresponding to recording colors, that is, a cyan data printing device 71, a magenta data printing device 72, a yellow data printing device 73, a black data printing device 74, and a recording paper 75. It comprises a conveying belt 76 that conveys the toner, a fixing device 77, and the like. The configuration of each printing device is the same, and will be described using the cyan data printing device 71. The photosensitive drum 710, the charger 711, the laser scanning device 712, the developing device 713 corresponding to the recording color, and the transfer It is composed of a device 714 and the like. The laser scanning device 712 includes an infrared semiconductor laser, a lens, and a polygon mirror, and scans the photosensitive drum 710 as spot light of several tens of μm. The photosensitive drum 710 is charged by a charger 711, and an electrostatic latent image is formed by an optical signal. The latent image becomes a toner image by two-component magnetic brush development on the developing device 713 corresponding to the recording color, and is transferred onto the recording paper 75 by the transfer device 714. This process is repeated in the order of Black, Yellow, Magenta, and Cyan to perform multiple transfer on the recording paper. Finally, the recording paper is peeled off from the conveying belt 76 and the toner is fixed by the fixing device 77.
[0042]
Next, a description will be given of a control target in a printing process that must be controlled as the printing speed varies in the tandem color page printer of this embodiment. The printing process that must be controlled includes the rotational speed of the photosensitive drums 710 to 740, the moving speed of the conveying belt 76, the rotational speed of the fixing device 77, the rotational speed of the polygon mirror of the laser scanning devices 712 to 742, and the developing device 713. 743, the developing roller rotation speed, the transfer current, and the like. Among these, the rotational speed of the photosensitive drum, the moving speed of the conveying belt, the rotating speed of the fixing device, the rotating speed of the polygon mirror of the laser scanning device, and the rotating speed of the developing roller of the developing device are controlled in proportion to the recording speed. A good target. The transfer current may be controlled by setting the constant current source in proportion to the recording speed. In general, a brushless servomotor is used to drive a polygon mirror of a laser scanning device, and PLL (Phase Locked Loop) control is used to stabilize the rotation speed. Accordingly, the rotation speed of the polygon mirror can be changed by dividing the reference frequency of the PLL control.
[0043]
As another method of changing the exposure scan in accordance with the variable recording speed in the laser scanning device, there is a method of thinning the exposure scan for printing on the video interface at a constant polygon mirror rotation speed. According to this method, it is possible to set the recording speed to 1/2, 1/3,..., 1 / m with respect to the maximum printing speed. In this method, the selectable printing speed is reduced, but it is not necessary to change the polygon mirror motor rotation speed of the laser scanning apparatus that takes a long time to cycle up.
[0044]
The outline of the print processing system to which the print data processing apparatus of the present invention is applied and the tandem color page printer have been described above. Next, details of a main part of the print processing system will be described.
[0045]
First, details of the print data generation unit 10 will be described.
[0046]
As shown in FIG. 5, the print data generation unit 10 includes a lexical interpretation unit 101, a token interpretation unit 102, an instruction execution unit 103, a drawing state storage unit 104, an image processing unit 105, and a vector data generation unit 106. A font management unit 107, a matrix conversion unit 108, a short vector generation unit 109, a trapezoid data generation unit 110, a band decomposition unit 111, and a trapezoid data management unit 112.
[0047]
The lexical analysis unit 101 cuts out a print information file input from the print information storage unit 9 as a token according to a defined description language syntax, and outputs the token to the token interpretation unit 102. The token interpretation unit 102 interprets the token input from the lexical analysis unit 101, converts the token into an internal command, and sends the internal command to the command execution unit 103. The command execution unit 103 transfers each command to the image processing unit 105, the drawing state storage unit 104, and the vector data generation unit 106 in accordance with the command sent from the token interpretation unit 102. The image processing unit 105 performs various kinds of image processing based on the input image header and image data, generates an output image header and output image data, and transfers them to the trapezoid data management unit 112. The drawing state storage unit 104 stores information necessary for drawing given by a command from the command execution unit 103. The vector data generation unit 106 generates vector data to be drawn using the instruction of the instruction execution unit 103 and the information added thereto, the information from the drawing state storage unit 104, and the information from the font management unit 107. Transfer to the conversion unit 108. The font management unit 107 manages and stores outline data of various fonts, and provides character outline data upon request. The matrix conversion unit 108 affine-transforms the vector data input from the vector data generation unit 106 using the conversion matrix in the drawing state storage unit 104 and transfers the vector data to the short vector generation unit 109. The short vector generation unit 109 approximates the vector for the curve in the input vector with a plurality of linear vector sets (short vectors), and sends the vector to the trapezoid data generation unit 110. The trapezoid data generation unit 110 generates trapezoid data to be drawn from the input short vector and transfers the trapezoid data to the band decomposition unit 111. The band decomposing unit 111 divides the trapezoid data spanning a plurality of bands in the input trapezoid data into trapezoid data of each band, and sends the trapezoid data to the trapezoid data management unit 112 in units of bands. The trapezoidal data management unit 112 adds management information and color information input from the drawing state storage unit 104 or the image processing unit 105 to the trapezoidal data input in band units, and sends it to the print data storage unit 1 as print data. Write. The print data storage unit 1 stores the print data generated by the trapezoid data management unit 112 for each band, and transfers the print data in response to a request from the development processing unit 6 and the print data evaluation unit 2. Note that the processing from the lexical interpretation unit 101 to the writing to the print data storage unit 1 described above is repeated each time a drawing command is input. The print data is transferred from the print data storage unit 1 to the expansion processing unit 6 and the print data evaluation unit 2 after a predetermined amount of print data is stored. Here, the predetermined amount of print data represents print data of a plurality of pages constituting one print information file, or print data of the number of pages limited by the storage capacity of the print data storage unit 1.
[0048]
Hereinafter, the operation of each unit of the print data generation unit 10 will be described in more detail while showing an actual data structure.
[0049]
The token interpretation unit 102 interprets the token input from the lexical analysis unit 101, converts the token into an internal instruction and its argument, and transfers the combination of the internal instruction and the argument to the instruction execution unit 103. For example, the internal commands include a drawing command for drawing characters / graphics / images, and a drawing status command for setting necessary information such as colors and line attributes.
[0050]
The instruction execution unit 103 executes the internal instruction sent from the token interpretation unit 102. The commands executed here are mainly a drawing command and a drawing state command. For example, there are three types of drawing commands as shown in Table 1 below, and information necessary for each drawing is shown. Among these, information with an underline is given as an argument in a drawing command, and other information is stored in the drawing state storage unit 104 in advance by an initial setting or a preceding command. For execution of the drawing command, the received drawing command is transferred to the vector data generation unit 106 as it is except for image drawing. In the case of image drawing, the received drawing command is transferred to the image processing unit 105, and the vertical and horizontal sizes of the image header are transferred to the vector data generation unit 106. For the drawing state command, the command is transferred to the drawing state storage unit 104.
[0051]
[Table 1]

[0052]
The image processing unit 105 affine-transforms the input image header and the input image data, which are the arguments of the command input from the command execution unit 103, using the conversion matrix acquired from the drawing state storage unit 104, or the color of the input image Processing such as color space conversion for converting the space into the color space of the output device is performed, and an output image header and output image data are generated and transferred to the trapezoid data management unit 112.
[0053]
The drawing state storage unit 104 sets the values of the information included in the instruction received from the instruction execution unit 103, for example, the information with no underline shown in Table 1, and stores them. The values are transferred in accordance with requests from the image processing unit 105, vector data generation unit 106, matrix conversion unit 108, short vector generation unit 109, trapezoid data management unit 112, and the like.
[0054]
The vector data generation unit 106 uses the instruction and argument sent from the instruction execution unit 103 and the value of the drawing state storage unit 104 to generate vector data for new drawing excluding the fill drawing. First, the case of character drawing will be described. The character code given by the argument and the font ID acquired from the drawing state storage unit are transferred to the font management unit, and the outline data of the character is acquired. Since the acquired outline data does not include the drawing origin (current point) information, the target vector data is generated by adding the offset of the current point acquired from the drawing state storage unit 104 to the outline data. In the case of image drawing, a rectangular vector is generated from the vertical and horizontal sizes of the image header given by the argument, and the target vector data is obtained by adding the offset of the current point acquired from the drawing state storage unit 104. Generate. In the case of stroke drawing, an outline vector of a line having a thickness is generated from the vector given by the argument and various line attributes acquired from the drawing state storage unit 104. The vector generated in this way (the vector directly received from the instruction execution unit 103 in the case of the solid drawing) is transferred to the matrix conversion unit 108.
[0055]
The font management unit 107 stores outline vector data for various fonts, and provides outline vector data for the character according to a given character code and font ID.
[0056]
The matrix conversion unit 108 affine-transforms the vector data received from the vector data generation unit 106 using the conversion matrix acquired from the drawing state storage unit 104. The main purpose of this affine transformation is to convert from application resolution (coordinate system) to printer resolution (coordinate system). A 3 × 3 matrix as shown in the following formula (1) is used as the transformation matrix, and the input vector data (Xn, Yn) is converted into output vector data (Xn ′, Yn ′) and sent to the short vector generation unit 109. Sent.
[0057]
[Expression 1]

[0058]
The short vector generation unit 109 includes a plurality of curve vectors in the input vector so that the error is smaller than the flatness value acquired from the drawing state storage unit 104 when there is a curve vector. Approximate with the short vector. For example, a Bezier curve represented by four control points is used for a curve vector. In this case, the short vectorization process recursively divides the Bezier curve and ends the division when the height becomes smaller than a value given by flatness. The short vectorization is completed by connecting the start point and end point of each divided Bezier curve in order. The generated short vector is sent to the trapezoid data generation unit 110.
[0059]
The trapezoid data generation unit 110 generates a set of trapezoid data (which may be a triangle, but the data structure is the same as a trapezoid) indicating a drawing area from the input vector data. For example, in the polygonal vector indicated by the bold line shown in FIG. 6A, the drawing area is indicated by four trapezoids. This trapezoid is a trapezoid having two sides parallel to the scan line of the output device, and one trapezoid is 6 of (sx, sy, x0, x1, x2, h) as shown in FIG. It is expressed by one data. The generated trapezoid is sent to the band decomposition unit 111.
[0060]
The band decomposing unit 111 divides trapezoidal data spanning a plurality of bands in the inputted trapezoid data into trapezoid data for each band, and transfers the trapezoid data to the trapezoid data management unit 112 for each band. For example, in FIG. 7, four trapezoid data are divided into six trapezoid data by the band decomposition unit.
[0061]
The trapezoid data management unit 112 generates print data by adding additional information to the trapezoid data input for each band, and performs a process of writing the print data to the print data storage unit 1 for each band. The additional information is management information for managing print data and color information indicating how many colors the trapezoid data is to be painted. The management information for the character / graphic drawing command is data of object ID, object type, and number of trapezoids. For example, the value of CMYBk is color information. As shown in FIG. 8A, these data are added before the trapezoidal data for each band generated by the drawing command. The management information for the image drawing command is the same as the character / graphic, but the color information is the image header and image data. Further, as shown in FIG. 8B, one image header and one image data are added to each trapezoid data for each band generated by the drawing command. Further, since the image data has a large capacity, it may be stored in a compressed form. Each of the above trapezoid data is collected for each recording color and each band, and data indicating EOD (End Of Data) is added to the final data of each band to clarify the end of the band data.
[0062]
The print data storage unit 1 stores the print data generated by the trapezoidal data management unit 112 for each drawing command in units of bands, and transfers the print data in response to requests from the development processing unit 6 and the print data evaluation unit 2.
[0063]
Next, details of each unit constituting the print data processing apparatus of the present invention will be described.
[0064]
First, the print data evaluation unit 2 will be described. FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the print data evaluation unit 2 in the print data processing apparatus according to the present embodiment. The print data evaluation unit 2 receives the output of the print data storage unit 1 and evaluates the developed processing amount therefrom, a coefficient table for storing coefficients required by the processing amount evaluation unit 21, and a record Each color includes an evaluation table 22 that stores evaluation results in band units.
[0065]
The print data stored in the band unit for each recording color in the print data storage unit 1 is input to the processing amount evaluation unit 21, and the expansion processing amount is predicted and integrated for each trapezoid included in each print data. A development processing amount per band can be obtained for each recording color. The development processing amount evaluation data for each recording color band unit is sequentially recorded in the evaluation table 22. The calculation of the development processing amount evaluation will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. It is assumed that the input trapezoid data is described by the data structure shown in FIG.
[0066]
First, in step 1, the development processing amount R is set to zero.
[0067]
Next, in step 2, it is determined whether or not trapezoidal data to be processed remains. If not, the process proceeds to step 8 to output the development processing amount R to the evaluation table 22 and the processing is terminated. If remains, the process proceeds to step 3 and subsequent steps.
[0068]
Next, in step 3, the next trapezoid data (sx, sy, x0, x1, x2, h) is read from the trapezoidal data group in band units.
[0069]
Next, in step 4, the area S of the trapezoid is calculated from the trapezoid data. The area S can be obtained from the trapezoidal data shown in FIG.
[0070]
Next, in step 5, it is determined whether the trapezoid type is a character / graphic or an image. If it is a character / graphic, the process proceeds to step 6;
[0071]
In step 6, the expansion processing amount R is updated from the trapezoid data and the area S of the trapezoid obtained in step 4 by the formula described in step 6, and control is transferred to step 2. Similarly, in step 7, the development processing amount R is updated by performing calculation according to the formula described in step 7 from the trapezoid data and the trapezoid area S obtained in step 4, and the control is transferred to step 2.
[0072]
In the above description, the trapezoidal expansion processing amount is obtained by weighted addition of the trapezoidal height h and the trapezoidal area S as shown in Step 6 and Step 7 of FIG. This method is determined depending on the trapezoidal drawing processing method in FIG. 1, and a different calculation method is used when other methods are used.
[0073]
The calculation shown in FIG. 10 will be described. If the development processing amount for one line of the process for obtaining the left / right side coordinates of the trapezoid by a DDA (difference analyzer) or the like is a, the left / right side coordinates of the trapezoid of height h. The expansion processing amount required for the calculation of is ah. Further, if the development processing amount for one pixel in the process of drawing the inside of the trapezoid is b, the development processing amount necessary for drawing the trapezoid with the area S is bS. The expansion processing amount b per pixel is large in the case of character / graphic data for drawing the same pixel value and in the case of image data for drawing a different pixel value for each pixel while referring to the original image data. Since they are different from each other, the character / graphic and the image are determined in step 5, and in the case of the image, a different coefficient c is used. These coefficients a, b, and c are set in the coefficient table in advance, and are read out and used by the processing amount evaluation unit 21 as necessary.
[0074]
Next, the expansion process reconstruction unit 3 will be described. FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the expansion processing reconstruction unit 3 in the present embodiment. The development processing reconstruction unit 3 simultaneously performs the development processing amount for each recording color and band stored in the evaluation table 23 of the print data evaluation unit 2 and the printing timing of each printing device of the tandem color page printer 7. A simultaneous processing amount evaluation unit 31 that evaluates the processing amount of each band to be expanded, a processing configuration selection unit 32 that selects a processing configuration of the expansion processing unit 6 based on the output of the simultaneous processing amount evaluation unit 31, and a processing configuration The processing configuration instruction unit 33 is configured to instruct the processing configuration change of the development processing unit 6 based on the processing configuration selected by the selection unit 32.
[0075]
FIG. 12 shows a typical example of the printing timing of each printing device of the tandem color page printer 7. Each printing apparatus is set on the vertical axis, and time T is set on the horizontal axis, and the operating status of each printing apparatus with the passage of time is shown. The example of FIG. 12 shows an example in which the printing timing of each printing apparatus is shifted by ½ recording paper size for each color, and one page is divided into eight bands. Also, the recording paper conveyance interval is two bands. FIG. 12 shows that the Bk print data for the first page, the M print data for the first page, and the C print data for the first page are not developed in the development processing unit 6 at the same time. . In the example of FIG. 12, the print data for the four colors are simultaneously developed for the 5th band of Bk on the 2nd page, the 1st band of Y on the 2nd page, and the 7th band of M on the 1st page. The third band of C on the first page is the first time, and after the processing for two bands, the development process for the print data of C on the first page ends. Therefore, even if image data with heavy processing is included in a specific page, it is not simultaneously developed. The simultaneous processing amount evaluation unit 31 arranges the development processing amount for each recording color and each band stored in the evaluation table 23 in units of bands based on the printing timing of each printing apparatus as shown in FIG.
[0076]
The processing configuration selection unit 32 selects a processing configuration based on the processing amount ratio for each recording color of the simultaneous processing amount evaluation unit 31. For example, the processing resources of the expansion processing unit 6 can be equally divided into four, and the ratio of the Bk processing amount: Y processing amount: M processing amount: M processing amount: C processing amount in band units to be processed simultaneously is about 10 If the ratio is 0: 1: 1, 3 processing resources are allocated for Bk processing, and 1 processing resource is allocated to the remaining three colors. For example, the processing configuration selection unit 32 can easily select a processing configuration by preparing processing configuration table data for a processing amount ratio in advance.
[0077]
Next, the development time prediction unit 4 will be described. The development time prediction unit 4 predicts the development time for each band based on the above-described development processing amount for each recording color for each band to be simultaneously developed and the processing configuration in the development processing unit 6. . If the processing configuration in the development processing unit 6 is equally allocated to each recording color independently, the development prediction time T is expressed by the following formula (2) with respect to the processing amount R for each recording color and each band. ).
[0078]
[Expression 2]
T = a × R (2)
[0079]
Here, a is the expansion processing time of one independent expansion processing resource for one unit of processing amount. On the other hand, if the processing configuration in the development processing unit 6 is that a plurality of development processing resources are allocated to a specific color and operates in parallel, the development prediction time T corresponds to the processing amount R for each recording color and each band. Is calculated by the following equation (3).
[0080]
[Equation 3]
T = a × R × c / p (3)
[0081]
Here, a is the expansion processing time of one independent expansion processing resource for one unit of processing amount, p is the number of expansion processing resources operating in parallel, c is a parallel operation caused by waiting for each expansion processing resource in parallel operation It is a correction coefficient indicating a decrease in performance. Since the two-dimensional drawing process according to the present invention is generally configured with a model in which overlapping of each drawing element is allowed and sequentially overwritten, print data described later is output to the output buffer of the development processing unit 6 first. Cannot write to memory. Further, since the print data shown in the present embodiment has a different processing amount depending on the individual print data, the development processing resource waits as described above. The correction coefficient c is calculated statistically. In order to reduce the value of the correction coefficient c, it is effective to make the basic figure size of the print data uniform.
[0082]
Next, the printing speed control unit 5 will be described. The print speed control unit 5 selects one print speed from a plurality of print speeds that can be selected by the color page printer 7 based on the predicted development time T for each band that is simultaneously developed. FIG. 13 shows a flow showing print speed selection in this embodiment. In FIG. 13, first, in step S131, print speeds PS1 to PSn that can be output for each band (1 to n) of print data at the predicted development time T for all bands are calculated. In step S132, the calculated PS1 to PSn are compared. If the printing speeds PS1 to PSn are the same, the printing speed is determined based on the common printing speed. If the printing speeds PS1 to PSn are not the same, in step S133, the total printing time T1 when the lowest printing speed PS1 to PSn is selected is calculated. In step S134, the printing speeds PS1 to PSn are selected. The total printing time T2 is calculated when the speed is divided into two speeds, the lowest speed and the other speed, and the process speed change time is included. In a comparison between the printing time T1 calculated in step S133 and the printing time T2 calculated in step S134 (step S135), a shorter printing time is selected and the overall printing speed is determined.
[0083]
In FIG. 13, it is assumed that the printing speed is set in two stages. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the speed setting in three or more stages can be compared. In particular, if a tandem color page printer configuration is realized in which the distance between the printing apparatuses is reduced so that the loss time due to process speed change is reduced, the selection of printing speeds in multiple stages is effective.
[0084]
Finally, the expansion processing unit 6 will be described. FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the expansion processing unit 6. The expansion processing unit 6 has a print data transfer control unit 61 that controls the input of print data from the print data storage unit 1 to the subsequent input buffer, and an input corresponding to four recording colors C, M, Y, and Bk. Based on the instructions of the buffers 1A / 1B to 4A / 4B, 621 to 624 and the decompression processing reconstruction unit 3, which processing processing unit is allocated to the subsequent stage of the input buffers 1A / 1B to 4A / 4B and 621 to 624 Output of print data from the arithmetic processing unit to the output buffer at the subsequent stage based on the instruction from the arithmetic processing selection control unit 63 to be instructed, the arithmetic processing units 1 and 641 to the arithmetic processing units 4 and 644, and the expansion processing reconstruction unit 3 An output buffer writing control unit 65 for controlling, output buffers 1A / 1B to 4A / 4B and 661 to 664 corresponding to each printing device of a tandem color page printer, and a print data transfer control unit And it is configured from the Metropolitan ～4,671～674. In the present embodiment, the arithmetic processing units 1 to 4 and 641 to 644 are composed of logic circuits composed of hardware, but are equipped with a general-purpose central processing unit and implemented in software. Also good.
[0085]
In the development processing unit 6 shown in FIG. 14, when there is no redistribution of the arithmetic processing units, the four arithmetic processing units 1 to 4 and 641 to 644 correspond to four recording colors of C, M, Y, and Bk. The print data expansion process is performed independently. In this case, the print data corresponding to the recording color and simultaneously developing are input to the input buffers A and B for each band. The print data in the input buffers A and B is read from the arithmetic processing unit corresponding to the recording color, sequentially developed, and alternately output to the output buffers A and B. The print data written in the output buffers A and B is output via the print data transfer control units 1 to 4, 671 to 674 in accordance with the print timing of each printing device of the tandem color page printer.
[0086]
Next, a case where redistribution of arithmetic processing units is performed will be described. In this case, print data is distributed to the four arithmetic processing units 1 to 4 and 641 to 644 used by the arithmetic processing selection control unit 63 for the recording color based on an instruction from the development processing reconstruction unit 3. For example, the arithmetic processing units 2 to 4 and 642 to 644 are allocated to the Bk print data, and the arithmetic processing units 1 and 641 are allocated to the remaining C, M, and Y print data. More specifically, for Bk print data, the print data is sequentially input from the input buffer 4A / 4B to the calculation processing units 2-4, 642-644 by the calculation processing selection control unit 63, and the print data Is expanded. The developed print data is controlled by the output buffer write control unit 65 so that the previously input print data is written to the output buffers 4A / 4B and 664 first. For the remaining C, M, and Y print data, the operation processing selection control unit 63 cyclically prints the print data from the input buffers 1A / 1B to 3A / 3B and 621 to 623 to the operation processing units 1 and 641. Is processed into print data. The developed print data is written to the corresponding output buffers 1A / 1B to 3A / 3B and 661 to 663 in synchronization with the arithmetic processing selection control unit 63 by the output buffer write control unit 65. Further, when there is no more data to be read into the input buffers 1A / 1B to 3A / 3B, skipping is performed.
[0087]
Next, the configuration and operation of the arithmetic processing units 1 to 4 and 641 to 644 will be described in more detail. The arithmetic processing units 1 to 4, 641 to 644 convert the trapezoidal data (sx, sy, x0, x1, x2, h), which is the print data, into a data format consisting of four points as shown in FIG. To draw a trapezoidal area. FIG. 15 is a block diagram of the arithmetic processing units 1 to 4 and 641 to 644. The print data input unit 6410 reads each trapezoidal data from the input buffer and outputs the trapezoid data to the coordinate calculation unit A6411 and the coordinate calculation unit B6412. The coordinate calculation unit A6411 is in charge of coordinate calculation of the left edge of the trapezoid (edge P0P1 in FIG. 16), and sequentially outputs coordinate values on the edge from P0 to P1. The coordinate calculation unit B6412 is in charge of coordinate calculation of the right edge of the trapezoid (edge P2P3 in FIG. 16), and sequentially outputs coordinate values on the edge from P2 to P3. The edge drawing unit 6413 draws a straight line parallel to the x-axis of the trapezoid based on the coordinate values input from the coordinate calculation unit A 6411 and the coordinate calculation unit B 6412.
[0088]
FIG. 17 shows a block diagram of the coordinate calculation unit. The input trapezoidal data (sx, sy, x0, x1, x2, h) is converted into four-point trapezoidal data (P0, P1, P2, P3) by the DDA parameter calculation unit 6414, and the initial slope and residual are obtained. A DDA parameter such as a value is calculated and output to the DDA processing unit 6415. The DDA processing unit 6415 performs DDA processing based on the input parameters, and outputs the moving direction and the moving amount with respect to the last obtained point. The coordinate updating unit 6416 updates and outputs the currently held coordinate value from the input movement direction and movement amount. Assume that the initial value of the coordinates is set in advance by a CPU (not shown).
[0089]
FIG. 18 is a block diagram of the edge drawing unit 6413. The edge drawing unit 6413 inputs the coordinate value A / B and the image data, and fills the trapezoidal internal region. The address calculation unit 6417 receives the coordinate value A / B and calculates the address of the edge component to be drawn. The mask calculation unit 6418 receives the coordinate value A / B and outputs a mask representing valid bits in the word to be drawn. When the input data is a character / graphic, the data calculation unit 6419 inputs color data representing a fixed color by the trapezoidal area, performs screen processing using this value, and outputs it. If the input data is image data, the image data input is subjected to screen processing and output. The RmodW unit 6420 performs drawing by performing the following processing using the input address, mask, and data. First, the band buffer is read according to the address. Assuming that the read data is Source, the mask data is Mask, and the drawing data is Data, the value of (Mask * Data + Mask # * Source) is calculated and written back to the same address. However, * represents a logical product, + represents a logical sum, and # represents a logical negation. This process is repeated for each word including the edge to be drawn.
[0090]
[Example 2]
Next, a second embodiment of the print processing apparatus of the present invention will be described. FIG. 19 is a block diagram showing the form of the second embodiment of the expansion processing unit 6 of the print data processing apparatus of the present invention. In this embodiment, the expansion processing unit 6 includes a print data transfer control unit 61 that controls input of print data from the print data storage unit 1 to the input buffer at the subsequent stage, and four recording colors C, M, Y, and Bk. An input buffer A / B 161 whose size can be changed according to the processing amount for each, and an input buffer dress pattern ROM 162 for controlling the address for each recording color of the input buffer A / B based on an instruction from the development processing reconstruction unit 3 And an arithmetic processing unit 163 capable of reconfiguring the hardware amount to be processed according to the processing amount for each of the four recording colors C, M, Y, and Bk, and an operation based on an instruction from the development processing reconfiguring unit 3 A processing configuration pattern ROM 164 for determining the hardware amount of the processing unit 163, and output buffers 1A / 1B to 4A / 4B and 661 to 66 corresponding to the printing devices of the tandem color page printer. When, and a printing data transfer control unit 1～4,671～674 Prefecture.
[0091]
The reconfigurable arithmetic processing unit 163 is a so-called FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), which realizes a high-speed rewriting with a rewriting time of 1 ns per cell. The entire hardware can be rewritten. Further, the high-speed rewriting FPGA includes an SRAM for holding the wiring network data of the FPGA inside the FPGA, and rewriting is performed by loading ROM data into the SRAM as shown in FIG.
[0092]
The processing configuration pattern ROM 164 is provided with a plurality of wiring network data for configuring hardware for expanding the print data into the print data, and is optimally suited to the processing amount for each recording color to be simultaneously expanded. The one is selected. In this embodiment, it is possible to finely set and control the hardware configuration, and it is possible to select not only the parallel configuration shown in the first embodiment but also a processing configuration by pipeline processing.
[0093]
Similarly, the input buffer dress pattern ROM 162 controls the address for each recording color of the input buffer A / B 161 based on an instruction from the development processing reconstruction unit 3, but according to the processing configuration pattern of the arithmetic processing unit 163. It is also possible to control so that the required amount of data can be supplied efficiently.
[0094]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the print data processing apparatus and the print data processing method of the present invention, in the development process of print data to a data structure that can be output by a tandem color page printer, without degrading the image quality, In addition, a large amount of memory required for rasterizing print information can be reduced, and the configuration of the printing device of the tandem color page printer and reconfiguration of development processing resources according to the contents of the print data Thus, efficient use of the development processing resources is achieved, and high-speed development processing and high-speed printing processing are possible.
[0095]
Furthermore, according to the print data processing apparatus and the print data processing method of the present invention, it is possible to perform small and high-performance print data processing by increasing the efficiency of use of development processing resources.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a principle configuration of a print data processing apparatus of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a print data processing apparatus in which a single development processing unit is applied to a tandem color page printer.
FIG. 3 is a configuration example of a print processing system including a print data processing apparatus of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a general tandem color page printer according to the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a print data generation unit.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating trapezoid data.
FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining division of trapezoid data at band boundaries;
FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of data representation of trapezoid data.
FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a print data evaluation unit.
FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a print data evaluation unit.
FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an expansion processing reconstruction unit.
FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a typical example of printing timing of each printing device of the tandem color page printer 7;
FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating printing speed selection in a printing speed control unit.
FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a development processing unit according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an arithmetic processing unit in a development processing unit.
FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating drawing of trapezoid data in the arithmetic processing unit.
FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating a coordinate calculation unit.
FIG. 18 is a block diagram illustrating an edge drawing unit.
FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a development processing unit according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 Print data storage means
2 Print data evaluation means
3 Deployment processing reconfiguration means
4 Deployment time prediction means
5 Print speed control means
6 Deployment processing means
7 Tandem color page printer
21 Processing Evaluation Department
22 Coefficient table
23 Evaluation table
31 Simultaneous processing evaluation section
32 Processing configuration selector
33 Processing configuration instruction section
61 Print Data Transfer Control Unit
621-624 input buffer
63 Arithmetic processing selection control unit
641-644 arithmetic processing unit
65 Output buffer write controller
661-664 output buffer
671 Print data transfer controller
161 Input buffer
162 Input buffer address pattern ROM
163 Arithmetic processing part
164 Processing configuration pattern ROM
71 Cyan data printing device
72 Magenta data printing device
73 Yellow data printing device
74 Black data printing device

Claims (9)

A print data processing device for supplying print data to an image output device having a plurality of printing devices corresponding to a plurality of recordable colors,
Print data storage means for storing print data;
At least a plurality of arithmetic processing units for converting print data into print data, a plurality of input buffer memories corresponding to recording colors for storing the print data, and a plurality of recording colors corresponding to the recording colors for storing the developed print data An expansion process comprising: an output buffer memory, wherein the print data is read from the print data storage means in band units, and is expanded into print data that can be output by the image output device in parallel for the plurality of recording colors Means,
Print data evaluation means for evaluating the development processing amount of the print data in the development processing means for each band and each recording color;
Based on the evaluation of the development processing amount for each band and each recording color by the print data evaluation unit, more development processing resources of the arithmetic processing unit are allocated to the print data of the recording color having a large development processing amount. Reconfiguring means for changing the distribution of the plurality of arithmetic processing units assigned for each recording color ;
An expansion process for predicting the expansion processing time in band units based on the expansion processing amount for each band and recording color of the print data evaluated by the print data evaluation unit and the reconstruction information by the reconstruction unit Time prediction means,
A printing speed control means for controlling the printing speed of the image output device based on the development processing time in band units predicted by the development processing time prediction means;
A print data processing apparatus comprising: A print data processing device for supplying print data to an image output device having a plurality of printing devices corresponding to a plurality of recordable colors,
Print data storage means for storing print data;
Reconfigurable hardware logic unit that converts print data to print data, multiple input buffer memories corresponding to recording colors for storing print data, and multiple corresponding to recording colors for storing expanded print data An output buffer memory, and the print data is read from the print data storage means in band units, and developed into print data that can be output by the image output device in parallel for the plurality of recording colors. Deployment processing means;
Print data evaluation means for evaluating the development processing amount of the print data in the development processing means for each band and each recording color;
Based on the evaluation of the development processing amount for each band and each recording color by the print data evaluation unit, more development processing resources of the hardware logic unit are allocated to the print data of the recording color having a large development processing amount. Reconfiguring means for changing the distribution of hardware of the reconfigurable hardware logic unit assigned for each recording color,
An expansion process for predicting the expansion processing time in band units based on the expansion processing amount for each band and recording color of the print data evaluated by the print data evaluation unit and the reconstruction information by the reconstruction unit Time prediction means,
A printing speed control means for controlling the printing speed of the image output device based on the development processing time in band units predicted by the development processing time prediction means;
A print data processing apparatus comprising: A print data processing device for supplying print data to an image output device having a plurality of printing devices corresponding to a plurality of recordable colors,
Print data storage means for storing print data;
Reconfigurable hardware logic unit that converts print data to print data, multiple input buffer memories corresponding to recording colors for storing print data, and multiple corresponding to recording colors for storing expanded print data An output buffer memory, and the print data is read from the print data storage means in band units, and developed into print data that can be output by the image output device in parallel for the plurality of recording colors. Deployment processing means;
Print data evaluation means for evaluating the development processing amount of the print data in the development processing means for each band and each recording color;
Based on the band-by-band evaluation by the print data evaluation unit and the evaluation of the development processing amount for each recording color, the recording is performed so that a larger allocation buffer amount is allocated to the print data of the recording color having a large development processing amount. Reconstruction means for changing the allocated input buffer memory amount for each color;
An expansion process for predicting the expansion processing time in band units based on the expansion processing amount for each band and recording color of the print data evaluated by the print data evaluation unit and the reconstruction information by the reconstruction unit Time prediction means,
A printing speed control means for controlling the printing speed of the image output device based on the development processing time in band units predicted by the development processing time prediction means;
A print data processing apparatus comprising: It said reconstruction means, print data processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that to perform a reconfiguration of the expansion processing means for each band. The print data is at least one of a character, a figure, and an image, is drawing data generated from print information described by a predetermined drawing command, and is more abstract than the data structure that can be output by the image output device The print data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print data processing apparatus is high in degree and can be expressed in a format of intermediate data including at least one kind of basic figure. A print data processing method in a print data processing device for supplying print data to an image output device including a plurality of printing devices corresponding to a plurality of printable recording colors,
A step of reading out print data in band units from a print data storage means for storing print data;
At least a plurality of arithmetic processing units for converting print data into print data, a plurality of input buffer memories corresponding to recording colors for storing the print data, and a plurality of recording colors corresponding to the recording colors for storing the developed print data An output buffer memory, and in parallel with the plurality of recording colors , the print data expansion processing amount in the expansion processing means for expanding the print data that can be output by the image output device is recorded in band units A print data evaluation step for evaluating each color;
Based on the evaluation of the development processing amount for each band and for each recording color in the print data evaluation step , more development processing resources of the arithmetic processing unit are allocated to the print data of the recording color having a large development processing amount. A reconstructing processing means reconfiguring step for changing the distribution of the plurality of arithmetic processing units assigned to each recording color ;
Based on the development processing amount for each band of the print data evaluated in the print data evaluation step and for each recording color, and the reconstruction processing time in the development processing means reconstruction step, the development processing time for each band is predicted. A deployment processing time prediction step to perform,
A printing speed control step for controlling the printing speed of the image output device based on the development processing time in band units predicted by the development processing time prediction step;
A print data processing method characterized by comprising: A print data processing method in a print data processing device for supplying print data to an image output device including a plurality of printing devices corresponding to a plurality of printable recording colors,
A step of reading out print data in band units from a print data storage means for storing print data;
Reconfigurable hardware logic unit that converts print data to print data, multiple input buffer memories corresponding to recording colors for storing print data, and multiple corresponding to recording colors for storing expanded print data Output buffer memory, and in parallel with the plurality of recording colors, the print data expansion processing amount in the expansion processing means for expanding the print data that can be output by the image output device, in band units, And a print data evaluation step for evaluating each recording color;
Based on the evaluation of the development processing amount for each band and for each recording color in the print data evaluation step, more development processing resources of the hardware logic unit are allocated to the print data of the recording color having a large development processing amount. Development processing means reconfiguration step for changing the distribution of hardware of the reconfigurable hardware logic unit assigned for each recording color,
Based on the development processing amount for each band of the print data evaluated in the print data evaluation step and for each recording color, and the reconstruction processing time in the development processing means reconstruction step, the development processing time for each band is predicted. A deployment processing time prediction step to perform,
A printing speed control step for controlling the printing speed of the image output device based on the development processing time in band units predicted by the development processing time prediction step;
A print data processing method characterized by comprising: A print data processing method in a print data processing device for supplying print data to an image output device including a plurality of printing devices corresponding to a plurality of printable recording colors,
A step of reading out print data in band units from a print data storage means for storing print data;
Reconfigurable hardware logic unit that converts print data to print data, multiple input buffer memories corresponding to recording colors for storing print data, and multiple corresponding to recording colors for storing expanded print data Output buffer memory, and in parallel with the plurality of recording colors, the print data expansion processing amount in the expansion processing means for expanding the print data that can be output by the image output device, in band units, And a print data evaluation step for evaluating each recording color;
Based on the evaluation of the development processing amount for each band and in each print color in the print data evaluation step, the recording is performed so that a larger allocation buffer amount is allocated to the print data of the recording color having a large development processing amount. An expansion processing means reconfiguration step for changing the allocated input buffer memory amount for each color;
Based on the development processing amount for each band of the print data evaluated in the print data evaluation step and for each recording color, and the reconstruction processing time in the development processing means reconstruction step, the development processing time for each band is predicted. A deployment processing time prediction step to perform,
A printing speed control step for controlling the printing speed of the image output device based on the development processing time in band units predicted by the development processing time prediction step;
A print data processing method characterized by comprising: The print data is at least one of a character, a figure, or an image, is drawing data generated from print information described by a predetermined drawing command, and is a band unit executed in the print data evaluation step, The evaluation of the development processing amount for each recording color has a higher abstraction than the data structure that can be output by the image output device, and is executed based on an intermediate data format including at least one basic figure. The print data processing method according to any one of claims 6 to 8 .

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