JPH07106649B2 - output method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an output method in an output device such as a printer that develops a pattern of input information input from the outside in a development memory and outputs the developed pattern information. It is about.

[Prior Art] Conventional output devices such as printers can output patterns of various sizes, but the maximum pattern size that can be output depends on the size of the pattern development memory of the device.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In such a conventional output device, the pattern size that can be output differs depending on the size of the pattern expansion memory, and input information (for example, There is a problem that even if the vector data) is created, it cannot be output in the same way by other output devices.

In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide an output method in an output device that can output a pattern of an arbitrary size without depending on the size of a pattern development memory.

[Means for Solving Problems] An output method according to the present invention is an output method in an output device for performing pattern development of input information input from the outside in a development memory and outputting the developed pattern information. A judgment step of judging whether or not the input information can be expanded in the expansion memory at one time based on the input information before pattern expansion, and the input information in the expansion memory at once in the judgment step. If it is determined that the expansion cannot be performed, the input information is divided into division units capable of pattern development in the development memory and stored in the reception memory, and the input information divided and stored in the control step is divided into division units. And an expanding step of expanding the pattern in the expanding memory for each time.

For example, the input information is vector data, and the storage capacity of the expansion memory is smaller than the input information for one page input from the outside.

[Operation] With this configuration, the input information is divided into division units capable of pattern development and stored before pattern development, so that a pattern of any size can be output without depending on the size of the pattern development memory. It is possible to prevent the overrun at the time of pattern development.

[Embodiment] An embodiment according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

[Configuration of One Embodiment (FIG. 1)] FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of one embodiment according to the present invention, which is an example in which the present invention is applied to a printing apparatus.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a host computer that outputs print data and print commands consisting of images and codes, and 2 is the printing apparatus main body of this embodiment.

The main body 2 has the following configuration. That is, a control unit 21 that is in charge of main control of the entire main body, a segment counter 22 that indicates which segment is currently used for pattern development and pattern output, and a data division unit that divides input print data into each segment. 23, and a page memory 24 for storing the print data divided by the data dividing unit 23,
A pattern expansion unit 25 that expands the print data stored in the page memory 24 into a pattern to be printed, a pattern expansion memory 26 that temporarily stores the pattern expanded by the pattern expansion unit 25, and a pattern expansion memory 26. A printer engine that reads out the stored pattern in accordance with the output format of the printer and outputs it to the printer engine unit 28, and a permanent visible image on the recording paper according to the pattern data from the pattern output unit 27. It has a section 28.

Each unit of the main body 2 having these configurations except the printer engine unit 28 can be realized by a microprocessor including a ROM and a RAM. For example, the control unit 21 includes a ROM (not shown) for storing a flow chart and the like shown in FIG. 2 described later and a RAM (not shown) used for a work area and the like. As described above, by realizing these with the microprocessor, it is possible to obtain a highly reliable and simple configuration.

[Operation of Embodiment (FIGS. 2 and 3)] The print control of the present embodiment having the above configuration will be described with reference to the control flow chart of FIG.

In this embodiment, print data from the host computer 1,
Alternatively, when the print command is received, the processing shown in FIG. 2 is executed. In the following description, the case where the print data is vector data will be described as an example. When the print data is code data and the code data is expanded by the pattern expansion unit 25, the same processing procedure can be used. The description of when is code data is omitted.

First, in step S1, data input from the host computer 1 is waited, and if data is input, the process proceeds to step S2, and the control unit 21 determines whether the input data is a print command.
If it is not a print command, it is print data, so the process proceeds to step S3, and when the print data is expanded into the corresponding pattern information, whether it can be expanded in the pattern expansion memory 26 at a time, that is, it is necessary to divide and expand the pattern. If it is not necessary to divide the print data, the print data sent in step S4 is stored in the page memory 24 without being divided. Then, the process returns to step S1 in preparation for data input from the next host computer 1.

If you need to split in step S3, go to step S5,
Print data in the pattern division memory in the data division unit 23
In step 26, the pattern is divided into a number of segment units that can be expanded, stored in the page memory 24, and the process returns to step S1.

On the other hand, if the data input in step S2 is a print command, the flow advances to step S6 to check whether the print data is divided data. Whether or not this is divided data is determined by the print size of the input data, and the number of divisions is also determined by the size of this print size. If the print size is less than or equal to the capacity of the pattern development memory 26, and if it is not divided data, the process proceeds to step S7, the data is read from the page memory 24, the pattern development unit 25 develops the pattern by a known method, and the pattern development unit memory Store in 26. Then, in step S8, the pattern output unit 27 reads the developed pattern from the pattern development memory 26 and outputs it to the printer engine unit 28.

Then, in a succeeding step S9, it is checked whether or not there is the next print data in the page memory 24, and if there is no print data, the processing is terminated, and the process returns to the step S1 to wait for the input of the next print data or the like. If there is print data, the process returns to step S6 to execute the output process for the next print data.

If the print data is divided data in step S6, the process proceeds to step S10 and the segment counter 22 is reset to "1". Then, in step S11, the segment counter 2
For the segment number indicated by 2, it is judged whether or not the data to be expanded exists in the page memory 26, and if it does not exist in the page memory 26, the process proceeds to step S14. If the print data exists in the page memory 26, the process proceeds to step S12, the print data is developed by the pattern development unit 25, and the pattern development pattern information is stored in the pattern development memory 26. And the following step S13
Then, the pattern output unit 27 reads the pattern information expanded in the pattern expansion memory 26, and the printer engine unit 28
And form a permanent visible image on the paper.

Then, in step S14, it is checked whether or not the value of the segment counter 22 is equal to the number of divisions obtained in step S5. If they are equal, it means that the process for one print data is completed, and the process proceeds to step S9.

If it is not equal to the number of divisions, the process proceeds to step S15, the segment counter 22 is incremented by 1, and step S1
Return to 1.

By performing the above control, the pattern expansion memory
It is possible to print out a pattern of a larger size without depending on the size of 26.

The print pattern size, the capacity of the pattern development memory 26, and the setting example of the segment counter 22 in this embodiment will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 3 as a specific example.

FIG. 3 shows a full image for one page of the page memory 24. In the figure, P is a full image memory required for the entire page, but in this embodiment, the capacity of the pattern development memory 26 is S1. Assuming that only the size is provided, it is apparent that in order to print one page, the pattern development memory 26 is apparently divided into four at the positions of S1, S2, S3, and S4 to perform pattern development. The input print data "A" is divided into print data for each segment. The first segment is the F1 part of "A",
The page memory 24 stores information indicating that the F2 portion is similarly developed in the second segment and the F3 and F4 portions are similarly developed in the third and fourth segments. Then, at the time of pattern development, first, the F1 portion of the first segment is subjected to pattern development and output to the printer engine unit 28, and subsequently, the respective portions of the second to fourth segments are subjected to pattern development and output to the printer engine unit 28. The print data of the size can be printed out by using the pattern development memory having a small capacity.

Further, in the above description, the number of segments to be divided is four, but by setting this to several tens to several hundreds of segments, it is possible to operate with a smaller pattern development memory capacity.

Although the printer has been described as an example in the above description, it can be very easily applied to a display device, for example, a CRT display device, and does not depart from the scope of the present invention.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, print data is divided and held, and by expanding this for each part, it is possible to print a large size pattern without depending on the size of the pattern expansion memory 26. It becomes possible to output.

[Effect of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, whether or not input information input from the outside can be expanded in the expansion memory at once is determined based on the input information before pattern expansion, and If it is determined by the judgment process that the input information cannot be expanded in the expansion memory at one time, the input information is divided into division units that can be pattern expanded in the expansion memory, stored in the receiving memory, and the divided input information is stored. By expanding the pattern in the expansion memory for each division unit, it is possible to output a pattern of any size without depending on the size of the pattern expansion memory, and to prevent overrun during pattern expansion. It has an excellent effect that it can be done.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a control flowchart of this embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of pattern division of this embodiment. In the figure, 1 …… Host computer, 2 …… Main body, 21 ……
Control unit, 22 ... Segment counter, 23 ... Data division unit, 24 ... Page memory, 25 ... Pattern development unit, 26 ...
… Pattern development memory, 27 …… Pattern output section, 28 ……
The printer engine unit.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An output method in an output device for expanding a pattern of input information input from the outside to a expansion memory and outputting the expanded pattern information, wherein the input information is expanded in the expansion memory at a time. A judgment step of judging whether or not it is possible based on the input information before pattern expansion, and in the judgment memory, when it is judged that the input information cannot be expanded in the expansion memory at one time, A control step of dividing the input information into division units capable of pattern development and storing it in a reception memory; and a development step of developing the pattern of the input information divided and stored in the control step in the development memory for each division unit. An output method comprising: 2. The output method according to claim 1, wherein the input information is vector data. 3. The output method according to claim 1, wherein the storage capacity of the expansion memory is smaller than the input information for one page input from the outside.