JPH05207265A - Printer controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To print out picture by plural pages according to layout in which print lines are divided onto one paper with a line printer. CONSTITUTION:The printer controller is provided with a control means 7 in which a 1st decoder 4a processes compressed picture data of a page in a page buffer 2 and a 2nd decoder 4b processes compressed picture data of other page in the page buffer synchronously therewith, raw picture data by one line from the 1st decoder 4a and raw picture data by one line from the 2nd 1st decoder 4b are connected in series and the result is printed by a line printer 6 through a line buffer 5 as data of one line.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer control device for receiving image data compressed and encoded in an electronic file system or the like and printing it by a printer, and in particular, printing a plurality of pages of images on one sheet. Control technology.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a general electronic file system, image data compressed and encoded in a large-capacity medium such as an optical disk is filed, and desired image data is extracted or retrieved by a terminal such as a search terminal or a workstation. The compressed image data is received, the raw image data is reproduced by decoding the compressed image data, and the raw image data is printed by the printer.

A printer control device having this function is a page buffer capable of storing one page or a plurality of pages of compressed image data, and the compressed image data is sequentially read from the page buffer in units of one line and decoded to obtain raw image data. , A line buffer for temporarily storing raw image data from the decoder, and a line printer for printing one line each time raw image data for one line is prepared in the line buffer. Is basically equipped.

A control device for a page printer such as a laser beam printer is provided with a page buffer which stores the decoded raw image data for one page or more and transfers it to the printer. The present invention relates to a control device for such a line printer, and does not include a page printer.

[0005]

In the printer controller as described above, as shown in FIG. 1A, one page of image 1 in the area up to the first m lines is printed on one sheet. However, in order to print another page of image 2 in the latter half area after the n line, it suffices to print image 2 after the print processing of image 1 is completed, and there is no problem.

However, as shown in FIG. 1B, it is necessary to print images 1 and 2 having different pages in the left and right areas of one sheet so as to divide each printing line of the printer in two. It could not be realized by a conventional control device that processes compressed image data line by line and prints it by a line printer. It should be noted that the control device for the page printer can easily perform the process of freely arranging and printing the images of a plurality of pages on the page buffer of the raw image data. Therefore, it is conceivable to provide the line printer control device with a similar page buffer and image processing function, but this is a very unbalanced design with respect to the line printer, which leads to an unreasonable increase in price, and it is also very difficult for print processing. Will take time.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object thereof is to divide a print line of a line printer as shown in FIG. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer control device having a simple structure that enables high-speed printing on one sheet.

[0008]

A printer control apparatus according to the present invention comprises a page buffer capable of storing a plurality of pages of compressed image data that has been compression-encoded, and the compressed image data from the page buffer sequentially in units of one line. First and second decoders for reading and decoding and sequentially outputting raw image data in units of one line, a line buffer for temporarily storing the raw image data from the first and second decoders, and one for the line buffer A line printer that prints one line each time raw image data for one line is completed,
The first decoder processes the compressed image data of one page of the page buffer, and the second decoder processes the compressed image data of another page of the page buffer in synchronization with the compressed image data of the page from the first decoder. And a control means for connecting the raw image data for one line and the raw image data for one line from the second decoder in series and printing as one line of data by the line printer via the line buffer. It is a thing.

[0009]

In the above structure, the first decoder and the second decoder operate in parallel in synchronization with each other to process the compressed image data of different pages on a line-by-line basis. (Image data) is sequentially written in the line buffer on a line-by-line basis. The control means serially connects the processing data of the first decoder and the processing data of the second decoder in the line buffer, and causes the line printer to sequentially print as one line of data.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of a printer control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a timing chart for explaining its operation. In FIG. 2, a CPU 1 controls the overall control and data processing of the printer control device.
This printer controller is connected to an electronic file system (not shown) via a communication controller 3, and the compressed image data supplied from the system is transferred to the page buffer 2
Stored in. The page buffer 2 can store a plurality of pages of compressed image data.

Two decoders, a first decoder 4a and a second decoder 4b, are provided for decoding the compressed image data in the page buffer 2 and reproducing the raw image data. The decoders 4a and 4b sequentially read the compressed image data from the page buffer 2 line by line and decode it, and write the raw image data into the line buffer 5 line by line. The line buffer 5 has an area for the decoder 4a and an area for the decoder 4b, and both areas have a capacity of at least two lines. The line printer 6 receives the raw image data line by line from the line buffer 5 and prints it. The synchronization controller 7 controls the timing of the data writing operation of the decoders 4a and 4b into the line buffer 5 and the data printing operation of the line printer 6.

As shown in FIG. 1B, the processing operation when printing the image 1 and the image 2 of different pages on one sheet by dividing the print line of the line printer 6 is shown in FIG.
The timing chart will be described.

In this case, two pages of compressed image data of image 1 and image 2 are stored in the page buffer 2, the decoder 4a processes the image 1 data, and the decoder 4b processes the image 2 data. As shown in FIG. 3, the decoder 4a first reads the first line of data of the image 1 from the page buffer 2, the decoder 4b subsequently reads the first line of data of the image 2, and the decoding process is performed on each of them. To start. As the decoding process progresses, the decoder 4a sequentially writes the raw image data a1 of one line of the image 1 into the line buffer 5, and the decoder 4b outputs the 1 of the image 2
The raw image data b1 for the line is written in the line buffer 5.

The line printer 6, when the raw image data a1 and the raw image data b1 are gathered in the line buffer 5,
The data a1 and b1 are connected in series and printed as one line of data. Further, the decoder 4a reads the compressed image data of the second line of the image 1 from the page buffer 2 at the time when the output of the data a1 is completed, and performs the decoding process to sequentially generate the raw image data a2 of the second line. Similarly, the decoder 4b reads the compressed image data of the second line of the image 1 from the page buffer 2 at the time when the output of the data b1 is finished, and performs the decoding process to sequentially generate the raw image data b2 of the second line. .. The line printer 6 is
Raw image data a2 and raw image data b are stored in the line buffer 5.
When the data of 2 are complete, the data a2 and b2 are connected in series and printed as one line of data. By repeating the above processing, the image 1 and the image 2 can be printed on one sheet as shown in FIG.

[0015]

As described in detail above, according to the printer control apparatus of the present invention, it is inexpensive even if it does not have a large-capacity raw image page buffer and an image processing function like the page printer control apparatus. Using a line printer, 1
Images for multiple pages can be printed at high speed by dividing the print line on a single sheet of paper.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 Prints images for a plurality of pages on one sheet 2
Illustration showing two formats

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

FIG. 3 is a timing chart showing the operation of the above apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 page buffer 4a first decoder 4b second decoder 5 line buffer 6 line printer 7 synchronization control unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A page buffer capable of storing compression-coded compressed image data for a plurality of pages, and compressed image data is sequentially read from this page buffer in units of one line and decoded to obtain raw image data in units of one line. First and second decoders that sequentially output the raw image data, a line buffer that temporarily stores the raw image data from the first and second decoders, and a line buffer that stores 1 line of raw image data. A line printer that prints lines and a first decoder process compressed image data of a page in the page buffer, and in synchronization with this, a second decoder processes compressed image data of another page in the page buffer. The raw image data for one line from the first decoder and the raw image data for one line from the second decoder. And a control unit that causes the line printer to print one line of data as data of one line via the line buffer.