JPH02225066A - Printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make possible efficient printing by automatically setting a caching order for pattern information in advance during test printing and referring to the caching order during routine printing. CONSTITUTION:Print data is registered in a caching order control table 23 each time the data requiring caching is received from a host computer, if printing is performed in the draft mode. If the print data of a single page is completely developed, test printing is performed to print only a cell frame for characters. The registration of data in the table is completed at the same time as the output of print data from the host. In addition, the content of the caching order control table 23 is reexamined and the order is rearranged so that the best efficiency is obtained. If the routine printing mode is set, printing is performed by controlling the caching in accordance with the content of the caching order control table 23 prepared. Thus the routine printing results are achieved at high speed, and even a slight printing change can be responded to by changing the content of the caching order control table 23 simply.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a printing device that performs printing based on input printing information, and particularly relates to a printing device that performs printing based on input printing information, and in particular, a printing device that has a trial printing mode (hereinafter also referred to as draft mode) and a normal printing mode. The present invention relates to a printing device having a printer.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, the only difference between trial printing and normal printing in this type of printing apparatus was the difference in the quality of printed characters.

Furthermore, in a printing device that caches frequently used character patterns in a cache memory, etc., if the character is not already registered in the cache memory, the printer is configured to cache it every time character information to be printed comes. It has become.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in recent years, as the types of characters that can be printed in this type of printing device have become more diverse (font type, size, decoration method, single color, etc.), it has become difficult to Both the time required for pattern generation and the storage area required for caching become a large burden, and it has become common for a large amount of time to be spent until the final print result is obtained.

Furthermore, even when making a slight change to the print result obtained in such a situation, there is still a problem in that it takes time to obtain the same print result.

The present invention provides a printing device that eliminates the conventional drawbacks, improves cache memory usage efficiency, and minimizes the number of times characters are expanded (expanding time).

[Means for Solving the Problem] In order to solve this problem, the printing device of the present invention is a printing device that expands input information into corresponding pattern information and prints the pattern information while using a cache memory. A trial printing means for performing trial printing using a part of the pattern information; a caching order storage means for storing a priority order of caching of the pattern information during the trial printing; and when performing normal printing, and normal printing means for printing while caching the pattern information developed in accordance with the priority order stored in the caching order storage means in the cache memory.

Further, the caching order storage means includes a re-evaluation means for re-evaluating the caching order based on the storage capacity of the cache memory and the print processing speed of the apparatus. By automatically setting the caching order in advance and referring to the caching order during normal printing, it is possible to print more efficiently than before.

In addition, the caching order is re-evaluated based on the storage capacity of the cache memory and the print processing speed of the device to further improve efficiency.

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printing apparatus of this embodiment.

A host computer 1 outputs print information consisting of print data and control codes to the printer device 2 .

The printer device 2 includes a control unit 21 and a cache memory 22.
．． Caching order management table 23. Printer section 2
Consists of 4th grade. The control unit 21 further includes a caching control processing unit 211. Normal print processing section 212. The caching control processing unit 211, which includes various processing units such as the trial print processing unit 213, controls the caching order according to a predetermined procedure as described in detail below, and stores the results in the caching order management table 23. Furthermore, character pattern information that is actually cached is stored in the caching memory 22. The printer section 24 includes a printing mechanism section for forming a permanent visible image of print information on recording paper under the control of the normal printing processing section 212 or the trial printing processing section 213 according to the currently selected printing mode.

FIG. 2A shows the structure of the caching order management table 23. For example, when printing a document as shown in FIG. 2B, the following values are set in this table.

The character code section contains a code specific to that character.

The start position stores the number in which the character appears on the page, and the end position stores the position where the character was last used. Enter the number) and Frequency remembers how many times that character is used on the page. The cache memory address contains the start address at which pattern information in the cache memory 22 is stored.

In the pattern size, values of 0 or more, which include the pattern size of the character, are sequentially registered in the caching order management table 23 during the trial printing process.

Next, the printing process will be described with reference to a flowchart illustrating an example of the printing process procedure of the printing apparatus of this embodiment shown in FIG.

First, in step S1, a print mode is determined. If the print mode is the draft mode, each time print data that requires caching is received from the host, the information is registered in the caching order management table 23 as shown in FIG. 2A in step S2. When the printing data for one page has been developed, a trial printing process is executed in step S3. This results in printing as shown in FIG. 4A. FIG. 4A shows the cell width of a character as part of the pattern information.

This uses cell height and prints only the cell frame of the text. At the same time as the output, the registration in the table ends in step S4. After this, in step S5, depending on whether a satisfactory layout has been obtained in draft/dry trial printing,
Returning to step S2, steps 82 to S5 are repeated.

If a satisfactory layout is obtained, step S6
The contents of the caching order management table 23 are reviewed and the caching order is rearranged to be most efficient. As a result of this process, the optimum value in the priority column of the caching order management table 23 is determined.

In this process, the following conditions listed in descending order of priority are considered.

■Characters that are used frequently are given priority.

■The smaller the start position number, the higher the priority.

■Large characters take a long time to develop, so give priority to large pattern sizes, as they have a large caching effect.

Furthermore, when the capacity of the cache memory 22 becomes insufficient, the following conditions are also taken into consideration.

■Current print position and caching order management table 2
3, and if the pattern has already been used, that pattern is deleted from the caching order management table 23 and the cache memory 22.

As a result of the processing under the above conditions, at the end of step S6, the caching order management table 23 is determined so that the cache memory 22 can be used optimally (capacity or processing speed of the device).

Here, the print mode is changed from draft mode to normal print mode.0 In normal print mode, step S1
The process then proceeds to step S7, where caching control is performed according to the contents of the caching order management table 23 previously created in steps 87 to S9, and normal printing is performed.

That is, since the caching order management table 23 has already been determined during print processing in draft mode, the caching order management table 23 is referred to during normal printing to determine whether or not to store pattern information in the cache memory 22. do it.

As a result, the normal printing result as shown in Fig. 4B is
This can be achieved faster than before. In addition, even in the case of a slight change, the caching order management table 23
This can be achieved with a simple change, so there is no need to spend extra time.

In the above embodiment, a case has been described in which caching is performed regarding character pattern information, but caching may be performed regarding graphic drawing information.

At this time, what is managed by the caching order management table 23 may also be the drawing order of figures.

As explained above, in the printing apparatus of this embodiment,
Optimum control of caching becomes possible, and memory usage efficiency also improves. Furthermore, even if the printing data has a complicated layout, the layout can be adjusted in a short time, and even when performing normal printing, the optimum caching order determined in advance is followed, resulting in an excellent effect of printing efficiently in a short time. play.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a printing device that improves cache memory usage efficiency and minimizes the number of character expansions (development time).

In detail, during the trial printing process, information on the usage range and usage frequency of the characters used is required in advance.
Since unnecessary characters do not need to be stored in the cache memory, memory usage efficiency is improved.

Furthermore, since frequently used characters are preferentially left in the cache memory, the number of character expansions (expansion time) can be kept to a minimum.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printing device of this embodiment, FIG. 2A is a diagram showing an example of the structure of the caching order management table of this embodiment, and FIG. 2B is the caching order management table of FIG. 2A. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a print processing procedure according to the present invention, and FIG. 4A is an example of print output in draft mode of the printing apparatus of this embodiment. FIG. 4B is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of print output in the normal print mode of the printing apparatus of this embodiment. In the figure, 1... host computer, 2... printer device, 21... control unit, 22... cache memory, 23... caching order management table, 24...
...printer section, 211...caching control processing section, 212...normal print processing section, 213...trial print processing section. Figure 2A Figure 2B Figure 3

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a printing device that develops input information into corresponding pattern information and prints the pattern information while using a cache memory, a trial printing unit that performs trial printing using a part of the pattern information; caching order storage means for storing the caching priority order of the pattern information during trial printing; and caching order storage means for storing the caching priority order of the pattern information during normal printing; A printing device characterized by comprising: a normal printing unit that performs printing while caching to the cache memory. (2) The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the caching ranking storage means includes re-evaluation means for re-evaluating the caching ranking based on the storage capacity of the cache memory and the print processing speed of the apparatus.