JPH05270092A - Method and apparatus for forming image - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a method and an apparatus for forming an image in which the time to develop an overlay form at the time of overlay processing and the overlay processing time can be both shortened. CONSTITUTION:An overlay from registered when an apparatus is idle is developed into a bit pattern, the developed data are compressed, and stored in a form pattern memory 214. At the time of printing, received data stored in a reception buffer 203 are first analyzed, and stored in a page buffer 205. Development of the pattern of the received data is executed by a developing unit 213, a designated form pattern is output from the memory 214, expanded to develop the bit pattern. The bit pattern of the received data obtained in this manner and the bit pattern data of the overlay from are combined, and stored in a frame buffer 207.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming method and apparatus for developing input data into bit patterns.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a printing apparatus such as a laser beam printer, data for printing input from a host computer is developed into a bit pattern for one page, and then print output is executed by this bit pattern. For an overview of the procedure of general printing operation of this type of printing device,
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in step S101, print data is received and stored in a receive buffer. In step S102, command analysis is performed on the data in the reception buffer to create a page buffer for one page.
Next, in step S103, expansion processing is executed to generate bit pattern data for one page and store it in the frame memory. Then, in step S104, output processing is executed, and printing on a recording medium such as recording paper is executed according to the expanded bitmap data. Step S1
In 05, it is determined whether or not the output processing has been completed for all of the input image information, and if completed, this processing ends. If it has not been completed, the process returns to step S101 and the above-described processes are repeated.

The development and printing of input data into a bit pattern are executed by the procedure described above.

Some printers of this type have an overlay function of printing out a pre-registered standard form or the like on print data input from a host computer. In the case of performing this overlay function, in the expansion processing (step S103) described above, as shown in FIG.
The process shown in the slow chart is executed. Figure 1
The expansion processing shown in 4 will be described.

In step S111, it is determined whether or not the print data is designated to use overlay printing. If overlay printing is to be used, the process proceeds to step S112, and the form registered in the page buffer form is converted into a bit pattern. And store it in the frame buffer. When overlay printing is not used, step S112 is skipped and the process proceeds to step S113. In step S113, the print data is expanded on the same frame buffer. After the above processing is completed, step S1
Output processing is performed at 04.

The above flow will be described below with an example.

In FIG. 15, reference numeral 1501 represents a state in which a registered form is developed into a bit pattern, and 1503 represents a state in which print data is developed into a bit pattern. Reference numeral 1502 shows a state in which the form bit pattern 1501 and the print data bit pattern 1503 are combined on the frame buffer. Reference numeral 1504 denotes a pattern expansion processing unit that executes bit pattern expansion from information in the page buffer. As is clear from FIG. 15, when the form overlay is executed over a plurality of pages, the bit pattern is developed for the form for each page.

Further, in the printing apparatus of this type, the expansion processing (step S103) sequentially executes the expansion from the page buffer into the bit pattern page by page. The procedure of this expansion processing will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In step S121, it is determined whether or not the font in the information of the page buffer exists in the font cache area, and if it does not exist, step S12.
Go to 2. In step S122, the font is developed into a bit pattern, and in step S123,
This bit pattern is stored in the font cache area. Then, in step S124, expansion processing is performed on the print data other than the font in the page buffer. Output is executed based on the bit pattern data thus obtained (step S104).

FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining the above-mentioned print data expansion processing. Reference numeral 1703 represents print data currently being developed, and 1704 represents a state in which the character pattern has been developed. Reference numeral 1702 represents print data that has been analyzed and is waiting for expansion processing. Reference numeral 1701 represents print data that is currently being analyzed.
1705 is a character pattern stored in the font cache area. The print data 1703 is currently being developed, and at the same time, the registration of the character pattern in the font cache area is being executed. The print patterns 501 and 502 are
Since the character pattern stored in the font cache is not used, the print pattern
It is necessary to execute the same character pattern expansion processing as in No. 3. However, until the expansion processing of the print data 1703 is completed, the expansion processing of the print data 1701 and 1702 is not executed, and the completion of the expansion processing is awaited.

Further, some printing apparatuses of this type have a function of allocating input data of a plurality of pages as one-page output data and printing out. This is, for example, to output input data of B5 size by two pages in B4 size. The expansion process (step S103) in this case will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In step S131, it is determined whether or not the print data is designated for layout printing, and if it is designated, the process proceeds to step S132. Step S13
In 2, the allocation pattern is uniquely selected and determined according to the size of the input page of the first page. In step S133, the size of the first and subsequent input pages to be expanded is checked. If the size of the first page is the same, the process proceeds to step S134,
Allocation expansion processing is executed according to the allocation pattern determined in step S132.

If it is determined in step S131 that layout printing is not specified, and if the input data of the first and subsequent pages to be expanded is different in size from the input size of the first page in step S133, step S13.
Proceed to step 5 and execute the normal expansion process.

The above-mentioned allocation expansion processing will be described in more detail with reference to FIG.

In the figure, reference numerals 1901 to 1904 denote the sizes of input data on the first to fourth pages, respectively.
1905 is B4 size output paper, 1906, 19
Reference numeral 07 represents an A4 size recording sheet. Input first page (B
5 sizes) "B5 x 2 → B4" depending on the size of 1901
Is selected and 2 pages of B5 size are converted to 1 of B4 size.
The allocation pattern is determined so as to output to the page. Therefore, the input data (1901, 1902) for the first and second pages is the output paper 1905 of B4 size.
Is output to. Since the input data 1903 on the third page has a different size from the input data 1901 on the first page, normal expansion processing is executed without matching the allocation pattern. Therefore, the output paper of the same size as the input page size (output paper of A4 size) 1906).

[0017]

In the overlay function of the above-mentioned conventional example, when overlay printing the registered form, the form is expanded from the page buffer into a bit pattern for each page. Therefore, when the registration form is complicated, or when the form is overlay printed over several pages, the bit pattern development process of the form consumes much of the total processing time of the printing apparatus. Get up.

In the expansion processing procedure of the conventional example, the font existing in the print data is registered in the font cache area when the bit pattern is expanded from the page buffer to the frame buffer. Therefore, when processing the print data of a plurality of pages, the print data of the subsequent page is stored in the form of a page buffer after the analysis is completed, and it is necessary to wait until the expansion processing of the print data of the previous page is completed. Therefore, there is a problem that the waiting time is wasted and the transition from the analysis processing to the expansion processing is not efficient.

Furthermore, the input of a plurality of pages in the above-mentioned conventional example is 1
In the function of allocating to page output, the allocation pattern is uniquely determined by the size of the first page of the input print data. Therefore, when inputting pages of different sizes, the user must classify pages of the same size and execute printing for each class, which is a cumbersome operation. ..

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems. The registered form and the like are expanded into bit patterns and stored in advance, and are used in the overlay processing. Accordingly, it is a first object of the present invention to provide an image forming method and apparatus that can reduce the development time of a form during overlay processing and shorten the processing time.

Further, the font used in the analysis process of the print data is expanded into a bit pattern, which is stored and used in the expansion process, so that the waiting time at the time of transition from the analysis process to the expansion process can be achieved. It is a second object of the present invention to provide an image forming method and apparatus that effectively reduce the processing time and the effective use of the image forming apparatus.

Furthermore, when a plurality of input pages are printed by one output page layout, when pages of different sizes are input, the output paper of a size suitable for the size of the input paper is selected and the page layout printing is performed. It is a third object of the present invention to provide an image forming method and apparatus having a layout printing function that is capable of performing the above-described operations and has good operability.

[0023]

An image forming apparatus according to the present invention for achieving the first object has the following configuration. That is, an image forming apparatus that develops input image data into a bit pattern, and overlay form holding means that develops a registered overlay form into a bit pattern in advance and holds it, and the image data into a bit pattern. Data expanding means for expanding, form expanding means for taking out the overlay form held in the overlay form holding means based on the image data, bit pattern of the image data obtained by the data expanding means, and the form A synthesizing means for synthesizing the bit pattern of the overlay form obtained by the expanding means.

The image forming method according to the present invention for achieving the first object has the following constitution. That is, it is an image forming method for expanding input image data into a bit pattern, and an overlay form holding process for expanding a registered overlay form into a bit pattern in advance and holding it, and the image data into a bit pattern. A data expansion step for expanding, a form expansion step for extracting the overlay form held in the overlay form holding step based on the image data, a bit pattern of the image data obtained by the data expansion step, and the form And a synthesis step of synthesizing with the bit pattern of the overlay form obtained by the expansion step.

An image forming apparatus that achieves the above second object has the following configuration. That is, it is an image forming apparatus that expands input image data into a bit pattern, and a first expanding unit that expands the image data into a bit pattern in units of a predetermined area, and another area by the first expanding unit. Parallel to the expansion processing of (1), second expansion means for expanding individual image data of the unexpanded area into a bit pattern, and storage means for storing the bit pattern obtained by the second expansion means, The first expanding means may expand the image data of the predetermined area into a bit pattern using the bit pattern stored in the storage means.

An image forming method that achieves the second object has the following configuration. That is, an image forming method for expanding input image data into a bit pattern, which comprises a first expanding step of expanding the image data into a bit pattern in units of a predetermined area, and another area according to the first expanding step. In parallel with the developing process of 1., a second expanding step of expanding individual image data of the unexpanded area into a bit pattern, and a storing step of storing the bit pattern obtained by the second expanding step, The first expansion step is characterized in that the image data of a predetermined area is expanded into a bit pattern by using the bit pattern stored in the storage step.

Further, the image forming apparatus which achieves the third object has the following configuration. That is, an image forming apparatus that expands input image data into a bit pattern,
Designating means for designating how many input pages are to be allocated to each output page, detecting means for detecting the size of the input page for each page, content designated by the designating means and the input page by the detecting means. Output size determining means for determining an output size for each output page based on the output size of the output page, and the output pages of the size determined by the output size determining means are allocated the input pages for the number of sheets specified by the designating means. And a expanding means for expanding into a bit pattern.

Further, an image forming method for achieving the third object has the following constitution. That is, it is an image forming method for developing input image data into a bit pattern, and a specifying process for specifying how many input pages are allocated to one output page and a size of the input page for each page. A detection step of detecting, an output size determination step of determining an output size for each output page based on the content specified by the designated step and the size of the input page by the detected step, and the output size determination step. A development step of allocating the number of input pages designated by the designated step to the output page of the size and developing the page into a bit pattern is characterized.

[0029]

With the above configuration, when the image data is expanded into the bit pattern, the overlay form is expanded into the bit pattern by executing the overlay form bit pattern expansion using the overlay form which is expanded and registered in advance in the bit pattern. The image data and the overlay form are combined.

According to another aspect of the invention, during the image data analysis processing executed in parallel with the image data bit pattern development processing, the image data development into the bit pattern and bit pattern storage means Is registered, and the expanded data stored in the bit pattern storage means is used during the expansion processing of the image data into a bit pattern.

Further, according to another aspect of the invention, the size of the image data for each page is detected, and based on the detected size, a plurality of pages of the input image data are allocated as output image data of one page and an allocation pattern and The size of the output image data is determined, and the bit pattern expansion for one page is executed according to the determined size of the output image data and the allocation pattern.

[0032]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<Embodiment 1> In this embodiment, a laser beam printer will be described as an example of a printing apparatus.

Before describing the configuration of this embodiment, the configuration of a laser beam printer to which this embodiment is applied will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing the internal structure of a laser beam printer (hereinafter abbreviated as LBP) of the embodiment.
P can register a character pattern and a fixed form from a data source (not shown).

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes an LBP main body, which inputs and stores character information (character code) form information or a macro command supplied from an externally connected host computer, and according to the information. A corresponding character pattern or form pattern is created, and an image is formed on a recording sheet that is a storage medium. Three
Reference numeral 00 is an operation panel on which switches for operation and LDE display are arranged, and 101 is a control unit for controlling the entire LBP 100 and analyzing character information and the like supplied from the host computer. The printer control unit 101 mainly converts character information into a video signal of a corresponding character pattern and outputs it to the laser driver 102.

The laser driver 102 is the semiconductor laser 10.
3 is a circuit for driving the laser beam 3, and the laser beam 1 emitted from the semiconductor laser 103 according to the input video signal.
04 is switched on and off. The laser beam 104 is oscillated in the left-right direction at the rotating polygonal surface 105 to scan the electrostatic drum 106. As a result, an electrostatic latent image having a character pattern is formed on the electrostatic drum 106. After the latent image is developed by the developing unit 107 around the electrostatic drum 106,
Transferred to recording paper. A cut sheet is used for this recording sheet, and the cut sheet recording sheet is stored in a sheet cassette 108 mounted on the LBP 100 and taken into the apparatus by a sheet feeding roller 109 and conveying rollers 110 and 111.
It is supplied to the electrostatic drum 106.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the control system of the LBP 100 of the first embodiment.

The control system of the LBP 100 inputs information 211 consisting of a character code sent from the host computer 201 which is a source of image information, an external character font, form information or macro registration information, and the page unit Controls to print document information.

Reference numeral 202 denotes an input interface section for inputting various information from the host computer 201. A reception buffer 203 temporarily stores each information input via the input means 202. Reference numeral 210 is a character pattern generator, which includes a ROM storing pattern information corresponding to a character code, a read control circuit thereof, etc. When a character code is input, the address of the character pattern corresponding to the code is calculated. It also has a code convert function.

Reference numeral 204 denotes a CPU for controlling the entire LBP control system, which is the CPU 204 stored in the ROM 206.
The control program controls the entire device.

An analysis unit 212 analyzes the received data in accordance with the control program stored in the ROM 206. Two
A developing unit 13 develops the information analyzed by the analyzing unit 212 into a bit pattern. A page buffer 205 stores information analyzed by the analysis unit. A frame buffer 207 stores at least one page of pattern information expanded into a character pattern corresponding to a print image. Reference numeral 214 denotes a form pattern storage unit that expands the registered form into a bit pattern and then compresses and stores it. 208
The output interface section generates a video signal corresponding to the pattern information from the frame buffer 207 and executes interface control with the printing mechanism section 209. A print mechanism unit 209 inputs a video signal from the output interface unit 208 and prints image information based on the video signal.

The procedure of the printing operation by the LBP 100 of the first embodiment will be described below with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. The idle state used in the following description means a state in which each processing unit of the printing apparatus is not operating. In other words, there is no data to be processed other than the registered data, and the power is only on. The LBP 100 carries out the following operation under the control of the ROM 206.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the process of expanding the form pattern when the LBP 100 is in the idle state.

In step S11, it is checked whether or not the expansion processing has been completed for all registered forms and the forms have been registered in the form pattern storage unit 214.
If there is an unexpanded form, step S12
Proceed to and implement the bit pattern expansion of the form. In step S13, the pattern expanded in step S12 is compressed, and then the form pattern storage unit 2
Store in 14. And it returns to step S11 and repeats the above-mentioned processing. If it is determined in step S11 that the expansion process has ended, this process ends. Also,
In idle processing, when other processing units start up, it pauses,
Wait for other processing to finish and restart.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the printing operation.

In step S21, a reception process of storing the input print data in the reception buffer 203 is executed. Next, in step S22, the print data stored in the reception buffer is analyzed.

In step S23, it is determined whether or not the print data uses the registration form. If the print data is used, the process proceeds to step S24. In step S24, it is determined whether or not the required form is already stored in the form pattern storage unit 214 in a compressed form. If the required form is already compressed, the process proceeds to step S26 and the form is expanded. If there is no required form in the form pattern storage unit 214 in step S24, step S2
In step 5, the form is subjected to bit pattern expansion from the page buffer of the form specified by the print data page buffer, the expanded pattern is compressed, and then added to the compressed form storage unit. Then, in step S26, the compressed form is expanded.

After expanding the overlay form into a bit pattern as described above, step S27 is performed.
Then, the process proceeds to step S4 and print data expansion processing is executed. After combining the print data and the form pattern, step S
Proceed to 29 to perform output processing. And step S
In 29, it is determined whether or not the processing has been completed for all the input information, and if not completed, step S21
Then, the procedure returns to and the above processing is repeated. If the processing is completed, the printing operation is ended.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the overlay printing process by the LBP 100 of the first embodiment. The form pattern storage unit 214 stores a form for overlay in a compressed form after pattern expansion. The form designated by the print data is read from the form pattern storage unit and expanded into a bit pattern by the compression pattern expansion processing 501. On the other hand, the input print data is expanded as a bit pattern 504 by the pattern expansion process 505. Then, the bit pattern 502 of the form and the bit pattern 50 of the print data
And 4 are combined to complete the bit pattern 503 for one page.

As described above, according to the printing apparatus of the first embodiment, since the overlay printing is performed using the registered form, (1) when the registered form is used,
When expanding the print data bit pattern, the process from the form page buffer has already been completed, so the time from receiving to printing can be shortened. (2) When using the registered form over multiple pages Therefore, there is an effect that it is not necessary to expand the form for each page, and the printing time can be shortened.

In the first embodiment, all the forms registered as the page buffer are expanded in the bit pattern and stored in the form pattern storage unit 214 in a compressed form, but the form is not limited to this. For example, depending on the capacity of the memory of the printing device, only a form in which data such as a graphic or an outline font that takes a long time to develop is used is expanded and compressed, and stored in the form pattern storage unit 214. You may do it.

Further, in addition to the first embodiment described above, among the registered forms, the ones that are used less frequently are released by returning the compressed bit pattern to the state of the page buffer to improve the memory use efficiency. You may.

<Second Embodiment> In the second embodiment, a laser beam printer will be described as an example of a printing apparatus. Since the configuration of the laser beam printer (LBP) is the same as that of the first embodiment, its description is omitted here.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the control system of the LBP 100 of the second embodiment. In the figure, those having the same functions as those in FIG. 2 of the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted here.

An interrupt control unit 215 determines the priority of the input interface that has interrupted when an interrupt occurs and controls the switching of the receiving buffer.
A font cache area 601 is used for registering bit-expanded character patterns and the like.

The printing operation of the LBP 100 according to the second embodiment will be described below with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 7 and 8.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the processing procedure of the printing operation by the LBP 100 of the second embodiment.

In step S 41, the host computer 20 received via the input interface 202
The print data from 1 is stored in the reception buffer 203.
Then, in step S42, an analysis process is executed on the print data in the reception buffer 203, and the result is stored in the page buffer 205. Then, step S4
In 3, the data in the page buffer is expanded into a bit pattern, and the result is stored in the frame buffer 207. In step S44, the data stored in the frame buffer 207 is printed out. Then, in step S45, it is determined whether or not the processing has been completed for all input information, and if not completed, the processing returns to step S41 and the above-described processing is repeated. If the processing for all input information is completed, this processing is completed.

FIG. 8 shows the analysis process of the second embodiment (step S
42) is a flow chart showing the details of (42).

In step S50, the reception buffer 2
It is determined whether or not each font used in the print data in 03 is stored in the font cache area 601. If the respective bit patterns for all fonts have already been stored, the process proceeds to step S53 to execute a normal analysis process. Font cache area 601
If there is a font that is not stored in, step S
Proceeding to 51, expansion into bit patterns is executed for those fonts. Then, in step S52, the bit pattern expanded in step S51 is stored in the font cache area 601. And step S53
Then, the normal analysis process is executed.

The above printing operation procedure will be described in more detail with reference to FIG.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining a data processing procedure at the time of printing by the printing apparatus of the second embodiment. Here, as an example, it is assumed that there are two pages waiting for the expansion processing and different fonts are used for each page.

Reference numeral 803 represents the data currently being developed, and 80
4 is a character pattern 807 and a font cache area 60.
1 represents the state of being extracted from 1 and expanded. Further, reference numeral 802 represents print data that has finished analysis processing and is waiting for expansion processing. Furthermore, reference numeral 801 represents print data currently being analyzed.

In the analysis unit 212, the print data 801
Fonts that are not used in the font cache area 601 (character pattern “T” 80
5) is expanded into a bit pattern and stored in the font cache area 601. The print data 802 has been analyzed, and the font used in the page is stored as a character pattern in the font cache area 601 (character pattern “E” 806). Therefore, in the expansion unit 212, it is not necessary to execute font pattern expansion, and the data expansion to the frame buffer 207 is performed simply by extracting the character pattern data from the font cache memory 601.

As described above, according to the printing apparatus of the second embodiment, (1) when processing a plurality of print data, the waiting time in the analysis unit can be efficiently used, (2) expansion Since there is no font pattern expansion processing in the unit 213, there is an effect that the time required for expansion is shortened, and as a result, there is an effect that the time from print data reception to output is shortened.

In the second embodiment, a method of expanding all fonts into bit patterns during analysis processing is used, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, during analysis, only the fonts to be used are listed up, and while waiting for the expansion processing in the page buffer 205, the one that takes time to expand into a bit pattern is given priority from the aforementioned font list. It may be expanded and stored in the font cache area 214.

In the second embodiment described above, a method of expanding all fonts into bit patterns during analysis processing is used, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a font to be stored in the font cache area 214 may be determined in advance, and only when the font is found during the analysis process, the bit pattern may be expanded and stored in the font cache area 214. ..

<Third Embodiment> In a third embodiment, a printing apparatus for outputting print data of a plurality of pages into one page will be described.

Also in the third embodiment, a laser beam printer will be described as an example of the printing apparatus. Since the configuration of the laser beam printer (LBP) is the same as that of the first embodiment, its description is omitted here. The schematic configuration of the control system is the same as that of FIG. 6 of the second embodiment, and the description thereof will be omitted.

The printing operation of the LBP 100 according to the third embodiment will be described below with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 10 and 11.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing the processing procedure of the printing operation by the LBP 100 of the third embodiment. still,
In the present embodiment, it is assumed that two pages of input are allocated to one page of output and printed.

In step S61, the host computer 20 received via the input interface 202
The print data from 1 is stored in the reception buffer 203.
Then, in step S62, an analysis process is executed on the print data in the reception buffer 203, and the result is stored in the page buffer 205. Then, step S6
In 3, the data in the page buffer is expanded into a bit pattern, and the result is stored in the frame buffer 207. In step S64, the data stored in the frame buffer 207 is printed out. Then, in step S65, it is determined whether or not the processing has been completed for all input information, and if not completed, the processing returns to step S41 and the above-described processing is repeated. If the processing for all input information is completed, this processing is completed.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing details of the expansion processing (step S63) of the third embodiment. In step S71, it is determined whether or not the print data specifies layout printing. If yes, the process proceeds to step S72. If not, the process proceeds to step S77.

In step S72, it is checked whether the input sizes of the nth page and the (n + 1) th page are the same. If they are the same, the process proceeds to step S73, and an allocation pattern suitable for the input size is selected.

On the other hand, in step S72, the nth page and n
If the input size of the + 1st page is not the same, step S
Proceeding to 75, it is determined whether or not forced allocation is executed. This forced allocation execution determination is, for example, specified externally by the operator. When it is determined in step S75 that forced allocation is to be performed, the process proceeds to step S76. In step S76, the allocation pattern is selected according to either the input size of the nth or (n + 1) th page. At this time, the data of either page is enlarged or reduced and allocated.

Then, in step S74, the allocation expansion process is executed according to the allocation pattern selected in step S73 or step S76.

If it is determined in step S75 that the compulsory allocation is not to be executed, the process proceeds to step S77 and the normal expansion process is executed.

Next, the above printing operation will be described more specifically with reference to FIG.

Reference numerals 1101 to 1108 represent input data of the first page to the eighth page and their sizes, respectively. The input data 1101 on the first page is input data having a B5 size, and the input data 1102 on the subsequent second page is also B.
Since it has 5 sizes, "B
5 × 2 → B4 ”is selected, and printing is executed with the output size B4. The input data 1103 on the third page and the input data 1104 on the fourth page are of A4 size.
Although the size is different from the input data of the second page, the allocation pattern suitable for the size is automatically selected. In this case, the allocation pattern “A4 × 2 → A3” is selected, and printing is executed with the output size A3.

Further, since the sizes of the print data of the 7th page and the print data of the 8th page are "A5" and "A4", respectively, the allocation is executed according to the forced allocation designation by the operator. In this case, the compulsory allocation is executed with the output size A4, and the data of the eighth page is reduced from the A4 size to the A5 size.

As described above, according to the printing apparatus of the third embodiment, the operator does not need to be aware of the size of the input page at the time of layout printing. Further, it is possible to obtain a printed output as an operator's image by means of designating execution of forced allocation.

In the third embodiment, when layout printing is designated, layout printing is performed on all pages, but the invention is not limited to this. For example, it is possible for an operator to previously specify a page for which layout printing is to be executed. In this case, the determination as to whether or not layout printing is designated in step S71 of the flowchart of FIG. 11 may be executed for each page.

In the third embodiment, the method of determining the layout print pattern based on the size of the input page is used, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the layout printing may be executed by combining enlargement / reduction so that the font size after layout is the same on all pages.

Furthermore, in the above-described third embodiment, the input data of two pages is assigned to the output of one page, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the allocation may be A5 × 4 → A3.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

[0087]

【The invention's effect】 [Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing the internal structure of a laser beam printer of this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a control system of the LBP 100 according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of expanding a form pattern in an idle state of an LBP according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a printing operation according to the first exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an overlay printing process performed by the LBP 100 according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a control system of the LBP 100 according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a printing operation performed by the LBP 100 according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating details of analysis processing according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a data processing procedure when printing is performed by the printing apparatus according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a printing operation performed by the LBP 100 according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating details of expansion processing according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a layout printing operation according to a third exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a data processing procedure during a printing operation of a conventional printing apparatus.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing a development process for performing overlay processing in a conventional printing apparatus.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an operation during overlay printing in a conventional printing apparatus.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing a development process using a font cache area in a conventional printing device.

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating a method of using a font cache area in a conventional printing apparatus.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing a development process when performing layout printing by a conventional printing device.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a state of layout printing when layout printing is performed by a conventional printing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 201 host computer 202 input interface 203 reception buffer 204 CPU 205 page buffer 206 ROM 207 frame buffer 208 output interface 209 printing mechanism section 210 character pattern generator 212 analysis section 213 development section 214 form pattern storage section 601 font cache area

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location G06K 15/00 H04N 1/387 4226-5C

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus that develops input image data into a bit pattern, the overlay form retaining means preexpanding a registered overlay form into a bit pattern and retaining the overlay form. Data expanding means for expanding into a bit pattern, form expanding means for extracting the overlay form held in the overlay form holding means based on the image data, and a bit pattern of the image data obtained by the data expanding means An image forming apparatus comprising: a synthesizing unit that synthesizes the bit pattern of the overlay form obtained by the form expanding unit. 2. The overlay form holding means comprises:
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the registered overlay form is previously expanded into a bit pattern, and the bit pattern data is compressed and held. 3. The method further comprises: a discriminating unit that discriminates a form that takes time to develop into a bit pattern from registered overlay forms, and the overlay form holding unit develops a bit pattern by the discriminating unit. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a time-consuming form is preferentially developed and held in a bit pattern. 4. A detection means for detecting the frequency of use of the overlay form held by said overlay form holding means, and a deletion means for deleting the overlay form with a low frequency of use detected by said detection means. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus is an image forming apparatus. 5. An image forming apparatus for expanding input image data into a bit pattern, comprising: a first expanding means for expanding the image data into a bit pattern in units of a predetermined area; and the first expanding means. Second expanding means for expanding individual image data of the unexpanded area into a bit pattern in parallel with the expanding processing of the other area; and storage means for storing the bit pattern obtained by the second expanding means. The image forming apparatus, wherein the first expanding unit expands image data of a predetermined area into a bit pattern using the bit pattern stored in the storage unit. 6. An image forming apparatus for expanding input image data into a bit pattern, comprising: a specifying means for specifying how many input pages are allocated to one output page; and a size of the input page. Detecting means for detecting for each page; output size determining means for determining an output size for each output page based on the content specified by the specifying means and the size of the input page by the detecting means; and the output size determining means An image forming apparatus comprising: an output page having a determined size; and an expanding unit that allocates the input pages of the number specified by the specifying unit and expands into a bit pattern. 7. The apparatus further comprises execution page designating means for designating a page for which allocation is to be executed by the method designated by the designating means, and the expanding means is configured to perform the processing on the page designated by the execution page designating means. 7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the output pages of the size determined by the output size determining unit are allocated the number of input pages designated by the designating unit and developed into a bit pattern. 8. A scaling method for performing scaling processing on a page-by-page basis as necessary, based on the output size determined by the output size determining means and the size of the input page detected by the detecting means. Further comprising means, wherein the expanding means divides the input page processed by the scaling means into an output page of a size determined by the output size determining means, and divides the number of pages specified by the specifying means into a bit pattern. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, which is developed. 9. An image forming apparatus for expanding input image data into a bit pattern, comprising: a specifying means for specifying how many input pages are allocated to one output page; and a size for the output page. Output size designating means, detecting means for detecting the size of the input page for each page, size for each input page detected by the detecting means, and output size designated by the output size designating means. A scaling unit that executes scaling processing as necessary based on the above; and an input page processed by the scaling unit is designated by the designating unit as an output page of a size designated by the output size designating unit. An image forming apparatus comprising: a developing unit that allocates only the number of sheets and develops into a bit pattern. 10. An image forming method for expanding input image data into a bit pattern, comprising: an overlay form holding process for expanding a registered overlay form into a bit pattern in advance and holding it; A data expansion step of expanding into a bit pattern, a form expansion step of extracting the overlay form held in the overlay form holding step based on the image data, and a bit pattern of the image data obtained by the data expansion step An image forming method for synthesizing a bit pattern of an overlay form obtained by the form developing step. 11. An image forming method for expanding input image data into a bit pattern, comprising: a first expanding step of expanding the image data into a bit pattern in units of a predetermined area; and a first expanding step. A second expansion step of expanding individual image data of the unexpanded area into a bit pattern in parallel with the expansion processing of other areas, and a storage step of storing the bit pattern obtained by the second expansion step. In the image forming method, the first expanding step expands image data of a predetermined area into a bit pattern using the bit pattern stored in the storing step. 12. An image forming method for developing input image data into a bit pattern, comprising: a step of designating how many input pages are allocated to one output page; and a size of the input page A detection step of detecting for each page, an output size determination step of determining an output size for each output page based on the content specified by the specified step and the size of the input page by the detection step, and the output size determination step An image forming method, comprising: an output page of a determined size; and a development step of allocating the number of input pages designated by the designated step to develop into a bit pattern.