JPH04336664A - Printing processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To restrain the increase of printing processing time in proportion to the number of printings at the time of the printing of plural documents. CONSTITUTION:In the printing processing after the second part and later of the document, a printing page index table 5 is retrieved and the output information of the document data registering the page information is read out from a cache memory part 3 corresponding to the page information and notified to a printing processing part 6. The printing processing part 6 print-outputs the output information notified from the data reading processing part 1.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print processing apparatus. When printing multiple copies of a document, it is necessary to develop one page of document data into output control information that can be printed out by the printing device and transfer it to the page buffer of the printing device. The number of deployments increases in proportion to the number of copies printed,
A problem has arisen in that the printing processing time increases.

[0002] In printing a plurality of copies, it is required to suppress an increase in printing time.

0003

[Prior Art] When printing multiple copies (m copies) of a document consisting of multiple pages (n pages), first print one copy of the document, one
A method of printing continuously from page n to page n, and then printing the next page in the same way starting from page 1 (
Here, there is a method of printing the required number of copies of each page (referred to as printing for each document) and a method of printing the required number of copies for each page (referred to as multiple-copy printing of pages). In a printing device without this function, printing a plurality of pages requires manual sorting of documents after printing, so a printing method for each document is adopted.

FIG. 6 shows a conventional system configuration diagram, and FIG. 7 shows a conventional print processing procedure. Document data to be printed is stored in an external storage device 75 as a document data file 72. When a request to print multiple documents is issued to the processing device 70 by a command from the display device 78, in processing step 41, the print management unit 74 sends the display device 7
The identification information and number of print copies of the print document are read from 8 and notified to the data read processing section 77.

[0005] In processing step 42, the data read processing unit 77
reads the document data file 72 to be printed from the external storage device 75, extracts data page by page, converts the data for printer output, generates page data output information, and develops it in the page memory 71.

[0006] For printing, a raster system is adopted in which characters, images, etc. are formed by points arranged in a grid pattern, and pixels (points that make up the image) corresponding to the document data are generated on a page-by-page basis (page data output information) and stores it in the page memory 71 for printing.

[0007] In processing step 43, the data read processing unit 77
requests the print processing section 6 to print. Processing step 44
Then, the print processing unit 76 transfers the contents of the page memory to the printer device 73 and prints one page. Similarly, in processing step 45, the next page of document data is printed. When printing of all pages is completed in processing step 46, printing of the next document is started, and the printing process is continued until printing of the required number of copies is completed.

[0008]

FIG. 8 shows the number of times page data output information is generated. The number of times page data output information is generated when printing document data is determined by the product of the number of pages to be printed and the number of copies to be printed, as shown in Figure 8(a), and the processing time for printing multiple documents is proportional to the number of copies to be printed. The problem was that it was increasing.

[0009] Printing of a document is performed page by page, but for certain pages that require an extremely long processing time to generate page data output information, the generated page data output information is held in a cache memory section. This aims to improve the efficiency of printing multiple documents.

0010

[Means for Solving the Problems] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the principle of the present invention. It has a data read processing section 1, a document data file 2, a cache memory section 3, a timer section 4, a print page index table 5, and a print processing section 6, and the document data file 2 contains document data to be printed. The cache memory unit 3 holds page data output information obtained by converting data of a predetermined print page of document data for printer output, and the data read processing unit 1 stores page data output information when there is a request to print a plurality of copies of a document. In the printing process for the first part of the document, the document data for printing one page is read from the document data file 2, the document data is converted for printer output, page data output information is generated, and the page data is output. The processing time required to generate information is counted by activating the timer unit 4, and page data output information for which the processing time exceeds a predetermined value is stored in the cache memory unit 3, and the page information of the document data and the page data are stored in the cache memory unit 3. A print page index table 5 consisting of cache memory information holding data output information is generated, the page data output information is notified to the print processing unit 6, and the print page index table 5 is , the output information of the document data in which the page information is registered is read out from the cache memory section 3 corresponding to the page information, and is notified to the print processing section 6;
Document data for which page information is not registered is read from the document data file 2, converted to page data output information, and notified to the print processing section 6.
The output information notified from is output to the printer.

[0011]

[Operation] The data read processing section 1 calculates the processing time required to generate page data output information by starting the timer section 4, and stores the page data output information whose processing time exceeds a predetermined value into the cache memory section 3. The print processing time for multiple documents can be reduced by storing the page data and reading it from the cache memory section 3 and requesting the print processing section 6 to print it without having to generate the page data output information again when printing the second and subsequent copies. It can be shortened.

0012

Embodiment FIG. 2 shows a system configuration diagram of an embodiment, and FIG. 3 shows a printing processing procedure for the first part of a document. When a request to print a plurality of copies of a document stored in the document data file 2 is issued to the processing device 10 by a command from the display device 11, the print management section 14 requests the printing from the display device 11 in processing step 80. The document identification information and the number of copies to be printed are read and notified to the data read processing section 1. In processing step 81, the data read processing unit 1 initializes the print page index table 5. That is, the number of pages of the document to be printed and the number of copies to be printed are set in the print page index table 5.

FIG. 4 shows an explanatory diagram of the print page index table. In processing step 82, the data read processing unit 1 reads the document data file 2 to be printed from the external storage device 12, extracts data page by page, converts the data for printer output, and generates page data output information. It is generated and expanded to the page memory 61. At this time, the timer section 4 is activated to obtain the time (P) required to generate the page data output information.

If the time P required for generation exceeds the predetermined value S, in processing step 83 the data read processing section 1 stores the page data output information in the cache memory section 3, and stores the page data output information and the corresponding page number. The cache memory information (Ci) to be stored is registered in the print page index table 5.

At processing step 84, the data read processing unit 1 requests the print processing unit 6 to perform printing. In processing step 85, the print processing unit 6 transfers the contents of the page memory to the printer device 1.
3 and print one page. When the printing of the first copy (all pages) of the document data is completed in processing step 86,
The process moves to the document printing process for the second and subsequent copies shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 shows the document printing processing procedure for the second and subsequent copies. In processing step 91, the data read processing unit 1 determines the page to be printed (printing is performed in the order of page 1, page 2, etc.). In processing step 92, the data read processing unit 1 checks whether the page to be printed is registered in the print page index table 5. If the print page has already been registered in the print page index table 5, in processing step 93, the data read processing section 1 develops the page data output information stored in the cache memory section 3 into the page memory 61, and the print processing section 6 to request printing.

If the page to be printed is not registered in the print page index table 5, in a processing step 94, the data read processing section 1 reads the data of the page from the document data file 2, converts it into data for printer output. It generates page data output information, develops it in the page memory 61, and requests the print processing section 6 to print it. In processing step 95, the print processing unit 6 transfers the contents of the page memory to the printer device 13, prints one page, and issues a notification of printing completion to the data read processing unit 1. In processing step 96, the data read processing section 1 checks whether all pages of the document have been printed and whether a predetermined number of copies have been printed.

[0018]

The data read processing unit 1 calculates the processing time required to generate page data output information by activating the timer unit 4, and stores the page data output information whose processing time exceeds a predetermined value in the cache memory. 3, a predetermined number of pages (page a in FIG. 8(b)) are stored in the print index table 5.
The printing process, which conventionally required processing time corresponding to n×m, is reduced to n+(n
-a)×(m-1) (FIG. 8(b)).

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

[Figure 1] Block diagram of the principle of the present invention

[Figure 2] System configuration diagram of the embodiment

[Figure 3] Printing process procedure for the first part of the document

[Figure 4]
Diagram of print index table

[Figure 5] Document printing process procedure for second and subsequent copies

[Figure 6] Conventional system configuration diagram

[Figure 7] Conventional print processing procedure

[Figure 8] Number of times page data output information is generated

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 77 are data read processing units; 10, 70 are processing devices; 11, 78 are display devices; 12, 75 are external storage devices; 13, 73 are printer devices; 14, 74 are print management units; 2, 72 are Document data file, 3 is a cache memory section, 4 is a timer section, 5 is a print page index table, 6, 76 are print processing sections, 61, 71 are page memories, 41-46, 80-86, 91-96 are processing Represents a step.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A data read processing section (1), a document data file (2), a cache memory section (3), a timer section (4), a print page index table (5), and a print processing section ( 6), the document data file (2) holds document data to be printed, and the cache memory section (3)
holds page data output information obtained by converting the data of a predetermined print page of document data for printer output, and the data read processing unit (1) stores the first part of the document when there is a request to print multiple copies of the document. In the second printing process, document data for printing one page is read from the document data file (2), the document data is converted for printer output, page data output information is generated, and the page data output information is generated. The required processing time is counted by activating the timer unit (4), page data output information for which the processing time exceeds a predetermined value is stored in the cache memory unit (3), and the page information of the document data and the page data are stored in the cache memory unit (3). A print page index table (5) consisting of cache memory information that holds data output information is generated, the page data output information is notified to the print processing unit (6), and in the printing process for the second and subsequent parts of the document, the print page index table (5) is The page index table (5) is searched, and the output information of the document data in which the page information is registered is read out from the cache memory section (3) corresponding to the page information, and is notified to the print processing section (6). The unregistered document data is read from the document data file (2), converted into page data output information, and notified to the print processing section (6), which in turn reads out the data read processing section (1). 1. A print processing device that outputs output information notified from a printer to a printer.