JP4521727B2 - Speed printing control method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a speed printing control method, and more particularly, to a speed printing control method in which originals are rearranged by a printer driver and printed at high speed.

  When printing a plurality of pages at a time with a printer, a simple method of printing one page at a time requires printing time, and various methods for efficiently printing in a short time have been devised. As one of such printing methods, as shown in FIG. 6, a plurality of document pages are arranged in an appropriate order on a single sheet and cut after printing to obtain the same result as normal printing. There is a printing method. By adopting this printing method, it is possible to print on a manuscript page with a small number of sheets, so that the printing cost can be reduced and the printing throughput can be improved. In particular, for a user who prints a large amount at a time, improving the printing throughput is a great merit.

  This printing method is referred to as a speed printing method. In order to realize this speed printing method, it is necessary to determine a document page number to be arranged on the first sheet of output paper. In the example of FIG. 6, the original page numbers to be arranged on the first sheet of output paper are the first original page and the fifth original page. Further, in order to determine the fifth page of the document, the total number of document pages (8 pages in the example of FIG. 6) must be known. In addition to this speed printing method, there are various high-speed printing methods. Some examples of conventional high-speed printing methods are given below.

  The “image forming storage device” disclosed in Patent Document 1 enables easy operation of a file structure of a required document in a storage medium and enables efficient output of image information of a large number of documents or pages. Is. The index sheet use operation unit selects image information of a document or page stored in the storage medium of the storage unit based on the index sheet output by the index sheet output unit. A process corresponding to the image information (deletion, insertion, replacement, duplication, rearrangement, combination, division, grouping, etc.) is selected. According to the processing, the configuration of a file for saving / managing the selected image information on the storage medium is operated. Select document or page image information stored in the storage medium based on the index sheet, and output all the document or page image information corresponding to each image information on the index sheet excluding the image information You can also.

  The “print processing apparatus” disclosed in Patent Document 2 shortens the total output time when the speed of the output unit is changed in accordance with raster data development processing time from intermediate data. Print data in which at least one of characters, figures, or images input to the print data input means is described by a predetermined drawing command is converted into print data that can be output by the output means by the intermediate data generation means. . From this intermediate data, the printing speed determination means predicts the development time in the development processing means and obtains the printing speed of the output means. When the printing speeds of all pages are obtained, the page rearranging unit rearranges the pages in the output order specified by the output method selecting unit. The expansion processing means expands the intermediate data to the print data in the order of the pages. The printing speed control means changes the printing speed of the output means to the printing speed of the page. This prevents a decrease in throughput of the printing process.

  The “image forming apparatus” disclosed in Patent Document 3 is intended to improve the performance of the image forming apparatus by reducing the number of pauses in the print mechanism of the image forming apparatus. It is determined whether or not a print command sent from the outside includes a color print page and a monochrome print page. When it is determined that a color print page and a monochrome print page are included, one of the color print page and the monochrome print page is generated, and printing is executed. Thereafter, the other image data of the color print page and the monochrome print page is generated, and printing is executed.

The “image processing device” disclosed in Patent Document 4 is an image processing device that enables appropriate saddle stitching processing regardless of the application that created the image data. The complementary image generation means is configured such that when the saddle stitching process is designated and the image data obtained by expanding the image is input, when this image is arranged on the sheet, the folding area between the center line and the image Then, the image of the expanded area is filled as a complementary image. This reliably prevents the folding portion between the left and right images from becoming blank on the spread page. Since an appropriate image can be complemented, the spread page finish is not impaired.
JP 07-078181 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-232062 JP2003-11443 JP 2003-46761 A

  However, the conventional speed printing method has the following problems. In general, drawing data transferred from an application program to a print control program (printer driver) in a computer apparatus is sequentially transferred page by page. At the start of the print job, the total number of pages is unknown. Only when the job is finished can the number of transmitted original pages be known. When the speed printing method is executed by the print control program (printer driver), it is necessary to continue receiving drawing data without starting printing until the end of the job. Only when the job is finished, the first print data is transmitted to the printer unit. Therefore, the improvement of the printing throughput, which is the purpose of the speed printing method, is not sufficiently achieved, and the effect is diminished.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-described conventional problems and minimize a reduction in the effect of improving the printing throughput in a speed printing method in which a plurality of document pages are arranged and printed in an appropriate order on one sheet. It is to suppress.

  In order to solve the above problems, in the print control method of the present invention, the number of document pages can be designated in advance, the document data is stored on a large-capacity storage device such as a hard disk, and the pages of the stored document data are replaced. And rearrangement and document imposition processing.

  By adopting the print control method as described above, it is possible to minimize the decrease in the effect of improving the print throughput. In the example shown in FIG. 6, when the number of document pages is not specified, the first print data is transmitted after the eighth page of the document is received, but the number of document pages is specified as 8 in advance. Thus, the first print data can be transmitted when the fifth page of the original is received. For example, when the number of document pages is 100 pages, the difference in performance is 50 pages of document data. In addition, the hard disk capacity for storage can be reduced by half.

  Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, the number of original pages is designated in advance, intermediate printing data including all drawing information for conversion into print data is stored in the hard disk, and the original pages are sequentially arranged on the first partial surface of the paper. By placing them on the second partial surface of the first sheet when the appropriate number of pages is reached, when all pages have been printed, the respective partial surfaces are stored in order according to the original page order. This is a print control method in which a plurality of document pages are arranged on one sheet and transmitted to a printer unit by exchanging data and rearranging.

  FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a printing system that executes a printing control method according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a printer driver UI unit 1 is a software module of a printer driver, and is a graphical user interface that can perform various settings of a printer unit and a printer driver. The printer driver drawing unit 2 is a software module for receiving drawing data from an application, converting it into print data (PDL data) that can be interpreted by the printer unit, and sending it to the printer unit. The data receiving module 3 is means for receiving drawing data from an application through an I / F previously defined by the OS.

  The page management module 4 is means for managing drawing data received from an application in units of pages. The file storage module 5 is means for writing drawing data to the hard disk as intermediate data. The page processing module 6 is means for adjusting the position of the output paper (imposition processing) from the original data (intermediate data) read from the file. The file reading module 7 is means for reading data from a file on the hard disk. The print data creation module 8 is a means for converting intermediate data into print data (PDL data). The data transmission module 9 is means for transmitting print data (PDL data) to the printer unit. The printer unit 10 is a device that receives print data from the printer driver drawing unit 2 and performs printing. The HDD 11 is a hard disk storage device.

FIG. 2 is a detailed speed printing setting screen displayed on the printing system that executes the printing control method. FIG.
(Specified number of original pages) > (actual number of original pages)
It is a figure which shows the output result in the case of. FIG.
(Number of specified original pages) < (Actual number of original pages)
It is a figure which shows the output result in the case of. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the print control method.

  A processing procedure of a printing control method in the printing system configured as described above will be described. First, an outline of the print control method will be described with reference to FIG. The printer driver UI unit 1 performs various settings for the printer unit and printer driver. The printer driver drawing unit 2 receives drawing data from the application, converts it into print data (PDL data) that can be interpreted by the printer unit 10, and sends it to the printer unit 10. The data receiving module 3 receives drawing data from an application through an I / F previously defined by the OS. The page management module 4 manages drawing data received from the application in units of pages.

  The file storage module 5 writes the drawing data as intermediate data to the hard disk (HDD 11). The page processing module 6 adjusts the position of the output paper (imposition processing) from the original data (intermediate data) read from the file. The file reading module 7 reads data from a file on the hard disk (HDD 11). The print data creation module 8 converts the intermediate data into print data (PDL data). The data transmission module 9 transmits print data (PDL data) to the printer unit 10.

  Next, a method for specifying the number of document pages will be described with reference to FIG. In the printer driver UI unit 1, a detailed speed printing setting screen shown in FIG. 2 is displayed. The user designates on this screen whether or not to designate a manuscript page during speed printing. To enable original page specification, check “Original page specification”. When “Original Page Specification” is checked, “Original Page Number” can be input, and the number of pages is input. The entered information is validated with the OK button.

Next, the drawing process will be described. The printer driver drawing unit 2 performs an operation based on document page designation information designated by the printer driver UI unit 1.
(1) The operation when the manuscript page designation is OFF is as follows.
(1-1) The printer driver drawing unit 2 stores the drawing command received from the application as intermediate data in the hard disk (HDD 11) for each page.
(1-2) Upon receiving the job end command, the printer driver drawing unit 2 creates a page order table for speed printing from the number of pages of intermediate data stored in (1-1).
(1-3) The printer driver drawing unit 2 reads the intermediate data of the corresponding manuscript page based on the page order table calculated in (1-2), and performs an appropriate imposition process (moving the drawing position). The data is converted into print data (PDL) and transmitted to the printer unit 10.
(1-4) Perform (1-3) for all pages.

(2) The operation when the original page designation is ON is as follows.
(2-1) The printer driver drawing unit 2 creates a page order table for speed printing from the number of manuscript pages specified by the printer driver UI unit 1, and calculates the number of print start pages.
(2-2) When the printer driver drawing unit 2 receives a page start command from the application, it counts up the current number of received pages.
(2-3) If the current received page count does not reach the print start page count calculated in (2-1), the drawing command received from the application is used as intermediate data to the hard disk (HDD11) for each page. accumulate.
(2-4) When the current number of received pages reaches the print start page number calculated in (2-1), first, intermediate data corresponding to the first partial surface (the left half of the paper in the example of FIG. 3) is , Read from the corresponding file, perform appropriate imposition processing (drawing position movement), convert it to print data (PDL) and send it to the printer unit 10, and then send the currently received drawing data to It is arranged on one partial surface (second partial surface) (the right half of the paper in the example of FIG. 3) and transmitted to the printer unit 10 through a similar process.
(2-5) (2-4) processing of, repeat until it receives a job end command.

(3) The output result in the case of (specified number of original pages) > (actual number of original pages) is as shown in FIG. The number of pages to be printed is a number calculated based on the “specified number of manuscript pages”, and the missing manuscript page surface is blank.

The output result in the case of (4) (specified number of original pages) < (actual number of original pages) is as shown in FIG. When the number of sheets calculated based on the “specified number of document pages” is reached, all the information is once reset and re-arranged from the next page (9th page in FIG. 4). .

  Next, the processing procedure of the print control method will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In steps 1 to 5, each counter is initialized based on the designated number of original pages. If it is determined in step 6 that the current number of original pages is equal to or less than the number of output sheets, drawing data is received and written to a file in steps 7 and 8. If it is determined in step 9 that the page is finished, in steps 10 and 11, the counters of the current document page number and the accumulated document page number are updated. If it is determined in step 12 that the job has not ended, the process returns to step 6. If it is determined in step 12 that the job is finished, in step 13, the current accumulated document page number is compared with the number of accumulated document pages. If the accumulated number of document pages is larger than the current accumulated document page number, the process is terminated.

  In step 13, the current accumulated manuscript page number is compared with the accumulated manuscript page number. If the current accumulated manuscript page number is equal to or less than the accumulated manuscript page number, the current accumulated manuscript page number is determined in steps 14-17. The drawing data is read from the file, arranged on the first side of the paper, converted into print data, transmitted to the printer unit, the counter of the current accumulated document page number is updated, and the process returns to step 13.

  If it is determined in step 6 that the current number of original pages is larger than the number of output sheets, in steps 18 to 21, the drawing data of the current accumulated original page number is read from the file, arranged on the first partial surface of the sheet, and printed. The data is converted into data and transmitted to the printer unit, and the counter of the current accumulated document page number is updated. In steps 22 to 24, drawing data is received, arranged on the second partial surface of the paper, converted into print data, and transmitted to the printer unit. If it is determined in step 25 that the page ends, the process returns to step 22. If it is determined in step 25 that the page has not ended, the counter of the current stored original page number is updated in step 26, and the process returns to step 6.

  A computer program for causing the computer to execute the above printing control procedure is written and executed by the CPU of the printing system. This computer program can be stored in a recording medium and installed in a desired printing system.

  As described above, in the embodiment of the present invention, the print control method specifies the number of manuscript pages in advance, stores intermediate printing data including all drawing information for conversion into print data, and stores manuscript pages. By sequentially arranging them on the first partial surface of the paper and arranging them on the second partial surface of the leading paper when the appropriate number of pages is reached, when all pages have been printed, each partial surface is in the order of the original page. Since the accumulated data is replaced or rearranged so that the data is arranged in accordance with the arrangement, a plurality of document pages are arranged on one sheet and transmitted to the printer unit. Can be minimized.

  The speed printing control method of the present invention is optimal as a method for printing documents at high speed by rearranging the originals by a printer driver.

1 is a functional block diagram of a printing system that executes a printing control method according to an embodiment of the present invention. 4 is a detailed setting screen for speed printing displayed on a printing system that executes a printing control method according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an output result when (specified number of original pages) > (actual number of original pages) in printing by the print control method according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an output result in the case of (specified number of original pages) < (actual number of original pages) in printing by the print control method according to the embodiment of the present invention. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a print control method according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the process sequence of the conventional speed printing method.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Printer driver UI part, 2 ... Printer driver drawing part, 3 ... Data reception module, 4 ... Page management module, 5 ... File storage module, 6 ... Page processing module, 7: File reading module, 8: Print data creation module, 9: Data transmission module, 10: Printer unit, 11: HDD.

Claims (4)

A print control method for printing a plurality of document data on a sheet of paper,
Inputting pre-specified original page specification information;
A receiving step of receiving drawing data including a plurality of manuscript pages created by an application from the application in the order of manuscript pages;
A counting step for counting the number of received manuscript pages;
An accumulation step of sequentially accumulating received document pages in an accumulation unit;
A calculation step of calculating the number of original pages to be printed based on the original page designation information and the number of original pages to be printed on one sheet;
In the counting step, when the received document page number corresponding to the print start document page number is counted, reading a document page to be printed on the same sheet as the document page received at the time of counting from the storage unit When,
Creating print data based on the original page received at the time of counting and the read original page;
Printing control method characterized by having a. The print control method according to claim 1, wherein the accumulated document pages are printing intermediate data including all drawing data to be converted into print data . When the original page designation information is larger than the actual original page number, printing is performed based on the original page number. When the original page designation information is smaller than the actual original page number, the original page designation information is reached. where the print control method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the printing based on the document page specification information about the newly remaining pages from the next page. A computer program describing a control procedure for causing a computer to execute each step in the printing control method according to claim 1 .

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