JPH05138938A - Page printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To excellently maintain image quality of character font or geometrical diagram and picture to be printed on a recording medium even when a data in which text data or graphic command and image data are mixed in one and the same page. CONSTITUTION:When a data in which text data and image data are mixed in one and the same page is sent from a host device 17 to a controller 19, dot information outputted from the controller 19 in accordance with the text data prints an image with character font interpolated at an engine controller 21 by means of an engine mechanism 20. And also, the dot information of the image data outputted as it is from the controller 19 prints a picture image not interpolated at the engine controller 21, in one and the same page of a recording medium alternately by means of the engine mechanism 20.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a page printer having a function of interpolating dot information of image data or dot information of data other than image data with multivalued dot information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, dot information of image data transmitted from a host device or dot information corresponding to data other than image data such as text data and graphic commands has a function of interpolating with multivalued dot information. There is a page printer (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-112966).

[0003]

By the way, the dot information interpolation function of the page printer is designed to work for all dot information in the same page of the recording medium.
It is possible to instruct whether to interpolate all dot information on the same page of the recording medium or not, but it is not possible to instruct to interpolate only some dot information on the same page of the recording medium. ..

Further, since a character font printed according to text data and a geometric figure drawn according to a graphic command are mostly line segments, it is better to interpolate for a specific dot combination. Although it is printed or drawn neatly, many images drawn in accordance with the image data are halftone, so if interpolation is performed, the image quality rather deteriorates.

Therefore, when data in which text data or graphic commands and image data are mixed in the same page of the recording medium is transmitted from the host device,
There is a problem that the image quality of any one of the character font or the geometrical figure and the image printed on the recording medium is necessarily deteriorated.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and even if data in which text data or graphic commands and image data are mixed in the same page of a recording medium is transmitted, the recording medium is transmitted. An object of the present invention is to provide a page printer capable of maintaining good image quality of a character font or geometrical figure and an image to be printed on.

[0007]

According to the present invention, an image data inputted from the outside and data other than image data such as text data and graphic commands are edited page by page, and a data processing section is used for editing. Of the image data output from the data storage means, a data storage means for separately storing the stored image data and data other than the image data, a dot information generation means for outputting dot information corresponding to the data other than the image data Depending on dot information interpolating means for interpolating either dot information or dot information of data other than image data output from the dot information generating means as multi-valued dot information, non-interpolated dot information or interpolated dot information The recording medium on which the printed image is printed by the printing means, The image is re-supplied to the printing means by the supply mechanism, and the image corresponding to the dot information that is interpolated or the dot information that is not interpolated is printed again on the same page of the recording medium, so that the image of the dot information that is not interpolated and the dot that is interpolated An engine controller that mixes an image of information with the same page is provided.

[0008]

According to the present invention, even if data in which text data or graphic commands and image data are mixed in the same page is transmitted from the host device to the controller, the dot information of the text data or graphic commands is interpolated. The operation of printing an image of a character font or geometric figure and the operation of printing an image of an image without interpolating dot information of image data are alternately performed within the same page of the recording medium. The image quality of both the graphic image and the image can be kept excellent.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the construction of an engine mechanism portion according to an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 is a cleaning device for removing toner adhering to the surface of the photosensitive member 2, and 3 is a cleaning device comprising a light emitting diode array. This static eliminator 3 is a photoconductor 2
The surface of is irradiated with light to remove the electric charge remaining on the photoconductor 2. Reference numeral 4 is a charger for uniformly charging the surface of the photoconductor 2 by corona discharge. Reference numeral 5 is an optical writing section composed of a laser diode, a polygon mirror, an optical system, etc. This optical writing section 5 will be described later. The laser diode is driven according to the dot information sent from the engine controller 21 (see FIG. 2) to output the laser light, and the laser light is scanned by the polygon mirror, and the surface of the photoconductor 2 is statically scanned. Form a latent image. Reference numeral 6 denotes a developing device for adhering toner to the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the photoconductor 2 for development, and 7 denotes corona discharge on the back side of the recording medium to record the toner image formed on the photoconductor 2 on the recording medium. Transfer charger to transfer to 8
Is a paper feed tray on which a recording medium for transferring the toner image formed on the surface of the photoconductor 2 is loaded, and 9 is used for printing on both sides (hereinafter referred to as “duplex printing”) and dot information of text data is interpolated. A geometrical figure that is drawn by interpolating the dot information of a character font or graphic command that is printed and printed and an image that is drawn without interpolating the dot information of the image data are mixed on the same page of the recording medium. A duplex tray 10 on which a recording medium is temporarily loaded when printing (hereinafter referred to as “mixed printing”) is carried by a toner image formed on the surface of the photoconductor 2 from a paper feed tray 8 or a duplex tray 9. The recording medium is conveyed between the photoconductor 2 and the transfer charger 7 so that it is printed at a predetermined position on the recording medium. A registration roller for adjusting the timing, 11 is a guide portion for guiding the recording medium on which the toner image is transferred from the photoconductor 2 by the transfer charger 7, and 12 is a roller heated by a heater to press the recording medium on which the toner image is transferred. Then, the fixing device 13 for fixing the toner image on the recording medium, 13 individually controls the rotation directions of the three rollers 13a, 13b and 13c according to the modes of "paper discharge", "duplex print" or "mixed print". By means of the transport direction switching device for switching the transport direction of the recording medium, the rollers 13a, 13b and 13 of the transport direction switching device 13 are
c rotates as shown in Table 1 in each mode. However, forward rotation means when the roller 13a, 13b or 13c rotates clockwise, and reverse rotation means that the roller 13a, 13b or 13c rotates.
When 13c rotates counterclockwise.

[0011]

[Table 1]

The recording medium 14 is ejected to a face-up tray 15 on which the recording medium is loaded with the surface printed last on the recording medium facing up, or recorded with the surface printed on the recording medium facing downward. A transport direction switching device that switches the transport direction of the recording medium in order to discharge the medium onto the face-down tray 16.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of a control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 17 is a host device for sending out text data, graphic commands or image data and control codes, and 18 is an operation instruction for a laser printer. An operation panel consisting of a switch unit and a display unit for notifying the operating state of the laser printer, 19 is a controller for transmitting dot information according to text data or graphic commands and control codes transmitted from the host device 17, and 20 is The engine mechanism unit 21 shown in FIG. 1 has a function of interpolating dot information output from the controller 19 in accordance with text data or a graphic command, and controls the engine mechanism unit 20 according to the dot information to be transmitted, Character font, geometric figure or image An engine controller for printing an image on a recording medium, 22 a power supply device including a DC power supply and an AC power supply for driving a control circuit, a motor, etc. 23 a print including an engine mechanism unit 20, an engine controller 21, and a power supply device 22 Engine, 24 is operation panel 18, controller 19 and print engine
It is a laser printer consisting of 23.

FIG. 3 shows a specific configuration of the controller of the control device according to one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 3, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 2 denote the same parts, and Reference numeral 25 is a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as “CPU”), 26 is a working memory of the CPU 25, and a host device 17
Input buffer for temporarily storing the data sent from, text data edited page by page,
Page memory for storing graphic commands or image data, memory used as memory for storing download fonts, etc.
M ”), 27 is a bit map memory that develops and stores dot information for one page into a dot image for printing on a recording medium, and 28 is a font ROM that generates dot information according to text data.

In the present embodiment thus constructed,
A mixed print in which a character font obtained by interpolating dot information of text data and an image obtained by not interpolating dot information of image data are mixedly printed on the same page of a recording medium will be described.

First, when the host device 17 sends data in which text data and image data are mixed, the controller 19 sends text data using the dot information interpolation function and image data not using the dot information interpolation function. They are distinguished and stored in different areas of the RAM 26. Next, the controller 19 issues a command to interpolate the dot information of the text data, and the engine controller 21
The dot information interpolation function of
The text data read from the font ROM 28 is accessed to generate dot information corresponding to the text data. Then, the engine controller 21 interpolates dot information according to the text data read in synchronization with the video synchronization signal from the controller 19 by the dot information interpolation function, and then outputs it to the engine mechanism unit 20.

After the engine mechanism unit 20 drives the optical writing unit 5 in accordance with the interpolated dot information output from the engine controller 21, the electrostatic latent image of the character font is formed on the surface of the photoconductor 2. The electrostatic latent image is developed by the developing device 6 to form a toner image on the surface of the photoconductor 2, and the toner image is transferred to the recording medium supplied from the paper feed tray 8 by the transfer charger 7. Then, the image of the character font is printed on the recording medium by fixing the image with the fixing device 12. Then, the recording medium on which the image of the character font is printed is conveyed to the duplex tray 9 by the normally rotating roller 13a, the reversely rotating roller 13b, and the normally rotating roller 13c.

Further, when the recording medium is carried into the duplex tray 9, the controller 19 issues a command not to interpolate the dot information of the image data to stop the dot information interpolating function of the engine controller 21, and at the same time R
The dot information of the image data read from AM26 is output as it is. Then, the engine controller 21
Outputs to the engine mechanism unit 20 as it is without interpolating the dot information of the image data read in synchronization with the video synchronization signal from the controller 19.

The engine mechanism section 20 drives the optical writing section 5 in accordance with the dot information that is not interpolated and is output from the engine controller 21 to form an electrostatic latent image of an image on the surface of the photoconductor 2 and then The electrostatic latent image is developed by the developing device 6 to form a toner image on the surface of the photoconductor 2, and the toner image is transferred again to the recording medium supplied from the duplex tray 9 by the transfer charger 7. Fixer 12
The image of the image is printed on the recording medium by fixing with. The recording medium on which the character font and the image of the image are printed is a roller that rotates in the normal direction.
13a and the rollers 13b and 13c which rotate in the reverse direction convey and discharge the sheet to the face-up tray 15 or the face-down tray 16.

As a result, an image of a character font in which dot information is interpolated and an image of an image in which dot information is not interpolated are printed on the same page of the recording medium.

In this embodiment, the character font image obtained by interpolating the dot information of the text data and the image image obtained by not interpolating the dot information of the image data are mixed on the same page of the recording medium. The mixed print to print was explained, but the image of the geometric figure that interpolates the dot information of the graphic command and the image of the image that does not interpolate the dot information of the image data,
Similar to the above-described embodiment, it is possible to print mixedly on the same page of the recording medium.

In this embodiment, an example of printing a character font image obtained by interpolating dot information of text data before an image of an image obtained by not interpolating dot information of image data has been described. The order of printing may be reversed.

Further, in the present embodiment, the page printer having only the function of interpolating the dot information according to the text data and the graphic command has been described, but the function and the image of interpolating the dot information according to the text data and the graphic command are described. Even in the case of a page printer having a function of interpolating dot information according to data, the operation of printing an image of a character font or geometric figure in which dot information is interpolated and dot information are interpolated in the same manner as in the above-described embodiment. By alternately performing the operation of printing the image of the image described above, a more beautiful character font, geometric figure, or image of the image can be mixed and printed on the same page of the recording medium.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Image of character font or geometric figure formed by interpolating dot information of text data or graphic command even if data in which text data or graphic command and image data are mixed in the same page is sent from the host device to the controller. And the image of the image without dot information of the image data are alternately printed on the same page of the recording medium. The effect that both image qualities can be satisfactorily maintained.

Further, an operation of printing an image of a character font or a geometric figure obtained by interpolating dot information of text data or a graphic command, and an operation of printing an image of an image obtained by interpolating dot information of image data. By alternately performing in the same page of the recording medium, the image quality of both the image of the character font or geometric figure and the image of the image is further improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an engine mechanism portion according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a controller of a control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Cleaning device (printing means), 2 ... Photoconductor
(Printing means), 3 ... Static eliminator (printing means), 4 ...
Charging device (printing means), 5 ... Optical writing section (printing means), 6 ... Developing device (printing means), 7 ... Transfer charger (printing means), 9 ... Duplex tray (recording medium resupply mechanism), 12 ... Fixing device (printing means), 13
... conveyance direction switching device (recording medium resupply mechanism), 19 ... controller, 21 ... engine controller (dot information interpolating means), 25 ... central processing unit (data processing section), 26 ... memory (data storage means), 28 ... Font ROM (dot information generation means).

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location G06F 15/72 G 9192-5L G06K 15/00

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A data processing unit that edits image data input from the outside and data other than the image data such as text data and graphic commands in page units; and the image data edited by the data processing unit. Data storage means for separately storing data other than the image data, dot information generating means for outputting dot information corresponding to data other than the image data, and dots of the image data output from the data storage means Dot information interpolating means for interpolating any one of information or dot information of data other than the image data output from the dot information generating means as multivalued dot information, dot information not interpolated or interpolated dots The image according to the information is printed by the printing means. The recording medium is re-supplied to the printing means by the recording medium re-supply mechanism, and an image corresponding to the interpolated dot information or the non-interpolated dot information is printed again in the same page of the recording medium. A page printer comprising: an engine controller that mixes the non-interpolated dot information image and the interpolated dot information image in the same page. 2. The page printer according to claim 1, wherein the dot information interpolation function interpolates dot information of data other than the image data and does not interpolate dot information of the image data.