JP6477571B2 - Image forming apparatus and image forming method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and an image forming method for executing a macro described in a page description language (printer control language).

  Conventionally, data transmitted from a host computer for printing by an image forming apparatus has been described in a page description language. In this data, a specific process is defined as a macro in order to eliminate waste of describing a process that is repeatedly performed. Examples of page description languages that can use macros include Presk Live (registered trademark) and PCL5c (Printer Command Language (registered trademark)).

  Since macros are repeatedly executed, various ideas have been made to speed up macro execution.

  For example, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, a description of a macro part is converted in advance from a printer language into an intermediate code having a high processing speed and stored in a storage unit. By executing the code, the processing speed is increased.

  In the technique of Patent Document 2, when a printing resource is downloaded to the image forming apparatus, a resource that is frequently used is downloaded to a high-speed storage device according to a user instruction, and a resource that is not frequently used is stored slowly. The speed of the printing process is increased by downloading to the apparatus.

JP 2000-6498 A JP 2004-62361 A

  As shown in Patent Document 1 or 2, in an image forming apparatus, a macro is generally stored after being stored in a storage unit, but a primary storage device such as a RAM (Random Access Memory) has a small capacity. Often stored in a secondary storage device such as a hard disk drive.

  When the macro stored in the secondary storage device is used, there is a problem that since the secondary storage device is slow, it takes time to read out the macro and the execution of the printing process is slow.

  In view of the circumstances as described above, an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus and an image forming method capable of transferring necessary macros to a high-speed storage device in advance.

  In order to achieve the above object, an image forming apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention stores a communication unit that can communicate with a host computer, a main storage unit, and a macro, and a secondary storage that is slower than the main storage unit. And a macro that reads a macro corresponding to a macro call described in the print data from the secondary storage unit and expands it in the main storage unit when print data is received from the host computer via the communication unit A processing unit; an interpreter unit that converts the print data and the macro expanded in the main storage unit into raster data; and an image forming unit that prints the raster data. Therefore, necessary macros can be transferred to a high-speed storage device in advance and executed.

  In order to achieve the above object, in the image forming apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention, the macro processing unit is described in the print data when the print data is received from the host computer via the communication unit. It is determined whether or not a macro corresponding to the macro call is expanded in the main storage unit. When the macro is not expanded in the main storage unit, the macro is read from the secondary storage unit and read out from the main storage unit. The structure which develops to a part may be sufficient.

  To achieve the above object, in the image forming apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention, when the macro processing unit receives the print data from the host computer via the communication unit, a macro call is made in the print data. When the macro data is described in the print data, it is determined whether or not a macro corresponding to the macro call is expanded in the main storage unit. When the macro corresponding to the call is not expanded in the main storage unit, the macro may be read from the secondary storage unit and expanded in the main storage unit.

  In order to achieve the above object, in the image forming apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention, the print data may be described in a page description language.

  In order to achieve the above object, in an image forming method according to an aspect of the present invention, when a macro processing unit of an image forming apparatus receives print data from a host computer via a communication unit, a macro call is made in the print data. When the macro data is described in the print data, it is determined whether or not a macro corresponding to the macro call is expanded in the main storage unit. When the macro corresponding to the call is not expanded in the main storage unit, the macro is read from the secondary storage unit and expanded in the main storage unit, and the interpreter unit of the image forming apparatus receives the print data and the macro The macro expanded in the main storage unit is converted into raster data, and the image forming unit of the image forming apparatus prints the raster data.

  As described above, according to the present invention, stored macros can be read and used at high speed.

1 is a configuration diagram schematically showing a configuration of an image forming apparatus 20. 3 is a functional block diagram showing functional blocks in the image forming apparatus 20. FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the outline | summary of the flow of a process. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the detail of the flow of a process.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[Configuration of Image Forming Apparatus]
First, the configuration of the image forming apparatus 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram schematically showing the configuration of the image forming apparatus 20. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing functional blocks in the image forming apparatus 20.

  The image forming apparatus 20 includes a control unit 21. The control unit 21 governs overall operation control of the image forming apparatus 20.

  The control unit 21 is connected to an image reading unit 22, an image processing unit 23, an image memory 24, an image forming unit 25, an operation unit 26, a facsimile communication unit 27, a communication unit 28, a secondary storage unit 29, and the like. The control unit 21 performs operation control of each of the above connected units, and transmission / reception of signals or data to / from each unit.

  The control unit 21 performs operation control on each function such as a scanner function, a print function, a copy function, and a facsimile transmission / reception function in accordance with a job execution instruction input from the user through the operation unit 26 or a network-connected PC. Controls the drive and processing of the mechanisms necessary to execute.

  The control unit 21 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 21a, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 21b, a RAM (main storage unit) 21c, a dedicated hardware circuit, and the like.

  The CPU 21a reads and executes a program stored in the ROM 21b or the secondary storage unit 30, thereby controlling the overall operation of the image forming apparatus 20 and processing data.

  The ROM 21b fixedly stores a plurality of programs and data such as firmware for executing various processes.

  The RAM 21c is used as a work area for the CPU 21a, and temporarily holds an OS (Operating System), various applications being executed, various data being processed, and expanded macros.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the CPU 21a includes a macro processing unit 21d and an interpreter unit 21e. The macro processing unit 21d and the interpreter unit 21e are functional blocks that are realized by the CPU 21a executing a program loaded from the ROM 21b or the like into the RAM 21c.

  The macro processing unit 21d detects a macro call from print data described in PDL (Page Description Language) received from the host computer 10 via the communication unit 28.

  Then, the macro processing unit 21d confirms whether the detected macro has already been developed in the RAM 21c. If the macro has not been developed yet, the macro processing unit 21d develops the detected macro from the secondary storage unit 29 to the RAM 21c in advance.

  In the present invention, it is assumed that all macros called in the print data are stored in the secondary storage unit 29 or expanded in the RAM 21c.

  The interpreter unit 21e converts print data described in PDL into raster data. When there is a macro call in the print data, the interpreter unit 21e executes the macro developed on the RAM 21c.

  As described above, when there is a macro call, the macro processing unit 21d expands the macro in the RAM 21c in advance, but when the expansion processing is not completed, the interpreter unit 21e causes the macro until the expansion is completed. Wait for part execution.

  The image reading unit 22 reads an image from a document.

  The image processing unit 23 performs image processing on the image data of the image read by the image reading unit 22 as necessary. For example, the image processing unit 23 performs image processing such as shading correction in order to improve the quality after the image read by the image reading unit 22 is formed.

  The image memory 24 is an area for temporarily storing document image data obtained by reading by the image reading unit 22 or temporarily storing data to be printed by the image forming unit 25.

  The image forming unit 25 forms an image of the image data read by the image reading unit 22.

  The operation unit 26 includes a touch panel unit and operation key units that receive instructions from the user regarding various operations and processes that can be executed by the image forming apparatus 20. The touch panel unit includes a display unit 26a such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) provided with a touch panel.

  The facsimile communication unit 27 includes an encoding / decoding unit, a modulation / demodulation unit, and an NCU (Network Control Unit) (not shown), and performs facsimile transmission using a public telephone line network.

  The communication unit 28 includes a communication module such as a LAN board, and transmits / receives various data to / from a device (such as a PC) in a local area such as the host computer 10 via a LAN connected to the communication unit 28. .

  The secondary storage unit 29 stores a document image read by the image reading unit 22, stores print data of a document instructed to be printed from the host computer, and stores a macro. The secondary storage unit 30 is a large-capacity storage device such as a hard disk drive or an SSD (Solid State Drive).

  The configuration of the image forming apparatus 20 has been described above.

[Flow of processing (outline)]
Next, an outline of the flow of processing will be described. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an outline of the flow of processing.

  First, the macro processing unit 21 d of the image forming apparatus 20 receives print data described in PDL from the host computer 10.

  Next, the macro processing unit 21d confirms whether the macro called in the received print data is expanded on the RAM 21c.

  If the macro processing unit 21d has not yet expanded, the macro processing unit 21d expands the called macro from the secondary storage unit 30 to the RAM 21c.

  Next, the macro processing unit 21d passes the received print data to the interpreter unit 21e.

  The interpreter unit 21e to which the print data is passed interprets the contents, converts the PDL from raster data including the macro part, and passes it to the image forming unit 25.

  Next, the image forming unit 25 prints the received raster data.

  Note that the processing in the macro processing unit 21d and the processing in the interpreter unit 21e may be performed in parallel.

  The overview of the processing flow has been described above.

[Flow of processing (details)]
Next, details of the flow of processing will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining details of the processing flow.

  First, the macro processing unit 21d of the image forming apparatus 20 receives print data described in PDL from the host computer 10 (step S1).

  Next, the macro processing unit 21d detects whether there is a macro called in the received print data (step S3).

  If there is no macro call (N in step S3), the process proceeds to step S6.

  If there is a macro call (Y in step S3, the macro processing unit 21d determines whether the macro to be called has already been developed on the RAM 21c (step S4).

  If the macro has already been expanded (Y in step S4), the process proceeds to step S6.

  When the macro has not been expanded yet (N in Step S4), the macro processing unit 21d expands the called macro from the secondary storage unit 30 to the RAM 21c (Step S5).

  Next, the macro processing unit 21d passes the received print data to the interpreter unit 21e, and the interpreter unit 21e to which the print data is passed interprets the content and converts it from PDL to raster data including the macro part, It passes to the formation part 25 (step S6).

  Next, the image forming unit 25 prints the passed raster data (step S7).

  The details of the processing flow have been described above.

[Additional notes]
As described above, the image forming apparatus 20 of the present invention includes the communication unit 28 that can communicate with the host computer 10, the main storage unit 21c, and the secondary storage unit that stores macros and is slower than the main storage unit 21c. 29, when the print data is received from the host computer 10 via the communication unit 28, the macro corresponding to the macro call described in the print data is read from the secondary storage unit 29 and the main storage unit 21c. A macro processing unit 21d for developing the raster data, an interpreter unit 21e for converting the print data and the macro developed in the main storage unit 21c into raster data, and an image forming unit 25 for printing the raster data.

  In addition, this invention is not limited only to the above-mentioned embodiment, Of course, various changes can be added within the range which does not deviate from the summary of this invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Host computer 20 ... Image forming apparatus 21 ... Control part 21a ... CPU
21b ... ROM
21c ... RAM
21d ... Macro processing unit 21e ... Interpreter unit 22 ... Image reading unit 23 ... Image processing unit 24 ... Image memory 25 ... Image forming unit 26 ... Operation unit 26a ... Display unit 27 ... Facsimile communication unit 28 ... Communication unit 29 ... Secondary storage Part

Claims (4)

A communication unit capable of communicating with the host computer;
A main memory unit;
A secondary storage unit that stores macros and is slower than the main storage unit;
When receiving print data from the host computer via the communication unit,
Determine whether there is a macro call description in the print data,
When there is a description of the macro call in the print data, it is determined whether or not a macro corresponding to the macro call is expanded in the main storage unit,
When a macro corresponding to the macro call is not expanded in the main storage unit, a macro processing unit that reads the macro from the secondary storage unit and expands the macro in the main storage unit;
An interpreter unit for converting the print data and the macro expanded in the main storage unit into raster data;
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming unit that prints the raster data. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1,
An image forming apparatus in which processing in the macro processing unit and processing in the interpreter unit are performed in parallel . The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
The image forming apparatus, wherein the print data is described in a page description language. A communication unit capable of communicating with a host computer, a main storage unit, the macro processing unit of the image forming apparatus having a low-speed secondary storage unit from the main memory unit stores a macro, the communication unit from the host computer When the print data is received via the print data, it is determined whether or not a macro call is described in the print data. When the macro call is described in the print data, a macro corresponding to the macro call is It is determined whether or not the macro is expanded in the main memory, and when the macro corresponding to the macro call is not expanded in the main memory, the macro is read from the secondary memory and stored in the main memory. Expand,
The interpreter unit of the image forming apparatus converts the print data and the macro expanded in the main storage unit into raster data,
An image forming method in which an image forming unit of the image forming apparatus prints the raster data.

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