JP6394303B2 - Driver program, printing system, and data processing method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a driver program for a printer, and more particularly to a driver program that can easily extract information from print data.

In retail sales businesses such as supermarkets, a POS system, which is a sales management system, has become widespread, and in this system, a plurality of terminal devices (registers) connected to a server via a network operate according to applications provided in the device. Execute the process. Also, normally, each terminal device is provided with a printer, and outputs a receipt or a coupon according to an instruction from the application. In addition, as a system having a configuration similar to the POS system with such output, there are a system used in a hospital, a system used in a transportation company, and the like.

In such a system, there is a case where the function needs to be expanded in accordance with a technical improvement or a business improvement request after the introduction. In particular, in the case of a POS system, it may be desired to add functions such as analysis of sales information and conversion to electronic receipts.

However, since such a system is generally used as a business center at all times and is often linked in a complicated manner with other systems, it is usually not easy to modify the application.

In order to deal with such a problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-228561 proposes a technique that can process data output from a POS terminal and provide it to an external device.

On the other hand, in recent years, terminal devices that command printing of receipts and the like in a POS system, etc., often use Windows (registered trademark) drivers as printer drivers. Sent to the printer.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2014-85741

In the case of the method disclosed in Patent Document 1, if a Windows driver is used in a POS terminal device, the meaning of a print object (such as characters) converted into raster data in a data processing device that acquires information from print data To obtain OCR (Optical
It is necessary to use (Character Recognition) technology and the like, and there are problems in terms of accuracy of information and processing burden.

Also, changing the mode to send text data from the POS terminal device to the printer eliminates the above-mentioned problem related to information acquisition. In this case, however, the font built in the printer is used for printing. There is a risk that the expression of the output will change.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a driver program that can easily extract information from print data even when print data is output as raster data from a host device.

In order to achieve the above object, according to one aspect of the present invention, a driver program obtains text data from received print request data in a printer host computer, and based on the print request data, A generation step of generating print data using raster data by expressing print contents, an addition step of adding the acquired text data to the print data using the command, and the addition step A transmission step of transmitting subsequent print data to the printer.

Further, in the above invention, a preferred aspect thereof is characterized in that, in the adding step, the acquired text data is rearranged in the order of appearance when printed, and then added to the print data. To do.

Further, in the above invention, one aspect is that the addition to the print data in the adding step is a page mode in which print data of a predetermined print range is accumulated by a printer and then print processing is performed on the accumulated print data. The acquired text data is inserted between a registration command and a print cancel command in the page mode.

Further, in the above invention, another aspect is that the addition to the print data in the adding step is a text mode start command for transmitting the print data as text data to the printer, a predetermined number of text data, and the subsequent text Using the clear command,
It is characterized by that.

In order to achieve the above object, according to another aspect of the present invention, in a printing system including a printer and its host device, the host device acquires text data from the received print request data, and the print request data Based on this, the print content is represented by raster data and print data using the printer command is generated, and the acquired text data is
A printer driver unit that adds the print data to the printer using the command and transmits the print data after the addition to the printer, and the printer acquires the added text data from the transmitted print data A text data processing unit; and a printing unit that executes a printing process based on the print data.

Furthermore, in the above-described invention, a preferable aspect thereof is characterized in that the text data processing unit stores the acquired text data and transmits the text data to another device at a predetermined timing.

In order to achieve the above object, according to another aspect of the present invention, a data processing method in a printer host computer acquires text data from received print request data, and based on the print request data, A generation step of generating print data using raster data by expressing print contents, an addition step of adding the acquired text data to the print data using the command, and the addition step And a transmission step of transmitting subsequent print data to the printer.

Further objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the embodiments of the invention described below.

1 is a configuration diagram according to an embodiment of a printing system to which the present invention is applied. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure in the printer driver unit 12. FIG. 3 is a diagram conceptually illustrating the structure of print data. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure in a text data processing unit 21. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure in a print control unit 22 and a print mechanism unit 23.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. However, such an embodiment does not limit the technical scope of the present invention. In the drawings, the same or similar elements are denoted by the same reference numerals or reference symbols.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram according to an embodiment of a printing system to which the present invention is applied. In the POS (Point Of Sales) terminal device 1 shown in FIG. 1, when print request data is output from the POS application unit 11, the printer driver unit 12 converts the print target into raster data and uses a command for the receipt printer 2. Generate expressed print data. At that time, the printer driver unit 12 extracts text data to be printed from the print request data, and adds the text data to the generated print data using a predetermined command. With this process, in the receipt printer 2 that receives the print data,
By acquiring the added text data, sales information can be easily acquired from the print data of the receipt. Note that the raster data means data in which a print target is expressed by a density gradation value of each color for each pixel.

As shown in FIG. 1, the printing system according to the present embodiment includes a POS terminal device 1 and a receipt printer 2, and the receipt printer 2 is connected to a sales information analysis server 3 via a network 4 such as the Internet. The

The POS terminal device 1 is a terminal device of a POS system provided at a cash register such as a supermarket, and is connected to the receipt printer 2 so as to be communicable. The POS terminal device 1 is a host device of the receipt printer 2, and instructs the receipt printer 2 to print a receipt or a coupon at the time of merchandise sales accounting (at the time of payment). The POS terminal device 1
Although it is configured by a computer and includes a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, an HDD, etc. (not shown). Although not shown, the peripheral device includes a display, a keyboard, a barcode reader, a card reader, and the like.

As shown in FIG. 1, the POS terminal device 1 includes a POS application unit 1 as a functional configuration.
1 and a printer driver unit 12.

The POS application unit 11 is a part responsible for checkout processing at the time of product sales, receipt / coupon print request, data transmission to a POS server (not shown), and the like. At the time of the print request, print request data is output to the printer driver unit 12. The print request data is
It is expressed by a standard command, and here is expressed by a GDI (Graphic Device Interface) specification.

The printer driver unit 12 is a part that performs a driver function for the receipt printer 2. The printer driver unit 12 receives the print request data output from the POS application unit 11, generates print data expressed by a command for the receipt printer 2 according to the print request data, and transmits the print data to the receipt printer 2. As described above, when the print data is generated, the printer driver unit 12 performs a process of adding text data to the print data. This process is a major feature of this printing system, and the specific contents thereof will be described later.

The POS application unit 11 and the printer driver unit 12 are configured by a program (POS application program, driver program) describing the above-described processing procedure, a CPU, a RAM, and the like that operate according to the program.

Next, the receipt printer 2 is a printer that prints a receipt, a coupon, or the like in accordance with an instruction from the POS terminal device 1. As the printing method, for example, an inkjet method, a thermal method, or the like can be used. The receipt printer 2 prints an object to be printed on roll-shaped paper, and cuts the paper with a cutter when printing is completed.

The receipt printer 2 is a so-called intelligent printer, and includes a data processing device (arithmetic device) similar to a personal computer in addition to a print control unit in a general printer.

As a functional configuration, as shown in FIG. 1, the receipt printer 2 includes a text data processing unit 21, a print control unit 22, and a printing mechanism unit 23 (a printing unit including the printing control unit 22 and the printing mechanism unit 23). .

The text data processing unit 21 is the data processing device described above, that is, a CPU, a ROM,
It can be composed of a RAM, an HDD, etc., and a program describing the processing contents. The text data processing unit 21 receives the above-described print data transmitted from the POS terminal device 1, acquires the text data added to the print data, and transmits the acquired text data to the sales information analysis server 3. The process etc. which perform are performed.

Next, the print control unit 22 is a so-called printer control unit, and controls printing processing according to the received print data. The print control unit 22 includes a program, a CPU,
A ROM, a RAM, an ASIC, an NVRAM, or the like can be used.

The printing mechanism unit 23 operates under the control of the printing control unit 22 and performs a printing process on the paper. The printing mechanism unit 23 includes a print head, a paper transport device, a cutter, and the like.

Next, the sales information analysis server 3 is a server computer that receives the above-described text data transmitted from the receipt printer 2 and executes sales analysis processing, electronic receipt provision processing, and the like using the received text data.

In the sales analysis process, information such as the name, number and unit price of the sold product printed on the receipt, the store, the sales date, the total price (total sales), etc. is obtained as the text data described above. Analysis of time variation, seasonal variation, and regional variation.
Also, in the electronic receipt providing process, main information printed on the receipt is acquired as text data, so in response to access from the user's terminal device, a screen showing the contents of the requested receipt is displayed on the terminal. Can be provided to the device.

In the printing system according to the present embodiment having the configuration as described above, when a receipt printing request is made, processing is executed in the following procedure. FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure in the printer driver unit 12. At the time of receipt print request, print request data is output from the POS application unit 11 as described above. The printer driver unit 12 receives the print request data (step S1 in FIG. 2).
The contents are sequentially interpreted (step S2 in FIG. 2).

Since the print request data is expressed by the GDI specification as described above, each print object included in the receipt for which the print request is made is expressed by a GDI function. The print object includes characters representing a store name, a product name, etc., numbers representing prices, images representing logos, and the like.

The printer driver unit 12 sequentially interprets each GDI function of the print request data and constructs an image (an image expressed by pixels) of each print object. When the object is text of letters or numbers, the text data is acquired (extracted) (step S3 in FIG. 2), and then imaging processing is performed. Printer driver part 1
2 stores the acquired text data in a memory.

Such text data acquisition processing (step S3 in FIG. 2) and imaging (step S in FIG. 2)
When the processing of 4) is completed, the printer driver unit 12 expresses the imaged print contents with a command for the receipt printer 2, and generates print data for instructing the receipt printer 2 to print (FIG. 2). Step S5). Since the print content instructed by the print data is imaged, that is, expressed as raster data, it is difficult to recognize each print object with this data alone.

Next, the printer driver unit 12 executes a process for rearranging the acquired text data (step S6 in FIG. 2). Since the print target of the text data included in the print request data is not necessarily in the order in which it was printed, that is, in the order from the top in the receipt, the printer driver section 12 rearranges the acquired text data in the order of appearance in the receipt.

Specifically, since the print object of the text data expressed by the GDI function has the information of the print position, the text data representing each print object is sorted in the order of appearance in the receipt based on the position information. Sort. More specifically, first, sorting is performed with the upper side first in the up-down direction of the receipt, and then, with respect to the print target having the same up-down direction, sorting is performed with the left in the left-right direction of the receipt first.

Next, the printer driver unit 12 executes a process of adding the text data that has undergone the rearrangement process to the generated print data (step S7 in FIG. 2). In this process, the printer driver unit 12 uses the command for the receipt printer 2 to express the text data in an expression that can be understood (interpreted) by the print control unit 22 of the receipt printer 2.
The text data is added to the print data so that the receipt printer 2 does not print the text data.

Specifically, as an example, the addition process can be performed using a page mode command. In the receipt printer 2, as described above, since the print target included in the print data is normally expressed as raster data, the received raster data is not sequentially printed and stored. However, in this page mode, a predetermined range
After storing (holding) the print target object data for one page and one receipt in the memory of the receipt printer 2, the print processing for the range is executed. In this page mode, the print object need not be expressed as raster data, and may be expressed as text data. Also, in this page mode, commands in the print data are configured in the order of a command for registering the page mode (page mode start command), print target object data, and a command related to execution of print processing.

In this example, the page mode command is used to add the page mode registration command, the acquired and rearranged text data, and the cancel command to the generated print data in this order.

FIG. 3 is a diagram conceptually illustrating the structure of print data. The example shown in FIG. 3 shows an example of print data generated by the printer driver unit 12 and transmitted to the receipt printer 2, and represents data for one receipt. In FIG. 3, C2 is raster data of the imaged print content described above, and the print start command indicated by C1 indicates the amount (number of bytes) of raster data as a header of the raster data. . Also,
The print end command shown in C6 is a command indicating the end of print data, and is a cut command here. These C1, C2, and C6 are the above-described print data generation processing (S5
) Is generated by the print data.

The part indicated by A1 in FIG. 3 is a part incorporated in the addition process (S7) described above. As described above, the page mode registration command (C3), the rearranged text data (C4),
The cancel command (C5) is included in this part.

Text data can also be added using other commands. As a second example, in the text mode, the text data can be added using text data of the number of characters not exceeding the paper width and a clear command. Specifically, the printer driver unit 12 first adds a text mode start command between the generated print data raster data (C2 in FIG. 3) and the cut command (C6 in FIG. 3). Thereafter, the printer driver unit 12 obtains the number of characters that can be entered in one line within the paper width, sequentially extracts the text data of the number of characters from the acquired and rearranged text data, adds it to the print data, and then clears it. Add a command. Then, the text data of the number of characters and the clear command are repeatedly added until the text data is exhausted.

When the addition process is completed in this way, the printer driver unit 12 transmits the print data after the addition process to the receipt printer 2 (step S8 in FIG. 2).

  As described above, the processing in the printer driver unit 12 ends.

Next, processing of the text data processing unit 21 of the receipt printer 2 will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure in the text data processing unit 21. The text data processing unit 21 receives the print data transmitted from the printer driver unit 12 (step S11 in FIG. 4), and sequentially interprets commands included in the print data (step S12 in FIG. 4).

The text data processing unit 21 transmits the print data as it is to the print control unit 22 for the portion determined not to include the text data in the interpretation process (step S14 in FIG. 4), and on the other hand, the text data is the text data. For the determined part, the text data is acquired and stored in the memory (step S13 in FIG. 4), and then the print data of the part is transmitted to the print control unit 22 (step S14 in FIG. 4).

In the case of the print data illustrated in FIG. 3, C4 text data is acquired and stored,
The entire print data (C1-C6) is transmitted to the print control unit 22.

In the above example in which a predetermined number of text data and a clear command are added using the text mode, the text data portion is acquired and stored, and the entire print data is transmitted to the print control unit 22.

As an alternative, after obtaining and storing the text data, the text data processing unit 21
The text data portion may be deleted from the print data, and the subsequent print data may be transmitted to the print control unit 22. In this case, the part added in the addition process is deleted.

In this way, the text data acquisition / storage process (S1) for the received print data is performed.
3) and the transmission process (S14), the text data processing unit 21 next performs a process of transmitting the stored text data to the sales information analysis server 3 (step S in FIG. 4).
15). In the transmission process, the text data processing unit 21 converts the stored text data into a markup language (for example, XML (Extensible Markup Lang).
uage)) and may be transmitted. Sales information analysis server 3
The frequency of transmission to can be performed at a frequency as necessary, such as every day or every week when a receipt is issued.

Since the transmitted text data includes sales information to be printed on the receipt, the sales information analysis server 3 performs analysis processing, electronic receipt provision processing, and the like based on the information.

  As described above, the processing by the text data processing unit 21 ends.

Next, processing of the printing control unit 22 and the printing mechanism unit 23 will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure in the print control unit 22 and the printing mechanism unit 23. The print data transmitted from the text data processing unit 21 is received by the print control unit 22 (
In step S21 in FIG. 5, the print control unit 22 sequentially interprets commands included in the received print data (step S22 in FIG. 5).

The print control unit 22 controls the printing mechanism unit 23 according to the interpretation result, and the printing mechanism unit 23.
Is performed on the paper (step S23 in FIG. 5). As described above, for the raster data portion, the print control unit 22 sequentially passes the received raster data to the printing mechanism unit 23 and print processing based on the data is performed.

On the other hand, the portion of the text data added by the addition processing is erased by a command added thereafter, and the printing processing by the printing mechanism unit 23 is not performed (step S24 in FIG. 5).

In the print data illustrated in FIG. 3, the printing process is performed up to the C2 portion (raster data), and the C4 portion (text data) is deleted from the memory by the C5 cancel command, and the printing process is not performed.

Further, in the above example in which a predetermined number of text data and a clear command are added using the text mode, each predetermined number of text data is erased by the immediately following clear command, and printing processing is not performed.

Thus, only the portion that should be printed as a receipt is printed, and the portion added for acquiring sales information is not printed. Even when the added text data portion is deleted by the text data processing unit 21, only the portion that should be printed as a receipt is naturally printed.

  As described above, the processes of the printing control unit 22 and the printing mechanism unit 23 are completed.

As described above, the text portion added to the print data by the addition processing is expressed by a command that can be interpreted by the receipt printer 2, and is processed without affecting the printing processing as described above. Even if No. 2 is not a so-called intelligent printer and does not include a portion corresponding to the text data processing unit 21, a receipt can be printed without causing an error.

As described above, in the printing system according to the present embodiment, the printer driver unit 12 adds the text data of the information printed on the receipt to the print data and transmits it to the receipt printer 2. Even when the print target is converted to raster data on the side, information printed on the receipt can be easily taken out on the printer side.

Further, since the printer driver unit 12 acquires the text data to be added to the print data before converting the print target into raster data, the processing is easy and information can be acquired accurately.

Further, when an information acquisition function from receipt data is added to an existing system, the function is added by adding a text data addition function in the printer driver unit 12 and a data acquisition function in the text data processing unit 21. No need to modify existing POS applications.

Further, in the existing system, when the print target is converted into raster data on the host device side, the processing is not changed, and the output result of the printed matter is not changed.

In addition, since the printer driver unit 12 rearranges the text data in the order described in the receipt and adds the text data, it is convenient when the text data is used in the sales information analysis server 3 or the like.

Further, when text data is added by the printer driver unit 12, it is incorporated into the print data by using a command for the receipt printer 2, so that it can be easily interpreted on the receipt printer 2 side and an error may occur in the print control unit 22. Absent.

In this embodiment, an example of a POS system is shown. However, the present invention is not limited to a POS system, and a predetermined application including output of printed matter from a printer, such as a system used in a hospital or a transportation company, is used. The present invention can be applied to a provided system, and is particularly effective when it is difficult to modify an existing application program.

The protection scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but covers the invention described in the claims and equivalents thereof.

1 POS terminal device 2 Receipt printer 3 Sales information analysis server 4
Network, 11 POS application section, 12 Printer driver section, 21 Text data processing section, 22 Print control section, 23 Print mechanism section

Claims (7)

To a host computer that can communicate with the printer,
A first step of acquiring text data from print request data received from the application unit;
On the basis of the print request data, and raster data, and a second step of generating print data including a command indicating the raster data,
The acquired text data, and a third step of adding a predetermined command to instruct not to print processing said text data to said print data,
Driver program for causing execute a fourth step of transmitting the print data after addition to the printer, the. In claim 1,
Wherein the third step is the printing object of the text data, the print data such that the order of appearance when printed with, after rearranging the said text data, driver programs for addition of the to the print data. In claim 1 or 2,
The print data after the addition, the text data and the registration command for page mode for holding said text data in a predetermined range to the memory of the printer, while from the memory of a cancel command that instructs the deletion of the text data A driver program having In claim 1 or 2,
Given the command, the driver program is a clear command for instructing erasing of said text data. A printing system having a printer and its host device,
The host device is
An application section;
Get the text data from the print request data received from the application unit, on the basis of the print request data, the raster data, and generates print data including a command indicating the raster data, the acquired text data, and A printer driver unit that adds a predetermined command to the print data and transmits the print data after the addition to the printer;
The printer is
A printing mechanism,
Among the print data received from the printer driver unit, and the text data processing unit for acquiring additional said text data;
With respect to the printing mechanism unit, on the basis of the raster data included in the print data, performs control so as to execute the printing process based on a predetermined said command, so as not to perform the print processing of the text data And a printing control unit that controls the printing system. In claim 5,
The text data processing unit to a printing system for transmitting the text data acquired to another device at a predetermined timing. A data processing method in a host computer capable of communicating with a printer,
A first step of acquiring text data from print request data received from the application unit;
On the basis of the print request data, and raster data, and a second step of generating print data including a command indicating the raster data,
The acquired text data, and a third step of adding a predetermined command to instruct not to print processing said text data to said print data,
Data processing method has a fourth step, the transmitting said print data after addition to the printer.

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