JPH04310779A - Data processing method for page printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a processing method with which processing of encoding printing information that is made in accordance with printing data transmitted from a host unit can be made in direction of printing processing that agrees with what an operator desires. CONSTITUTION:When an automatic mode setting for the direction of printing is selected by an operator, the direction of printing processing is set under portrait printing mode (step 12). When character data are read out of printing data, judgement is made to determine whether the printing is made getting over the right margin or not (step 19), and in the case where the judgement indicates the getting over the margin, setting for the direction of printing processing is revised to be made under landscape printing mode (step 24). Then coordinate transformation is made on the generated printing codes so that the printing processing can be made therewith under the landscape printing mode.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for processing print data received from a host device in a page printer.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a conventional page printer, and mainly shows the configuration of a control section.

[0003] In the figure, print data sent from a host device 1 is input to a control section 3 of a page printer 2 . Print data received by the communication interface section 4 is temporarily stored in a reception buffer 5. Print data consists of character data and control codes. Next, the data processing unit 6 reads the print data from the reception buffer 5, analyzes it, and
Edit to create a print code that has data attributes and print start position as information. The created print code is stored in the primitive buffer 7. When the print code for one page is created and stored in the primitive buffer 7, the font data corresponding to the print code is then read out from the font memory 9 by the expansion processing section 8 and stored in the raster buffer 10. This font data is data developed into a paper image. When printing is activated here, font data is read from the raster buffer 10, converted into serial data by the parallel-serial conversion register 11, and sent to the printing unit 13 through the interface unit 12. Printing section 13
1 page is printed.

The print code created by the data processing unit 6 generally includes a font data storage address and each print character (A, B, B, etc.) as shown in FIG.
C) Character cell information that defines the width w and height h for the cell, and the vertical position Y0, as printing start position information.
horizontal position X0. These print codes vary depending on how the printing process direction is selected.

[0005] In normal page printers, two types of print processing directions are set. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, there are portrait printing in which the print finish is in the portrait direction, and landscape printing in which the print finish is in the landscape direction. The operator may select in advance which of these two print processing directions to print, or it may also be selected using a control code in the print data sent from the host device 1. As shown in FIG. 5, the number of characters that can be printed in one line varies depending on the print processing direction even on sheets of the same size.

Next, according to the flowchart in FIG.
The operation of the data processing unit 6 to create a print code will be explained. In this creation operation, it is assumed that the print processing direction is selected by the operator, and the print processing direction is not specified by the control code in the print data.

When the print data sent from the host device 1 is stored in the reception buffer 5, the data processing section 6 sets the print processing direction to the direction selected by the operator (step 1). Next, the data processing section 6 reads the print data from the reception buffer 5 (step 2), and determines whether it is character data or a control code (step 3). If it is a control code, processing according to the code is performed (step 4). (At this point, if the print processing direction is specified by the control code, the print processing direction is reset.) Through the control code processing, it is determined whether a print start condition such as a page break instruction has occurred ( Step 5), if it occurs, the expansion processing unit 8
(Step 6).

[0008] When the character data is read in step 3, it is determined whether the characters to be printed in one line fit within the print area, calculated from the current print start position and the character width w shown in FIG. Determine (step 7), and if it fits, create a print code and store it in the primitive buffer 7 (
Step 8), continue processing. If it does not fit within the print area, that is, if it exceeds the light margin (shown in FIG. 5), a light margin overflow process is performed (step 9).

Normal light margin over processing includes truncation processing that ignores character data that does not fit within the print area and does not create a print code for it, and truncates character data that does not fit within the print area and moves the printing start position of character data that does not fit to the leftmost end of the next line. There is a carriage return process to set and create a print code. FIG. 7 shows the truncation process, and FIG. 8 shows the return/line feed process. In each example, print data for landscape printing is sent from a host device and the operator selects portrait printing. Character data (F, G) that does not fit within the print area disappears in FIG. 7, and is set on the next line in FIG. 8. After performing the light margin over processing, it is determined whether or not a print start condition has occurred (step 5). If the condition has occurred, the process proceeds to step 6; if it has not occurred, the process returns to step 2.

0010

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the data processing method described above, if the print data sent from the host device does not include a control code for selecting the print processing direction, the print processing direction selected by the operator is There is a problem in that the print data sent from the host device may not be compatible with the printer, and the print result that the operator desires cannot necessarily be obtained. For example, using Fig. 7, an operator who has selected portrait printing may print character data (F, G) with a light margin over
There are cases where landscape printing is preferred to disappearing, and conventional processing methods have not been able to perform landscape printing in such cases.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and its purpose is to create a print code for one page from print data from a host device by reducing the number of characters that can be printed in one line. By making it possible to set the printing direction auto mode, which prints in a portrait printing direction and automatically switches to landscape printing if the light margin is exceeded, printing can be performed according to the operator's wishes. The purpose of the present invention is to provide an excellent page printer data processing method.

0012

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention creates a print code based on print data received from a host device and a print processing direction selected from portrait printing/landscape printing. However, in the data processing method of a page printer that stores the created print code for one page in a buffer, the print processing direction is set to portrait printing, and one line of character data read from the print data is converted to portrait printing. A mode is provided in which it is determined whether or not a set line range has been exceeded, and if the line range has been exceeded, the print processing direction is reset to landscape printing and a print code is created for landscape printing.

[0013]

[Operation] When the above mode is selected during the print code creation operation, the print processing direction is first set to portrait printing, which has a small number of characters that can be printed in one line, and then one line of character data is set to portrait printing. It is determined whether the line range has been exceeded. If this is exceeded, the print processing direction is reset to landscape printing, which allows for a larger number of characters to be printed in one line, and a print code is created based on this direction. Therefore, even if the operator desires portrait printing, if the operator desires that the printed characters do not exceed the line range, this mode may be selected.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Note that elements common to each drawing are given the same reference numerals.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing a data processing operation according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a page printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, in FIG. 2, a page printer 21 according to this embodiment has a configuration substantially similar to that of the conventional example. The data processing section 22 is different from the conventional one, and this data processing section 22 is programmed to execute a print direction auto mode, which will be described later. The print auto mode is selected by the operator in the mode setting section 23.

Next, the print code creation operation according to the embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. The print data sent from the host device 1 is received by the communication interface section 4,
Once stored in the reception buffer 5, the data processing unit 22 starts creating a print code.

First, it is determined whether the print direction auto mode is selected (step 11). Here, print direction auto mode means that the print processing direction is first set to portrait printing, and if light margin overflow occurs, the print code for portrait printing that has already been created is re-created for landscape printing, and then the printing direction is set to portrait printing. This mode sets the processing direction to landscape printing and creates the remaining print code. If the print direction auto mode is selected, the print processing direction is set to portrait printing (step 12), and if the auto mode is not selected, the print processing direction is set to the print processing direction instructed by the operator (step 13). .

Next, the data processing unit 22 reads the print data from the reception buffer 5 (step 14), and determines whether it is character data or a control code (step 15). If it is a control code, perform processing according to the code (step 16).
). (Here, if the control code specifies the print processing direction, set the print processing direction as specified and cancel the print direction auto mode.) The print start condition is generated by the control code processing. As a result, if it is determined that the print start condition has occurred, for example when the control code is a print instruction code, the print code for one page has been created. It is determined that this is the case and instructs the expansion processing unit 8 to perform expansion processing (step 18). If the print start condition does not occur, the process returns to step 14, reads the next print data from the reception buffer 5, and continues the process.

When the character data is read out in step 15, it is determined whether the characters to be printed in one line fit within the print area, calculated from the current print start position and the character width w shown in FIG. Determination is made (step 19). If it fits within the print area, a print code is created and stored in the primitive buffer 7 (step 20), and processing continues.

If it does not fit within the print area, it is determined whether the print direction auto mode is selected (step 21), and if it is determined that it is not selected, the operator directly selects the desired print processing direction. Executes light margin over processing (step 2).
2) If it is determined that the print direction auto mode is selected, it is further determined whether the print processing direction is set to portrait printing (step 23), and if it is not portrait printing, the light margin is set in step 22. Perform over processing. If it is set to portrait printing, reset the print processing direction to landscape printing (step 24), convert the coordinates of the print code for portrait printing that has been created so far, and create the print code for landscape printing again. (Step 25). Thereafter, the process returns to step 14, the print data is read from the reception buffer 5, and the process of creating a print code for landscape printing is continued. As described above, if you want to fit printed characters within the print area, by selecting the print direction auto mode, you can automatically create a print code for landscape printing even if a light margin overflow occurs.

[0022]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the print processing direction is set to portrait printing in the initial state, and as a result of processing the print data sent from the host device, the light margin overflow is detected. If this occurs, you can now select the print direction auto mode, which automatically resets the print processing direction to landscape printing and creates a print code, so even if you want portrait printing, the light margin will be lower than that. It becomes possible to create print data that meets the demands of operators who do not wish to overprint.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing the operation of an embodiment of the present invention.

[
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a page printer according to an embodiment.

[Figure 3] Block configuration diagram showing a conventional page printer

[
Figure 4: Explanatory diagram showing print codes

[Fig. 5] Explanatory diagram showing the print processing direction

[Figure 6] Flowchart showing conventional print code creation operation

[Figure 7] Explanatory diagram showing truncation processing

[Figure 8] Explanatory diagram showing carriage return and line feed processing

[Explanation of symbols]

1. Upper device 3 Control section 5 Receive buffer 7 Primitive buffer 22　　　　Data processing section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Create a print code based on print data received from a host device and a print processing direction selected from portrait printing or landscape printing;
In the data processing method of a page printer that stores the created print code for one page in a buffer, the print processing direction is set to portrait printing, and one line of character data read from the print data is set to portrait printing. A page printer characterized by having a mode for determining whether or not a line range has been exceeded, and resetting the print processing direction to landscape printing if the line range has been exceeded, and creating a print code for landscape printing. data processing methods.