JPH0890846A - Print buffer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To select the sheet feed tray of a printer at each page or unit of print data according to a print buffer. CONSTITUTION: Print data fetched from an input unit 1 is analyzed by an input data controller 2, the print buffer control command of the data is stored in a memory 3, and the print data is stored in a data buffer 4. When the printer is actually printed, the data of the pages of the data are sequentially read by an output data controller 5, a sheet feed tray control code corresponding to sheet feed tray designation information corresponding to the page is read from the memory 3, and they are sent from an output unit 6 to the printer with each page at one unity. Even when the data are printed by a plurality of sheets, the data and the tray control code of each part are gathered to one unity, and set to the printer.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer for printing data in an external device such as a personal computer or a workstation, and more particularly to a print buffer device for sending data to a printer having a plurality of paper feed trays for feeding paper. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Many printers currently in widespread use perform various settings such as designation of a paper feed tray and designation of the number of copies by adding a printer control code to the head of print data to be printed. There is.

That is, when the data to which the printer control code is added is sent to the printer, various settings such as designation of a paper feed tray and designation of the number of prints are made based on the printer control code that arrives first before printing. The print data that arrives after that is printed under the set conditions.

[0004]

However, in such a conventional printer, the data to be printed does not need to be set by only setting the entire data to which the printer control code is added according to the type of the printer control code. It was not possible to individually specify the paper feed tray for each page or each set. Therefore, when the importance of each page or each copy of one data is different, that is, when it is desired to print a specific page on plain paper but other pages may be backing paper or recycled paper, etc. It didn't respond well.

Similarly, when printing one copy of a plurality of copies of one data, it is desired to print only one copy on plain paper as an original, but the other copy is reserved so that it can be used as a backing paper. It did not correspond.

In such a case, even if the printer has a plurality of paper feed trays and different papers can be placed in the respective paper feed trays, plain paper and back paper etc. can be placed in one paper feed tray. There was no choice but to install them in a mixed manner to deal with the above-mentioned requirements.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and it is an object of the present invention to individually select a paper feed tray for each page or each set of one data so that printing can be performed by a printer.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an external device with data in which control information including paper feed tray designation information for each page is added to print data to be printed from the printer. In a print buffer device that captures data from a printer, converts the data, and outputs the data to a printer, a print data storage unit that stores print data, a control information storage unit that stores control information, and each page of print data from the print data storage unit. Data is sequentially read, the paper feed tray designation information for each page of the print data is read from the control information storage unit, converted into a paper feed tray control code according to the printer that outputs the data, and converted into print data for each page. The present invention provides a print buffer device additionally provided with output data control means for outputting to a printer.

Also, a print buffer for fetching from the external device data in which control information including paper feed tray designation information for each copy to the printer is added to print data to be printed from the printer, and converting the data to output to the printer. In the apparatus, a print data storage unit for storing print data, a control information storage unit for storing control information, a plurality of copies of the print data from the print data storage unit, and a paper feed for each unit of the print data from the control information storage unit. Also provided is a print buffer device including an output data control unit that reads out tray designation information, converts it into a paper feed tray control command according to the printer that outputs it, adds it to the print data of each unit, and outputs it to the printer. To do.

[0010]

According to the present invention, the print data to be printed by the printer is added with the control information including the paper feed tray designation information for each page for the printer, and the data is fetched from the external device, and this data is used as the print data and the control information. Memorize separately. Then, while sequentially reading the data of each page of the print data, the paper feed tray designation information for each page of the print data is read from the control information, and this paper feed tray designation information is added to the print data of each page. Convert the data format.

When printing a plurality of copies of print data, data in which control information including paper feed tray designation information for each copy is added to the print data to be printed from the printer is fetched from an external device. The data is stored separately as print data and control information. Then, a plurality of copies of the print data are read, the paper feed tray designation information for each copy of the print data is read, and the data format is converted by adding the paper feed tray designation information to the print data of each copy.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a print buffer device commonly used in the respective embodiments.

When one printer is shared by a plurality of personal computers, print data sent from each personal computer is temporarily stored in a memory and a buffer for sequentially outputting the print data to the printers. Although a mechanism is generally provided, the present invention provides the print buffer device as the buffer mechanism with a function for selecting the paper feed tray of the printer corresponding to the page or copy of the print data. Is.

As shown in FIG. 1, the print buffer device includes an input unit 1 for loading data from a plurality of connected personal computers into the print buffer device, and analyzes the loaded data. An input data control unit 2 for controlling processing on data, a storage unit 3 for storing print buffer control commands included in the data fetched from the input unit 1, and remaining print data excluding the fetched print buffer control commands. And a data buffer 4 for storing data, an output data control unit 5 for controlling the output of data from the output unit 6, and an output unit 6 for outputting data to the printer. The data is converted into a predetermined format and output from the output unit 6.

A control code for controlling the printer to be used is stored in advance in the storage unit 3, and a paper feed tray control code for selecting a paper feed tray and a number of sheets for designating the number of prints. The designated control code and the like are stored.

First, a first embodiment using such a print buffer device will be described. FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the operation in the case of using the print buffer device shown in FIG. 1 to select a different paper feed tray for each page and print the data from the printer.

When data is input from the input unit 1 (S2
01), the input data control unit 2 first analyzes whether or not this data includes a print buffer control command which is control information (S202). If this command is not included, the data is output to the printer as it is without being controlled by the print buffer device. On the other hand, if this command is included, whether or not the command is a predetermined command, in this case, it is a control command of the paper feed tray designation information for selecting a different paper feed tray for each page. It is determined whether or not there is (S20
3) If so, the content of this command is stored in the storage unit 3 (S204), and the remaining print data obtained by removing the control command from the input data is spooled in the data buffer 4 (S205). If the command is not the predetermined command, the process of this flowchart ends in order to perform the operation according to the command.

When the spooling to the data buffer 4 is completed or the data buffer 4 becomes full, it is judged whether the printer is in the printable state (S20).
6) If printing is possible, the output data control unit 5 reads the contents of the data buffer 4 and starts outputting data to the printer via the output unit 6.

Specifically, first, the beginning of each page of the data to be printed is detected, and the control information for the corresponding page is read from the content of the control command stored in the storage unit 3. Then, the paper feed tray control code, which is one of the control codes, is read from the storage unit 3, adjusted to the control code format depending on the printer model, and then sent to the printer (S207).

Thereafter, the print data for one page is read from the printer buffer 4 and sent to the printer (S20).
8). Then, when the transmission of the print data of the page is completed, the operations of S207 and S208 are repeated until the next page runs out (S209).

When the data transmission is completed, the contents of the control command stored in the storage unit 3 are erased (S2
10), the operation ends.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the contents of the print buffer control command for performing the operation of FIG.
This control command is added from the printer to the beginning of the print data to be printed and sent, and the escape code (3 bytes) at the beginning indicates the type of command. The subsequent n + 1 bytes are control information. The first 1 byte of the control information is the number of pages of the data to be printed, and the paper feed tray number for each page is specified by the n byte paper feed tray specification area that follows.

If the paper feed tray numbers for the required number of pages are not designated in the paper feed tray designation area, the last designated paper feed tray number is set for the remaining pages not designated. To do so. On the contrary, when the paper feed tray numbers for the required number of pages or more are designated in the paper feed tray designation area, the extra paper feed tray designation numbers are ignored.

As described above, when the data passes through the print buffer device, the feed tray control code is added to each page of the sent print data and the data is sent to the printer. You can select the tray. As a result, if different papers are placed in a plurality of paper feed trays, when printing a report, the first page, which is the cover, is printed with the paper in the paper feed tray A (plain paper). ,
The remaining pages can be printed with the paper (recycled paper or backing paper) in the paper feed tray B, and the use of recycled paper or backing paper can be promoted to save resources.

Next, a second embodiment using the print buffer device shown in FIG. 1 will be described. 4 is shown in FIG.
9 is a flowchart showing an operation in which the printer is caused to print data by designating a different paper feed tray and a different number of prints for each page of print data using the print buffer device shown in FIG.

When data is input from the input unit 1 (S4
01), first, the input data control unit 2 analyzes whether or not this data includes a print buffer control command which is control information (S402). If this command is not included, the data is output to the printer as it is without being controlled by the print buffer device. On the other hand, if this command is included, it is determined whether or not the command is a predetermined command, and in this case, the paper feed tray designation information for designating a different paper feed tray and the number of printed sheets for each page. It is determined whether the command is a control command (S403), and if so, the contents of this command are stored in the storage unit 3 (S404), and the remaining print data obtained by removing the control command from the input data is data. It is spooled in the buffer 4 (S405). If the command is not the predetermined command, the process of this flowchart ends in order to perform the operation according to the command.

When the spooling to the data buffer 4 is completed or the data buffer 4 becomes full, it is judged whether the printer is in the printable state (S40).
6) If printing is possible, the output data control unit 5 reads the contents of the data buffer 4 and starts outputting data to the printer via the output unit 6.

Specifically, first, the beginning of each page of the print data to be printed is detected, and the control information for the corresponding page is read from the content of the control command stored in the storage unit 3. Then, the paper feed tray control code and the number of sheets designation control code, which are one of the control codes, are read out from the storage unit 3, adjusted to the format of the control code depending on the printer model, and then sent to the printer (S407).

Thereafter, print data for one page is read from the printer buffer 4 and sent to the printer (S40).
8). Then, when the transmission of the print data of the page is completed, the operations of S407 and S408 are repeated until the next page is exhausted (S409).

When the data transmission is completed, the contents of the control command stored in the storage unit 3 are erased (S4
10), the operation ends.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the contents of the print buffer control command for performing the operation of FIG.
This control command is added to the beginning of the print data to be printed from the printer and sent in the same manner as the control code shown in FIG. In this control command, 2n + 1 bytes following the 3-byte escape code are control information.
The first 1 byte of the control information indicates the length of the tray information that follows it. If the number of pages of print data to be printed is n, the tray information will be 2n bytes. Tray information is sequentially arranged corresponding to pages, with a set of 2 bytes. Then, the paper feed tray number and the number of prints selected for each page are designated.

As described above, when the data passes through the print buffer device, the data is sent to the printer by adding the paper feed tray control code and the number of sheets designation control code to each page of the sent data. By setting the paper feed tray and the number of prints in units, it is possible to print data in a more flexible manner.

Next, a third embodiment using the print buffer device shown in FIG. 1 will be described. FIG. 6 shows an operation when a plurality of copies of data is printed using the print buffer device shown in FIG. 1 and a different paper feed tray is designated for each copy of print data to cause the printer to print the data. It is a flowchart.

When data is input from the input unit 1 (S6
01), the input data control unit 2 first analyzes whether or not this data includes a print buffer control command which is control information (S602). If this command is not included, the data is output to the printer as it is without being controlled by the print buffer device. On the other hand, if this command is included, it is determined whether or not the command is a predetermined command, and in this case, a control command of the paper feed tray designation information for designating a different paper feed tray for each copy. It is determined whether or not there is (S60
3) If so, the content of this command is stored in the storage unit 3 (S604), and the remaining print data obtained by removing the control command from the input data is spooled in the data buffer 4 (S605). If the command is not the predetermined command, the process of this flowchart ends in order to perform the operation according to the command.

When the spooling to the data buffer 4 is completed or the data buffer 4 becomes full, it is judged whether the printer is in the printable state (S60).
6) If printing is possible, the output data control unit 5 reads the contents of the data buffer 4 and starts output of print data to the printer via the output unit 6. At this time, the counter k is set to 1 (S607).

Specifically, first, the beginning of print data to be printed is detected, and the first (k = 1) block (2 bytes) of the tray information in the control command stored in the storage unit 3 is read. Then, according to the designation of the tray number and the number of prints stored in this block, the paper feed tray control code and the number-of-sheets designation control code are read from the storage unit 3,
The format of the control code depending on the model of the printer is prepared and then sent to the printer (S608). After that, all pages of the print data are sent to the printer (S609).

When the data transmission is completed, the counter k is compared with the size of the tray information length n (S61).
0), if k is less than n, the operations of S608 and S609 are repeated. The counter k is incremented by 1 before the repetition (S611).

In S610, k is not less than n (k =
When it is determined that the value of the control command is n, the content of the control command stored in the storage unit 3 is erased (S612), and the operation ends.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the contents of the print buffer control command for performing the operation of FIG.
In this control command, 2n + 1 bytes following the 3-byte escape code are control information. First 1 of control information
The byte indicates the length of the tray information that follows, and if the tray information to be designated is n sets, the tray information will be 2n bytes. The tray information is sequentially arranged in sets of 2 bytes. Then, the paper feed tray number and the number of copies to be selected are specified for each set.

It should be noted that the tray number and the number of prints are not combined as a set to represent the tray information, but an area for the number of prints is secured and the paper feed tray is designated corresponding to each copy. Good.

By doing so, if different papers are placed on the plurality of paper feed trays, one copy is printed with the paper (plain paper) in the paper feed tray A as the original, and the remaining 10 papers are printed. Since it is for distribution within the company, it is possible to print with the paper (recycled paper or backing paper) in the paper feed tray B, and it is possible to promote the use of recycled paper or backing paper and save resources.

As described above, the paper feed tray can be selected for each page or copy of print data.
Since the paper feed tray control code and the number of sheets designation control code for controlling the printer to be sent to the printer depend on the model of the printer, it is necessary to change these control codes when the printer to be used is changed. In the print buffer device used in each embodiment of the present invention, the input data control unit 2 determines the presence and type of the print buffer control command. Try to change.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing the contents of the print buffer control command for changing the control code. This control command has n + 1 bytes of control information in addition to a 3-byte escape code indicating the type of control command. This control information has the length of this control information (1 byte), the type of control code to be changed (1 byte), and a new control code (n-1), and this control command is input independently. Input from part 1. Then, under the control of the input data control unit 2, a predetermined operation as described below is performed. The type of control code is
For example, the paper feed tray control code is set to "0", and the number designation control code is set to "1".

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing the operation in the case of changing the paper feed tray control code and the number of sheets designation control code for controlling the printer held in the storage unit 3.
When data is input (S901), the input data control unit 2 first analyzes whether this data includes a print buffer control command (S902). If this command is not included, the data is output to the printer as it is without being controlled by the print buffer device. If the print buffer control command is included and this is a control code change command (S903), the type of the control code to be changed is determined (S904), and the number-of-sheets designation control code or the paper feed tray control code is correspondingly determined. Is changed (S905 or S90
6). If this print buffer control command is not a control code change command, the processing as in each of the above-described embodiments is performed.

In this way, the control code sent to the printer can be easily changed, so that it is possible to provide a versatile print buffer device that does not depend on the type of printer to be connected.

[0046]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the data consisting of the print data and the feed tray designation information for each page passes through the print buffer device, each page of the fetched print data is read. Since the data is converted to a format in which the paper tray specification information is added to, it is possible to easily change the contents of the paper tray specification information for each page to be added to the print data without adding a special function. It becomes possible to select the paper feed tray of.

When a plurality of sets of print data are printed, when the data consisting of the print data and the paper feed tray designation information for each set passes through the print buffer device, the print data fetched is supplied for each set. Since the data is converted to the format that adds the paper tray specification information, you can easily supply the paper by unit by changing the contents of the paper tray specification information for each copy to be added to the print data without adding a special function. The paper tray can be selected.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a print buffer device commonly used in each embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart corresponding to the first embodiment of the present invention and showing the operation in the case of selecting a different paper feed tray for each page and printing data from the printer.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the contents of a print buffer control command for performing the operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart corresponding to the second embodiment of the present invention and showing an operation in a case where a different paper feed tray and a different number of prints are designated for each page of data and data is printed from the printer.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the contents of a print buffer control command for performing the operation of the second embodiment.

FIG. 6 corresponds to the third embodiment of the present invention and shows an operation in the case of printing a plurality of copies of data, in which a different paper feed tray is designated for each copy of the data and the data is printed from the printer. It is a flowchart.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the contents of a print buffer control command for performing the operation of the third embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing the contents of a print buffer control command for changing the control code for printer control stored in the storage unit 3.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an operation when changing the paper feed tray control code and the number of sheets designation control code for printer control held in the storage unit 3.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Input Section 2 Input Data Control Section 3 Storage Section 4 Data Buffer 5 Output Data Control Section 6 Output Section

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A print buffer for fetching data in which control information including feed tray designation information for each page is added to print data to be printed from a printer from an external device, and the data is converted and output to the printer. In the apparatus, a print data storage unit that stores the print data, a control information storage unit that stores the control information, data of each page of the print data is sequentially read from the print data storage unit, and the control information storage unit The paper feed tray designation information for each page of the print data is read from the means, converted into a paper feed tray control code according to the printer that outputs it, added to the print data of each page, and output to the printer. A print buffer device comprising: output data control means. 2. A print buffer that takes in data from an external device to which print data to be printed from the printer is added control information including paper tray designation information for each copy of the printer, converts the data, and outputs the data to the printer. In the apparatus, a print data storage unit that stores the print data, a control information storage unit that stores the control information, a plurality of copies of the print data from the print data storage unit, and the print from the control information storage unit. Read the paper tray specification information for each part of the data,
A print buffer device, comprising: output data control means for converting the paper feed tray control command corresponding to a printer that outputs the print data, adding the print data to each unit, and outputting the print data to the printer.