JPH09265366A - Printing method for type face sample - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To quickly provide a type face sample inside the HDD of a printer. SOLUTION: Respective host computers 1-3 are provided with a dictionary for performing storage for a type face name, the name of a font file inside the printer 4 and a sample type face character string in a character dictionary form as external characters for a type face to be down-loaded so as to register the feature of the type face to be down-loaded to the printer 4. The down-loaded type face is additionally recorded in the dictionary and copied to the HDD 6 of the printer 4 at the time of down-loading and the dictionary is handled similarly to a normal font. Thus, in the case of using the font down-loaded in one host computer in the other host computer, when only one type face (dictionary) is specified, just by citing the dictionary for one time, the high-speed sample printing of the printer 4 is performed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a typeface sample printing method capable of printing a font sample downloaded to a printer at high speed in a network system in which a plurality of host computers share a printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is known a network (system) in which a plurality of host computers are connected to one printer and each host computer can share and use the printer. There are various manufacturers and models of the plurality of host computers connected to this network. Also, depending on the hobby of the user, PS (Post Sc
ript), HPGL (Hewlett Packard Gr
apic Language emulation),
Since the emulation using 98 (PC98 emulation) or the like is required, the manufacturer of the printer prepares a typical one.

[0003]

By the way, since the fonts used by the printer for printing can be freely purchased by the user from the retail store and downloaded from each host computer to the shared printer, a large number of fonts can be stored in the hard disk of the printer. It can be stored in a device (hereinafter referred to as HDD) and can store up to about 50 to 60 typefaces. By the way, there is a case where the font downloaded by one host computer is desired to be used by another host computer. However, it is often the case that the operator of another host computer cannot easily remember the typeface, typeface name and typeface image stored in the printer. The reason is that there are many typefaces and the typeface names are not unified, so it is difficult to draw an actual typeface image for each of the many typefaces.

Therefore, in order to solve the above-mentioned inconvenience, as shown in FIG.
Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 7, in order to actually confirm the typeface name and the typeface image by sample printing, designation is made from the download menu. However, for example, when a large number of fonts such as 20 fonts are recorded in the HDD and sample printing is specified, it is necessary to repeat the process of expanding the font of the HDD of the printer in the memory for printing 20 times. In addition, there is an inconvenience that it takes a relatively long time of about 7 minutes from the designation to the sheet discharge.

Also, when the network is changed and another host computer is connected, the HGDic of the host computer does not correspond to the font of the HDD of the printer. In this case, there is a risk that fonts in the printer HDD that cannot be recognized by the host computer will remain as unnecessary fonts. There is no problem if the unrecognizable font is deleted, but since the font name in the HDD of the printer is an abbreviation of alphanumeric characters, it is not possible to judge the remaining font as a typeface with a specific typeface name. difficult. Moreover, when sample printing is performed, if there is a font that is in the HGdic of the host computer and is not in the HDD of the printer, an error will occur. Even if it is assumed to be a typeface name and printing is attempted, if the waiting time required for printing is about 7 minutes, it is generally impossible to wait. Further, if there is at least one remaining font in the assumed typeface name, it is difficult to determine the remaining font as a typeface. Therefore, it is the current situation that the user is worried about formatting.

The present invention has been made under such a background, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method for printing a typeface sample which can quickly and surely obtain the typeface sample in the HDD of the printer.

[0007]

According to the present invention, a plurality of host computers connected to a network share a printer, and a font selected by each host computer is
In a network system that performs downloading by converting to printer fonts and storing in memory, a font registration dictionary that stores font names, font file names in the printer, and sample font character strings as external characters in a character dictionary format. The first step of additionally providing the font name of the downloaded font, the name of the font file in the printer, and the sample font character string in the font registration dictionary each time the font is downloaded, and by the printer. The above object is achieved by the second step of selecting either the type registration dictionary in the host computer or the type registration dictionary in the printer when printing the sample / sample.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram for explaining this embodiment. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of host computers 1 to 3 are connected to one printer 4, and each host computer 1 to 3 forms a network in which the printer 4 can be shared and used. There is. Host computer 1
The HDD 5 is connected to. Further, a dot matrix printer, an inkjet printer, a laser printer, or the like is used as the printer 4, and the HDD 6 is connected as a storage device.

In this embodiment, each of the host computers 1 to 3 registers TTDic as shown at the bottom of FIG. 2 in order to register the characteristics of the typeface to be downloaded to the printer 4.
It has a dictionary. Here, the download means a utility for converting the fonts of the host computers 1 to 3 into the fonts of the printer 4 and copying the converted fonts to the HDD 6 which is a storage device of the printer 4.

The above-mentioned TTDic dictionary has a typeface name (typeface name in Japanese), P, for the typeface to be downloaded.
S name (name of font file in printer 4),
As shown in FIG. 2, a sample typeface character string (sample character string using a downloaded typeface) is stored as an external character in a standard font format (True Type), that is, a character dictionary format. However,
Glyphs (forms of individual characters) in the TTDic dictionary are shown in FIG.
It is not the arrangement shown on the lower side of FIG. Also, the glyphs have a character shape corresponding to the typeface name.

The above-mentioned standard is Win with many users.
In the dows font format, the structure is open to the public M
It is in the font format of Microsoft, and J in Figure 2
Refers to the character code that can be specified by the division and the dot like the IS code table. In addition, the typeface name and the typeface image are registered in advance by adding a record of the downloaded typeface as shown in FIG. 3 to the line of the section of the TTDic dictionary shown in the lower side of FIG.

Next, regarding the method of downloading fonts from the respective host computers 1 to 3 to the printer 4,
This will be described with reference to FIG. Now, a case where the download is activated by the host computer 1 will be described. When the download is started, it is first determined whether or not the download is completed (step 1). As a result, when it is determined that the process is not completed (step 1;
N), the user selects the typeface to be downloaded (step 2). Here, the typefaces that can be selected are the typefaces stored in the TTDic dictionary as shown in the lower side of FIG. 2, in addition to the “HG Gothic EPRO” and “HG regular typefaces” shown in FIG. The typefaces stored in this TTDic dictionary can be downloaded only in "HG Gothic EPR".
This is because it has the same structure as a typeface such as "O".

When the selection of this typeface is completed, the download according to the selection is executed (step 3). That is, the font selected by the host computer 1 is converted into the font of the printer 4, and the converted font is copied to the HDD 6 of the printer 4. When the download is completed, the typeface selected in step 2 will be T
It is determined whether the font is a font stored in the TDic dictionary (step 4). If the result of this determination is that it is a typeface stored in the TTDic dictionary (step 4; Y), then the procedure returns to step 1. On the other hand, when it is not the typeface stored in the TTDic dictionary (step 4; N), the downloaded typeface record is paired with the typeface name and the typeface image in the row of the TTDic dictionary shown in FIG. Additional recording is performed (step 5). After that, when printing the sample / sample by the printer 4, the TTDic dictionary in the host computer 1 or the TT in the HDD 6 of the printer 4 is used.
Select one of the Dic dictionaries.

Note that the above-mentioned download itself is configured to allow only a specific one of the host computers 1 to 3 that share the printer 4, so that it is possible to use either one-way communication or two-way communication. , Never batting.

As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention,
A TTDic dictionary is created, and the downloaded font is additionally recorded in the TTDic dictionary in the form of a pair of a font name and a font image, and the printer 4 is used for downloading.
The TTDic dictionary can be handled in the same manner as a normal font. Therefore,
For example, if the fonts downloaded by the host computer 1 are to be used by the other host computers 2 and 3, one typeface (T
If you specify only (TDic dictionary), the TTDic dictionary will be 1
High-speed printing of sample prints and sample prints by the printer 4 can be realized only by quoting. Also, since the TTDic dictionary is a unique name, sample printing from the host computers 1 to 3 under the name TTDic dictionary enables sample printing by the printer 4 without any error from any host computer. Is.

[0016]

According to the present invention, the features of the typeface to be downloaded are composed of the typeface name, the name of the font file in the printer facing the typeface name, and the sample typeface character string corresponding to the typeface name. Is provided as a standard character format (TrueType) as an external character, and this dictionary is stored in a storage device such as the HDD of the printer. Therefore, only by combining this dictionary with the character strings shown in FIG. 3, it is possible to obtain the typeface sample in the storage device even if the host computer and the printer have different typeface numbers in the storage device. Further, in the present invention, since each typeface downloaded to the printer is additionally recorded in the dictionary,
In addition to the advantage that the typeface name and the typeface image can be stored as a pair, the sample printing can be performed at a higher speed by quoting the dictionary once than in the conventional case where each typeface name is designated by the host computer.

Further, according to the present invention, the names and images of the downloaded typefaces can be obtained as a list. Therefore, by performing printing using the dictionary of the storage device of the printer, the typeface samples in the storage device can be printed indefinitely without any restriction. Further, by performing printing using the dictionary in the host computer, it is possible to print the correspondence table with the typeface on the host computer. Furthermore, according to the present invention, regardless of one-way communication or two-way communication between the host computer and the printer, as long as the dictionary is downloaded to the storage device of the printer, the typeface sample in the dictionary can be printed quickly.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating configurations of a JIS code table and a TTDic dictionary.

FIG. 3 is a table showing records of downloaded typefaces.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation at the time of starting download.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a print example of a typeface name.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a stamp of a font name and a font image corresponding to the font name.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing another typeface name and a stamp example of a typeface image corresponding to the typeface name.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 to 3 host computer 4 printers 5 and 6 HDD (hard disk device)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A network system for downloading, in which a plurality of host computers connected to a network share a printer, and fonts selected by each host computer are converted into printer fonts and stored in a memory. , A font file name in the printer and a sample font character string are stored in the character dictionary format as external characters, and a dictionary for font registration is provided, and whenever the font is downloaded, the font name of the downloaded font, in the printer First step of additionally registering the name of the font file and the sample typeface character string in the typeface registration dictionary, and the type registration dictionary in the host computer or the printer in the sample / sample printing by the printer. Select one of the typeface registration dictionaries A method for printing a typeface sample, which comprises a second step of selecting.