JP4459385B2 - Printing device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a technique that is useful when applied to a printing apparatus that can receive a plurality of print data in parallel from a plurality of host computers such as a network printer.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Receive print data from multiple host computers in parallel, such as a printer (called a network printer) connected to a LAN (local area network), and store these print data in a receive buffer etc. one by one Printing apparatuses that shift to a printing process are known.
[0003]
Conventionally, in a printing apparatus as described above, when a plurality of print data are received in parallel, these print data are generally transferred to a print process in the order of reception.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the conventional print processing method that shifts to print processing in the order of reception as described above, for example, as shown in FIG. 10, when small print data is received immediately after large print data is received. The small-size print data waits for the large-size print data to be received and the data analysis and print processing to be completed, and then proceeds to data analysis and print processing.
[0005]
Small print data can be processed from data analysis to print processing while large print data is being received. However, with the conventional method, when large print data is received as soon as possible. Since this is processed later, useless waiting time is generated and the work efficiency of the entire office is lowered.
[0006]
An object of the present invention is to appropriately determine a priority order for shifting to data analysis and printing processing when a plurality of print data are input in parallel, thereby reducing unnecessary waiting time and improving work efficiency. To provide a printing apparatus.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, the printing apparatus of the present invention has a plurality of port means to which print data is input and has a receiving means capable of receiving a plurality of print data in parallel, and shifts the print data to print processing. Priorities are determined from the storage device once stored in advance and the priority order of the plurality of port means, and when the print data is received in parallel to the plurality of port means, from the print data of the port means having a higher priority order. And a print control unit that shifts to a print process, wherein the print control unit determines the data size of the print data input to each port unit and determines the priority order of the port unit based on the data size. Configure as follows.
[0008]
According to such means, when a plurality of pieces of print data are received in parallel, the priority order in which the print data is subjected to print processing is based on the data size of the print data instead of the reception order as in the prior art. For example, when small-size print data and large-size print data are received in parallel, priority is given to small-size print data, and print processing is performed while large-size print data is being received. It is possible to improve the work efficiency.
[0009]
Preferably, storage means for storing size information relating to the data size of the input print data is provided for each port means, and the print control means determines the priority order based on the size information stored in the storage means. Configure as follows. The size information may be data indicating an actual data size, or data indicating an approximate data size, such as 100 Kbytes or more, 200 Kbytes or more.
[0010]
Specifically, the storage means stores the size information of the latest print data that can be recognized including print data input in the past for each port means, and the print control means When new print data is input to an arbitrary port means, the size information of the port means is compared with the size information of other port means whose priority is continuous with the priority order of the port means, It is preferable to perform a priority update process in which the priorities of the port means compared are switched in ascending order of the data size indicated in the size information.
[0011]
The timing at which the data size of the input print data can be recognized is not constant immediately after the start of reception, in the middle of reception, and just before the end of reception, depending on the language format, and the timing at which the print data is sent to each port means varies. Therefore, if the data sizes of the print data being received are compared, for example, even when the reception of the small print data and the large print data is started almost simultaneously, the small print data After completing the reception of the print data and waiting for the end of the reception of the large size print data, the comparison of the data size and the shift to the print processing are difficult. There may be cases where the achievement of the object of the invention becomes difficult.
[0012]
Therefore, as described above, the port means to which print data is newly input is compared based on the data size of the print data, and the other port means is compared based on the data size of the latest print data in the past. Thus, since the priority order of the port means is updated, it becomes easy to take the timing for comparing the data size and the timing for shifting to the printing process. Even if the priority order is updated by comparison with past print data, only the priority order of the port means to which the print data is currently input is relevant when determining the print data to be transferred to the print processing. Therefore, the input print data can be transferred to the printing process in an appropriate order.
[0013]
Further, when there is a certain tendency in the size of the print data received by each port means, it is possible to change the priority according to the past tendency as appropriate by comparing the sizes of the print data input in the past.
[0014]
Further, in the above priority update processing, the priority can be set among all the port means only by setting the priority between the other port means having continuous priorities (not limited to one but may be plural). Since it is not replaced, it is possible to change the priority order appropriately. An excessive change in the priority order may result in inappropriate printing of large print data when, for example, print data of a slightly smaller size is input continuously from various port means when large print data is input. Although there is a possibility of causing inconvenience such as waiting, such inconvenience can be avoided by the above-mentioned appropriate change.
[0015]
Specifically, the priority order update process compares the size information of the port means that has been newly input with the size information of the port means that has one lower priority than the port means, and the priority order of these port means. Are switched in ascending order of data size, the size information of the port means newly input when the priority is not changed in the step, and the size information of the port means having a priority higher by one than the port means. And a step of switching the priority of these port means in ascending order of data size.
[0016]
In addition, when there are a large number of port means or when it is desired to increase the influence of the data size closer to the present than the past data size, a large number of port means such as 2 to 5 which continue with the priority in one update process. A comparison may be made to switch the priority order between these port means.
[0017]
Further, the present invention includes an analysis unit capable of analyzing print data created in each format language corresponding to a plurality of types of format languages and converting the print data into data that can be processed by printing. This is particularly effective for a printing apparatus that is adapted to receive print data in the format language.
[0018]
That is, since there is a certain degree of correlation between the format language and the size of the print data, a certain tendency also occurs in the size of the print data input to each port means. An appropriate priority order can be updated by comparison.
[0019]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
[0020]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a printing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the printing apparatus 1.
[0021]
As shown in FIG. 1, a printing apparatus 1 according to this embodiment includes a CPU 10 that performs overall control of the apparatus, a hard disk device that stores print data sent from a host computer 2, and a semiconductor memory. A storage device 11 for spools, an operation panel 12 provided with an input key operable by a user and a display unit for displaying operation details, and a control program and control data executed by the CPU 10 are stored. A host interface 14 for transmitting and receiving data between the program ROM 13 and a plurality of host computers 2 connected via the network 4; a printer engine 16 as printing means for performing printing processing in accordance with the supplied print data; An engine interface for transferring print data to the printer engine 16 And the like face 15.
[0022]
The host interface 14 is capable of data communication in parallel with a plurality of host computers 2 through packet communication, for example.
[0023]
The CPU 10 is a processor having a RAM therein, and implements a plurality of functional modules according to the control program and control data stored in the program ROM 13 using the RAM as a work space. As such a functional module, as shown in FIG. 2, an interface unit 102 serving as a receiving unit that takes in data received via the host interface 14, data that can be processed by the printer engine 16 by performing language analysis of print data Language analysis block 103 as analysis means for converting into (for example, raster data) and outputting to engine interface 15, print data sent from host computer 2 is stored in storage device 11 and management of the stored print data And a main control unit 101 serving as a print control unit that performs overall control of each functional module. The plurality of functional modules can operate simultaneously in parallel by the parallel processing of the control program by the CPU 10, and data can be exchanged between the functional modules via the RAM.
[0024]
The language analysis block 103 includes, for example, a language format such as vector data composed of predetermined drawing commands and drawing parameters, a language format such as raster data indicating color and gradation for each print dot, and these vectors. It is configured to be compatible with a plurality of types of language formats such as a language format in which data and raster data are mixed.
[0025]
The interface unit 102 includes a plurality of logical ports (for example, port (1) to port (8)) as port means, and these logical ports can receive data independently of each other. That is, print data can be input in parallel from the host computers 2... Connected to the network 4 via these logical ports.
[0026]
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the first embodiment for explaining a method for allocating input print data to each logical port of the interface unit 102.
[0027]
In the first embodiment, the print data is assigned to each logical port in the order of input of print data, that is, in order of early reception start time of print data, the print data is assigned from the lowest numbered logical port. It is done by a method of assigning. For example, when print data DATA1 (FIG. 3) is transmitted from a certain host computer 2, and another print data DATA2 is transmitted from another host computer 2 during this transmission, the first input print data DATA1 is a port. The print data DATA2 received at (1) and second input is received at port (2).
[0028]
If all logical ports are occupied by data reception, no new print data is accepted until the data reception of any logical port is completed, and the host computer enters a transmission standby state.
[0029]
In the system of the first embodiment, the data size of the print data input to each logical port does not tend to be constant, and the data size varies for each input print data.
[0030]
In this embodiment, when print data reception starts, information indicating the reception start and the received logical port number is passed from the interface unit 102 to the main control unit 101. During reception, when the data size of the print data is known, size information indicating the data size is passed to the main control unit 101. The timing at which the data size of the print data is known differs depending on the language format.For example, in a language format in which the data size is recorded in the header portion of the print data, it can be known immediately after reception, but in a language in which the data size is not recorded. If there is, it can be recognized in the middle of reception or just before reception is completed.
[0031]
Further, when reception of print data is completed, information indicating the completion of reception and the number of the logical port that has been received is passed from the interface unit 102 to the main control unit 101. The received print data is stored in the storage device 11 by the spool unit 104 in accordance with an instruction from the main control unit.
[0032]
As will be described in detail later, the main control unit 101 sets a print order indicating the order of print processing for each print data when storing the received print data in the storage device 11, and sets the print unit 104 as spool management information. To pass. Further, when a plurality of print data are received in parallel by the interface unit 102, each print data is processed so that print processing is performed in the order of higher priority set in each logical port instead of the reception order. The above print order information is set to the spool section. The priority order set for each logical port is determined based on the data size of the print data received by the main control unit 101, and is updated each time print data is received.
[0033]
When the print data is stored in the spool unit 104 and the language analysis block 103 is ready for analysis processing, the main control unit 101 instructs the spool unit 104 to supply the next print data to the language analysis block. Given. Then, the spool unit 104 searches the print data stored in the storage device 11 for the earliest print order based on the print order information, reads the corresponding print data, and supplies it to the language analysis block 103. Go. Then, the print data supplied to the language analysis block 103 is converted into print processable data (for example, raster data) and supplied to the printer engine 16 for print processing.
[0034]
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a second embodiment for explaining a method of assigning input print data to each logical port of the interface unit 102.
[0035]
In the second embodiment, the CPU 10 is provided with a non-volatile memory such as a flash ROM, and in the non-volatile memory, a data table 101b (see FIG. , FIG. 7) is configured.
[0036]
In the system of the second embodiment, each logical port is associated with one of the print data language formats in advance, and when print data of a certain language format is input, the logical port corresponding to the language format is assigned to the logical port. Print data is received. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, port (1) to (3) are preset as language format a, ports (4) to (6) are set as language format b, and ports (7) and (8) are set as language format c. Keep it. When print data DATA1 of language format b is transmitted from a certain host computer 2 and print data DATA2 of language format a is transmitted from another host computer 2 during this transmission, the first print data DATA1 is Received at port {circle around (4)} corresponding to language format b, and the second print data DATA2 is received at port {circle around (1)} corresponding to this language format a.
[0037]
When print data in the same language format is subsequently input, the print data is allocated from the lowest logical port number among the plurality of logical ports associated with the language format. When the logical port is blocked, the print request source host computer is placed in a transmission standby state.
[0038]
In the system of the second embodiment, since the language format of the print data input to each logical port is fixed, the data size tends to be constant for each logical port.
[0039]
The printing process in the second embodiment is executed under the same control as in the first embodiment.
[0040]
Next, in the case of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 3 and the second embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the main control unit 101 determines and updates the priority order of each logical port, and prints on each print data. A processing procedure for setting the order will be described in detail.
[First embodiment]
In the first embodiment, as described above, the print data is assigned to the logical port with the smallest port number from among the free logical ports and is received.
[0041]
In this first embodiment, since there is no fixed tendency in the data size of the print data received at each logical port, the priority order of the logical ports is determined based only on the data size of the print data currently received. I will decide.
[0042]
FIG. 4 shows an example of a data table used for determining the priority order of each port in this embodiment, and FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of the data table update processing executed by the main control unit 101. Show.
[0043]
A data table 101a as a storage means provided in the RAM is used for determining the priority order of the logical ports. In this data table 101a, as shown in FIG. 4, the port number and the size information indicating the data size of the print data currently being received at the logical port are stored in association with each other in order of priority. The logical port data not currently received is deleted from the data table 101a, for example.
[0044]
The update process of the data table 101a is performed by the main control unit 101 according to the procedure of the flowchart shown in FIG. That is, it is determined whether or not the size information of the newly input print data is notified from the interface unit 102 in step S1, and if notified, the process proceeds to the update processing in steps S2 and S3. If not notified, the process proceeds to step S4. Jump.
[0045]
In step S4, it is determined whether there is a notification of reception completion of the print data being received from the interface unit 102. If there is a notification, the process proceeds to the update process in steps S5 and S6. If not, the process returns to step S1, These discrimination processes are repeated.
[0046]
As a result, when there is notification of the size information of the new print data and the process proceeds to step S2, the port number that received the new print data and the size information of the print data are written in an empty line of the data table 101a. In step S3, a sorting process is performed to rearrange the rows so that the size information is in ascending order for all rows of the data table 101a. Note that lines where no port number or size information is input are lowered.
[0047]
That is, when there are a plurality of print data received by the data processing in steps S2 and S3, the priority order of the logical ports receiving them is set in ascending order of the print data size.
[0048]
On the other hand, when there is a notification of completion of reception of the print data and the process proceeds to step S5, the port number and size information of the logical port that has been received are deleted from the data table 101a, and then the process of closing the line is performed in step S6. And it returns to the discrimination | determination process of step S1.
[0049]
Accordingly, the port numbers of the reception ports currently being received are arranged in the data table 101a in order of priority.
[0050]
Next, the print data print order setting process performed by the main control unit 101 will be described.
[0051]
When the reception of the print data is completed, the main control unit 101 determines the print order of the print data according to the priority order of the data table 101a, and passes the print order information to the spool unit 104 as spool management information.
[0052]
Specifically, figure 4 As shown in Fig. 3, three print data are received in parallel, and the ports in them "1" Is completed, the print order is set by serial numbers for these three print data according to the priority of each logical port. This serial number is continuous from when the power is turned on or reset, for example. If it is the 100th print data at this time, the port number "2" No. 100, port for print data "1" No. 101 for the print data received “3” The print order No. 102 is set for each print data.
[0053]
Of these print orders, the ports that have completed reception "1" No. 101 of the print data of this is fixed, but is still receiving "2" And port “3” No. 100 and 102 of the print data are not determined. And no new print data is received, "2" And port “3” Is completed, the printing order is fixed as it is.
[0054]
Meanwhile, port "2" And port “3” When reception of new print data is started during reception of this size and this size information is notified to the main control unit 101, update processing of the data table 101a is performed based on this size information. For example, after receiving the print data for the second row in the data table of FIG. "1" If 10 kbytes of print data is received, the priority is port "1" Is "rank 1", port "2" Is "rank 2", port “3” Is updated to “rank 3”.
[0055]
Then, when reception of any print data is completed in this state, the print order of these print data is set by serial numbers that are not yet used. For example, when the reception of the print data of the port (2) is completed, since the 101 is used in the previous print data, the serial numbers 100, 102 and 103 which are not yet used are used. Thus, the print order of No. 100 is set for the print data of port (1), No. 102 is set for the print data received at port (2), and No. 103 is set for the print data of port (3). Then, the number 102 of the print data of the port {circle around (2)} that has been received is determined. Thereafter, the same processing is repeated to set the print order of the print data that has been received.
[0056]
Thereafter, the spool unit 104 reads out the print data one by one in accordance with the print order and supplies the print data to the language analysis block 103, whereby each print data is shifted to the print processing in order.
[Second Embodiment]
In the second embodiment, each logical port is associated with a predetermined language format, and input print data is assigned to a logical port corresponding to the language format and received.
[0057]
In this second embodiment, since a certain tendency occurs in the print data size received at each logical port, not only the currently received print data but also the data size information of the print data received in the past is used. Determine the priority of logical ports.
[0058]
FIG. 7 shows an example of a data table used for determining the priority of each port in this embodiment, and FIG. 8 shows a data table as a priority update process executed by the main control unit 101. The flowchart of an update process is shown.
[0059]
Also in this embodiment, the data table 101b as a storage means is used for determining the priority order of the logical ports. Since information about the latest print data received in the past is also stored in the data table 101b, it is provided in the non-volatile memory so that the data is not lost even when the power is turned off.
[0060]
In this data table 101b, as shown in FIG. 7, port numbers are associated with size information indicating the data size of print data received at the time closest to the current time in the logical port, in order of priority. Stored.
[0061]
The update process of the data table 101b of this embodiment is performed according to the procedure shown in the flowchart of FIG. That is, in step S11, it is determined whether or not the size information of the newly input print data is notified from the interface unit 101. If notified, the process proceeds to the update process in step S12. If there is no notification, the process in step S101 is performed. Repeat.
[0062]
As a result, when the process proceeds to step S12, the size information of the corresponding port number is rewritten to the newly notified one in this step. As a result, the size information in the data table 101a is updated to that of the print data closest to the current time.
[0063]
Next, in step S13, the line of the port number where print data has been newly received and the line having a lower rank than that are rearranged so that the data size is in ascending order.
[0064]
Next, in step S13, it is determined whether or not the row has been rearranged. If the rearrangement has been performed, one update process is completed and the process returns to the determination process in step S11. However, the rearrangement is performed. If not, the process proceeds to step S15, and the line of the port number at which print data is newly received and the line having a higher rank than that are rearranged so that the data size is in ascending order. Then, after completing one update process, the process returns to the determination process in step S11.
[0065]
Thus, the logical ports are arranged in the data table 101b in order of priority. According to the above priority setting method, not all logical ports are always arranged in ascending order of size information. If the data size of print data received from the past to the present is small, the logical port has a high priority. The trend of the data size from the past to the present is reflected in the priority of each logical port so that the priority of the logical port becomes lower when the data size is larger.
[0066]
Note that by increasing the number of lines of the sort processing performed in step S13 or step S15, the influence of the past data size can be reduced and the influence of the current data size can be increased.
[0067]
Thereafter, the printing order setting method performed by the main control unit 101 is substantially the same as that in the first embodiment. In the second embodiment, since the priority order of logical ports that are not currently receiving print data is also shown in the data table 101b, these logical ports are excluded, and only logical ports that are receiving print data are targeted. The priority order is compared, and the print order is set for these print data.
[0068]
In this embodiment, each logical port is set with a priority based on past data even after the print data is received until the data size is recognized. It is also possible to set the print order of each print data using the priority order based on the data. That is, instead of setting the print order when print data reception is completed, the print data print order is set at a timing when the print data data size cannot be recognized, such as at the start of print data reception or in the middle of reception. It can also be configured to.
[0069]
As described above, according to the printing apparatus 1 of the first and second embodiments, when a plurality of pieces of print data are received in parallel, the priorities for applying the print processing to the print data are received as in the past. Since the data size is appropriately determined based on the data size of the print data instead of the order, the work efficiency of the printing process can be improved.
[0070]
That is, as shown in FIG. 9 showing an example of a time chart of the printing process of the embodiment, when large size and small size print data are input in parallel, small size print data is printed in large size. It is possible to shift to print processing (language analysis and actual print processing) with higher priority than data, so that it is possible to perform work processing such as printing small size print data while receiving large size print data. Improvements can be made.
[0071]
Further, according to the printing apparatus 1 of the second embodiment, by utilizing the fact that the received data size has a certain tendency for each logical port, the data size of the print data received in the past is reflected in the priority order. Since the priority order of the logical ports is changed gradually, it is possible to avoid the inconvenience that the print data with a low priority is improperly waited for a long time due to an excessive change in the priority order. The print data can be transferred to the printing process with an appropriate priority while improving the work efficiency.
[0072]
Although the present invention has been specifically described above based on the embodiments, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments and can be variously modified without departing from the gist thereof.
[0073]
For example, a plurality of logical ports of the interface unit 102 capable of receiving a plurality of print data by parallel processing are illustrated as a plurality of port means. However, a plurality of hardware ports may be provided, or a hardware port may be implemented. A configuration in which a plurality of example logical ports are mixed may be used.
[0074]
In the above-described embodiment, the system configuration has been described in which when print data is input, the print data is assigned to any of a plurality of ports and received. However, each port is associated with each host computer in advance. In addition, the present invention can be applied to a printing apparatus having a configuration in which transmitted print data is input to a port corresponding to the host computer.
[0075]
In the embodiment, when print data is stored in the spool unit 104 from the interface unit 102, the print order is determined according to the priority order of each logical port. However, the print data is sent to the language analysis block 103. It is also possible to determine which print data to be sent to the language analysis block 103 according to the priority order of the logical ports when shifting to the printing process.
[0076]
Furthermore, when the print data sizes are compared, the priority order can be switched only when there is a difference of a certain amount or more, and when there is no great difference, the reception order can be set.
[0077]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, when a plurality of pieces of print data are received in parallel, the priority order of the print data to be subjected to print processing is not the order of reception as in the prior art, but the data size of the print data. Therefore, when large and small print data are input in parallel, the reception of the large print data and the completion of the printing process are awaited. After that, waste such as processing of small size print data is avoided, and it is possible to improve work efficiency such as printing processing of small size print data during reception of large size print data.
[0078]
Further, the priority information can be updated rapidly by comparing the size information of past print data or by replacing only a predetermined number of port means having consecutive priorities in one priority update process. Instead, the priority will be changed appropriately, and the priority will be set appropriately while avoiding the inconvenience that print data with a low priority will be waited inappropriately for a long time due to an excessive change in priority. The print data can be transferred to the printing process.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of the printing apparatus according to the embodiment.
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a first embodiment of a correspondence relationship between each port of the printing apparatus and a host computer.
4 is a diagram showing an example of a data table for determining the priority order of each port in the embodiment of FIG. 3; FIG.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a procedure of data table update processing in the embodiment of FIG. 3;
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a second embodiment of a correspondence relationship between each port of the printing apparatus and a host computer.
7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data table for determining the priority order of each port in the embodiment of FIG. 6;
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a procedure of data table update processing in the embodiment of FIG. 6;
FIG. 9 is a time chart illustrating an example of processing when large-size and small-size print data are input in parallel in the printing apparatus according to the embodiment.
FIG. 10 is a time chart illustrating an example of processing when large-size and small-size print data are input in parallel in a conventional printing apparatus.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 Printing device
2 ... Host computer
10 CPU
11 Spool storage device
14 Host interface
16 Printer engine
101 Main control unit (printing control means)
101a Data table (storage means)
101b Data table (storage means)
102 Interface unit (receiving means)
103 Language analysis block (analysis means)
104 Spool part

Claims (5)

Receiving means having a plurality of port means for inputting print data and capable of receiving a plurality of print data in parallel;
A storage device for temporarily storing print data before shifting to print processing;
Print control for determining the priority order of the plurality of port means, and preferentially shifting to the print processing from the print data of the port means having a higher priority when print data is received in parallel to the plurality of port means. Means and
The printing apparatus, wherein the print control means is configured to determine a data size of print data input to each port means, and to determine a priority order of the port means based on the data size. A storage means for storing size information relating to the data size of the input print data is provided for each port means,
The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print control unit determines the priority order based on size information stored in the storage unit. In the storage means, size information of the latest print data that can be recognized including print data input in the past is stored for each port means,
When new print data is input to an arbitrary port unit, the print control unit includes the size information of the port unit and the size information of other port units whose priority is continuous with the priority of the port unit. 3. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a priority order update process is performed in which the priority order of the compared port means is switched in ascending order of the data size indicated in the size information.   The priority order updating process compares the size information of the port means that has been newly input with the size information of the port means that is one priority lower than the port means, and switches the priorities in ascending order of data size. When the priority order is not changed in this step, the size information of the port means that has been newly input is compared with the size information of the port means that is one priority higher than the port means. The printing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a step of changing the priority order in ascending order.   Analyzing means capable of analyzing print data created in each of these format languages and converting it into printable data corresponding to a plurality of types of format languages, each of the plurality of port means printing in a predetermined format language 5. The printing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the printing apparatus is adapted to input data.

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