JPH08324043A - Method and apparatus for output control - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To use fonts at high speed and, moreover, keep existing fonts at the time of using downloaded fonts. CONSTITUTION: Downloaded fonts are accommodated in a flash EEPROM (step 1), and the flash ROM is judged whether to be full or not (step 2). If judged to be full, a font with the lowest using frequency is selected among fonts stored in the flash ROM (step 3). If the font is movable, it is transferred to a hard disc to establish a space in the flash ROM. By this way, the downloaded font is accommodated in a high speed memory, and a foot excluded therefrom is transferred to a HDD. Besides, since the font to be transferred has a low using frequency, the whole of the system can avoid falling its efficiency.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an output control device and method for controlling an output device such as a printer which processes and outputs data input from an external device such as a host computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when font data is downloaded from an external device such as a host computer to an output device such as a printer, the downloaded font data is stored in a nonvolatile memory or a hard disk (H) of the output device.
D), a magneto-optical disk (MD), or other external storage device.

[0003]

However, when the font data is stored in the non-volatile memory, the data access is fast, but since the storage capacity is not so large, the data stored inevitably when the memory becomes full. I had no choice but to delete. In addition, when storing in an external storage device such as a HD, it has a large capacity and uses a cache method to access data that has been used once at high speed, but the processing of the font used for the first time is slow, and when the power is turned off. It wasn't fast enough because the cache would be erased.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and an object of the present invention is to provide an output control device and method capable of holding a font once downloaded and accelerating the processing using the font data. It is a thing.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] and

In order to achieve the above object, the output control device of the present invention has the following structure. That is, an output control device for controlling an output process using downloaded font data, the first storage means and a second storage means having a large capacity and being slower than the first storage means, If the downloaded font data is stored in the first storage means and the first storage means has no new storage capacity, a predetermined condition among the font data stored in the first storage means is satisfied. And a control unit that controls to move the filled font data to the second storage unit.

In order to achieve the above object, the output control method of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, an output control method for controlling an output process using downloaded font data, wherein the downloaded font data is stored in a first storage medium, and it is determined whether there is a remaining capacity in the first storage medium. If there is no remaining capacity, font data satisfying a predetermined condition is selected from the font data stored in the first storage medium,
The selected font data is moved to the second storage medium whose access speed is slower than that of the first storage medium.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Before describing the present embodiment, the structures of a laser beam printer and an inkjet printer suitable for applying the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

It is needless to say that the printer to which the present invention is applied is not limited to the laser beam printer and the ink jet printer, and may be a printer of another printing system. <Structure of Printer> FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing the structure of an output device to which the present invention can be applied, for example, a case of a laser beam printer (LBP).

In the figure, 100 is the LBP body,
Print information (character code, etc.) supplied from an externally connected host computer, form information, macro commands, etc. are input and stored, and corresponding character patterns and form patterns are created in accordance with these information. An image is formed on a recording medium such as a recording medium.

Reference numeral 300 denotes a switch and an LED for operation.
An operation panel on which a display device and the like are arranged, and 101 is a control unit for the entire LBP main body 100. The printer control unit 101 mainly converts character information into a video signal of a corresponding character pattern and outputs it to the laser driver 102. The laser driver 102 switches on / off the laser beam 104 emitted from the semiconductor laser 103.
The laser beam 104 is oscillated in the left-right direction by the rotary polygon mirror 105, and an electrostatic latent image of a character pattern is formed on the electrostatic drum 106. This electrostatic latent image is the electrostatic drum 1.
After being developed by the developing unit 107 arranged around 06, it is transferred to the recording paper. A cut sheet is used as the recording sheet, and the cut sheet recording sheet is the LBP main body 100.
The sheet is taken into the apparatus by the sheet feeding roller 109, the conveying roller 110, and the conveying roller 111, which are housed in the sheet cassette 108 attached to the sheet cassette 108, and is supplied to the electrostatic drum 106.

Further, the LBP main body 100 is provided with at least one or more card slots (not shown) so that an option font card and a control card (emulation card) having a different language can be connected in addition to the built-in font.

FIG. 2 is an external view showing the configuration of a second output device to which the present invention can be applied, for example, the case of an ink jet recording device (IJRA).

In the figure, a lead screw 5005 and a spiral groove 500 that rotate via driving force transmission gears 5011 and 5009 in association with forward and reverse rotations of a drive motor 5013.
The carriage HC engaging with 4 has a pin (not shown) and is reciprocated in the directions of arrows a and b. This carriage IJC is mounted. A paper pressing plate 5002 presses the paper against the platen 5000 in the carriage movement direction. Photocouplers 5007 and 5008 function as home position detecting means for confirming the presence of the lever 5006 of the carriage in this area and switching the rotation direction of the motor 5013.
Reference numeral 5016 is a member for supporting the cap member 5022 on the front surface of the recording head, and reference numeral 5015 is a suction means for sucking the inside of the cap to perform suction recovery of the recording head through the opening 5023 in the cap. 5017 is a cleaning blade,
The member 5019 enables movement in the front-back direction. 501
Reference numeral 8 denotes a main body support plate which supports the above 5017 and 5019. Reference numeral 5012 denotes a lever for starting suction for suction recovery, which moves in accordance with the movement of the cam 5020 that engages with the carriage, and the driving force of the driving motor is controlled by known transmission means such as clutch switching.

The capping, cleaning, and suction recovery are configured so that desired processing can be performed at their corresponding positions by the action of the lead screw 5005 when the carriage comes to the home position side area. It may be configured so that the desired operation is performed.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the control configuration of the output device of FIG.

In the figure, 1700 is an interface for inputting a recording signal, 1701 is an MPU, 1702 is a ROM for storing a control program executed by the MPU 1701 and host print information, and 1703 is a DRAM for storing various data (the above-mentioned recording signal and The print data supplied to the head) is held. By backing up the DRAM 1703 with a battery, it is possible to store data such as font data that is not desired to be volatilized. A gate array 1704 controls the supply of output data to the recording head 1708, and includes an interface 1700 and an MPU 170.
1. It also controls the transfer of data between the DRAM 1703.

Reference numeral 1710 is a carrier motor for carrying the recording head 1708, 1709 is a carrying motor for carrying the recording paper, 1705 is a head driver for driving the recording head, 1706 is the carrying motor 1709.
The motor driver 1707 drives the carrier motor 1710. Also,
Reference numeral 1711 denotes a magnetic disk that stores download fonts and the like input via the interface 1700.

When input information is input from the host computer 100, which will be described later, via the interface 1700 in the recording apparatus thus configured, the input information is output between the gate array 1704 and the MPU 1701 for printing. Is converted to. Then, the motor drivers 1706 and 1707 are driven, and at the same time, the recording head is driven according to the output information sent to the head driver 1705 to execute printing.

The MPU 1701 is capable of performing communication processing with the host computer 100, which will be described later, via the interface 1700. Memory information and resource data regarding the DRAM 1703 and host print information in the ROM 1702 are stored in the host computer 100, which will be described later. It is configured to be communicable and capable of communicating with any device on the network. <Printer Control Device> FIG. 4 is an internal block diagram of a printer control device showing an embodiment of the present invention. Here, a laser beam printer (FIG. 1) will be described as an example. The part of the configuration of FIG. 4 excluding the engine 121 corresponds to the control unit 101 in FIG. 1. As long as the functions of the present invention are executed, the present invention can be applied to a single device, a system including a plurality of devices, or a system in which processing is performed via a network such as a LAN. It goes without saying that the invention can be applied.

Reference numeral 3000 in FIG. 4 is a host computer. In the LBP100, the CPU 130 is the ROM1
The control program stored in 31 controls the entire printer. The RAM 132 is used as a work area for the CPU 130 and includes an area for storing image data to be output to the engine 121.
The font ROM 120 has an area for generating the output information and the like. Flash EEPROM 133 is
It is an electrically rewritable ROM. Reference numeral 134 is an HDD. The interface 135 is the engine 121 and C
An interface unit with the PU 130, and 136 is L
It is the system bus in the BP.

With the above configuration, the host computer 3
Fonts downloaded from 000 are RAM132
Is once received and stored in the flash EEPROM 33. After that, when the memory of the flash ROM 133 becomes full, the CPU 130 detects it and refers to the number of times of data access from the content of the flash ROM 133 to load the font data which is less frequently used into the HDD 134. When it is desired to use the data again, it can be exchanged with the data in the flash ROM 133 which is least frequently used at that time.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of the font data download procedure according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing the memory map of the flash EEPROM 133. The procedure of the flowchart of FIG. 5 is performed by the CPU of FIG.
130 or the MPU 1701 of FIG. Here, the case of FIG. 4 is taken as an example.

When the font data is sent from the host computer 3000, the downloaded font is stored in the flash EEPROM 133 in step 1, and it is detected in step 2 whether the flash ROM 133 is full. The detection method at this time is the last address of the memory map (for example, 0007, F in the 4M bit space of FIG.
The most significant bit (FFF address) is provided with a memory full flag, and when the flag is set to "1", the memory full status is indicated.

When the CPU 130 recognizes that the memory is full, in step 3, the flash EEPROM
The font data access count recorded in 133 is referred to, and the font data with the lowest frequency of use is selected. However, if it is determined in step 4 that the font data selected by inputting an instruction or the like is not moved due to the operator's desire, for example, in step 3, that font data is excluded and the font data with the lowest access count is selected. The area for storing the access count is the flash EEP.
It is secured in the last part of the ROM 133 as shown in FIG. In the example of FIG. 6, when there are three types of data, A, B, and C, the data A has the access count 1, the data B has the access count 3, and the data C has the access count 10. In this case, the data A with the least number of accesses is selected. When it is determined that the data A does not move, the data B having the minimum access count except the data A is
Will be selected.

When the font data to be moved is determined in steps 3 and 4, the selected font data is moved from the flash EEPROM 133 to the HDD 134 in step 5. As described above, flash EEP the frequently used fonts when downloading.
Can be left in ROM.

By the above procedure, the downloaded font data is stored in the EEPROM having a high access speed. Instead, the font data having a low access frequency is moved to the HDD. Therefore, when a font is used, the processing can be performed quickly and the font data once downloaded can be left without being deleted.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 7 shows a simple flowchart of the second embodiment, and FIG. 8 shows a memory map of the flash EEPROM 133, which will be described below.

Steps 81 and 82 are the same as steps 1 and 2 of the above embodiment, and at step 83 CP
U recognizes the date of the data and selects the oldest data. Step 84 is the same as step 4 in FIG. In step 85, the selected font data is moved from the flash EEPROM to the HDD.

The date of the data, for example, the downloaded date is stored as shown in FIG. 8 as in the first embodiment. In this embodiment, the access count of the first embodiment is replaced with the date of font data.

Although the laser beam printer has been described as an example of the image forming apparatus of the present embodiment, the image forming apparatus is not limited to this, and the ink jet printer described above can be applied. The present invention may be applied to a system including a plurality of devices or an apparatus including a single device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

[0031]

As described above, the output control apparatus and method according to the present invention can hold the font once downloaded and can speed up the processing using the font data.

[0032]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a structural cross-sectional view showing a configuration of a printer of this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an inkjet recording apparatus I to which the present invention can be applied.
It is a schematic diagram of JRA.

3 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the inkjet recording apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a main configuration of a printer of the present embodiment and its connection.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing by the printer of this embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a memory map of the flash EEPROM of the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing processing by the printer of the second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a memory map of a flash EEPROM according to a second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 3000 host computer 100 printer 130 CPU 131 ROM 132 RAM 133 flash EEPROM 134 HDD 120 font ROM 121 engine 136 printer bus

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An output control device for controlling an output process using downloaded font data, comprising a first storage means and a second storage which has a large capacity and is slower than the first storage means. Means and the downloaded font data are stored in the first storage means, and if the first storage means does not have a new storage capacity, a predetermined one of the font data stored in the first storage means is stored. And a control unit that controls the font data satisfying the condition of (1) to be moved to the second storage unit. 2. The output control device according to claim 1, wherein the condition is a frequency of use of font data, and the control means moves the font data having the lowest frequency of use. 3. The output control device according to claim 1, wherein the condition is a date of font data, and the control means moves the least frequently used font data. 4. The condition according to claim 2, wherein the condition includes whether or not the font data can be moved, and the control means moves the font data also based on the condition indicating whether or not the font data can be moved. Output control device. 5. An output control method for controlling an output process using downloaded font data, wherein the downloaded font data is stored in a first storage medium, and a remaining capacity of the first storage medium is stored. The presence / absence is determined, and when there is no remaining capacity, font data satisfying a predetermined condition is selected from the font data stored in the first storage medium, and the selected font data is replaced with the first font data. An output control method comprising moving to a second storage medium having an access speed slower than that of the storage medium. 6. The output control method according to claim 5, wherein the condition is that the access frequency of font data is the lowest. 7. The output control method according to claim 5, wherein the condition is that the date of font data is the oldest.