JPH0844506A - Fast font processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a font processor which can solve its problems and can shorten the data transfer time. CONSTITUTION:A host computer 11 includes a drawing routine 22 which evolves a font into the bit map font data and a font management part 24 which registers the management data on the font evolved into the bit map font data. A printer 13 includes a font cache management part 33 and a font cache data part 36 which stores the bit map font data corresponding to the font management data. Then it is decided whether the management data on the font to be expanded are registered in the part 24. If not registered, the font is expanded on the routine 22. If registered, only the font management data are transferred to the printer 13.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a high speed font processing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a computer is used to print with a printer or to display an image on a CRT, data such as a command string and bitmap font data is transferred from a host computer to the printer, CRT or the like. I am trying. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a connection state between a conventional host computer and a printer.

In the figure, 11 is a host computer such as a personal computer or workstation, 12 is an input device for operating the host computer 11, and 13 is an RS4.
22, a printer connected to the host computer 11 via an interface such as Ethernet, Centro, RS232, or the like. Next, operations of the host computer 11 and the printer 13 will be described.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation of the conventional host computer and printer. Step S1 For example, data is created by application software such as graphic drawing software, word processor software, spreadsheet software, or the like. Step S2 The data created by the application software is passed to the software (hereinafter referred to as “drawing routine”) which is stored inside the host computer 11 (FIG. 2) and has a drawing function. As the drawing routine,
For example, in Macintosh, Quick D
raw can be used. In addition, CR (not shown)
In Windows 3.1 applied to T, GD
I (Graphics Device Interface)
ce) can be used. Step S3 The drawing routine draws characters, figures, images, tables, etc. which the application software is going to form in order to form an image in the printer 13. For that purpose, the drawing routine creates a command string, bitmap font data, etc. according to the function of the connected printer 13.

In the CRT, drawing is performed in a memory area called a frame buffer. By the way, when a high-performance printer 13 that supports the Postscript language as a page description language is connected to the host computer 11, the drawing routine is a device driver (not shown) arranged corresponding to the printer 13. Ask about its function. In this case, the device driver determines whether the printer 13 can draw a complicated polygon (polygon).
Tells the drawing routine the drawing function of the printer 13, such as what font it has and whether it can draw a predetermined character, whether it can halftone the image, and so on.

Then, the drawing routine converts the drawing function inquired into a command string (postscript language in this case) possessed by the printer 13 and passes it to the device driver. On the other hand, for example, when a low-function printer 13 that is not capable of drawing a graphic or developing an outline font is connected to the host computer 11,
The drawing routine performs necessary drawing and then passes the data to the device driver. Step S4 The device driver delivers the command string or data as print data to a spooler (not shown) arranged in the printer 13. The spooler spools (stores) print data, manages the print data, and transfers the print data to the printer 13 according to the situation of the printer 13. Step S5 When the printer 13 receives the print data, the interpreter arranged in the printer 13 interprets the command sequence of the print data and creates a data structure capable of drawing, that is, a display list, and the display list is displayed. To a rasterizer (not shown). Step S6 The rasterizer reads the display list, draws a predetermined number, and when drawing of one page is completed, the rasterizer expands the bitmap font data and writes it in a page memory (not shown). Step S7: Start a printer engine (not shown),
The bitmap font data is read from the page memory and sent to the printer engine. The printer engine actually prints according to the bitmap font data.

By the way, the difference between the processing in the high-function printer 13 and the processing in the low-function printer 13 is how close to the bitmap font data the host computer 11 can process. Next, a high-performance printer 13 for drawing characters
The difference between the process in 1 and the process in the low-function printer 13 will be described.

When printing is performed using the high-performance printer 13, the printer 13 generally has an outline font on a hard disk or the like. The outline font data varies depending on the outline font format. In the case of Japanese, the number of fonts per font is from 2 to 2.
It has a capacity of 0 megabytes. Therefore, when the data of a plurality of outline fonts is stored on the hard disk, the capacity becomes insufficient. Therefore, the printer normally has only the outline fonts of several frequently used typefaces as a standard.

When the application software requests the printer 13 to draw an outline font that is not stored in the hard disk, the host computer 11 expands the outline font into bitmap font data, and the bitmap font is generated. The data is transferred to the printer 13.

Also, when printing characters using the low-function printer 13, the host computer 11 expands the character font into bitmap font data and transfers the bitmap font data to the printer 13. I have to. In this case, the bitmap font data is transferred as it is or after being compressed.

[0011]

However, in the conventional font processing apparatus, all outline fonts, character fonts, etc. are expanded into bitmap font data, and the bitmap font data is transferred to the printer 13. Therefore, it takes a long time to deploy and the transfer time becomes long.

An object of the present invention is to provide a high-speed font processing device which solves the problems of the conventional font processing device described above and can shorten the transfer time.

[0013]

Therefore, in the high-speed font processing apparatus of the present invention, a drawing routine arranged in a host computer for expanding a font into bitmap font data, and a drawing routine arranged in the host computer, And a font management unit for registering font management data of a font expanded into bitmap font data.

Further, a font cache management unit arranged in the printer for registering the font management data of the font expanded in the bitmap font data, and a bit arranged in the printer and corresponding to the font management data. And a font cache data section in which map font data is stored. Then, it is arranged in the host computer to judge whether or not the font management data of the font to be expanded is registered in the font management section. If not, it is expanded in the drawing routine and registered. In this case, it has a device driver that transfers only the font management data to the printer, and a rasterizer that is arranged in the printer and reads out bitmap font data corresponding to the transferred font management data from the font cache management unit.

[0015]

According to the present invention, as described above, in the high-speed font processing apparatus, a drawing routine provided in the host computer for expanding the font into bitmap font data and a bitmap routine provided in the host computer are provided. And a font management unit for registering font management data of fonts developed in the font data.

When the font is expanded into bitmap font data by the drawing routine, the font management data corresponding to the font is registered in the font management unit. At this time, the font management data and the bitmap font data are transferred to the printer. Also, a font cache management unit arranged in the printer for registering font management data of the font expanded into the bitmap font data, and bitmap font data arranged in the printer and corresponding to the font management data. And a font cache data section in which is stored.

In this case, when the font management data and the bitmap font data are transferred from the host computer, the font management data is registered in the font cache management section and the bitmap font data is written in the font cache data section. Then, it is arranged in the host computer to judge whether or not the font management data of the font to be expanded is registered in the font management section. If not, it is expanded in the drawing routine and registered. In this case, it has a device driver that transfers only the font management data to the printer, and a rasterizer that is arranged in the printer and reads out bitmap font data corresponding to the transferred font management data from the font cache management unit.

Therefore, if the font to be expanded is not expanded into bitmap font data, the drawing routine expands the font into bitmap font data. If the font to be expanded is already expanded into bitmap font data, only the font management data of the font is transferred to the printer.

Then, in the printer, the rasterizer reads the bitmap font data corresponding to the transferred font management data from the font cache management unit.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing the operation of the high speed font processing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of the high speed font processing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 4, 11 is a host computer such as a personal computer or workstation, and 13 is an RS42.
2, a printer connected to the host computer 11 via an interface 12 such as Ether Net, Centro, RS232, or the like. The host computer 11
Is an application software 21, a drawing routine 22,
It has a printer driver 23 as a device driver, a printer font management unit 24 arranged in the printer driver 23, and a spooler 25. Also, the printer 1
3 is an interpreter 31, a rasterizer 32, a font cache management unit 33, and a font cache data unit 3
6, a page memory 34 and a printer engine 35.

In the high-speed font processing device having the above structure, the following processing is performed for each character to be printed. That is, the printer driver 23 determines whether or not a font such as an outline font or a character font which is currently being developed is registered in the corresponding printer font management unit 24. If the font is not registered in the corresponding printer font management unit 24, the printer driver 23 determines the font type,
Data such as the number of points (font size) and character code (hereinafter referred to as “font management data”) is registered in the printer font management unit 24. At the same time, the printer driver 23 transfers the expanded bitmap font data and the font management data to the printer 13 via the spooler 25.

On the other hand, the corresponding printer font management unit 2
If the font management data is registered in No. 4, the printer driver 23 transfers the font management data and the address in which the font management data is written to the printer 13 without performing the font expansion processing. On the printer 13 side, when the rasterizer 32 determines that the received font management data and the font management data registered in the font cache management unit 33 match (cache hit), the font management data The bitmap font data corresponding to is read from the font cache data unit 36 and written in the page memory 34.

When it is determined that the received font management data and the font management data registered in the font cache management unit 33 do not match (cache miss), the received font management data is set to the font cache management unit. The bitmap font data corresponding to the font management data is written in the font cache data unit 36 and the page memory 34.

The data structure in the printer font management unit 24 on the host computer 11 side and the data structure in the font cache management unit 33 on the printer 13 side are almost the same. However, while the data structure in the font cache management unit 33 has a pointer to bitmap font data, the data structure in the printer font management unit 24 does not have a pointer to bitmap font data.

In this case, since the processing for expansion is unnecessary for the fonts which have been expanded once, high speed processing becomes possible and the printing speed can be increased, and at the same time,
Since the font management data need only be transferred in place of the bitmap font data for the font once expanded, the data transfer amount can be greatly reduced.

Next, the operation of the high-speed font processing device having the above-mentioned structure will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Step S11 For example, data is created by application software 21 (FIG. 4) such as graphic drawing software, word processor software, spreadsheet software, or the like. Step S12 The data created by the application software 21 is passed to the drawing routine 22 stored inside the host computer 11. As the drawing routine 22, for example, in Macintosh,
Quick Draw can be used. Step S13 The drawing routine 22 inquires of the printer driver 23 whether the current font needs to be expanded into bitmap font data. When there is an inquiry from the drawing routine 22, the printer driver 23 checks the printer font management unit 24, and if there is a cache hit (corresponding bitmap font data exists, it is necessary to expand the current font into bitmap font data). If not), the drawing routine 22 is notified that it is not necessary to expand the current font into bitmap font data. In the case of a cache miss (when there is no corresponding bitmap font data and the current font needs to be expanded into bitmap font data), the printer driver 23 issues a drawing request (font expansion request) to the drawing routine 22. If it is necessary to expand the current font into bitmap font data, the process proceeds to step S14, and if it is not necessary, the process proceeds to step S19. Step S14 The drawing routine 22 expands the current font into bitmap font data and passes it to the printer driver 23. Step S15 When the printer driver 23 receives the bitmap font data, the printer driver 23 registers the font management data corresponding to the bitmap font data in the printer font management unit 24 and causes the spooler 25 arranged in the printer 13 to perform the bitmap. Pass font data and font management data as print data. The spooler 25 spools print data, manages the print data, and transfers the print data to the printer 13 according to the situation of the printer 13. Step S16 When the printer 13 receives the print data, the interpreter 31 arranged in the printer 13 creates a display list and passes the display list to the rasterizer 32. Step S17 The rasterizer 32 reads the display list, registers the font management data in the font cache management unit 33, writes the bitmap font data in the font cache data unit 36 and the page memory 34. Step S18 When the bitmap font data of the image for one page is written in the page memory 34 by repeating the above process, the printer engine 35 is started, the bitmap font data is read from the page memory 34 and sent to the printer engine 35. , Do the actual printing. Step S19 The drawing routine 22 passes only the font management data of the current font to the printer driver 23. Step S20 The printer driver 23 passes the font management data to the spooler 25 provided in the printer 13. The spooler 25 spools and manages the font management data and transfers the font management data to the printer 13 according to the situation of the printer 13. Step S21 The printer 13 receives the font management data, checks the font cache management unit 33 based on the font management data, and if the cache hits, reads the bitmap font data from the bitmap font data 36 and stores it in the page memory 34. Write and proceed to step S18.

The bitmap font data may be composed of compressed data by a compression technique. Further, when the printer 13 is started up, the printer 1
The host computer 1 stores the font management data that 3 has.
By notifying 1, it is also possible to use the previously expanded bitmap font data. In this case, the processing time and data transfer time in the host computer 11 can be further shortened.

Next, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a CRT will be described. FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram of a high speed font processing apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing an operation of the high speed font processing apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 5, reference numeral 111 denotes a host computer such as a personal computer or a workstation,
113 is RS422, Ether Net, Centro,
It is a CRT connected to the host computer 111 via the interface 12 such as RS232.

The host computer 111 has application software 21, a drawing routine 22, a CRT driver 123 as a device driver, and a CRT font management section 124 arranged in the CRT driver 123. The CRT 113 also has an interpreter 31, a rasterizer 32, a font cache management unit 33, bitmap font data 36, a video memory 134, and a display 135.

The following processing is performed for each character in the high-speed font processing device having the above configuration. That is, C
The RT driver 123 checks the CRT font management unit 124 to check which outline font is currently being expanded,
It is determined whether a font such as a character font is registered in the corresponding CRT font management unit 124. When the font is not registered in the corresponding CRT font management unit 124, the CRT driver 123
The font management data is registered in the CRT font management unit 124. At the same time, the CRT driver 123 transfers the expanded bitmap font data and the font management data to the CRT 113.

On the other hand, the corresponding CRT font management unit 12
When the font is registered in No. 4, the CRT driver 123 transfers the font management data and the address in which the font management data is written to the CRT 113 without performing the font expansion processing. And CR
On the T113 side, the rasterizer 32 checks the font cache management unit 33, and if there is a cache hit,
The bitmap font data corresponding to the font management data is read from the bitmap font data 36 and written in the video memory 134.

In the case of a cache miss, the received font management data is registered in the font cache management unit 33, and the bitmap font data corresponding to the font management data is written in the bitmap font data 36 and the video memory 134. . In this case, once expanded fonts do not require processing for expansion, high-speed processing is possible and printing speed can be increased, and once expanded fonts are converted to bitmap font data. Instead, only the font management data needs to be transferred, so that the data transfer amount can be greatly reduced.

Next, the operation of the high-speed font processing device having the above-mentioned structure will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Step S31 For example, data is created by application software 21 (FIG. 5) such as graphic drawing software, word processor software, spreadsheet software, or the like. Step S32 The data created by the application software 21 is passed to the drawing routine 22 stored inside the host computer 111. As the drawing routine 22, for example, in Windows 3.1, GDI (Graphics Device Int) is used.
interface) can be used. Step S33 The drawing routine 22 inquires of the CRT driver 123 whether it is necessary to expand the current font into bitmap font data. The CR
When there is an inquiry from the drawing routine 22, the T driver 123 checks the CRT font management unit 124, and if there is a cache hit (there is corresponding bitmap font data, there is no need to expand the current font into bitmap font data). In this case, the drawing routine 22 is notified that the current font does not need to be expanded into bitmap font data. In the case of a cache miss hit (when there is no corresponding bitmap font data and it is necessary to expand the current font into bitmap font data), the CRT driver 123 causes the drawing routine 22 to execute.
Issue a drawing request to. Then, if it is necessary to expand the current font into bitmap font data, the process proceeds to step S34.
Proceed to. Step S34 The drawing routine 22 expands the current font into bitmap font data and passes it to the CRT driver 123. Upon receiving the bitmap font data, the CRT driver 123 registers the font management data corresponding to the bitmap font data in the CRT font management unit 124, and transfers the bitmap font data and the font management data to the CRT 113 as video data. To do. Step S35 When the CRT 113 receives the video data, the interpreter 31 arranged in the CRT 113 creates a display list and passes the display list to the rasterizer 32. Step S36 The rasterizer 32 reads the display list, registers the font management data in the font cache management unit 33, writes the bitmap font data in the font cache data unit 36 and the video memory 134. Step S37 By repeating the above process, the bitmap font data of the image for one page is stored in the video memory 134.
, The display 135 is activated to read the bitmap font data from the video memory 134 and send it to the display 135 to display an image. Step S38 The drawing routine 22 passes only the font management data of the current font to the CRT driver 123. The CRT driver 123 stores the font management data in C
Transfer to RT113. Step S39 The CRT 113 receives the font management data, checks the font cache management unit 33 based on the font management data, and when the cache hits, reads the bitmap font data from the font cache data unit 36 and writes it in the video memory 134, It proceeds to step S37.

This embodiment can be applied to, for example, an X terminal. It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made based on the spirit of the present invention, and these are not excluded from the scope of the present invention.

[0036]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, in the high-speed font processing apparatus, a drawing routine arranged in the host computer for expanding the font into bitmap font data and the host computer are provided. And a font management unit for registering the font management data of the font that is arranged and expanded into the bitmap font data.

Further, a font cache management unit arranged in the printer for registering the font management data of the font expanded in the bitmap font data, and a bit arranged in the printer and corresponding to the font management data. And a font cache data section in which map font data is stored. Then, it is arranged in the host computer to judge whether or not the font management data of the font to be expanded is registered in the font management section. If not, it is expanded in the drawing routine and registered. In this case, it has a device driver that transfers only the font management data to the printer, and a rasterizer that is arranged in the printer and reads out bitmap font data corresponding to the transferred font management data from the font cache management unit.

In this case, if the font to be expanded is not expanded into bitmap font data, the drawing routine expands the font into bitmap font data. If the font to be expanded is already expanded into bitmap font data, only the font management data of the font is transferred to the printer.

Then, in the printer, the rasterizer reads the bitmap font data corresponding to the transferred font management data from the font cache management unit. Therefore, once expanded fonts do not require processing for expansion, high-speed processing is possible, and once expanded fonts can be transferred simply by transferring font management data instead of bitmap font data. Since it is good, the data transfer amount can be significantly reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an operation of a high speed font processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a connection state between a conventional host computer and a printer.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing operations of a conventional host computer and printer.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of a high-speed font processing device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram of a high-speed font processing device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the high-speed font processing device according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11, 111 Host computer 13 Printer 22 Drawing routine 23 Printer driver 24 Printer font management section 32 Rasterizer 33 Font cache management section 36 Font cache data section 113 CRT 123 CRT driver 124 CRT font management section

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. (a) is provided in a host computer,
A drawing routine for expanding a font into bitmap font data; (b) a font managing unit arranged in the host computer for registering font management data of the font expanded into bitmap font data; and (c) A font cache management unit arranged in the printer for registering font management data of the font expanded into the bitmap font data; and (d)
A font cache data section disposed in the printer, in which bitmap font data corresponding to the font management data is stored, and (e) a font management data of a font to be developed, which is disposed in the host computer, is a font. (F) a device driver that determines whether or not the font management data is registered in the management unit, expands it to the drawing routine if it is not registered, and transfers only the font management data to the printer if it is registered;
A high-speed font processing device, comprising: a rasterizer, which is arranged in the printer and which reads bitmap font data corresponding to the transferred font management data from a font cache management unit.