JPH06282388A - Method and device for print - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To clear a bit map memory at the Lime of transfer of print data even in the case of a resoure printer. CONSTITUTION:When judging that a bit map can be easily reconstituted by the use of a resource memory in a printer with respect to the bit map memory of a pertinent page after the end of data transfer, a host computer turns ON both a clear mode as the mode of executing the clear operation and a flag in a step S23. If an error like a jam occurs in the printer, data is transferred again to effectively use the resource memory existing in the printer when the clear mode is set.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and method for connecting a host computer and a printer for printing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a printer that prints out by utilizing the resources of a host computer, resource data downloaded as needed from the host computer is stored in a resource memory, and how such resource data is stored. The bitmap memory is constructed in accordance with a page generation code consisting of a control code and a character code for instructing whether to expand to the bitmap memory.

Further, since the resource memory has a physical capacity limitation, when the number of types of resource data increases and the data cannot be stored in the resource memory area,
It uses a method of erasing unnecessary resource data and storing new resource data.

[0004]

As described above, in the conventional resource printer, the data is expanded in the bit map memory in order to construct an arbitrary page due to the limitation of the physical capacity of the resource memory. However, after this expansion, not all the resources existing in the bitmap memory exist in the resource memory. Therefore, there is a problem that it is impossible to regenerate the once erased bitmap memory only with the data in the printer.

In other words, the bitmap memory once constructed can be erased after it is detected that the print output is normally completed. Therefore, the throughput is higher than that of a printer which can clear the memory simultaneously at the time of video output. There is a problem of being low. The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus and a method thereof that can clear a bitmap memory even when transferring print data in a resource printer.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention described in claim 1 registers print resource data in a resource memory and expands an output image on a bitmap memory. In a printing device capable of bidirectional communication between a host and a printer, a unit for judging the possibility of reconstructing an image in the bitmap memory based on the print resource data, and the possibility of reconstructing. If it is determined that there is a print output error in the printer when a print output error occurs in the printer when the output image is printed out, the resource data is stored in accordance with the instruction. Transfer to bitmap memory.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in a printing method of registering print resource data in a resource memory and developing an output image on a bitmap memory, based on the print resource data, The process of determining the possibility of rebuilding the image in the bitmap memory, and if it is determined that there is a possibility of rebuilding,
And a step of instructing to clear the bitmap memory when the output image is printed out, and a step of transferring the resource data to the bitmap memory according to the instruction when a printout error occurs in the printer. .

[0008]

With the above construction, the host computer functions to rebuild the bitmap in the jam processing and clear the bitmap memory.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a sectional configuration of a laser beam printer (hereinafter referred to as LBP) according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes an LBP main body, which inputs and stores print information (for example, a character code) supplied from an externally connected host computer (not shown), form information, or a macro command. At the same time, a corresponding character pattern, form pattern, or the like is created according to the information, and an image is formed on the recording paper, which is a storage medium.

Reference numeral 112 denotes an operation panel on which switches for operating the printer and an LED display are arranged.
Is a printer control unit that controls the LBP main body 100 and analyzes character information and the like input 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 a semiconductor laser 1
03 is a circuit for driving the laser diode 03, and switches on / off the laser beam 104 emitted from the semiconductor laser 103 according to the input video signal. Laser light 104
Is horizontally swung by the rotating polyhedron 105 to scan-expose on the electrostatic drum 106. As a result, the electrostatic drum 10
An electrostatic latent image of a character pattern will be formed on 6.

The latent image is developed by a developing unit 107 arranged around the electrostatic drum 106 and then transferred to a recording paper. For example, a cut sheet is used as the recording sheet, and the cut sheet recording sheet is stored in the sheet cassette 108 mounted on the LBP 100, and is taken into the printer apparatus by the sheet feeding roller 109 and the conveying rollers 110 and 111. Then, it is supplied to the electrostatic drum 106, and an image is formed by transferring the image onto a recording paper.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of a printing system using the printer according to the embodiment. In the figure, the host computer 300 outputs print information consisting of print data and control code to the printer 200 via the communication means, and conversely receives status information from the printer 200, and is built in the host computer main body 11, for example. Each unit is controlled based on the printing device control program stored in the hard disk 11a.

The host computer 300 comprises a main body 11, a display 12, a keyboard 13, a communication interface 14 and a pointing device 15, and the printer 2 is connected by an interface cable 20.
The printer control system is configured by being connected to the interface 211 of 00. The printer 200 is roughly classified into a formatter control unit 21 and a printer engine unit 2.
The formatter control unit 21 includes a communication interface unit 211, a transmission / reception buffer unit 212, a program ROM unit 213, a CPU unit 214, an output control unit 215, a RAM unit 216, and an operation panel unit 21.
It is composed of 7 etc.

The formatter control unit 21 uses the program R
Based on the control program stored in the OM unit 213,
At the same time as controlling each device as a whole, the device expands to the bitmap memory 2161 according to the print data and the print control code received from the host computer 300. The transmission / reception buffer 212 functions as a storage unit that temporarily holds print information received from the host computer 300 via the communication interface 211 and transmission data for notifying the host computer 300 of various states of the printer 200. Further, the RAM unit 216 serving as a main memory stores print results obtained by reading print information from the transmission / reception unit buffer 212 and analyzing print data, downloaded fonts, and various parameters necessary for print control. A work area 2162 to be used as an area to be used, a bit map memory 2161 which is an area for developing a figure or a character as a bit image, and the like.

The output control unit 215 also converts the contents of the bit map memory 2161 into a video signal and outputs an image to the printer engine unit 22. The printer engine unit 22 is a printing mechanism unit for receiving a result developed as a bit image as a video signal and forming a permanent visible image on a recording sheet. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of the work area 2162. As is apparent from the figure, the work memory of the RAM unit 216, which is divided into two types, a bitmap memory and a work memory, further includes a page buffer memory and a resource memory.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram for explaining internal processing on the host computer side of the printing system having the printer according to the embodiment. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 300 is a host computer, 46 is a printer, and 12 is a display. In the host computer 300, a basic operating system (OS) 41
Above, for example, application software 42 such as a word processor is activated. In the application software 42, the display on the display screen and the print drawing on the printer 46 are performed via the output device interface 44 in a general format based on a certain rule.

Such an output device interface 44
Is well known and application software 4
The output of 2 supports the respective printers and display devices so as not to be mixed up, and performs a device control function call that does not depend on the device from the application (here, the printer control unit (printer driver) 45). It is handed over to and absorbs the device dependency.

When a command to the printer 46 is input, the output device interface 44 sends the command to the printer via the printer control unit 45 and controls the printer.
The printer control unit 45 converts the received print control data into a command system of the printer 46, and downloads a printer font resource managed by the host computer 300 to the printer 46 as needed. .

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the procedure of printer control processing in the printing system.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a font download processing procedure. In FIG. 5, in step S1, an instruction related to print processing is analyzed, and in step S2, processing is branched based on the analysis result in step S1.
That is, in step S3, the print control data is converted into a printer command, and in step S4, a font download process described later is executed. Then, in step S5, communication with the printer is performed.

When it is determined that the received data is neither the instruction conversion process for the printer nor the font download process in the branch determination of the process in step S2, the process is performed from step S2 to step S2.
Go to 5. As a font download process, a font registration table is searched in step S10 of FIG. 6, and it is determined in step S11 whether the corresponding font has been registered. If the determination here is NO, it is determined in step S12 whether or not all table searches have been completed. Then, if it is determined in step S12 that all the table searches are not completed, the process is returned to step S10 again.

However, if all the tables have been searched, that is, if the decision result in the step S12 is YES, the process advances to a step S13 to perform a new registration process. On the other hand, the determination result in step S11 is YES
In this case, in step S14, the font registration flag is determined, and if the flag is on, the process ends. However, if the flag is off, the download data is created in step S15, the registration flag is turned on in step S16, and the process is finished.

Next, the control procedure for the printer after the construction of the bitmap memory is completed by the above procedure will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the processing after page data transfer on the host computer side in the printing system. Here, the host computer fully understands the contents of the resource memory inside the printer,
After the data transfer in step S21, it is judged whether or not the bitmap memory of the relevant page can be reconstructed relatively easily by utilizing the resource memory inside the printer (step S2).
2).

If it is determined that the rebuilding of the bitmap is easy, in step S23, the clear mode and the flag for the host computer to perform the clearing operation are turned on, but if the rebuilding is not easy, Turns off the clear mode and the flag in step S24. Then, before issuing a form feed command to the printer, it is instructed by a command whether or not the memory is cleared at the time of video transfer (step S25). This allows
The printer prints out on a page-by-page basis by the video transfer method instructed by the host.

When an error such as a jam has occurred in the printer (YES in step S26), the printer notifies the host computer to that effect. This allows
When the video transfer mode of the printer is the clear mode, the host computer performs the jam processing in step S29. That is, when the clear mode is not set, normal processing is performed, that is, the video transfer is instructed again when the jam is released. However, in the clear mode, data transfer is performed again while rearranging the character code transfer order if necessary so that the resource memory existing in the printer is effectively used. To make use of).

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the jam processing at the time of printing output of the printer in the above printing system. In the figure, one character of output data is input in step S41, and it is determined in step S42 whether the character exists in the resource memory in the printer. As a result, if the corresponding character does not exist, in step S43, the process of moving the corresponding character backward is performed, and in the subsequent step S44, the effect is stored in the skip flag.

On the other hand, the judgment result in step S42 is YE.
In the case of S, it is determined in step S45 whether the skip flag is on, and if the flag is on, step S
At 46, a movement code corresponding to the flag is transmitted. Then, in step S47, the corresponding character is transmitted, and in the next step S48, the skip flag is cleared. Step S4
In step 9, it is determined whether the data has ended. If it has not ended, the process returns to step S41 again. If it has ended, the process in step S50, that is,
Determine whether there is a skip character. Then, if there is no skip character, this processing is terminated, but if there is a character, the character pointer is reset in step S51.

That is, here, the normal data transfer is
In contrast to prioritizing the arrangement of characters in the output image, in data retransfer during jam processing, the resources existing inside the printer are preferentially transferred with the offset position code of the characters being added. As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the bit map memory is read in synchronization with video transfer, the host computer performs the bit map clear operation, and an error such as a jam occurs. By notifying the printer of this fact to the host side and rebuilding the bitmap in the jam processing on the host computer side, the resource printer can also perform memory clear at the time of video transfer. There is an effect that the improvement of

Also, at the time of jam recovery, the required minimum amount of resource data can be retransferred without transferring all the page data from the beginning, so that the load on the host computer can be reduced. In the above embodiment, whether or not the host computer performs the clear operation is performed before sending the form feed command. However, when the automatic form feed function is enabled by the setting on the printer side, the printer is set to the host computer. It prints out regardless of the form feed command from. In this case, the printer may make an inquiry to the host.

In the above embodiment, the host manages the print output on a page-by-page basis, but this may be fixed by an operation panel or the like and processed. Further, the setting may be made not for each page but for each job, or when the page buffer on the printer side is deep, the page number may be notified when the jam is notified to the host. .

In the above embodiment, the retransfer at the time of jam recovery uses the resource inside the printer to retransfer the character code. However, when the jam occurs in the printer, all the data in the resource memory is retransmitted. When the processing is completed, the jam is notified to the host when the processing is completed. Then, the host may transfer only the data that does not exist in the resource memory inside the printer.

It goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to a single device, a system including a plurality of devices, and a system in which processing is performed via a network such as a LAN.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to improve the throughput of the resource printer by determining the possibility of reconstructing the image in the bitmap memory based on the print resource data and clearing the bitmap memory when outputting the image.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a sectional configuration of a laser beam printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printing system using the printer according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of a work area 2162 in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram for explaining internal processing on a host computer side of a printing system having a printer according to an embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of printer control processing in the printing system.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a font download processing procedure in the printing system.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing processing after page data transfer on the host computer side in the printing system.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a jam process when a printer prints out in the printing system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 12 Display 41 Operating System (OS) 42 Application Software 44 Output Device Interface 45 Printer Control Unit (Printer Driver) 46,200 Printer 300 Host Computer

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Masaki Unishi 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Toshiya Mitsuhashi 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Nobuhiko Sato 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Takanori Nishijima 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Akihiro Shimura 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A printing apparatus capable of registering print resource data in a resource memory, developing an output image on a bit map memory, and bidirectionally communicating between a host and a printer. And means for determining the possibility of reconstructing the image in the bitmap memory, and, if it is determined that there is the possibility of reconstructing, clearing the bitmap memory when the output image is printed out. And a means for instructing, when the print output error occurs in the printer, the resource data is transferred to the bitmap memory according to the instruction. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for notifying the host of the print output error, and the host judges the possibility of the rebuilding. 3. A printing method of registering print resource data in a resource memory and developing an output image as an image on a bitmap memory, wherein the image in the bitmap memory is reconstructed based on the print resource data. The step of determining the possibility of re-construction, and the step of instructing to clear the bitmap memory at the time of print-outputting the output image when it is determined that there is a possibility of reconstruction; If it occurs, transferring the resource data to the bitmap memory according to the instruction, the printing method.