JPH07178971A - Printer control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To use a desired printer language without selecting panel operation or printer language at every use by providing an information fetch means corresponding to a receive means to be used after switch from an interpretation information memory means and providing a means for selecting one of a plurality of interpretation means based on the information fetched by the information fetch means. CONSTITUTION:Each receive section receives a printing data and a control instruction from host devices. Each interpretation section interprets the received printing data and the control instruction based on a fixed instruction system. Here, at the time that a printer control device is present, a receive section 1 and an interpretation section 2 are used. When a switch from the receive section 1 to a receive section 2 is generated at a receive control section, an item of information corresponding to the interpretation section 2 is put in an area corresponding to the receive section 1 of an interpretation information memory section in an interpretation information register. Then, at an interpretation information fetch section, an item of information is fetched from an area corresponding to the receive section 2 of an interpretation information memory means. Here, as this information indicates the interpretation section 1, the interpretation section 1 is selected by an interpretation selection section.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer controller, and more particularly to a page printer such as a laser printer having a plurality of host interfaces, each of which is connected to a different host computer. The present invention relates to a printer control device useful for.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a high-performance printer such as a laser printer does not operate only by a single command system, but is compatible with various printer languages, plotter languages or page description languages. Something that can be handled by a stand is emerging. Further, an increasing number of printers have a plurality of so-called host interfaces that connect the printer device and the host computer. As a usage mode of such a printer device, different host computers are connected to a plurality of host interfaces, and various languages are used by switching, and it is as if there are a plurality of printer devices. The so-called shared user is considered to be the most suitable. However, in the above usage pattern, the operator using each host computer is
Assuming that you want to use a printer language different from the one currently used in the printer device, the operator switches the printer language from the operator panel of the printer device or switches the printer language from the host computer. I need to send an order. The former greatly impairs the convenience of so-called shared users, and the latter is often impossible depending on the application software used.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and has been made to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a superior printer control device that can maximize its convenience in a shared environment of high-performance printers, which will increase more and more in the future.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, a printer control apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention is provided with a plurality of receiving means connected to a host apparatus for receiving print data and control commands, and the plurality of receiving means. Reception control means for switching and using means, an operator panel having a display section for displaying information and a key input section for inputting instructions, and a plurality of interpretations for interpreting the received print data and control commands Means, an interpretation selecting means for selecting one of the plurality of interpreting means, an image data forming means for forming image data based on the interpretation result of the interpreting means selected by the interpretation selecting means, Image data
The image data formed by the data forming means is video data.
In a printer control device having image data transfer means for converting into data and transferring to a printer engine to obtain a print output,
Interpretation information storage means for storing information for selecting one of the plurality of interpretation means corresponding to each of the plurality of reception means, and when switching the reception means by the reception control means, before switching Means for registering in the interpretation information storage means information corresponding to the interpretation means selected by the used reception means; and extraction means for extracting information corresponding to the reception means to be used after switching from the interpretation information storage means And a means for selecting one of the plurality of interpreting means according to the information extracted by the extracting means.

A printer control device according to a second aspect of the present invention is the printer control device according to the first aspect.
In the printer control device, if the valid information is not registered in the interpretation information storage means, a means for selecting a predetermined interpretation means is provided.

A printer control device according to a third aspect of the present invention is the printer control device according to the first aspect.
In the printer control apparatus, the means for registering information for arbitrarily selecting the interpreting means from the operator panel is provided in the interpreting information storing means.

[0007]

In the printer control apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, the interpretation information storage means for storing information for selecting one of the plurality of interpretation means corresponding to each of the plurality of reception means is provided. When switching the receiving means by the receiving control means,
The information corresponding to the interpreting means selected for the receiving means used before the switching is registered in the interpreting information storing means,
Since the information corresponding to the receiving means to be used after switching is taken out from the interpretation information storing means and one of the plurality of interpreting means is selected according to the taken out information, the printer device is made to operate by the plurality of host computers. When sharing, it is possible to use the desired printer language without operating the operator panel to select the desired printer language each time it is used or sending a command to select the printer language. Therefore, great convenience can be provided to the user of the printer device.

In the printer control apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, when valid information is not registered in the interpretation information storage means, means for selecting a predetermined interpretation means is provided. Even when the information indicating the effective printer language is not registered for the interface, the printer device can be used without inconvenience such as error occurrence.

In the printer control apparatus according to the third aspect of the present invention, since the means for registering the information for arbitrarily selecting the interpreting means from the operator panel in the interpreting information storing means is provided, the host interface used. By registering information indicating a desired printer language in advance in the face, it becomes possible to always use the desired printer language.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printer control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The controller 100 controls the entire controller 100 by a program in a program ROM, a mode instruction from an operator panel, and a command from a host device.
1, an IC card 102 for supplying font data and programs from the outside, a non-volatile storage device NVRAM1 for storing the contents of mode instructions from the operator panel, etc.
03, a program ROM 104 in which a control program for the controller 100 is stored, and a font pattern.
A font ROM 105 for storing data such as data and a CPU
RAM 106 used as a work memory 101, a receive buffer for input data, a page buffer for print data, a memory for downloaded fonts, etc., an engine 108 for printing, a command and status, Print data
An engine interface (engine I / F) 107 for communicating data, an operator panel 110 for notifying a user of the current printer status, and a mode instruction, and commands and status. Panel interface (panel I / F) 109 for communicating with each other, and a host interface (host I / F) 111, 11 for communicating with upper devices 112, 114, 116 of the printer.
3,115, font data, programs, print data
Disk device 1 such as a floppy disk device or a hard disk device for storing various data such as data
18 and a disk interface (disk I / F) 117 for communicating.

FIG. 2 is an external view of the operator panel according to the embodiment of the present invention. The display unit 201 is a liquid crystal display unit that displays various information to the operator, and is a ROM.
Various messages stored as data in 104
Is output by the CPU 101 via the panel I / F 109. The power supply indicator 202 indicates the power-on state in cooperation with the power supply section of the printer body, and the error indicator 203 is the printer control device 10.
Various errors detected by 0 are notified to the operator together with the display unit 201. Online indication
A data 204 indicates whether the printer control device 100 is in a state of being able to communicate with the host device (online) or not (offline), and a data-in-buffer-indicator.
A data item 205 indicates whether or not unprinted data exists in the printer control device 100.

An online key 206 is a key for the operator to switch the printer control device 100 between online and offline states, and a mode key 207 is a parameter for the operator to regulate the operation of the printer control device 100. This key is for shifting to an operation state (mode setting operation) for changing the data. The increment key 208 and the decrement key 209 are operated during the mode setting operation.
The enter key 210 is a key for selecting various selection items, and the enter key 210 is a key for the operator to confirm selection of various selection items during the mode setting operation. Feedkey-211 is used when there is unprinted data when the printer is off-line (data in.
Buffer indicator 205 is lit)
A key for printing this data. The test key-212 is a key for starting the test printing when the printer device is in the online state.
Reference numeral 13 is a key for returning the printer control device 100 to the initial state when the printer device is in the offline state.

3 to 8 are a conceptual diagram and a flow chart of a printer control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The receiving unit, the reception control unit, the interpretation unit, the interpretation information storage unit and The interpretation information extracting unit and the like are stored in the program ROM 104 in FIG. 1 as execution codes of the CPU 101. The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is its flowchart.
The receiving unit receives print data and control commands from the host device, and the interpreting unit interprets the received print data and control commands based on a fixed command system group. Here, it is assumed that the receiving unit 1 and the interpreting unit 2 are used at a certain point in the printer control device. Here, it is assumed that the reception control unit has switched from the reception unit 1 to the reception unit 2 (301, # 401). First, the interpretation information registration unit (registration unit) stores the interpretation information storage unit (storage unit). Information corresponding to the interpretation unit 2 is registered in the area corresponding to the reception unit 1 (302, # 402). Next, the interpretation information extraction unit (extraction unit) reads information from the area corresponding to the reception unit 2 of the interpretation information storage unit (storage unit) (303, # 403). Since this information indicates the interpretation unit 1 here, the interpretation selection unit 1 selects the interpretation unit 1 (304, # 404).

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing the operation of the second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is its flowchart.
Here, it is assumed that the receiving unit 1 and the interpreting unit 2 are used at a certain point in the printer control device. Here, it is assumed that the reception control unit has switched from the reception unit 1 to the reception unit 2 (501, # 601). First, the interpretation information registration unit (registration unit) causes the interpretation information storage unit (storage unit).
The information corresponding to the interpretation unit 2 is registered in the area corresponding to the reception unit 1 of (502, # 602). Next, the interpretation information extraction unit (extraction unit) causes the interpretation information storage unit (storage unit)
The information is read from the area corresponding to the receiving unit 2 of (5
03, # 603). Here, it is checked whether or not this information indicates a valid interpretation unit (504, # 604), and if valid, the interpretation unit corresponding to this information is selected by the interpretation selection unit (505, # 605). . On the other hand, if this information does not indicate a valid interpretation unit, information (default value) indicating a predetermined interpretation unit is extracted, and the interpretation unit corresponding to this information is selected by the interpretation selecting means. (506, # 606).

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing the operation of the third embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 8 is its flowchart. Here, the key input from the operator panel (panel) is processed. When the input to the interpretation information storage unit is supported by the key input processing unit (701, # 801), the reception unit identification number m for identifying the reception unit is input (# 802), and then the interpretation unit for identifying the interpretation unit is input. The copy identification number n is input (# 803). In accordance with these, the information indicating the interpretation unit n is stored in the area corresponding to the reception unit m of the interpretation information storage unit (storage unit) (# 804).

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When a printer device is shared by a plurality of host computers, a desired printer language can be selected each time it is used without operating the operator panel or sending a command for selecting the printer language. The printer language can be used, and great convenience can be provided to the user of the printer device.

[0018]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printer control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view of an operator panel according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing an operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing the operation of the second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing the operation of the third embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of the third embodiment.

[0019]

[Explanation of symbols]

 100 controller 101 CPU 104 program ROM 108 engine 110 operator panel 112, 114, 116 host device

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of receiving means connected to a host device for receiving print data and control commands, a reception control means for switching between the plurality of receiving means, a display section for displaying information and instructions. An operator panel having a key input section for inputting, a plurality of interpreting means for interpreting the received print data and control command, an interpreting selecting means for selecting one of the plurality of interpreting means, The image data forming means for forming image data based on the interpretation result of the interpretation means selected by the interpretation selecting means, and the image data formed by the image data forming means are used as video data. In a printer controller having an image data transfer means for converting and transferring to a printer engine to obtain a print output, for selecting one of the plurality of interpreting means corresponding to each of the plurality of receiving means. Memorize information Interpreting information storage means and means for registering, in the interpretation information storage means, information corresponding to the interpreting means selected by the receiving means used before switching when the receiving means is switched by the reception control means,
A means for extracting information corresponding to the receiving means to be used after switching from the interpretation information storage means, and means for selecting one of the plurality of interpretation means based on the information extracted by the extraction means are provided. Characteristic printer control device. 2. The printer control device according to claim 1, wherein
A printer control device comprising means for selecting a predetermined interpretation means when valid information is not registered in the interpretation information storage means. 3. The printer control device according to claim 1, wherein
A printer control device comprising means for registering information for arbitrarily selecting an interpreting means from the operator panel in the interpreting information storage means.