JPH0439077A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform printing while text information and image information are composed, by a method wherein the image information which is input from an image reader is converted to print data, and print data are output to a printer while the text information and the print data are composed according to synchronous signals that are output from the printer. CONSTITUTION:When image information is input from an image reader (a scanner 114) and synchronous signals 126 are output from a printing mechanism 113, a data converter (a signal converting circuit 112) converts the image information to print data. At this time, a data composing device (consisting of an AND gate 110 and others) begins to read out print signals 130 and outputs print data 124 to the printing mechanism 113 while composing the text information (image data 122) and the print signals 130 according to the synchronous signals output from the printing mechanism 113, so that composite text-image print data consisting of composed characters and images are printed on a recording medium.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field 1] This invention inputs text information consisting of character codes etc. from a host computer, develops it into dot pattern information, and then outputs it to a printing mechanism to print. The present invention relates to a printing device that operates.

[Prior Art J] FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a data processing section in a conventional printing device, in which 101 is an input control section;
2 is a page memory, 103 is a character pattern generation unit, 10
4 is the main control unit, which stores each device connected to the bus in ROM.
Control is performed based on a control program stored in 105. 106 is a work RAM, 107 is a bitmap memory, 108 is a parallel-to-serial converter, 109 is a timing control section, 113 is a printing mechanism section, 121 is text data, 124 is image data, 125 is a print start signal, 126 is synchronization It's a signal.

The operation will be explained below.

Sent from a host computer, etc., text data 121 consisting of character codes, etc. is input from the input control unit 101 and stored in the page memory 102.Next, the text information stored in the page memory 102 is Main control unit 10
4, the data is read out sequentially from the beginning. The main control section 104 converts the text information read from the page memory 102 into dot pattern information by referring to the character pattern generation section 103 and stores it in the bitmap memory 107. After creating dot pattern information for one page, the main control section 104 outputs a print start signal 125 to the printing mechanism section 113. As a result, the printing mechanism section 113
starts printing operation. Next, when the synchronization signal 126 is input from the printing mechanism section 113, the timing control section 109
reads out the dot pattern information on the bitmap memory 107 in order from the beginning. The read dot pattern information is parallel-to-serial converted by a parallel-to-serial converter 10, and then sent to the printing mechanism section 113 as image data 124 and printed.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above conventional example, when printing text information created by a host computer etc. and image information read by an image reading device, the image information read by the image reading device is first printed by the host computer, etc. There was a problem in that the data had to be input into a computer, combined with text information on the host computer, and then output to a printer.

This invention was made to solve the above problems, and by outputting print data while composing dot-converted text information and image information input from an image reading means, the printing means can print an image. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing device capable of printing while integrating host input information in parallel with reading image information directly input from a reading means.

[Means for Solving the Problems 1] A printing apparatus according to the present invention includes an image reading means for reading image information, a data conversion means for converting the image information input from the image reading means into print data,
The apparatus is provided with data synthesis means for outputting print data to the printing mechanism while synthesizing text information and print data based on a synchronization signal output from the printing mechanism.

[Operation 1] In this invention, when a predetermined synchronization signal is output from the printing mechanism, the data conversion means converts image information input from the image reading means into print data.

At this time, the data synthesis means outputs the print data to the print mechanism while synthesizing the text information and the print data that has started reading based on the synchronization signal output from the print mechanism, and then outputs the print data to the print mechanism, creating a composite image consisting of the synthesized characters and images. Print a document image on a recording medium.

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a printing device showing an embodiment of the present invention, and the same parts as in FIG. 4 are given the same reference numerals.

In the figure, 110 is an AND gate, and the parallel-to-serial converter 1
08 (corresponding to text information converted into dots based on the character data input from the host) and the image data 123 output from the OR gate 111, and the final The print data 124 is output to the printer engine (print mechanism section) 113.

Reference numeral 114 denotes a scanner serving as an image reading means, which reads a document (not shown) at a predetermined resolution and outputs read data to the signal conversion circuit 112. A signal conversion circuit 112 converts the read data output from the scanner 114 into a predetermined print signal 130 and outputs it to the OR gate 111.

125 is a print start signal, and 126 is a synchronization signal, which are output from the printing mechanism section 113 to the scanner 114 and the timing control section 109. An image reading start request signal (SCREQ) 127 is output from the signal conversion circuit 112 to the scanner 114.

128 is a scanner ready signal (SCRDY), which indicates that preparation for outputting the image data read by the image reading device (scanner) 114 has been completed; 129 is a scanner selection signal (SCENB), which is sent from the image reading device 114; Select whether to enable/disable image data.

In the printing device configured in this way, the printing mechanism section 1
When a predetermined synchronization signal 126 is output from 13, the data conversion means (in this embodiment, the signal conversion circuit 112) converts the image information input from the image reading means (in this embodiment, the scanner 114) into print data. Line (.

At this time, based on the synchronization signal 126 outputted from the printing mechanism section 113, the data synthesis means (consisting of the AND gate 110 in this embodiment) generates the text information (image data 122) and the print signal 130 that has started reading.
The print data 124 is sent to the printing mechanism section 113 while combining the
A composite document image consisting of the combined characters and images is printed on a recording medium.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating the composite printing process in the printing device according to the present invention, in which (a) shows the image data 122 input and processed from the host, and (b) shows the image data 122 read by the scanner 114. , shows the print signal 130 converted by the signal conversion circuit 112, and (C) shows the result of composite printing.

The operation of each part will be explained below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

Text data 121 consisting of character codes and the like sent from a host computer or the like is input from the input control section 101 and stored in the page memory 102.

Next, the text information stored in the page memory 102 is sequentially read out from the beginning by the main control unit 104. The main control unit 104 refers to the text information read from the page memory 102 by referring to the character pattern generation unit 103.
Convert to dot pattern information and store in bitmap memory 10
Store in 7. After creating the dot pattern information for one page, the main control unit 104 outputs the dot pattern information to an external image reading device 114.
In response, the timing control unit 109 outputs an image reading start request signal (SCREQ) 127. The image reading device 114 receives an image reading start request signal (SCREQ) 1
When 27 is input, an image reading operation is performed.

After completing the image reading operation, the image reading device 114 outputs a scanner ready signal (SCRDY) 128 to the timing control unit 109 to notify that the read image information can be output. Next, the scanner ready signal (SC
When RDY) 128 is input, the main control section 104 outputs a print start signal 125 to the printing mechanism section 113. The printing mechanism section 113 starts a printing operation when the printing start signal 125 is input.

Next, a synchronization signal 126 is output from the printing mechanism section 113 to the timing control section 109 and the image reading device 114. When the timing control section 109 receives the synchronization signal 126, it sequentially reads out the dot pattern information on the bitmap memory 107 from the beginning. The read dot pattern information is parallel-to-serial converted by the parallel-to-serial converter 10B, and then output as image data 122.

On the other hand, when the synchronization signal 126 is input, the image reading device 114 converts the read images sequentially from the beginning into, for example, binary dot pattern information, and outputs it as a print signal 130.

Here, while the dot pattern information on the bitmap memory 107 is being output, the timing control unit 109
For example, during the interval E1 shown in FIG. 2(a), the scanner selection signal (SCENB) 129 is kept in the FALSE state, and after the output of the dot pattern information is finished, the second
During section E2 shown in Figure (a), the scanner selection signal (SC
ENB) 129 is set to TRUE.

Therefore, in the section E1 shown in FIG. 2(a), the dot pattern information created based on the text information input from the host computer is output to the printing mechanism section 113 through the AND gate 110, and In section E2 shown in b), dot pattern information created based on the image information read by the image reading device is output to the printing mechanism section 113 through the AND gate 110.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a data processing procedure in the printing apparatus according to the present invention. In addition, (1
1 to (11) indicate each step.

First, wait for the host data input to finish 1).
When the host data is input, the host data is analyzed and converted into dot pattern information by referring to the character pattern generation unit 103, and a dot image is developed in the bitmap memory 107 (2), and an image reading start request signal 127 is generated. (3) Next, wait for the scanner ready signal 128 to be inputted (4), and when inputted, output the print start signal 125 to the printing mechanism section 113 (5). 6), each data (print data on bitmap memory 1.7, scanner 11).
Start reading (data read in step 4) (7)
.

Next, print signal 1301 and image data 122 are output.8) Print data 1 is outputted via AND gate 110.
24 and output to the printing mechanism section 113 (9).

Next, it is determined whether printing of one page has been completed (lO), and if NO, the process returns to step (7), and if YES, it is determined whether printing of all pages has been completed (11).
, if No, the process returns to step (6), and if YES, the process ends.

Note that in the above embodiment, the case where the size of the document to be read and the text information input from the host are the same, but even if they are different sizes, the read data can be processed (scaling processing). , it is possible to synthesize image information that matches the output size of the host.

In addition, in the above embodiment, the scanner selection signal (SCENB)
129 has been described, by controlling the scanner selection signal (SCENB) 129 to be output at an arbitrary timing, an image in which an image and text are superimposed at a desired position can be output. You can also do it.

Further, in the above embodiment, a case has been described in which the image of the scanner 114 is processed as a simple binary image, but it may be a halftone image or a color image.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the present invention includes an image reading means for reading image information, a data conversion means for converting the image information inputted from the image reading means into print data, and an image information outputted from the printing mechanism. The data synthesis means outputs the print data to the printing mechanism while synthesizing text information and print data based on a synchronization signal, so it is possible to perform logical operation processing on the scanner input image in the storage medium and develop it, as in the case of conventional methods. However, compared to processing that outputs an image by combining it with a host input image, the waiting time required for expansion processing is shortened, and image reading and printing processing can be processed in parallel.

Therefore, the composite image output processing time per unit page can be significantly shortened, and the composite image output throughput can be significantly improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram explaining the configuration of a printing device showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram explaining composite printing processing in the printing device according to the invention, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram explaining the composition printing process in the printing device according to the invention. A flowchart illustrating an example of a data processing procedure in a printing device, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a data processing section in a conventional printing device. In the figure, 101 is an input control unit (1, C), 102 is a page memory (P, M), and 103 is a character pattern generation unit (C).
, G), 104 is a main control unit (MC), 105 is a ROM (P, M), 106 is a work RAM (W, R), 107 is a bitmap memory (B, M), 108 is a parallel/serial memory Converter (P/S), 10
Reference numeral 9 indicates a timing control section (T, C), 110 indicates an AND gate, 112 indicates a signal conversion circuit (D/R), 113 indicates a printing mechanism section (P, E), and 114 indicates a scanner (S, C). fruit diagram

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a printing device having a printing mechanism that performs printing based on text information converted to dot information, an image reading means reads image information, and a data conversion means converts the image information input from the image reading means into print data. and a data synthesizing means for outputting print data to the printing mechanism while synthesizing the text information and the print data based on a synchronization signal output from the printing mechanism.