JPH01114933A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently process variable data to be written in fixed printing data and to easily execute editing processing on the side of a printer device by constituting the fixed printing data of a control table part and plural printing data part. CONSTITUTION:When the fixed printing data consisting of the control table part 50 and plural printing data parts 60 following the table part 50 are inputted from an external device 30 to the printing device 40, the device 40 stores the input data in a fixed printing data memory 17 so as to read out them by using an identifier 51 in the table 50. When variable data to be written in the fixed printing data are inputted from the device 30, a processor 13 reads out the data in the memory 17 by using the identifier 51 and edits image data in an image memory 15. In addition, the processor 13 reads out the contents of the data part one by one, recognizes a start point for start of plotting and a developing area and edits the front of a graphic element through a font memory 14. Consequently, the fixed printing data can be efficiently transmitted and the editing processing on the printer device side can be simplified.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a printing device incorporated into various information networks and the like.

(Prior Art) For example, in financial institutions such as banks, a large-scale information network is set up that connects a head office and a branch office, or connects each branch office.

Figure 2 shows a conceptual diagram of the information network of such a financial system.

First, the office center 1 has a large host computer 2.
A small computer 4 is installed in each branch 3. The host computer 2 and the small computer 4 are connected by a communication line 5 such as a telephone line. A data link 6 is connected to the small computer 4 of each branch 3, and several terminals 7 are connected to this data link 6. Some of these terminals 7 are connected to printing devices 8 such as so-called electrophotographic printers. A coaxial cable or the like is used for the data link 6, and a Centronics interface standardized for printers, for example, is used for the connection between the terminal 7 and the printing device 8.

Now, in the system as shown in Fig. 2, when various information is transmitted from the host computer 2 to each branch 3,
The print data is printed by the printing device 8 on standard paper suitable for each job. This standard form usually has frames and the like printed in advance for data entry.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic configuration diagram of an electrophotographic printer as an example of the printing device 8 shown in FIG.

In the figure, this printing device 8 includes a control unit 10 that receives print data from a terminal 7 via an external connection interface 11 consisting of a Centronics interface;
It is composed of a printing mechanism section 20 that performs the printing.

In addition to the external connection interface 11, the control unit 10 is provided with a reception buffer 12, a microprocessor 13, a font memory 14, and an image memory 15. The printing mechanism section 20 also includes an operation panel 16 on the top surface.
A paper supply unit 17 for automatically supplying standard printing paper is provided on the bottom and right side.

Furthermore, a paper manual insertion section 18 is provided on the upper right side of the apparatus for allowing the operator to manually feed printing paper other than standard paper one sheet at a time.

Further, inside the printing mechanism section 20, a photoreceptor drum 21 having a photoreceptor surface formed on its outer periphery, a light emitting diode array 22 that forms an electrostatic latent image corresponding to image data for printing on the photoreceptor surface, and a developing device 23 are provided. , transfer device 24, and fixing device 2
5 is provided. On the left side of the printing mechanism section 20, there is a discharge section 26 from which the printing paper after printing is discharged.
When print data is input from the host computer 2 shown in FIG.
Incorporate into. Next, the processor 13 reads the character code included in the print data, refers to the font memory 14, and creates print image data. This printing image data is written into the image memory 15. In the image memory 15, printing image data for one page of printing paper is edited and stored, for example. Second
When image data is directly transmitted from the host computer 2 shown in the figure, the microprocessor 13 writes the data as is at a predetermined address in the image memory 15. Alternatively, the host computer 2 sends one character's worth of image data, ie, font data, to the printing device 8 together with a non-standard character registration command and a corresponding non-standard character code. In the printing device 8, the font data is stored in the font memory 14, and the external character is registered, so that the external character code can be used for editing the image data for printing.

When the analysis and editing of the printing image data is completed in this manner, the printing paper is conveyed from one of the printing paper supply sections 17 toward the transfer device 24. In parallel with this, the print image data drives the light emitting diode array 22 to form an electrostatic latent image on the outer periphery of the photoreceptor drum 21. When the photosensitive drum 21 rotates in the direction of the arrow 21a, this electrostatic latent image is developed by the developing device 23 and transferred to the printing paper by the transfer device 24. The printing paper is fixed in the fixing device 25 and then discharged to the discharge section 26 . In this way, information based on the print data received from the host computer 2 is printed on the printing paper.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) By the way, in an information network such as the one illustrated in FIG. Setting the paper in the paper supply section 17 places a relatively large burden on the operator. Therefore, a method can be considered in which fixed print data used as a fixed format and variable data to be written in addition to the fixed print data are transmitted together from the external device to the printing device. In this case, the fixed print data and variable data are combined in advance on the external device side,
One possible means is to send the edited version to the printing device. However, if such a method is adopted, a lot of processing time is required for editing data in the external device, and the amount of signals transmitted to the printing device is also large, which reduces the operating rate of the entire system. There is a risk of letting it happen.

In contrast, an external device transfers fixed print data to the printing device in advance, stores it in the printing device, and then sends variable data to the printing device to combine the fixed print data and variable data. There is a method in which editing is left to the printing device.

When such a method is adopted, for example, when two or more types of variable data are combined for the same fixed print data, the external device only needs to switch back and transmit only the variable data to the printing device. This has the advantage of reducing the burden on external devices and reducing the amount of information transmitted. Such a method is called a home overlay method.

By the way, this fixed print data usually consists of a table and characters added to it for various titles, displays, etc. When this fixed print data is transmitted from an external device to a printing device, the ruled lines that make up a table, etc. are usually transmitted as image data, and the characters and other fixed forms written on them are transmitted as character data. I have to.

However, transmitting information in such different data formats to the printing device requires complicated processing, and there is a problem in that it takes a relatively long time to transmit the fixed print data itself.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides a printing device that efficiently transmits such fixed print data and adopts a data format that allows the fixed print data to be easily processed on the printing device side. The purpose is to provide

(Means for Solving the Problems) A printing device of the present invention receives fixed print data to be used as a fixed format during printing from an external device, and the fixed print data includes a control table section and a section following the fixed print data. The control table section includes an identifier for identifying the fixed print data and size data specifying the size of the fixed print data, and the print data section includes a plurality of print data sections. The method is characterized in that it includes the starting point and development area of each graphic element to be printed based on the , and a code for specifying the graphic element.

(Function) In the above device, fixed print data is composed of a control table section and a print data section. The plurality of print data sections are all in the same format, and both character data and ruled line data are specified in the same format.

That is, both the character data and the ruled line data are specified as one unit of graphic element using a code, and the starting point for starting the drawing and the development area in which the drawing is to be developed are specified in the print data.

Fixed print data in this format is stored in a predetermined memory,
After that, when there is a request for image editing, the fixed print data is read out based on the identifier, an appropriate magnification is set based on the size data, and each print data is edited in order on the image memory.

Data in this format has a simplified data structure, and especially when used for transmitting fixed print data such as tables with many repeated patterns, the amount of transmitted information can be reduced and signal processing can be facilitated.

(Example) FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of fixed print data used in the apparatus of the present invention.

In the figure, this fixed print data is stored in the control table section 5.
0 and a plurality of print data sections 60 following this.

The control table section 50 is a section that stores various control data for this data transmission process, and includes an identifier 51.
and size data 52 are included. This identifier 51
corresponds to a name that specifies this fixed print data, and becomes a key used to read out a plurality of such fixed print data when they are stored in the memory. The size data is data for setting the size of the paper on which the fixed print data is printed when printing is performed on a predetermined paper based on the fixed print data.

Each print data section 60 is composed of eight types of parameters in total, as shown by the broken line on the right side. In the figure, each of the parameters 61 to 65, 67° 68 of the print data section 60 is, for example, one byte of data. Further, it is assumed that the code 66 is composed of 2 bytes of data.

Now, in the figure, a drawing start X coordinate 61 and a drawing start Y coordinate 62 are parameters indicating a starting point that is a reference for image editing of one graphic element specified by this print data section 60. This is numerical data expressed in dots. Furthermore, the development area This is a parameter that indicates the area in which the image data based on is developed.

The drawing condition 65 is a parameter for specifying the enlargement ratio of the graphic element to be printed, the negative or negative effect of smoothing during enlargement, the direction of rotation, the overlapping condition, and the like. The magnification rate is numerical data such as 2 times, 1/2 times, etc. This indicates how many times the development area 63°64 is to be expanded (reduced) in the X direction and the Y direction. Smoothing during enlargement refers to, for example, when enlarging a development area of 12 x 12 dots to a 36 x 36 dot configuration, if you enlarge it as is, the diagonal lines such as characters will be printed in a so-called step-like pattern. This refers to processing such as replenishing dots. The rotation direction refers to data such as how many times a character, etc. is rotated clockwise or counterclockwise.The superimposition condition refers to the image of a character or figure that is edited one after another by a large number of print data sections 60. However, when the fixed print data is created by sequentially superimposing the images, the original image is erased when the image based on the print data section 60 that is currently being processed is superimposed on the image that has already been formed. or take an OR condition (logical sum) with the original image, or take an AND condition (logical product) with the original image, or use exclusive OR.
This is used to specify whether a condition (exclusive OR) is to be applied.

Next, the code 66 is a parameter including the character code of the character to be written in the development area previously specified, or a code specifying a ruled line or the like. For example, in the case of a character code, this also includes font specification data that specifies whether it is a bright font or a Gothic font. Also, 12X
There are various font formats such as 12.24x16.36x36, and data for selecting one is also included.

The block size 67 is a parameter that specifies the size of font data actually read from the font memory based on the code 66. Since the bit width of the read font data differs depending on the printing apparatus due to the difference in the design concept of the hardware, the size of one unit of a graphic element is clarified by the block size 67. When comparing the block size and development area, if the former is large, partial printing will be performed, and if the latter is large, repeated printing will be performed. This repeat printing function is used for ruled lines.

Repeat specification 68 prints the graphic element specified by code 66 in the area specified by development area This is a parameter that specifies whether to If the size of the development area is larger than the block size, for example 4 times, and there is a repetition specification, then four of the characters will be printed side by side in the development area, and there will be no repetition specification. If so, only one image will be printed based on the starting point for starting drawing.

It should be noted that each parameter in the print data section has an address unique to the parameter attached to the first few bits. Therefore, by reading the address, it can be immediately determined whether the data is the drawing start X coordinate 61 or the drawing condition 65. Therefore, although there are multiple print data sections 60 in the fixed print data, the starting point 61.62 of the drawing start point and development area 63.64 are specified and edited in the immediately preceding print data section, and the next print data section is edited. When editing by specifying another graphical element in the same development area, it is possible to omit the starting point for starting drawing, the development area, etc., without having to repeatedly specify them. Therefore, by adopting such a data format, the data length can be shortened.

Furthermore, the data of the repetition designation 68 not only indicates whether or not there is a repetition designation, but also serves as a delimiter of the print data section.This makes it easy to recognize the delimitation of the so-called variable length print data section. Can be done.

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention, and its printing operation will be briefly explained using this block diagram.

In the figure, this device has an external connection interface 11 connected to an external device 3o, a reception buffer 12, and a processor 13.

This processor 13 is connected to a font memory 14, an image memory 15, an operation section 16, and fixed print data 17 via a path line 18. In addition, for printing the image data edited on the image memory 15,
A printing mechanism section 20 is provided. The external connection interface 11, reception buffer 12, printing mechanism section 20, font memory 14, operation section 16, etc. have the same configuration as that described in FIG. 3.

In this device, the fixed print data previously explained in FIG. 1 is stored in the fixed print data memory 17. When the fixed print data explained in FIG. 1 is input from the external device 30, the external connection interface 11 and the reception buffer 12
and fixed print data memory 17 via processor 13
is stored in Processor 13 stores this fixed print data so that it can be read using identifier 51 (FIG. 1). Then, when variable data to be written to the fixed print data is input from the external device 30, the processor 13 reads the fixed print data from the fixed print data memory 17 using the identifier 51 (FIG. 1).

Then, while analyzing the data, the image memory 15
Edit the image data inside. In this case, the configuration of the print data portion of the fixed print data is extremely similar to the data format used during editing processing by a normal image processor, so that image editing can be performed efficiently and at high speed.

The processor 13 reads the print data portions 60 of the fixed print data one by one, recognizes the starting point and development area for starting drawing, reads the codes of graphic elements such as characters and ruled lines that meet the drawing conditions, and The image is read from the font memory 14. Then, after comparing the development area and the block size, the font of the graphic element is edited in the development area as much as specified by the repeated designation.

Before and after that, the variable data stored in the reception buffer 12 is edited on the image memory 15 through similar processing, and image data to be printed is created and outputted to the printing mechanism section 20.

Through the above processing, printing based on print image data in which variable data is combined with fixed print data is completed.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments.

The data stored in the control table section 50 (FIG. 1) may include the identifier 51, size data 52, and various other control data.

(Effects of the Invention) In the printing device of the present invention as described above, both character data and ruled line data are sent from an external device to the printing device as data in the same format, so editing processing on the printing device side can be simplified. Further, when using such a data format, fixed print data consisting of tables and the like has a particularly large number of repetitive parts, so it is effective to sufficiently compress the amount of data. In addition, the data format is a combination of a control table section and multiple print data sections, and is similar to the data format used for print editing processing, making data handling and image creation processing easy. be.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of fixed print data used in the apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of an information network suitable for implementing the apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional printing apparatus.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the apparatus of the present invention. 5o... Control table section, 51... Identifier, 52.
...Size data, 60...Print data section, 61
...Drawing start X coordinate, 62...Drawing start Y coordinate, 6
3...Development area X size, 64...Development area Y size, 65...Drawing conditions, 6
6...Code, 67...Block size, 68...
・Repeat specification. Patent applicant: Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. Figure 1 +＾輯Network conceptual diagram Figure 23 ゛Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] In a device that receives fixed print data to be used as a fixed format during printing from an external device, the fixed print data consists of a control table section and a plurality of print data sections following the control table section, and the fixed print data includes a control table section and a plurality of print data sections following the control table section. The table section includes an identifier for identifying the fixed print data and size data for specifying the size of the fixed print data, and the print data section includes a starting point of each graphic element to be printed based on the fixed print data. and a code for specifying a development area and a graphic element thereof.