JPH0781159A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To print securely at high speed output printing data from a high-order device by utilizing effectively a memory storing font data received from the host device. CONSTITUTION:A printer 10 comprises a development section 2 for developing a print data into a bit map data, a font storage means 3 for supplying a font data into the development section 2 and a printing section for print outputting the bit map data. A font storage section 5 for storing the font data and a font compression extending section 6 for compressing and extending the font data and a font control section 4 for controlling the font information consisting of a font ID, the data amount and the usage frequency information are provided in the font storage means 3, and the font control section 4 is provided with the empty capacity indicating function for compressing the font of line usage frequency into the font compression extending section 6 when the remaining amount of memory capacity of the font storage section 5 runs short.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer device, and more particularly to a printer device which prints out using font data received from a host device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIG. 5, a conventional printer apparatus has a font data storage means 50 and a memory for checking the storable remaining amount of a memory 51 to determine whether or not the received font data can be stored. It has a capacity discriminating means 52 and a font data compressing means 53 (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-92652).

When it is determined that the received font data is larger than the remaining memory capacity, the font having the largest font data capacity among the stored fonts is compressed by the font data compression means 53 and stored again in the memory 51. To do. If it is insufficient, this process is repeated until the remaining memory capacity is sufficient. When the remaining memory capacity is sufficient, the received font data is stored in the font data storage means 50.
Stored in memory by. FIG. 6 shows the operation of this compression processing. Here, since the font data F5 is stored, the stored font data in the font compresses the maximum capacity F2. Since the capacity of the font data F5 exceeds the capacity of the remaining memory, the font data F2 was compressed to expand the remaining memory, and the font data F5 was stored.

[0004]

However, since the conventional printer apparatus compresses a font having a large occupied capacity, there is a disadvantage that the expansion processing requires a considerable time when the compressed font is frequently used. Occurs, which in turn causes a decrease in the overall processing speed of print output.
There was an inconvenience.

[0005]

It is an object of the present invention to improve the inconvenience of the conventional example, and in particular, by effectively utilizing the memory for storing the font data received from the host device, the print data from the host device can be accurately processed at high speed. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer device capable of printing out.

[0006]

According to the present invention, a developing unit that develops print data from a higher-level device to generate bitmap data, and a font storage unit that supplies font data according to the print data to the developing unit. In a printer device including a printing unit that prints out bitmap data,
The font storage means includes a font storage section having a predetermined storage capacity for storing font data, and a font compression / expansion section for compressing the font data and expanding the compressed font data, and the font storage section is recorded in the font storage section. A font management unit that manages font information consisting of data amount and usage frequency information based on the font ID, and stores and reads the font data. The font management unit stores the font storage unit. It has a configuration such as having a free space maintenance function that compresses a font that is rarely used by the font compression / expansion unit when the remaining capacity is insufficient. This aims to achieve the above-mentioned object.

[0007]

When the downloaded font is received from the host device 1, the font management unit 4 compares the data amount of the downloaded font with the remaining capacity of the font storage unit 5 to secure the required amount of the remaining capacity of the font storage unit 5. The font management unit 4 adds the usage frequency information frame and stores the downloaded font in the font storage unit 5. When the remaining amount is less than or equal to the required amount, the font management unit 4 reads the font information 4a stored in the font storage unit 5 and transmits the font with the least frequency of use to the font data compression / decompression unit 6. The font compression / expansion unit 6 compresses the font and delivers it to the font management unit 4, and the font management unit 4 deletes the original data of the font and writes it in the font storage unit 5.

The font management unit 4 again compares the remaining amount in the font storage unit with the required amount of downloaded fonts, and if the remaining amount is still insufficient, the above compression is repeated to secure the remaining amount in the font storage unit. When the required storage capacity is secured, the font management unit 4 adds a frequency information frame to the received download font data and stores it in the storage unit 3.

Next, the operation when the print data is received from the host device and the font supply request is issued from the expansion unit 2 will be described. The font management unit 4 reads the font ID of the font stored in the font storage unit 5, counts up the usage frequency information by 1 if the font is not compressed, and reads the font from the font storage unit 5. It is supplied to the developing unit 2.

When the font is compressed, the font management unit compares the original data amount of the font requested to be supplied with the remaining storage capacity of the font storage unit 5.
When the remaining amount of the font storage unit 5 is larger than the original data amount, the font compression / expansion unit 6 decompresses the font and delivers it to the font management unit 4, and the font management unit 4 expands a necessary portion from the decompressed font data. Then, the font data is supplied to No. 2 and stored in the font storage unit 5. When the remaining storage capacity of the font storage unit 5 is larger than the original data amount, the font management unit 4 notifies the font compression / expansion unit 6 of the least frequently used font among the font data in the font storage unit 5, After the font is compressed and expanded by the font compression / expansion unit until the remaining amount is sufficient, the requested font is expanded and delivered to the font management unit. The font management unit supplies the font to the expansion unit 2 and writes it in the font storage unit 5.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. The printer device 10 is a higher-level device 1.
A rasterizing unit 2 for rasterizing print data from the printer to generate bitmap data, a font storage unit 3 for supplying font data according to the print data to the rasterizing unit 2, and a printing unit 7 for printing out bitmap data. I have it.

Further, in this embodiment, the font storage means 3 is used.
Is provided with a font storage unit 5 having a predetermined storage capacity capable of storing font data, a font compression / expansion unit 6 for compressing font data and expanding the compressed font data, and recorded in the font storage unit 5. The font information 4a including the data amount and the usage frequency information is managed based on the font ID of the existing font, and the font management unit 4 stores and reads the font data. The font management unit 4 stores the font. It has a free space maintenance function for compressing a font that is rarely used by the font compression / decompression unit when the remaining storage capacity of the copy becomes insufficient.

Further, the font management unit 4 has a usage frequency information grasping unit for updating the font usage frequency information every time the font data is supplied from the font storage unit 3 to the expansion unit 2.

When a font download request is issued from the host device, the font management unit 4 compares the free space of the font storage unit with the free space of the downloaded font so that the free space of the downloaded font is equal to the free space of the storage means. It has a font reception function that executes the free space maintenance function when it exceeds the limit.

Further, the font management unit 4 manages the capacity of the original data of the font as the font information before the font compression by the font compression / expansion unit, and
When the font related to the received print data is compressed, the free space in the font storage area is compared with the free space in the font storage area to be compared with the free space in the font storage area. It has a font decompression function that executes the free space maintenance function when it exceeds.

To explain this in detail, the host device 1 is a device for creating and editing sentences and figures, and is a personal computer or a workstation driven by predetermined application software. The text or figure created and edited using the application software is changed to print data that can be analyzed by the expansion unit 2 of the printer device 10 by the printer driver operating in the higher-level device 1, and is output to the printer device 10 via a cable or the like. It

An unillustrated host device interface is also provided in the expansion unit 2, and print data from the host device is first stored in a reception buffer associated with the host device interface. The reception buffer is the host device 1 and the printer device 1.
It is provided for the purpose of speeding up the data transfer process with 0 and releasing the host device 1 early.

The rasterization unit 2 analyzes the print data and rasterizes it into bitmap data. The font data required for this raster expansion is supplied from the font storage means 3. If the font data is an outline font, the font expansion processing is performed, and then bitmap data, which is image data, is generated based on the format described in the print data. When the font data is a bitmap font, the bitmap data is combined with the format to generate image data (bitmap data).

The expansion unit 2 draws the raster image data in the frame buffer page by page or line by line. The bitmap data drawn in the frame buffer is printed out on the medium by the printing unit 7. Printing section 7
The printer device 10 is classified into a laser printer, an inkjet printer, a thermal printer, a dot impact printer, and the like according to the above configuration, but the present invention is not limited by the configuration of the printing unit 7.

The font storage unit 5 stores font data downloaded from the host device 1. The printer device 10 normally has font data used for its print output, but there is a demand for the user of the printer device 10 to print out a typeface that is specifically defined. At that time, the font created by the higher-level device 1 is used. The data is downloaded to the font storage unit 5 and printed out. Further, even when the higher-level device 1 has font data that the printer device 10 does not have, the font data is downloaded to the font storage unit 5 and is printed out using this font data. Therefore, the font data stored in the font storage unit 5 is used for print output in preference to the font data (not shown) of the printer device 10.

The font compression / expansion unit 4 compresses or expands the font data stored in the font storage unit 5 according to an instruction from the font management unit 4. This font data may be a bitmap font or an outline font. Especially in the case of bitmap fonts, a high compression rate can be expected because the same pattern is often repeated. For example, it can be compressed to 30% to 50% of the original data.

The font management unit 4 has interface means for each unit, stores font data received from the higher-level device 1 via the expansion unit in the font storage unit 5, and requests font data from the expansion unit 2. Is extracted from the font storage unit 5 and supplied to the expansion unit 2. further,
When the storage capacity of the font storage unit 5 is insufficient, less frequently used font data is taken out from the font storage unit 5, the font compression / decompression unit 6 is activated to compress the font, and the original data is deleted before the compressed data. Is stored in the font storage unit 5. Further, when the font data is requested to be supplied from the decompression unit 2, if the font is compressed, the font compression / decompression unit is activated to perform decompression processing, and the compressed original data is deleted.

The free space maintaining function of the font management unit 4 is
This is a function of maintaining free space in the font storage unit 5 by compressing font data that is used less frequently. The font management unit 4 uses the use frequency information described in the font data and the font compression / expansion unit 6. To do. The font decompression function is a function of managing the capacity font information of the original data of the compressed font data, and executing the free space maintenance function when the capacity of the original data exceeds the free space of the font storage unit 5.

The use frequency information grasping means of the font managing section 4 is means for incrementing the number of times the font data is supplied every time the font data is supplied to the developing section 2 and using this supply frequency as the use frequency information. The font management unit 4
When the font data is received from the higher-level device, a frequency-of-use information frame is added to the font data, and when the font data is supplied to the expansion unit 2, the frequency-of-use information frame is updated by adding 1 to the frequency-of-use information.

FIG. 2 shows the font data to which the font information 4a is added, FIG. 2 (A) shows the font data before compression, and FIG. 2 (B) shows the font data after compression. The font information 4a is added by the font management unit 4, and the font data is stored in the font storage unit 5 together with the font information 4a. Font information 4a
Is composed of a font ID, font usage frequency information, and data capacity. After compression, the compressed data amount is added to the font information 4a, and the data amount before compression is stored as the original data amount. The font data may be bitmap data or outline data depending on the function of the expansion unit 2, but the font information structure is the same in both cases.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart centering on the operation of the font management unit when the printer device receives a download font.

The download font is received from the host device 1 (step SA1).

The font management unit 4 compares the data amount of the downloaded font with the remaining capacity of the font storage unit 5 (step SA2), and when the remaining amount of the font storage unit 5 can secure the required amount, the font management unit 4 determines A usage frequency information frame is added (step SA3), and the downloaded font is stored in the font storage unit 5 (step SA4).

When the remaining amount is less than the required amount, the font management unit 4 reads the usage frequency information from the font information 4a stored in the font storage unit 5 (step SA5), and compresses the font with the least usage frequency into font data. Extension part 6
To transmit. The font compression / expansion unit 6 compresses the font (step SA6), and the font management unit 4 deletes the original data of the font and writes it in the font storage unit 5 (step SA7).

The font management unit 4 again compares the remaining amount in the font storage unit with the required amount of downloaded fonts, and if there is still insufficient space, the above compression is repeated (step SA5).
In step 7), the remaining capacity of the font storage unit is secured. When the required storage capacity is secured, the process returns to step 3 and the font management unit 4 adds the frequency information frame to the received download font data and stores it in the storage means 3.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart centered on the operation of the font management unit when print data is received from the host device and a font supply request is issued from the expansion unit 2.

A font use request comes from the expansion unit 2 (step SB1).

The font management unit 4 reads the font ID of the font stored in the font storage unit 5 and determines whether or not the font is compressed (step S).
B2).

If the font is not compressed, the usage frequency information is incremented by 1 (step SB
3) The font is read from the font storage unit 5 and supplied to the expansion unit 2 (step SB4).

When the font is compressed, the font management unit 4 compares the original data amount of the font requested to be supplied with the remaining storage capacity of the font storage unit 5 (step SB5). When the remaining amount of the font storage unit 5 is larger than the original data amount (step SB6), the font compression / expansion unit 6 expands the font (step SB7).
The font management unit 4 supplies a necessary portion from the decompressed font data to the expansion unit 2 (step SB3).

When the remaining storage capacity of the font storage unit 5 is smaller than the original data amount (step SB6), the font management unit 4 reads the usage frequency information from the font data in the font storage unit 5 (step SB8). ), The lowest font is notified to the font compression / expansion unit 6, and the font compression / expansion unit compresses the font (step SB9). The compressed font is stored in the font storage unit 5 (step SB10),
After that, the process returns to step SB5 and the above compression is repeated until the remaining amount of the storage capacity of the font storage unit 5 becomes sufficient (steps SB6 to SB10).

The hardware resources of this embodiment will be described. The printer device 10 includes a CPU (not shown), a RAM directly used by the CPU, a program in which execution procedures of the expansion unit 2, the font management unit 4, the font compression / expansion unit 6, and the like are described, and a memory for these programs. And a program ROM that stores the execution procedure related to the main control that performs control such as allocation. Also, a ROM that stores font data that the printer device 10 has in advance
Alternatively, it is provided with a storage medium such as a hard disk.

The CPU, which has read the execution procedure relating to the main control from the program ROM into the RAM, continuously reads the execution procedure of each section and controls the expansion section 2, the font management section 4, the font compression / expansion section 6 and the printing section. . In addition, the RAM uses the execution procedure related to main control
It is divided into an area directly used by U, an area used as a reception buffer, an area used as a font storage unit 5, and an area used as a work area for the expansion unit 2 and the font compression / expansion unit 6. It

The font storage unit 5 may be composed only of RAM whose area is secured, but when the printer device 10 is provided with a storage medium such as a hard disk, it is stored in the storage medium together with the RAM. Allocating storage space works well.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, in the printer device that prints out using the font data possessed by the higher-level device, the font management unit determines the font data corresponding to the shortage of the memory capacity for storing the downloaded font. Compression based on frequency of use. Since the font data that is used infrequently is compressed, the probability that the font data compressed in the subsequent printing process will be used will be low, and the probability that the process of expanding the font will not be necessary will be high. Since the memory of the font storage means is effectively used as described above, it is possible to provide a printer device capable of printing out print data from a host device at high speed and accurately.

A second embodiment will be described. Here, the font management unit 4 is provided with a timer unit 8 that outputs a clock signal for each predetermined period, and when the font management unit 4 receives the clock signal from the timer unit 8, it is stored in the font storage unit 5. It also has an initialization function to set the usage frequency information of the font data to zero. Other configurations are similar to those of the first embodiment.

In the technique used in the font cache or the like, it is intended that the data that is normally subject to the font cache hits after the fact. In the case of compression using this usage frequency information, the compressed font data is after the fact. The purpose is not to hit.

However, it is possible that even font data that has been frequently used in the past and to which usage frequency information has been added is not used at all at present. Therefore, in this embodiment, the font management section 4 is provided with the timer section 8 and the font management section 4 is provided with an initialization function for setting the usage frequency information to zero. As a result, it is possible to provide the printer device which achieves the above-mentioned object and can print out the print data from the host device at high speed and accurately.

Further, instead of "when the capacity is insufficient" in claim 1, "a timer unit 8 provided in addition to the font management unit 4 is used.
When a clock signal issued at every elapse of a predetermined period from "is received, font data whose use frequency is less than a certain value may be automatically compressed when the printer is idle.

[0046]

Since the present invention is constructed and functions as described above, according to the present invention, the font management unit has a storage capacity such as when the remaining amount of the font storage unit becomes insufficient for the downloaded font amount. When it encounters a situation of shortage, it compresses the fonts that are used infrequently until the remaining amount is sufficient, so that the fonts received from the host device can be stored reliably, and the downloaded fonts that are stored are used. Since the font data was compressed based on the usage frequency information when printing out, the probability that the font supplied to the decompression unit is not compressed increases, and the decompression process is unnecessary, improving the font data supply speed. As a result, it is possible to provide an unprecedented excellent printer device that can reliably and quickly print out print data. Kill.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows font data to which font information is added, FIG. 2 (A) is an explanatory diagram showing font data before compression, and FIG. 2 (B) is an explanatory diagram showing font data after compression.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation when storing a download font.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation when a download font supply is requested.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional example.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of the conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Upper device 2 Development unit 3 Font storage unit 4 Font management unit 5 Font storage unit 6 Font compression / expansion unit 7 Printing unit 8 Timer unit 10 Printing device

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A rasterizing unit that rasterizes print data from a higher-level device to generate bitmap data, a font storage unit that supplies font data corresponding to the print data to the rasterizing unit, and the bitmap data. In a printer device including a printing unit for printing and outputting, the font storage unit has a font storage unit having a predetermined storage capacity for storing font data, and a font for compressing the font data and expanding the compressed font data. A compression / decompression unit and a font management unit that manages font information consisting of data amount and usage frequency information based on the font ID of the font recorded in the font storage unit and stores and reads the font data are provided. However, this font management unit runs out of storage capacity in the font storage unit. Printer apparatus characterized by having a space maintaining function of at compressing the small font of the use frequency on the font decompression unit. 2. The font management unit has a usage frequency information grasping unit for updating the usage frequency information of the font each time the font data is supplied from the storage unit to the expansion unit. The printer device described. 3. The font management unit compares the free space of the font storage unit with the free space of the downloaded font when a font download request is made from the host device, and the free space of the downloaded font is equal to the free space of the storage means. 3. The printer device according to claim 1, further comprising a font receiving function that executes the free space maintaining function when the number exceeds the upper limit. 4. The font management unit manages the capacity of the original data of the font as the font information before the font compression by the font compression / expansion unit, and the font related to the received print data is compressed. ，
A font decompression function that compares the free space of the font storage unit with the capacity of the original data of the font to be expanded and executes the free space maintenance function when the capacity of the original data of the font exceeds the free space of the font storage unit. 4. The printer device according to claim 1, further comprising: 5. The font management section is provided with a timer section for outputting a clock signal at each predetermined period, and the font management section stores the font signal in the font storage section when the clock signal is received from the timer section. 5. The printer device according to claim 1, further comprising an initialization function for setting the usage frequency information of the generated font data to zero.