JPH07314782A - Printer control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve printing speed and reduce data memory capacity by a printer control device equipped with a vector font expanding function. CONSTITUTION:A printer control device having a vector font expanding function comprises a RAM 103 and a CPU 102. The RAM 103 previously stores, before a character is deformed, coordinate information obtained by deforming a coordinate system en bloc before its deformation. The CPU 102 executes deformation expanding processing of the character based on the coordinate information after the deformation stored in the RAM 103.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is used in printers, word processors, etc., and in particular, before performing transformation of one character,
The coordinate system before transformation is collectively transformed and stored in RAM, or for transformations that are frequently used, the coordinate system before transformation is transformed and stored in ROM in advance, and vector font expansion processing is performed based on this coordinate information. The present invention relates to a printer control device that executes the.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, due to the high performance of word processors and DTP (desktop publishing), various character sizes can be mixed in one page and character modification can be performed. Along with this, printers are also equipped with standard vector fonts that can freely change the size and shape of characters.

The vector font expansion in this conventional printer control apparatus is to execute raster expansion for each character. However, in this method, since vector-raster conversion is performed for all characters and points, it is necessary to perform arithmetic processing such as multiplication, division, and addition as shown in Formula 1. Therefore, for a printed matter in which the number of characters in one page is large, the print speed is extremely inferior to the raster font.

[0004]

[Equation 1]

In order to solve the above problems, there is a font cache having a function. This is a process equivalent to a raster font by storing the raster-expanded character once, and not using the same character in the subsequent processing, and using the raster that was stored when expanded before. Is what you are trying to do.

[0006]

However, in the conventional printer control device as described above, the vector-raster conversion is a heavy load for the CPU of the printer, and a raster expansion method for each character is not possible. There is a problem that the printing speed obviously decreases.

Further, the method of expanding each character by using the font cache is advantageous in terms of printing speed, but since it is stored in raster, the expanded size is large. Therefore, the storage capacity of the storage means becomes large. Furthermore, in a font with a large number of characters such as a Kanji font, the storage capacity is large to store all the characters. Thus, there is a problem that the storage capacity of the storage means becomes large.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to improve the printing speed and reduce the data storage capacity in a printer controller having a vector font expansion function.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, in a printer control device according to a first aspect of the present invention, in a printer control device having a vector font expansion function, before transforming one character, A coordinate information storage means for storing coordinate information obtained by collectively transforming the coordinate system before transformation, and a control means for executing transformation and expansion processing of characters based on the transformed coordinate information stored in the coordinate information storage means. It is equipped with.

Further, in the printer control device according to the second aspect, in the printer control device having the vector font expansion function, the deformation is only enlargement / reduction and vertical / vertical
When the enlargement ratio is the same in both the horizontal and horizontal directions, the coordinate information storage means stores only the vertical or horizontal coordinates after the transformation, and the transformation and expansion of the character based on the transformed coordinate information stored in the coordinate information storage means. And a control means for executing the processing.

Further, in the printer control device according to the third aspect, in the printer control device having the vector font expansion function, coordinate information storage means for storing the modified vector data before division, and enlargement / expansion When the size of the enlargement / reduction deformation in which the size to be reduced is stored is expressed by the enlargement / reduction of the same integer both vertically and horizontally, the vector of the coordinate information storage means is divided, and the deformation vector after the division. And a control means for executing drawing processing by enlargement / reduction based on the above.

Further, in the printer control device according to the fourth aspect, in the printer control device having the vector font expansion function, the coordinate information in which the coordinate system before the deformation is collectively changed is stored for the frequently used deformation. The coordinate information storage means and the control means for executing the deformation and expansion processing of the character based on the transformed coordinate information stored in the coordinate information storage means are provided.

Further, in the printer control device according to the fifth aspect, in the printer control device having the vector font expansion function, the deformation is only enlargement / reduction, and vertical / vertical
When the enlargement ratio is the same in the horizontal direction, the coordinate information storage unit stores only the vertical or horizontal coordinates after the transformation in advance, and the character is transformed based on the transformed coordinate information stored in the coordinate information storage unit. And a control means for executing the expansion processing.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer control device having a vector font expansion function, in which coordinate data storage means for previously storing modified vector data before division and expansion.・ When the size of the enlargement / reduction transformation in which the size to be reduced is stored is expressed by the same integer enlargement / reduction in both vertical and horizontal directions,
The control means divides the vector of the coordinate information storage means and executes drawing processing by enlarging / reducing on the basis of the modified vector after the division.

[0015]

A printer controller according to the present invention (claim 1)
Before transforming one character, transforms and stores the coordinate system before transformation in batch, and when performing the transformation process after that, transforms the character based on the stored coordinate information after transformation. The expansion is performed and the drawing process is executed.

Further, in the printer control device according to the present invention (claim 2), when the deformation is only enlargement / reduction and the same enlargement ratio is used in both the vertical and horizontal directions, only the vertical / horizontal coordinate after the deformation is used. Is stored, and when the image is expanded or reduced, the drawing processing is executed by referring to the stored coordinate information and transforming and expanding.

Further, in the printer control apparatus according to the present invention (claim 3), the size to be expanded / reduced is stored in such a manner that the size of the expanded / reduced deformation stored is the same integer in both vertical and horizontal directions. In the case of being represented by, when performing expansion / reduction, the drawing process is executed by expanding / reducing and expanding based on the calculated / stored coordinate information.

When the printer control apparatus according to the present invention (claim 4) executes transformation processing for transformations that are frequently used, the coordinate system before transformation is collectively transformed in advance and stored, and transformation processing is executed. Is for transforming and expanding the character based on the stored coordinate information after the transforming and executing the drawing process.

Further, in the printer control device according to the present invention (claim 5), when the deformation is only enlargement / reduction, and the same enlargement ratio is used in both the vertical and horizontal directions, only the vertical / horizontal coordinate after the deformation is used. Is stored in advance, and when the image is expanded or reduced, the drawing processing is executed by referring to the stored coordinate information to deform and expand.

Further, in the printer control device according to the present invention (claim 6), the size to be expanded / reduced is stored in such a way that the size of the stored expansion / reduction is the same integer in both vertical and horizontal directions. In the case of expansion / contraction expansion, the expansion / reduction based on the coordinate information previously calculated and stored.
Drawing processing is executed by reducing and expanding.

[0021]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the system configuration of a printer control device according to the present invention. In the figure, in this configuration, the following functional blocks are connected via a bus 101. That is, the CPU 102 and the RAM 103
, FONTROM104, ROM105, NVR
The AM 106 and the SCSII / F107 and CentroI as engine interfaces.
/ F108, RS232CI / F109, Ether
rnet I / F 110 is prepared.

The above configuration will be described in more detail. C
The PU 102 controls the entire printer controller based on the program in the ROM 105, each mode instruction from the operation panel (not shown), and the command from the host computer (not shown). RAM103 is CP
It is used as a work memory processed by the U102, an input buffer for temporarily storing input data from the host computer, a page buffer for print data, a memory for download fonts, and the like.

Further, the FONTROM 104 stores font pattern data, and the ROM 105 stores a control program for the printer control device.
Further, the NVRAM 106 is a non-volatile storage means for storing the contents of the mode instruction from the operation panel, and the size of the recording paper used inside, the direction of use of the recording paper, etc. are set.

The engine I / F is used to execute communication of commands, statuses, and print data between the printer controller and the host computer.
Is provided. SCSII / F107 is SCSI
(Small Computer System In
interface) interface, Centr
The oI / F 108 is a Centronics interface, the RS232C I / F 109 is an RS232C interface, and the Ethernet I / F 110 is an Ethernet interface.

Next, each embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the above configuration. [Embodiment 1] In the present embodiment 1, before transforming one character, the coordinate system before transformation is collectively transformed and transformed / stored, and when the transformation process thereafter is executed, after the stored transformation. Transform and develop characters using the coordinate information of. The details will be described below.

Before the character expansion process is executed, vector data (point coordinates) corresponding to the mesh size of the master data of the vector font is deformed (enlarged, italicized, etc.) using a parameter for deformation. The calculation result is stored in, for example, the RAM 103 as a storage unit. After that, when the transformation process is performed on each vector data (point coordinate) in the character, the vector data is transformed based on the coordinate data stored in the RAM 103, and the character expansion is performed.

For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the mesh size of the master data of the vector font is a coordinate system of 256 × 256. There are 65536 coordinates in this. For each of these coordinate points, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, a deformation process such as 400 × 600 30 ° italic is collectively stored in the RAM 103 in the form of a table. Since any character is represented by the combination of 65536 points, the vector transformation process is executed with reference to the coordinate data shown in FIG. 3 for the same transformation. In the above, the vector after the transformation of the point A (0,0) is the 0th data in the stored table. Similarly, the point B (50,0) is the 50th point, and the point C (50,10) is
Is the 2610th of 256 × 10 + 50.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the preprocessing for vector font expansion. In the figure, when this process is started, a deformation parameter is given (S401) and the process of routine A (see FIG. 6) is executed (S402).

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the vector font expansion processing. In the figure, when this process is started, first, the character is expanded (S501), and it is determined whether the expanded character is a modification in the storage table (S502). If it is determined in step 502 that the expanded character is a modification in the storage table, the process of routine B (see FIG. 7) is executed (50
3) Then, drawing is performed according to the transformed vector (S504), and this vector font expansion processing ends. On the other hand, if it is determined in the above step 502 that the expanded character is not a transformation in the storage table, normal vector font expansion is executed (S505), and this processing ends.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the processing operation (1) of routine A. In the figure, when this process is started, first, it is determined whether or not the mesh size is from Y = 0 (S601). When it is determined that the mesh size is from Y = 0, it is further determined whether the mesh size is from X = 0 (S60).
2). When it is determined in step 602 that the mesh size is from X = 0, (X, Y) is transformed (S603). Next, Y x mesh size + X
Write the converted data to the second table (S60
4) Return to step 602 and repeat the same processing. On the other hand, in the step 601, Y =
When it is judged that the mesh size is not 0,
The processing of this routine A is completed. When it is determined in step 602 that the mesh size is not from X = 0, the process returns to step 601 and the same process is repeated.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the processing operation (1) of routine B. In the figure, when this processing is started, it is first determined whether or not there is a vector to be converted (S701). If it is determined that there is a vector to be converted, vector data (X, Y) is extracted (S
702), the Y × mesh + Xth data is extracted from the table stored in advance (S703), and the process returns to step 701. On the other hand, when it is determined that there is no vector to be converted, the processing of this routine B is ended.

Therefore, as described above, since the multiplication and the addition (and the division) for the transformation for each character and each vector are executed by referring to the table, the printer controller having no numerical operation processor. Also, the printing speed can be improved by using a font with a coarse mesh of the master, a stroke font used in a plotter, or the like. Further, unlike a font cache that stores raster data as it is, it is effective for all characters and can save the data storage area.

[Embodiment 2] In Embodiment 2, the deformation is enlarged.
If only the reduction is performed and the vertical / horizontal magnification is the same, only the vertical / horizontal coordinates after transformation are stored and the
Upon reduction and expansion, the stored coordinate information is referred to for deformation and expansion. The details will be described below.

In the operation of the first embodiment, when the deformation is enlargement / reduction and both X and Y have the same enlargement ratio,
Only the coordinates in one direction are transformed by the transformation parameters and stored. Further, when the expansion is executed in the same manner as in the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8, the deformation process is executed by using the data of only one direction stored in advance for both the X and Y coordinates. In this way, since the vertical / horizontal scaling is performed at the same magnification, the value of X after transformation is the same as the value of Y after transformation.
Therefore, for both X and Y, it is possible to bring the modified vector table from the storage table.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of routine A (2). In the figure, when this process is started, it is first determined whether or not the mesh size is from X = 0 (S901). When it is determined that the mesh size is from X = 0, X is transformed (S
902). Further, the transformed data is written in the X-th table (S903), the process returns to the step 901 and the same process is repeatedly executed.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of routine B (2). In the figure, when this processing is started, it is first determined whether or not there is a vector to be converted (S1001). If it is determined that there is a vector to be converted, vector data (X, Y) is taken out (S1002). Then, the Xth data is fetched from the table (S1003), the Yth data is fetched from the table (S1004), the process returns to step 1001 and the same processing is repeated.

Therefore, similar to the first embodiment, the printing speed is improved and the data storage area can be saved. In addition, since most of the printing is printed at the same ratio in the vertical / horizontal sizes, the data area to be calculated and stored is as small as one mesh, which improves the speed of data storage and data storage. The area can be further saved.

[Third Embodiment] In the third embodiment, the size to be expanded / reduced is stored in such a manner that the stored size of the expanded / reduced deformation is represented by the same integer in both vertical and horizontal directions. When expanding / reducing and expanding, this stored coordinate information is used to expand / reduce and expand. The details will be described below.

As in the case of the second embodiment, when the transformation process represented by enlarging the stored enlargement / reduction parameters by an integer is executed, multiplication, addition and division are performed for the transformation. As shown in (4), it is stored in the storage table (RAM 103) without performing division. When transforming the points of each character, the division value is determined according to the stored size and the size to be transformed. For example, if the size to be stored is 512 dots and the size to be transformed is 1024 dots, the value to be divided may be halved. Also, 1
In the case of 28 dots, it may be quadrupled.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the vector font expansion processing according to the third embodiment. In the figure, when this process is started, the characters are first expanded (S120
1) It is determined whether or not the expanded character is a transformation in the storage table (S1202). When it is determined here that the transformation is in the storage table, it is further determined whether or not the transformation is an integral multiple of the transformation in the storage table (S1).
203). If it is determined that the modification is an integer multiple of the modification in the storage table, the process of routine B (see FIG. 10) is executed (S1204). Next, the vector is divided (S1205), drawing is performed based on the transformed vector (S1206), and this processing ends. On the other hand, when it is determined in step 1202 that there is no deformation in the storage table, or in step 12
In 03, when it is determined that the transformation is not an integral multiple of the transformation in the storage table, a normal vector font is expanded (S1207), and this processing ends.

By the way, in the second embodiment, the size to be enlarged / reduced can correspond to only one size, and the same thing must be repeated from the beginning. However, according to the third embodiment, the same data table can be used for the double-width and quadruple-width sizes that are often used for headline characters, so that the processing speed can be improved and the data storage area can be saved. can do.

[Fourth Embodiment] In this embodiment, the RAM 103 in the first embodiment stores the batch-transformed data. On the other hand, for the frequently used transformation, the coordinate system before the transformation is collectively transformed on the ROM 105. Remember. Then, when the character expansion is performed, the deformation expansion is executed using the coordinate information stored in the ROM 105.

FIG. 13 is a flow chart showing the preprocessing of vector font expansion according to the fourth embodiment. In the figure, when this process is started, a deformation parameter of a frequently used deformation is given (S1301), and the process of routine A (see FIG. 6) is executed (S1302). Then, the processing result of the processing of this routine A is stored in the ROM 105 (S1303), and this processing ends. Therefore, the vector font expansion process is executed in the same procedure as the flowchart shown in FIG. In addition, in Examples 5 and 6 described later,
Deformation expansion is executed based on the coordinate information stored in the ROM 105.

As described above, since multiplication and addition (and division) for transformation for each character and for each vector are executed by referring to the table, it is possible to use a printer controller without a numerical operation processor or The printing speed can be improved by using a font with a coarse mesh of the master, a stroke font used in a plotter, or the like.
Also, unlike font caches that have no effect until the second and subsequent expansions, they can be used under the same conditions at any time. Further, unlike the case where the raster data is stored as it is, it is effective for all characters and the data storage area can be saved.

[Embodiment 5] Here, as in the case of Embodiment 2, if the deformation is only enlargement / reduction and the vertical / horizontal magnification is the same, only the vertical / horizontal coordinate after deformation is used. R
It is stored on the OM 105. Then, when enlarging / reducing expansion, deformation expansion is executed for both ordinate and abscissa based on the coordinate information on the ROM 105.

Therefore, the vector font expansion processing is executed in the same procedure as that of the flowchart shown in FIG.

As a result, the printing speed can be improved and the data storage area can be saved as in the fourth embodiment. In addition, since most of the print is printed at the same ratio in the vertical and horizontal directions, the area to be calculated and stored is as small as 1 / mesh number, which improves speed during data storage and saves data storage area. Can be achieved.

[Sixth Embodiment] Here, similarly to the third embodiment, the size to be expanded / reduced is stored, and the size to be expanded / reduced is stored to be expanded / reduced. When the size of the transformation is expressed by the same integral multiplication in both the vertical and horizontal directions, the stored enlargement / reduction transformation coordinates are used to perform the enlargement / reduction development.

Therefore, the vector font expansion processing is executed in the same procedure as that of the flowchart shown in FIG.

As a result, 2 which is often used as a headline character
The same data can be used for sizes such as double angle and quadruple angle, and the speed can be improved and the data storage area can be saved.

[0051]

As described above, according to the printer control apparatus (Claim 1) of the present invention, the coordinate system before transformation is collectively converted and transformed / stored before the transformation of one character. ，
When performing the transformation process after that, since the transformation process of the character is performed based on the stored transformed coordinate information and the drawing process is performed, the printing speed is improved and the data storage area is saved. You can

According to the printer control device of the present invention (Claim 2), when the deformation is only enlargement / reduction and the vertical / horizontal magnification is the same, either the vertical / horizontal direction after the deformation can be obtained. Only the coordinates are stored, and when the image is expanded or reduced, the drawing process is executed by referring to the stored coordinate information to transform and expand it. Therefore, the printing speed is improved and the data storage area You can save money.

Further, according to the printer control apparatus (Claim 3) of the present invention, the size to be expanded / reduced and expanded is such that the stored expansion / reduction deformation size is the same integer in both vertical and horizontal directions.・ When represented by reduction, when performing expansion / reduction, the drawing process is executed by expanding / reducing and expanding based on this calculated / stored coordinate information.
For example, the same coordinate information can be used for double-size, quadruple-size, and other characters that are often used as headline characters, which improves processing speed and saves data storage area. it can.

Further, according to the printer control apparatus (Claim 4) of the present invention, with respect to the frequently used deformation, the coordinate system before the deformation is collectively transformed and transformed / stored, and the transformation process is executed. In this case, since the character is transformed and developed based on the stored transformed coordinate information and the drawing process is executed, the printing speed is improved and the data storage area can be saved.

Further, according to the printer control device of the present invention (claim 5), if the deformation is only enlargement / reduction and the vertical / horizontal ratio is the same, the vertical / horizontal direction after the deformation can be changed. Only the coordinates are stored in advance, and when the image is expanded / reduced, the drawing process is executed by referring to the stored coordinate information to transform and expand it, so that the printing speed is improved and the data storage area is increased. Can be saved.

Further, according to the printer control device of the present invention (claim 6), the size to be expanded / reduced and expanded is such that the stored expansion / reduction deformation size is the same integer in both vertical and horizontal directions. -When represented by reduction, when performing expansion / reduction, the drawing process is executed by expanding / reducing and expanding based on the coordinate information previously calculated / stored.
For example, the same coordinate information can be used for double-size, quadruple-size, and other characters that are often used as headline characters, which improves processing speed and saves data storage area. it can.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a coordinate system in which the mesh size of the master data of the vector font according to the present invention is 256 × 256.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a post-conversion vector storage table according to the first and fourth embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing preprocessing for vector font expansion according to Examples 1, 2, and 3.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a vector font expansion process according to Examples 1, 2, 4, and 5.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the processing of routine A according to the first and fourth embodiments.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the processing of routine B according to the first and fourth embodiments.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a post-conversion vector storage table according to the second, third, fifth, and sixth embodiments.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the processing of routine A according to the second, third, fifth, and sixth embodiments.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the processing of routine B according to the second, third, fifth, and sixth embodiments.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing a vector font expansion example according to the third and sixth embodiments.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing vector font expansion processing according to the third and sixth embodiments.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing preprocessing for vector font expansion according to Examples 4, 5, and 6.

[Explanation of symbols]

 102 CPU 103 RAM 105 ROM

Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Office reference number FI Technical display location G06T 11/20 G09G 5/00 550 P 9471-5G 5/26 9471-5G 9365-5L G06F 15/72 355 U

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A printer control device having a vector font expansion function, and a coordinate information storage unit for storing coordinate information obtained by collectively transforming a coordinate system before transformation before transforming one character, and the coordinate information storage. A printer control device, comprising: a control unit that executes a character transformation and expansion process based on the transformed coordinate information stored in the unit. 2. A printer controller having a vector font expansion function, in which deformation is only enlargement / reduction, and
When the vertical / horizontal magnification is the same, the coordinate information storage means for storing only the vertical / horizontal coordinates after the transformation and the character information based on the transformed coordinate information stored in the coordinate information storage means. A printer control device, comprising: a control unit that executes a deformation expansion process. 3. A printer controller having a vector font expansion function, coordinate information storage means for storing vector data after transformation before division, and enlargement / reduction for storing the size to be enlarged / reduced. If the size of the transformation is represented by the same integer scaling both vertically and horizontally,
A printer control apparatus comprising: a control unit that divides a vector of the coordinate information storage unit and executes drawing processing by enlarging / reducing based on the modified vector after the division. 4. In a printer control device having a vector font expansion function, coordinate information storage means for storing coordinate information in which a coordinate system before transformation is collectively transformed in advance for transformations that are frequently used, and the coordinate information storage. A printer control device, comprising: a control unit that executes a character transformation and expansion process based on the transformed coordinate information stored in the unit. 5. A printer controller having a vector font expansion function, in which the deformation is only enlargement / reduction, and
In the case where the vertical and horizontal magnifications are the same, the character information is stored based on the coordinate information storage unit that stores in advance only the transformed vertical or horizontal coordinate and the transformed coordinate information stored in the coordinate information storage unit. And a control unit that executes the transformation and expansion processing of 1. 6. A printer control device having a vector font expansion function, coordinate information storage means for storing in advance vector data after transformation before division, and enlargement / reduction for storing a size to be enlarged / reduced. When the size of the reduced deformation is expressed by the same integers in the vertical and horizontal directions, the vector of the coordinate information storage means is divided, and the drawing processing by the enlargement / reduction is executed based on the transformed vector after the division. A printer control apparatus comprising: a control unit.