JPH09305584A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To designate specified pages out of plural different documents, to sort the designated pages and to print plural copies. SOLUTION: An image extending part 3 extends the print data of document received by a host interface 2 to bit map data and plots them in a page buffer 9. An image compressing/extending part 10 compresses these bit map data and stores them in a print data storage part 11. According to the order of printing and the designated pages to be printed stored in a job table 8, a job managing part 7 successively reads data out of the print data storage part 11 in the order of, designated pages for the number of copies to be printed, extends these data through the image compressing/extending part 10 and sends them to an image recording part 12. At such a time, the conditions such as one side/both-side or black-and-white/color are instructed for each page. The image recording part 12 successively prints the supplied bit map data according to these conditions.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing device for printing a document created by a word processor or personal computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printing apparatus receives a document created by a host as print data, converts it into a bitmap and prints it, or receives it in a predetermined page description language and interprets the page description language. By doing so, raster data is created and printed. By the way, in a general printing device,
Since only the function of printing the received print data in order is provided, it is necessary to process the designation of pages to be printed, the replacement of pages, etc. in advance on the host side.

Regarding the collating function, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-6106
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3, a technique for accumulating a document composed of a plurality of pages created by a word processor or a personal computer as electronic data in a storage device in a printing device and printing a plurality of copies in a designated page order is disclosed. It is disclosed. As a result, it becomes unnecessary to add a sorter device to the printing device and to perform a work of copying by a copying machine having the sorter device after printing.

[0004]

However, in the conventional printing apparatus, the electronic sort function can be used only for one document, and a specific page is designated and designated from a plurality of documents. There is a problem that pages cannot be sorted and a plurality of copies cannot be printed, and in order to carry out these operations, it is necessary to perform copying by a copying machine equipped with a sorter after printing.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a printing apparatus capable of designating a specific page to be printed from a plurality of documents, and sorting and printing the designated page in a desired page order. The purpose is to do.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, according to the present invention, input means for inputting print data of a plurality of documents and print data input by the input means in a bitmap format. Expanding means for expanding into print data, at least a print page specifying means for specifying a page to be printed for each document and a page order at the time of the print data input by the input means, and the print page specifying means The printing means prints the print data expanded by the expanding means based on the page to be printed and the page order at the time of printing specified by.

According to the present invention, the print data for a plurality of documents is input by the input unit, and the print data is expanded into the print data in the bitmap format by the expansion unit. The print page designating unit designates at least a page to be printed for each document and a page order at the time of printing, out of the input print data. The expanded print data is printed by the printing unit based on the page to be printed and the page order at the time of printing. Therefore, a specific page to be printed can be designated from a plurality of documents, and the designated pages can be sorted and printed in a desired page order.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.

A. Configuration of First Embodiment FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a word processor, a personal computer, or the like, which sends a document created by an application to a printing apparatus. When there is a print instruction from the host 1, the document is converted into code data for a printing device or page description language (PDL) (hereinafter,
The print data) is supplied to the host interface 2 of the printing apparatus.

The host interface 2 is a Centronics (I) which receives print data supplied from the host 1.
IEEE1284), Ethernet (IEEE802.
3) etc., and is provided with a memory for temporarily storing the received print data. Image development unit 3
Converts the print data accumulated in the host interface 2 into bitmap data for printing and draws it on the page buffer 9.

The font 4 stores drawing data used when the image expanding unit 3 converts the character code included in the print data into bitmap data. The image reading unit 5 is a device for performing photoelectric conversion for inputting a document, has a scanner unit, a D / A conversion unit, and the like, and an image read by the scanner unit from a document is read by the D / A conversion unit. It is converted into bitmap data and supplied to the page buffer 9. The bit map data of the original is merged with the bit map data drawn in the page buffer 9 as needed.

The operation unit 6 is a user interface for instructing a print form such as designation of pages to be printed, the number of copies, and a processing mode, and supplies the input print form to the job management unit 7. The job management unit 7 stores the print form from the operation unit 6 in the job table 8 and, according to the contents in the job table 8, the print data storage unit 1
The print data stored in No. 1 is read out according to the processing order and sent to the image compression / expansion unit 10.

The job table 8 will now be described with reference to FIG.
Will be described. In FIG. 2, the job name is assigned to a series of document prints, and in the illustrated example, the documents A and B are printed.
Is a process for printing a predetermined page of the above as one document. The form A is a printing form for the series of document printing, and in the example shown in the figure, 10 copies are printed and each is closed by stapling. Next, the order is the printing order of the document with respect to the series of document printing. The document name, the page to be printed, and the form of the page (single-sided / double-sided,
A form B that instructs whether to print in black and white / color is associated. In the illustrated example, first, the first page of the document A is printed on one side in color, and then 2 to 10 of the document A are printed.
It shows that the page 1 is printed in both sides and black and white, the first page of document B is printed in one side and black and white, and the pages 11 to 20 of document A are printed in both side and black and white. It is indicated that the series of document printing is one document, and a total of 10 copies are printed.

The page buffer 9 stores the bitmap data expanded by the image expansion unit 3 and the bitmap data from the image reading unit 5 in the print data storage unit 11 and when printing in the image recording unit 12. It is a memory that is temporarily stored inside. The page buffer 9 may have several forms, such as a case where a plurality of pages are stored, a case where less than one page is stored, and the like, depending on the processing speed request.

The image compression / expansion unit 10 is for reducing the amount of data when the expanded bitmap data is accumulated, compresses the bitmap data drawn in the page buffer 9, and stores it in the print data accumulation unit 11. Under the control of the job management unit 7, the compressed bitmap data sent from the print data storage unit 11 is expanded and stored in the page buffer 9 while being stored. Note that MMR, JPEG, or the like is used for compression / expansion.

The print data storage unit 11 temporarily stores the bitmap data compressed by the image compression / decompression unit 10 in order to reuse the bitmap data received from the host 1 and the image reading unit 2 for collation. It is for storing, and a semiconductor memory, a hard disk, or the like is used depending on the speed and capacity. The image recording unit 12 forms bitmap data as an image on a sheet by a technique such as laser xerography.

B. Operation of First Embodiment Next, the operation of the first embodiment will be described. Here, FIG.
6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the above-described printing apparatus.

When the printing apparatus first receives a print request from the host 1 in step S1, the printing data is received by the host interface 2 in step S2. Next, in step S3, the number of copies to be printed, stapling / non-stapling, and the like are input for a series of document prints as the print form A from the operation unit 6, and the print order, the document name, and the print of the document are printed as the print form B. Enter the page and what type of page (single-sided / double-sided, monochrome / color) to print. Next, in step S4, the print forms A and B and the document name and the like received by the host interface 2 are stored in the job table 8.

In step S5, referring to the job table 8, the image expansion unit 7 interprets the print data, expands it into bitmap data page by page in the received document order, and stores it in the page buffer 9. . 1
When the image expansion for the pages is completed, it is determined in step S6 whether or not the expanded page is the designated page for which printing is instructed by referring to the job table 8. If it is the designated page, in step S7. , Accumulate bitmap data. This is performed by compressing the bitmap data expanded in the page buffer 9 by the image compression / expansion unit 10 and storing it in the print data storage unit 11. next,
In step S8, it is determined whether the image development of all pages is completed. If the page expanded into the bitmap data is not the designated page, the process proceeds from step S6 to step S8, and the bitmap data is not stored.

In step S8, if the image development of all pages is not completed, the process returns to step S5. Less than,
By repeatedly executing steps S5 to S8, all pages of the current document (document A in the example shown in FIG. 2) are expanded into bitmap data, and only the bitmap data for the designated page is stored in the print data storage unit 11. Store it.

When the image development for the current document (document A) is completed, the process proceeds to step S9, and it is determined whether the image development for all the documents is completed. If not completed, the process returns to step S5. After that, by repeatedly executing steps S5 to S8, the image of the document is developed next.

In this way, steps S5 to S9
Is executed to expand all pages of all received documents (job 1) into bitmap data, and by referring to the job table 8, only the designated page is compressed and stored in the print data storage unit 11. . Here, FIG.
FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing bitmap data stored in the print data storage unit 11. In the print data storage unit 11,
In this case, the first to 20th pages of document A, document B
The first page of is sequentially accumulated.

Next, in step S10 shown in FIG. 3,
Referring to the job table 8, the bitmap data (compressed) stored in the print data storage unit 11 is read out in the order of designated pages, and for each page, the print mode B such as single-sided / double-sided printing and monochrome / color printing, together with the image It is sent to the recording unit 12. At this time, the bitmap data is decompressed by the image compression / decompression unit 10, stored in the page buffer 9, and then sent to the image recording unit 12. As a result, as shown in FIG. 5, the first page of the document A is printed on one side, and then the second page to the tenth page of the document A is printed on both sides.
Printed in black and white, then the first page of document B is single-sided,
It is printed in black and white, and the 11th to 20th pages of document A
Both eyes of the page are printed in black and white. The series of documents
It is output after it is closed with staples.

Next, in step S11, it is determined whether or not the designated number of copies has been printed. If printing has not been completed, step S10 is repeatedly executed until the predetermined number of copies is reached. Then, when the printing of the predetermined number of copies is completed, the processing ends.

C. Second Embodiment Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the above-described first embodiment, the print data is expanded in the order of received documents and only the designated page is stored in the print data storage unit 11. On the other hand, in the second embodiment, when the received document is expanded and stored in the print data storage unit 11, the pages are sent to the image recording unit 12 in the order of pages to be stored. . Here, FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing the bitmap data stored in the print data storage unit 11 according to the second embodiment. In the figure, the print data storage unit 11
In this case, the first page to the tenth page of the document A,
The first page of document B and the 11th to 20th pages of document A are stored in this order.

According to the second embodiment, the print data storage unit 11 is effective when a storage medium having a slower read / write speed than a semiconductor memory, such as a hard disk, is used. Since it is not necessary to change the order of, the reading speed is high and printing can be performed at high speed.

D. Third Embodiment Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. Book 3
In the embodiment, for example, the document A, the document C, and the page description language PDL described in the page description language PDL-A are used.
-When the specified pages are sorted and printed with respect to the document B described in -B, when the document A, the document B, and the document C are sequentially input, the documents described in the same page description language are collected. Expand processing. FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing how an image is expanded according to the third embodiment. When the document A, the document B, and the document C are sequentially input from the host 1, these documents are temporarily stored in the host interface 2.
The image development unit 3 first develops the document A and the document C by the development software Sa for the page description language PDL-A, and then develops the document B by the development software Sb for the page description language PDL-B.

According to the third embodiment, since it is not necessary to start different expansion software each time, the expansion processing can be speeded up. The host interface 2
Rather than storing the documents A, B, and C in the storage device, the documents are spooled to a printer server or the like once, and when the data is expanded into bitmap data, the printer server is requested to supply which document. First, the document A may be input and expanded, then the document C may be input and expanded, and then the document B may be input and expanded. In this case, the memory capacity of the host interface 2 can be reduced.

E. Fourth Embodiment Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the above-described first embodiment, the bitmap data expanded by the image expansion unit 3 is compressed and then stored in the print data storage unit 11. On the other hand, in the fourth embodiment, the job table 8 is referred to and the image expansion is performed in the page order when the image is sent to the image recording unit 12.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of a printing apparatus according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention. Note that the portions corresponding to those in FIG. In the figure, the printing apparatus according to the fourth embodiment does not include an image compression / expansion unit and a print data storage unit. The job management unit 7 refers to the job table 8 and designates the order of pages to be printed to the image expansion unit 3. The image expansion unit 3 expands the specified page of the document into bitmap data according to the specified page order and draws it in the page buffer 9. The bitmap data drawn in the page buffer 9 is sent to the image recording unit 12 as it is, printed on a sheet and output.

F. Operation of Fourth Embodiment FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of the printing apparatus according to the fourth embodiment. In the figure, steps S20 to S
Since step 23 is the same as steps S1 to S4 shown in FIG. 3, description thereof will be omitted. In step S24, the printing apparatus reads the document page by page from the host interface 2, determines whether the read page is the designated page according to the instruction of the job management unit 7, and if it is not the designated page, the printing apparatus proceeds to step S28. Proceed to. Step S28
Then, determine whether all pages of the current document have finished,
If not completed, the process returns to step S24 and proceeds to the next page.

On the other hand, in the case of the designated page, step S
In step S27, the image expansion unit 3 expands the bitmap data and draws the bitmap data in the page buffer 9.
Print mode B for simplex / duplex printing, monochrome / color printing, etc.
At the same time, it is sent to the image recording unit 12. After that, steps S24 to S28 are repeatedly executed, and only the designated pages in the current document are sequentially developed and sent to the image recording unit 12 for printing.

Next, when the expansion for the current document is completed, it is judged in step S29 whether or not all the documents are completed. If not completed, the process returns to step S24,
The image of the next document is expanded and sent to the image recording unit 12. Then, image development for all documents, image recording unit 1
When the delivery to No. 2 is completed, it is determined in step S30 whether the designated number of copies has been printed. That is,
In step S29, 1 is set when all documents are completed.
Only part of the document (see FIG. 5) is finished. Then, if printing of the designated number of copies has not been completed, steps S24 to S30 are repeatedly executed until the predetermined number of copies is reached.
Then, when the printing of the predetermined number of copies is completed, the processing ends.

As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, the image development by the image development unit 3 and the image recording unit 1 are performed in the order of printing.
Although the processing speed is slowed down because the data is sent to No. 2, since the print data storage unit 11 is not required, the memory capacity of the entire system can be reduced.

In the above-described embodiment, as the image recording unit 12 for drawing an image, a device for forming a toner image (Y, M, C, K) on recording paper by a well-known electrophotographic method is used. , But not limited to, thermal transfer method,
The output device may be a color image of an inkjet type, a sublimation type, or the like. The page description language may be other than the postscript language. The code image data may be directly supplied from another image processing apparatus (computer) or may be supplied from another image processing apparatus connected on the network via the network. Further, although instructions for printing forms A and B such as print pages and the number of copies have been input from the operation unit 6 of the printing apparatus, instructions from the host
It may be supplied to the printing apparatus as command data together with the print data.

[0036]

As described above, according to the present invention, the print data for a plurality of documents is input by the input means, and at least the print page designating means is used.
Of the input print data, the page to be printed for each document and the page order at the time of printing are designated, and the print data input by the input unit is expanded into print data in the bitmap format by the expansion unit and expanded. Since the print data is printed by the printing means based on the page to be printed and the page order at the time of printing, it is possible to print one document composed of specific pages of a plurality of documents in a desired page order. Benefits are obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration of a job table of the printing apparatus according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of the printing apparatus according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing a data configuration of a print data storage unit of the printing apparatus according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a printing result of the printing apparatus according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing a data configuration of a print data storage unit according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram for explaining an operation of the third exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of a printing apparatus according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of the printing apparatus according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 host 2 host interface (input means) 3 image expansion unit (expansion unit) 4 font 5 image reading unit 6 operation unit (print page designating unit) 7 job management unit (recognition unit) 8 job table 9 page buffer 10 image compression / expansion Part 11 Print data storage part (storage means) 12 Image recording part (printing means)

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Yoshihiko Nemoto 2274 Hongo, Ebina City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Shin Otake, 2274 Hongo, Ebina City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. Input means for inputting print data of a plurality of documents; expansion means for expanding the print data input by the input means into print data in a bitmap format; and at least input by the input means. Among the print data, a print page designating unit that designates a page to be printed for each document and a page order at the time of printing, and a page to be printed and a page sequence at the time of printing specified by the print page designating unit And a printing unit that prints the print data expanded by the expanding unit. 2. An input unit for inputting print data of a plurality of documents, and at least a print page for designating a page to be printed for each document and a page order at the time of printing among the print data input by the input unit. Designating means, expanding means for sequentially expanding the pages to be printed specified by the print page specifying means into print data in bitmap format for each document, and storing the print data expanded by the expanding means in the expansion order. A printing apparatus comprising: a storage unit; and a printing unit that prints the print data stored in the storage unit based on a page order at the time of printing designated by the print page designating unit. 3. An input unit for inputting print data of a plurality of documents, and at least a print page for designating a page to be printed for each document and a page order at the time of printing among the print data input by the input unit. Specifying means, expanding means for expanding the pages to be printed specified by the print page specifying means into print data of a bitmap format for each document in sequence, and the print data expanded by the expanding means for the print page A printing apparatus comprising: a storage unit that stores in accordance with a page order at the time of printing designated by the designation unit; and a printing unit that prints the print data stored in the storage unit in the stored order. 4. An input unit for inputting print data of a plurality of documents, and at least a print page for designating a page to be printed for each document and a page order at the time of printing among the print data input by the input unit. Designating means, expanding means for sequentially expanding the pages to be printed into print data in bitmap format in accordance with the page order at the time of printing specified by the print page specifying means, and the print data expanded by the expanding means. A printing apparatus comprising: a printing unit that prints. 5. A recognition unit for recognizing a code format of the print data input by the input unit is provided, and the expansion unit is for a print page of a document having the same code format recognized by the recognition unit. 5. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pages designated by the print page designating unit are continuously developed into print data in a bitmap format. 6. The print page designating means designates the number of copies to be printed in addition to the page to be printed and the page order at the time of printing, and the printing means designates the print page designated by the print page designating means. The printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the printing process is repeated as many times as necessary.