JPH0519472B2 - - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a printer control device that receives code data from a host computer and outputs image signals to a printer that prints pages page by page.

Conventional technology Conventionally, in a recording device that records character by character (serial printer) and a recording device that records line by line (line printer), when the recording device receives a page break command, it is possible to record on one page of recording paper. Until the maximum number of lines is reached, the line counter is counted up and the paper feed operation is repeated line by line unconditionally, and when the maximum number of lines is reached, a page break process is performed. Alternatively, using a paper tape called a carriage tape placed inside the recording device for paper position detection and line skip control, the carriage tape is moved in correspondence with paper feed until the start position mark of the next paper is detected, and the page is broken. It was being processed.

Furthermore, a recording device (page printer) that performs a recording operation on a page-by-page basis, such as a laser beam printer, has a page buffer that stores data for one page, and closes the page buffer by inputting a page feed command. The paper feed mechanism was activated, the paper was fed at a constant speed, and the recording of one page's worth of stored data was started.

In particular, when recording is performed by transferring a series of recording data from a host computer installed separately from the recording device as a data supply source to the recording device, the host computer generally cannot confirm the printing position of the recording device. Immediately before transferring the series of recording data, the recording device is unconditionally commanded to change the page to ensure that recording starts from the beginning of the paper.

However, in conventional recording devices, a page break process is performed regardless of whether or not there is data to be recorded at the time a page break command is input, so the data to be recorded in the recording device is sent out after the first page of paper immediately before the page break is ejected. If the previous sheet 1 is
If no data is sent after a page is ejected, there is a problem in that when the recording device receives a page change command, an unnecessary page with no data to be recorded is output.

Furthermore, in recording devices that have a so-called copy function that outputs a specified number of identical pages,
There was a problem where a specified number of unnecessary sheets of paper were ejected.

Purpose The present invention has been made in view of such conventional problems, and its purpose is to provide a means for determining the presence or absence of data to be recorded on a page or data recorded, An object of the present invention is to provide a recording device that is appropriately configured to ignore a page break command and prevent unnecessary page output when it is determined that such data does not exist at a time.

EXAMPLES Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Note that in the following description, a page refers to a preset recording range in the vertical and horizontal directions of paper, regardless of the form of paper used for recording, for example, continuous paper or cut sheet paper.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a laser beam printer as an example of a recording device using a printer control device (printer control unit 101 in the figure) according to an embodiment of the present invention. Here, 100 is a laser beam printer (hereinafter abbreviated as LBP), which is connected to a host computer via a printer control unit 101, and receives character code and control code data sent from the host computer. The printer control unit 101 converts the sent character code into a print signal S01 of a character dot pattern corresponding to the code, and supplies it to the laser driver 103 in the printing mechanism 102.

The laser driver 103 controls on/off of the laser emitted by the semiconductor laser 104 based on the print signal S01. Laser light emitted from the semiconductor laser 104 is swung left and right by a rotating polygon mirror 105 and is irradiated onto the electrostatic drum 106 . By this irradiation, a character pattern image is formed on the electrostatic drum 106 and is then transferred to printing paper. Here, as the printing paper, for example, cut sheet paper is used, which is stored in a paper cassette 107 attached to the LBP 100, and is placed in a paper cassette 107 mounted on the LBP 100,
8 into the printing mechanism 102.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the printer control section 101, which is the printer control device of the present invention. Here, 20
0 is an interface circuit, which corresponds to the input means of the present invention. 211 is a character generator, which corresponds to the pattern generating means of the present invention. Also 203
is a CPU, corresponds to the control means of the present invention, and 2
09 is a character counter, which together with the CPU 203 constitutes the determination means of the present invention.

The interface circuit 200 sends and receives data to and from the host computer, and when receiving data from the host computer,
Sends an input ready signal S20 to the CPU 203,
Subsequently, the input data signal D20 is sent to the CPU 203. The CPU 203 stores a procedure for controlling the LBP 100, including a procedure for performing page break processing to be described later, and controls the LBP 100 according to the procedure. Maximum row designation switch 201 and maximum digit designation switch 202 are switches that designate the maximum row and maximum digit of one page, respectively.The CPU 203 reads these designated values and sets them in the maximum row register 205 and maximum digit, respectively. It is stored in the register 206. In this example, 1
The print range specified by the maximum line and maximum digit of a sheet of paper is one page.

The row counter 207 and digit counter 208 are
These are counters that manage the number of lines and the number of digits of input data, respectively. The character counter 209 is a counter that counts the number of input data to be printed within one page. The page buffer 204 is a memory that stores input data in units of one page.
The character generator 211 has a font memory (not shown) that stores a group of character dot patterns, reads out a character code string line by line from one page of data stored in the page buffer 204 via the CPU 203, and generates the characters. The character dot pattern corresponding to the code string is retrieved from the font memory, converted into a print signal, and further sent to the print mechanism 102.
A paper feed solenoid 210 drives the paper feed roller 108 according to instructions from the CPU 203 .

FIG. 3 shows an example of the configuration of the page buffer 204. Here, 300 is a data storage section, 301 is a digit number pointer, and 302 is an address pointer. The data storage unit 300 develops lines L1, L2, . Row L1,
The data stored in each of L2, . ..., nl.

Digit number pointer 301 and address pointer 3
02 is the storage address of the number of digits n3 and the storage address of the character code for a line related to writing/reading, for example, line L3, when the CPU 203 writes/reads character data to/from the data storage unit 300. instruct.

Figures 4 to 7 are LBP10 by CPU203
An example of the control procedure of 0 is shown below.

In FIG. 4, when the device is powered on and the maximum line and digit of the page are specified, the CPU 203 switches the maximum line specification switch 2 in step S400.
01 and maximum digit designation switch 202, and set the maximum row register 2, respectively.
05 and maximum digit register 206.
Next, in step S401, the line counter 207, digit counter 208, and character counter 209 are cleared, and in step S402, the page buffer 204 is cleared.
digit number pointer 301 and address pointer 302
Then, the start address value of the page buffer 204 and the value obtained by adding 1 to the start address are set respectively.

Next, in step S403, input analysis, which will be described later with reference to FIG. . When the input analysis for one page is completed, the process advances to step S404.
The contents of character counter 209 are determined. here,
If the character counter 209 is 0, it is determined that there is no data to be printed, and no paper feeding operation is performed.
Returning to step S400, the next page of data is edited. On the other hand, if the content of the character counter 209 is not 0 in step S404, the step
Proceeding to S405, the paper feed solenoid 210 is driven to start paper feeding, and then, in step S406, data to be printed is sent from the page buffer 300 to the character generator 211. When the process of step S406 is completed, the process returns to step S400.

FIG. 5 shows the procedure of the input analysis subroutine in step S403. First, in step S501,
The CPU 203 waits for the input ready signal S20 sent from the interface circuit 200. When the input ready signal is received, data is fetched in step S502, and the type of input data is determined in step S503. If it is a data page break instruction code, the process advances to step S504, and if the content of the digit counter 208 is not 0, the process advances to step S504.
In S600, the input analysis S403 ends after the line feed process shown in the sixth figure. On the other hand, if the content of the digit counter 208 is 0 in step S504, the process of input analysis S403 is immediately terminated.

If the input data is a line feed command code in step S503, the process advances to step S600, where the line feed process shown in FIG. 6 is performed. Next, in step S507, the contents of the row counter 207 and the maximum row register 2 are
05, and if they match, it is determined that the maximum row has been reached and the process proceeds to step S504.
The same processing as when inputting a page break command code is performed below. Conversely, if the contents of the row counter 207 and the contents of the maximum register 205 do not match, the process returns to step S501 and the next data is read.

If the input data is determined to be a character code in step S503, the process advances to step S700, where the character processing shown in FIG.
The contents of digit counter 208 and maximum digit register 2
Compare with the contents of 06. Here, digit counter 2
If the contents of 08 and the contents of the maximum digit register 206 match, the process advances to step S506, and the same processing as when a line feed instruction code is input is performed.
On the other hand, if the contents of the digit counter 208 and the contents of the maximum digit register 206 do not match, the step
Return to S501 and read the next input data.

FIG. 6 shows the processing procedure of subroutine S600 for line feed processing. First, in step S601, the value of the digit counter 208 at that point is stored in the digit number storage area corresponding to the row related to processing, that is, the digit number pointer 3.
Save it in the number of digits storage area indicated by 01, and then
Digit counter 208 is cleared in step S602. Next, in step S603, the contents of the digit number pointer 301 are replaced with the contents of the address pointer 301 to update the digit number pointer 301, and further, in step S604, the address pointer 301 is
Take one step forward. Then, in step S605, the line counter 207 is incremented by +1 so that the following data processing is performed on the next line, and step S600 of line feed processing is completed.

FIG. 7 shows the processing procedure of character processing S700.
First, the character code input in step S701 is saved in the area on the data storage unit 300 indicated by the address pointer 301, and then
In S702, the address pointer 301 is incremented by +1. Furthermore, in step S703, digit counter 2
08 +1 step. Furthermore, in step S704, the character counter 209 is incremented by +1, and step S700 of character processing is ended.

In other words, if a page break is commanded and there is character data to be printed, the step
The page break processing can be performed reliably by the processing from S404 onwards.

From the above, the overall configuration diagram of the recording device of the present invention is shown in the eighth figure.
It will look like the figure. That is, the recording device of the present invention:
a recording means 801 for recording on a recording medium 800;
A page break means 802 sends out the recording medium 800 toward the recording means to make a page break, and a page break means 802 receives record data and instructs the record means to record the received record data, receives a page break command, and starts a page break. Means 8
A control means 803 instructs a page break to 02, a determination means 804 determines the presence or absence of recorded data, and if the determination means 804 determines that there is no recorded data at the time of receiving a page change command, A blocking means 805 for blocking a page change command from the control means 803 is provided.

Effects As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent unnecessary pages from being ejected by using a means for determining the presence or absence of data related to recording at the time when a page change command is received.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the laser beam printer that performs recording page by page as described above, but can of course be easily applied to serial printers and line printers. Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the character counter is used to determine the presence or absence of data related to printing. However, when applying the present invention to a serial printer or a line printer, for example, if the present invention is applied to a serial printer or a line printer, A flag register for determining whether a recording operation such as a head operation has been performed may be provided to determine the presence or absence of data.
In other words, the flag is reset at the time of a page break, and when such recording operation is performed once or more for one page after that, the flag is set, and the flag is changed only when recorded data exists. Page processing can be performed.

Furthermore, the present invention can be applied not only to the above-mentioned character recording printers but also to printers that receive graphic information and image information and record graphics and images.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a laser beam printer as an embodiment of the recording apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of its control section, and FIG. A block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a page buffer for storing character data, etc., FIGS. 4 to 7 are flowcharts showing an example of a control procedure by the control unit, and FIG. 8 is an overall configuration diagram of the recording apparatus of the present invention. . 100...Laser beam printer (LBP), 1
01... Printer control unit, 102... Printing mechanism,
103... Laser driver, 104... Semiconductor laser, 105... Rotating polygon mirror, 106... Electrostatic drum, 107... Paper cassette, 108... Paper feed roller, 200... Interface circuit, 201
...Maximum line specification switch, 202...Maximum digit specification switch, 203...CPU, 204...Page buffer, 205...Maximum line register, 206...
...Maximum digit register, 207...Line counter, 20
8...Digit counter, 209...Character counter, 2
10...Paper feed solenoid, 211...Character generator, 300...Data storage unit, 301...Digit number pointer, 302...Address pointer, S01...
...Print signal, S20...Input ready signal, D20
...Input data signal, L1, L2, ..., Ll...
Row, n1, n2,..., nl... column, C1, C2,
..., Cl... Character code string, 800... Recording medium, 801... Printing means, 802... Page break means, 803... Control means, 804... Judgment means,
805...Prevention means.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A printer control device that receives code data from a host computer and outputs an image signal to a printer that prints page by page, comprising: an input means for inputting a control code including an instruction code; a pattern generation means for generating a dot pattern based on the recording data inputted by the input means and outputting it as an image signal to the printer; determination means for determining whether recorded data has been input from the input of a page break instruction code for the page until the page break instruction code for the page is input; If so, the pattern generating means generates a dot pattern based on the inputted recording data and causes the printer to perform a page break operation based on the page break command code of the page, and the determining means control means for causing the printer to process the received code data of the next page without causing the printer to perform a page break operation based on the page break command code of the page when it is determined that no recording data has been input; A printer control device comprising: