JPH0459372A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce a data transmission time to prevent the lowering of a printing efficiency of a page printer by a method wherein fixed printing data, such as a form overlay pattern and image data, is prestored in a page printer, and only characters or other printing data which vary for every page are transmitted from a host device. CONSTITUTION:On an instruction from a host device 1, a control means 3 develops only a printing pattern corresponding to compressed printing data read from a first area 7 on a bit map memory 4 and makes a printing mechanism part 9 print the data. Furthermore, on an instruction from the host device 1, the control means 3 reads a printing pattern from a storage means 5, develops only this printing pattern on the bit map memory 4, and makes the printing mechanism part 9 print the data. Therefore, by prestoring a form overlay pattern, image data, and the like in the storage means 5 as a predetermined printing pattern, the need for transmitting the form overlay pattern or the image data from the host device 1 to a printer 2 for every page is eliminated, and a data transmission time can be reduced.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] The stored data for one page and the print data for one page given each time printing is performed from a host device are printed in a superimposed manner, or each is printed separately. Regarding printing devices that can print independently, the print data sent by the host device is compressed and stored in a buffer memory, and the print data read from the buffer memory, with the aim of preventing a decline in print processing efficiency. A printing device that reads out and prints a print pattern corresponding to a bitmap memory while developing it in a bitmap memory, a storage means for storing a preset print pattern, a print pattern stored in the storage means, and a compressed memory for storing the print pattern. and the printing pattern corresponding to the printed printing date.
The bitmap memory is provided with a control means for respectively expanding the bitmap memory separately or in a superimposed manner.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention makes it possible to print one page of stored data and one page of print data given from a host device each time it is printed, or to print each page independently. The present invention relates to a printing device.

In recent years, various printing devices have been provided that print data processed by a computer, and page printers are one that prints at high speed. And this page printer
For example, when printing a slip, etc., generally use paper on which a form overlay pattern representing fixed parts such as ruled lines and heading characters is printed in advance, and the witness information field specified by the printed form overlay pattern of this paper. It is designed to be printed inside.

However, it is desirable to use regular paper, use an arbitrarily created form overlay pattern, and write different characters, etc. on each page in the witness information column within this form overlay pattern. It is rare.

Furthermore, when printing with characters etc. written in the image data, the characters etc. written in the image data may differ from page to page.

However, in order to realize such a request, it is necessary not to reduce the print processing efficiency of the page printer.

[Prior Art] A conventional page printer is composed of a control unit and a printing mechanism unit. The control unit receives print data from a host device, develops a corresponding print pattern in a focus map memory, and the print mechanism unit In synchronization with the synchronization signal to be sent out, a video signal obtained by scanning this bitmap memory is sent to the printing mechanism section.

Further, the printing mechanism section modulates the light sent out by the light source using this video signal, scans an image carrier such as a photosensitive drum with this modulated light to form a latent image, and causes toner to adhere to this latent image. Printing is performed using a so-called electrophotographic method in which the toner is developed and transferred onto paper.

This page printer uses a full bitmap method to develop the print pattern for one page on the bitmap memory, and a method to save the bitmap memory capacity. Therefore, the print data for one page is compressed and stored.
Create a print pattern from this compressed print data,
There is a partial bitmap method in which a part of the print pattern for one page is developed on a bitmap memory.

Then, in a page printer that uses the full bitmap method, when the print pattern for one page is developed on the bitmap memory, the printing mechanism starts transporting the paper, and when the paper reaches a predetermined position. At this time, a rask scan of the bitmap memory is started.

In addition, when a page printer that uses the partial bitmap method compresses and stores one page's worth of print data, it causes the printing mechanism to start transporting the paper, and then waits until the paper reaches a predetermined position. During this time, a print pattern is developed in a bitmap memory, and when the paper reaches a predetermined position, rask scanning of this bitmap memory is started.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The above-mentioned page printers print with different characters, etc. written on each page in the form overlay pattern and the witness information column in this form overlay pattern, or write different characters on each page in the image data. When printing as written, even if the form overlay pattern or image data is fixed, it is necessary to send the form overlay pattern or image data and print data such as characters from the host device to the page printer for each page. There is.

Therefore, there is a problem that the amount of data to be transferred to the page printer is large, the data transfer time becomes long, and the print processing efficiency of the page printer is reduced.

Furthermore, in page printers that use the partial bitmap method, print data for one page is compressed and stored in the buffer memory, but when printing a particularly large number of characters on one page, or when printing complex image data, etc. In this case, the capacity may be insufficient to store one page's worth of print data, and in this case, data transmission from the host device is forced to wait, which increases data transfer processing time and reduces print processing efficiency. There is a problem with lowering it.

In view of these problems, the present invention stores fixed print data such as form overlay patterns and image data in the page printer, and only transfers print data such as characters that differ from page to page from the host device. The purpose is to shorten data transfer time and prevent a decline in print processing efficiency of a page printer.

[Means to solve the problem]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the invention in detail.

The control means 3 of the printing device 2 compresses the print data sent by the host device 1 and stores it in a first area 7 which is a buffer memory area of the memory 6, and reads the compressed print data from this first area 7. After converting the print pattern into a corresponding print pattern, the print pattern preset in the storage means 5 is read out based on an instruction from the host device 1, and the print pattern is superimposed on the print pattern and developed in the bitmap memory 4.

The bitmap memory 4 is scanned and read out, sent to the printing mechanism section 9, where a latent image is formed on an image carrier such as a photosensitive drum, developed with toner, and then transferred to paper for printing. .

Further, the control means 3 develops only the print pattern corresponding to the compressed print data read from the first area 7 in the bitmap memory 4 according to an instruction from the host device 1, and stores it in the print mechanism section 9 in the same manner as described above. Let it print.

Furthermore, the control means 3 reads out the print pattern from the storage means 5 according to an instruction from the host device 1, develops only this print pattern in the bitmap memory 4, and causes the printing mechanism section 9 to print it in the same manner as described above.

Further, when storing print data in the first area 7 of the memory 6, the control means 3 decrements the address pointer from the last address of the memory 6 and stores it sequentially, and stores any pattern such as a custom character pattern in the memory 6. When storing in the second area, the address pointer is incremented from the first address of the memory 6 and stored sequentially.

Then, the boundary between the first area and the second area is moved based on the values of the mutual address pointers, and the entire storage capacity of the memory 6 is utilized.

[Effect]

By configuring as described above, if a form overlay pattern, image data, etc. are stored as a print pattern set in advance in the storage means 5, the form overlay pattern and image data are sent from the host device l to the printing device 2 for each page. Since there is no need to transfer image data, the data transfer time is shortened, and the print processing efficiency of the printing device can be improved.

Furthermore, when the amount of arbitrary patterns stored in the second area 8 of the memory 6 is small, the storage capacity of the first area 7 as a buffer memory becomes large, so that the print data sent from the host device 1 is This makes it possible to import large amounts of data, increasing print processing efficiency.

〔Example〕

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a circuit showing an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a CG area.

The data receiving section 10 receives print data sent from the host device, converts the serial signal into a parallel signal, and converts the data into a parallel signal.
Send to.

The data analysis unit 11 analyzes the print data, compresses the print data, and writes it into the buffer area 63 of the memory 6. In other words, the address of the CG area 61 where the memory 60 character pattern is stored, and this character pattern are The information on the position on the paper to be printed is compressed and written into the buffer area 63 of the memory 6.

As shown in FIG. 3, the CG area 61 of the memory 6 has, for example,
When the address is 1001, the character pattern of is read out, when the address is 1002, the character pattern of B is read out, and when the address is 1003, the character pattern of C is read out.

Therefore, if the compressed print data has a character code of A, the address 1001 and the position on the paper where the character pattern of A is printed are stored as a pair in the buffer area 63. The data analysis unit 11 decrements the address pointer 14 that specifies the address of the buffer area 63 and sequentially writes the data.

That is, for example, if address 6000 of memory 6 indicates the final area of buffer area 63, the value of address pointer 14 is changed from 6000 to 5999.599B, -
・Write compressed print data by sequentially decrementing with -.

Further, when the data analysis unit 11 is instructed to register a custom character from the host device, the data analysis unit 11 stores the custom character pattern sent by the host device in the memory 6.
At this time, if the address 2001 of the memory 6 indicates the first area of the external character area 62, the value of the address pointer 15 is changed from 2001 to 2002.20.
03. - are sequentially incremented to sequentially write character bone patterns, that is, have the same configuration as the CG area 61.

The data analysis unit 11 constantly compares the values of the address pointers 14 and 15, and when the difference becomes 1, the value of the address pointer 14 is returned to 6000, and the data in the buffer area 63 is read out and can be erased. If so, the value of the address pointer 14 is decremented again and the compressed print data is written.

Furthermore, when the data analysis unit 11 receives a form overlay pattern as a print pattern that is set in advance from a host device, the data analysis unit 11 writes it in the set pattern area 64 of the memory 6 . That is, if the address of the first area of the setting pattern area 64 is 6001, the form overlay pattern is developed in an area corresponding to one page from this address.

The development control unit 12 uses data read from the buffer area 63 of the memory 6 to superimpose the form overlay pattern and print data based on the command sent by the host device transferred by the data analysis unit 11. At the address, the character pattern in the CG area 61 or the character pattern in the external character area 62 of the memory 6 is read out, and from the print position of this character pattern, the margins and characters at the top and bottom edges of the paper are read out, corresponding to one page of paper. The printing position, line spacing, character spacing, etc. are calculated, and the form overlay pattern read from the setting pattern area 64 is superimposed on the character pattern, so that the character pattern and form overlay pattern are printed on one page of paper. The data are sequentially developed on the bitmap memory 4 so that the state becomes the same.

Then, the print control section 13 is instructed to send a start signal to the printing mechanism section 9. When the printing mechanism section 9 feeds out the paper and sends out a data sending request, the print control section 13 starts rask scanning of the bitmap memory 4 in synchronization with the synchronization signal sent by the printing mechanism section 9, and scans this rask. Sending the video signal obtained by scanning to the printing mechanism section 9 to modulate the light from the light source scanning on the photosensitive drum,
A latent image is formed on the photosensitive drum.

After writing to the final area of the bitmap memory 4, the expansion control unit 12 performs rask scanning again and expands the data from the blank start area of the bitmap memory 4.

By repeating this process, one page's worth of data is developed in the bitmap memory 4, and this one page's worth of data is sent to the printing mechanism section 9 as a video signal.

Therefore, as described above, the printing mechanism section 9 applies toner to the latent image formed on the photosensitive drum, develops it, transfers the developed toner image onto paper, and then fixes it to print one page. .

Further, when the host device instructs printing of only the form overlay pattern by a command, the development control section 12 reads out the form overlay pattern from the setting pattern area 64 of the memory 6 and develops it in the bi-tonma knob memory 4.

Furthermore, if only printing is instructed, the compressed data is read from the buffer area 63 of the memory 6, the corresponding character pattern is read from the CG area 61 or the external character area 62,
The data is expanded to the bint map memory 4.

In this embodiment, a setting pattern area 64 is provided in the memory 6,
Although it has been described that the host device stores the form overlay pattern, etc., it goes without saying that the setting pattern area 64 may be configured with an IC card or the like that stores the form overlay pattern, etc., and may be implemented externally.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention does not require transferring the same pattern for each page from the host device, and the capacity of the buffer memory for compressing and storing print data is not fixed, so data transfer efficiency can be improved. It becomes possible,
Print processing efficiency can be improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram explaining the present invention in detail, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a circuit showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram explaining an example of a CG area. In the figure, 1 is a host device, 2 is a printing device, 3 is a control means,
4 is a focus map memory, 5 is a storage means,
6 is a memory, 7 is a first area, 8 is a second area, 9 is a printing mechanism section, 10 is a data receiving section, 11 is a data analysis section,
12 is a development control unit, 13 is a print control unit, 14.15
is an address pointer, 61 is a CG area, 62 is a custom character area, 63 is a buffer area, and 64 is a setting pattern area. Ichii 1Σ theory of CG leaning! 1t6 figure 3 figure

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) Compress the print data sent by the host device (1) and store it in a buffer memory, and expand the print pattern corresponding to the print data read from the buffer memory into the bitmap memory (4). Printing device (2) that reads and prints while
), storage means (5) for storing preset printing patterns;
and separately developing the print pattern stored in the storage means (5) and the print pattern corresponding to the compressed and stored print data in the bitmap memory (4), or A printing device characterized by comprising: a control means (3) for superimposing and unfolding; 2) In the printing device (2), a first area (7) used as the buffer memory and a second area for recording an arbitrary pattern are provided on the same memory (6).
a region (8), and the boundary between the first region (7) and the second region (8) is moved according to the amount of data stored in each region. Device.