JPH10293669A - Print system and print control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer which has its fast processing speed in a simple constitution. SOLUTION: A host computer 101 extracts the characters from the print data, gives an ID to every character and secures the correspondence between the ID and an image to produce a character set 202 in the prescribed length. In regard to the data to be sent to a printer, the character data 205 are shown in its position and the character ID and other data are expanded to the image to be compressed for every band image 203. Both character and image data are produced also in the prescribed length. These obtained data 204 are sent to a printer 102. The printer 102 controls the read/write of data in every prescribed length and opens its idle area. As the idle area of the printer 102 is defined in the prescribed length, all data received from the computer 101 are stored in the idle area. Therefore, the printer 102 never expands the characters and is not required to collect the unused areas.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a printing system including a printing apparatus which operates by receiving printing information from a host computer and a printing control method, and more particularly to a printer control language (PDL (Printer Description Language)).
a) a) a printing device having a printer control function called a printer control command, a printer driver prepared on the host computer side for the printing device, or a printing system including software called a print spooler or a print processor. The present invention relates to a print control method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recent printing apparatuses include CAD (design for computer support), CG (computer graphics),
2. Description of the Related Art Printers that print and record data used in multimedia processing in the DTP (Desktop Publishing) field in design and business with high definition have been commercialized.

As such a printer, a PDL (Page Description Language) printer which receives and analyzes a PDL (Page Description Language) code sent from a host computer and renders (rasterizes) an intermediate language at high speed by hardware or software, and a low-cost printer There are image printers that reduce the functions of the printer side in order to realize the rasterization, rasterize the image data into an image data format that can be output on the host computer side, and transmit the image data to the printer.

A PDL printer receives information in a page as a page description language, creates an intermediate language, and performs a drawing process when one page is accumulated.

[0005] There are two methods of drawing characters: one is to use font data stored in the ROM in the printer, and the other is to develop font data by the host computer and send it as image data. The use rate of the latter is increasing in order to gain.

[0006]

However, if all characters are sent as image data, the amount of transfer data increases and the drawing speed decreases.

An object of the present invention is to provide an image-only printer having a simple structure similar to the image printer described above, but to receive a character portion by a character code and to develop it into a character image, so that a host can perform character development processing. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing system and a printing control method that make use of time and the amount of data transferred from a host extremely small, and further reduce the memory capacity of a printing apparatus to be used efficiently.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has the following arrangement. That is, the present invention provides a printing system in which an information processing apparatus that creates print data including character data and a printing system are connected, and the information processing apparatus is a character extraction apparatus that extracts character data from print data for one print job. Means, first registration means for retrievably storing the registration number and character image of the character data extracted by the character extraction means and the page in which the character image appears, and the first storage means according to the page to be printed. Character set generating means for generating character set data of a predetermined length including a character registration number and its character image from the character data stored in the storage means; and a character drawing instruction including a character registration number for each page to be printed And transmitting means for transmitting the character drawing instruction, the character set data, and a deletion instruction for deleting the character set data to a printing apparatus. The printing apparatus stores a received character drawing command, character set data, and a deletion command in a second storage unit, and writes and deletes data in and from the second storage unit in units of an area having a predetermined length. And an output unit for forming an image for each page based on a character drawing command, character set data, and a deletion command stored in the storage unit.

[0009] Alternatively, a print control apparatus for creating print data including character data and printing the print data with a printing apparatus, wherein the character extraction means extracts character data from print data for one print job, and the character extraction means Storage means for retrievably storing the registration number and the character image of the extracted character data and the page in which the character image appears, and character data from the character data stored in the first storage means according to the page to be printed. Character set generating means for generating character set data of a predetermined length including a registration number and a character image of the character set; generating a character drawing instruction including a registration number of a character for each page to be printed; There is provided transmission means for transmitting the character set data and a deletion instruction for deleting the character set data to the printing apparatus.

[0010] Alternatively, the printing apparatus receives a character drawing instruction, character set data, and a character set data deletion instruction from an information processing apparatus and prints the received character drawing instruction, character set data, and deletion instruction. Storage means for storing, management means for managing writing and deletion of data to and from the second storage means for each page in units of a predetermined length area, character drawing instructions and character sets stored in the storage means Output means for forming an image for each page based on the data and the delete command.

Alternatively, there is provided a print control method for generating print data including character data and printing the print data by a printing apparatus, wherein the character extracting step includes extracting character data from print data for one print job. A storage step of storing the registration number and the character image of the extracted character data and the page where the character image appears in a memory in a searchable manner;
A character set generating step of generating character set data of a predetermined length including a character registration number and its character image from the character data stored in the memory in accordance with a page to be printed; and A transmitting step of generating a character drawing command including a registration number, and transmitting the character drawing command, the character set data, and a deletion command for deleting the character set data to a printing apparatus.

Alternatively, there is provided a printing method for receiving a character drawing command, character set data, and a character set data deletion command from an information processing apparatus and printing the received character drawing command, character set data, and deletion command. Storage means for storing data in a memory; management step of managing writing and deletion of data to and from the second storage means in units of a predetermined length area for each page; and a character drawing command and a character stored in the memory. An image forming step of forming an image for each page based on the set data and the delete command.

[0013] Alternatively, a computer readable storage medium for storing a program for creating print data including character data and causing the printing device to print the print data, wherein character extraction means for extracting character data from print data for one print job; A storage unit for retrievably storing a registration number and a character image of the character data extracted by the character extraction unit and a page where the character image appears, and a first storage unit which stores the registration number and the character image in accordance with the page to be printed. Character set generating means for generating character set data of a predetermined length including a character registration number and a character image thereof from character data; and generating a character drawing instruction including a character registration number for each page to be printed, The transmission means for transmitting a drawing command, the character set data, and a deletion command for deleting the character set data to a printing apparatus includes the command. Storing a program that causes a computer.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

(First Embodiment) An embodiment of a printing method according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing apparatus according to the embodiment. <System Configuration> In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes a host computer. In the host computer 101, data created by using a drawing application for creating an image including characters, natural images, and the like is transmitted to the CPU 10.
The image data is converted into a data format that can be received by the printer by the image driver executed in step S11. The converted data is sent to the printer controller 102. This image driver is connected to the external memory 1013 or the main memory 10.
12 is a program stored in the program.

The data input to the printer controller 102 is transferred to an input buffer 103 (RA) by DMA transfer.
M). The data stored in the input buffer 103 is a program ROM executed by the CPU 105.
The processing is performed by the transfer data analysis program in 104. The input buffer 103 is also used as an area for holding character set data. RO for program
M104 is a memory for storing processing procedures (control programs) shown in the figures described later, and the CPU 105 reads data according to the control programs and executes each processing.

The CPU 105 sets parameters such as the drawing position of the image data stored in the input buffer in the image hard renderer 107. The image hard renderer 107 expands the compressed image data in the input buffer and draws it on the band memory 108.

The CPU 105 analyzes the character drawing command stored in the input buffer, and sets the already registered character data in the character hard renderer 106. The character hard renderer 106 expands the character data in the input buffer into a character image, and directly draws the image already expanded on the band memory 108, if any.

At least two band memories (page width × band height of about 128 pixels) are provided, and one of the memories is in a shipping state (a state in which image data is output from the band memory to the engine unit). If
The other memories continuously perform an image development state (a state in which image data other than character data is developed in the band memory) and a character drawing state (a state in which a character image is developed in the band memory). The image is being synthesized. The information of the band after the synthesis is immediately sent to the printer engine 110 via the printer interface 109. On the other hand, image development and character drawing are performed on the band memory after shipping.

The printer interface 109 transmits a command to the printer engine 110 and a status (data can be stored) from the printer engine 110 to and from the band memory 108 with the printer engine 110, for example, LBP.

The CPU 105 is a printer controller 10
2 is an arithmetic device that controls internal processing, and controls the entire printer. 110 is a printer controller 102
The printer engine prints the video signal sent from the printer, and may be an LBP based on electrophotography or an inkjet system. Further, a color printer or a monochrome printer may be used. <Description of TypeWing Method> In the system having the above configuration, when print data is sent from the host computer to the printer, character data is sequentially picked up from the beginning of the data for each job before the print data is sent to the printer. If the character is character data to be sent for the first time, the registration number (character ID) and character image are registered in a printer in a predetermined number set (this is called a character set, and its identifier is called a character set ID). For the second and subsequent characters, the character ID and the drawing position are sent from the host computer to the printer. The printer develops the character image by referring to the previously registered character ID and the character image of the character, and creates an image to be printed. The inventors call this method the TypeWing method.

The TypeWing method according to the present embodiment employs a character set registration command for registering character set data from a host computer to a printer, a character drawing command for print data, and a character set deletion for deleting a registered character set. It can be realized by instructions. The printer operates as follows for each command.

According to the character set registration command, a font set address table area corresponding to the character set ID is secured, and the character ID included in the character set and the character image data are registered in association with each other.

According to a registered character printing (character drawing) command,
Draws an already registered character at a specified position.

The character set deletion command is a command for deleting a character set which is not frequently used when the memory inside the printer is full, and deletes a designated character set from a registered character set. Open the area.

According to the TypeWing system, characters are encoded, so that the data amount is reduced and the transfer time from the host computer to the printer is also reduced. for that reason,
In order to realize high-speed character printing with a low-cost printer, it is effective to incorporate a TypeWing system into an image printer.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the process of creating data in which characters and graphics are mixed by the host computer and outputting the data by the printer controller.

Reference numeral 201 denotes a schematic diagram of an output result in which the result of drawing by the drawing application of the host computer 101 is displayed on a display. Host computer 10
In 1, the character is stored in a character code, and the line is stored in a data format such as a start point, an end point, and a line width. The printer driver converts these data formats into a data format that can be output by the printer controller 102. (Process of Printer Driver) (1) Initialization of Print Job The print data of the entire print job is scanned, and characters that can be drawn by the printer controller 102 are extracted.
The extracted characters are stored in the management table for each character type.
Information on the page that has appeared is also added to each character in the management table. After the storage of the characters in the management table for one print job is completed, the characters used in a plurality of pages are collected to create a character set including bitmap font data and a character identifier. (2) Generation of page data A character set required for one page is generated. The print data is scanned again, and for the character data, a character drawing instruction is generated based on the identifier (ID) of the character set to which the character data belongs, the character identifier (ID) within the character set, and the drawing position of the character in the page. I do.

Except for print data to be rendered as characters, all data is developed into image data. Band memory 108
The compressed image data 203 is compressed for each band so that the compressed image data 203 can be expanded for each size. The character drawing command and compressed image data for one page thus generated and character set data necessary for the page are referred to as page data. (3) Data transfer When one page of page data is stored in the internal memory space of the host computer 101, the printer controller 1
02, a character set registration command and a character drawing command are sent, and the image data is transferred to the printer as long as the memory of the printer controller 102 has room.

When the printer controller 102 informs the memory that there is enough room, it sends the subsequent image data as much as it becomes available. (4) Deletion of Unnecessary Data When the transfer of the page data for one page is completed, the host computer 101 creates an instruction to delete a character set composed of characters used only in the page, and transfers the instruction to the printing apparatus. .

Note that the host computer successively transfers commands and data to the printer irrespective of whether or not output from the printer has been completed. The printer manages a character set according to a printing state and a command from a host computer. For example, after outputting a certain page, data consistency is obtained by processing a character set deletion command of the page after that. By doing so, the processing of the present embodiment can be performed even if the printer and the host are not connected by bidirectional communication.

FIG. 3 shows various tables prepared by the host computer 101 for managing character sets.

In FIG. 3, a driver management character table group 301 is a table group prepared for each print job, and includes a character set table 303 and a character management table 304. (Driver Management Character Set) The driver management character set 301 is held in the host computer during the print job in order to manage the character set of the printer by the printer driver.

The character set table 303 is a table in which character sets are registered for each character type (point count, Mincho, Gothic, etc.). The printer driver is 1
A character included in data to be printed in the job is checked, and the character type is determined by the driver management character set table 3.
Register at 03. The registration of the character type is performed by setting a pointer to the driver management character management table 304 corresponding to each character type in the pointer portion of the driver management character set table 303.

The driver management character management table 304 is created for each character type. Hereinafter, the structure of the character management table 304 will be described with reference to FIG.

For the characters included in the page data, a unique character ID 901 is assigned to each character separately from the character code used in the host computer.
The assigned character ID 901 is registered so that it can be searched from the character code by a method that can be searched at high speed, for example, hashing.

When a page is first registered, the page number that appears is set in minPage902 and maXPage903. The character data expanded in the bitmap format is stored in a character data storage area, and the start address is set in a character pointer 904.

When the same character appears a plurality of times in one job, the corresponding character ID in the driver management character management table 304 is found, and the maximum
Update ge903.

When the characters for one job are registered, the grouping for creating a printer transfer character set is performed by referring to the page number where the characters registered in the driver management character management table 304 appear. To create a printer transfer character set, first, of the characters used in a plurality of pages, characters used in a common page range are grouped. This prevents bitmap data transfer of the same character as much as possible in one job.

When this group is determined, the character sets required for the first page are grouped. When the character set group necessary for the first page is determined, a character set for printer transfer is created and registered in the management table 305 for the character set for printer transfer.

As described above, character set grouping is performed according to the following three rules. (1) All characters required for drawing a page must be transferred to the printing device. (2) Unnecessary character sets are deleted by a character set delete command so that the data storage memory in the printing apparatus does not overflow. (3) Characters used in a common page range are
Reduce the number of retransmissions by registering in the same character set.

The ID of the character set in which the character is stored and the offset value (relative address) in the character set are set in CharSetID 905, Off of the character management table 304.
It is registered in set906.

It should be noted that character IDs of characters that frequently appear, such as hiragana and numerals, are reserved, and are preferentially registered in the character management table 304 at the positions of the reserved IDs. Thus, overhead such as calculation of a hash function and processing at the time of collision can be prevented. (Example of Character Grouping and Creation of Printer Transfer Character Set) FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the driver management character set generated in this manner. For example, the character 1 or character ID is “1” and the character 7 or character ID is “
It can be seen that the character "7" is used from the first page to the fifth page, and the character 8, that is, the character with the character ID "8" is used only on the fifth page. Characters 1 and 7 are grouped into the same group because they use the same page range.
All other characters are separated into different groups because the page ranges used are different from each other.

When creating a character set for transfer from this group, the character set for printer transfer has a fixed length. Therefore, it is preferable to combine a plurality of groups into one character set according to the length of the character set. May be more efficient. Group conditions that should be summarized are, for example, the following 2
To satisfy both conditions. (1) The printer transfer character sets created together fall within the fixed length. (2) The page ranges used are continuous or overlapping.

In FIG. 10, for example, characters 1 and 7
Since the use range includes the use range of all other characters, if there is a space in the character set length, it can be combined with any group. Also, the character 4 overlaps or is continuous with the use range of all other characters, and is therefore combined with any group as long as there is a space. Characters 2 and 8 cannot be combined because they do not satisfy the above conditions.

Although this is only an example, characters are grouped in this way, and a character set for transfer is created from the group. (Printer Transfer Character Set) The printer transfer character set 302 is data for creating a character set registration command to be sent to the printer. Driver management character set 3
01 is also registered in the printer transfer character set 302.

The printer transfer character set 302 includes a character set management table 305 and character set data 306. Note that the character set data 306 is the character set data itself transferred from the driver to the printer, and has a format described later.

Bitmap data, which is the actual state of character data, can be obtained by, for example, developing an outline font of the host computer. The character set 306 is deleted by the character set deletion processing. for that reason,
By registering bitmap data on a character-by-character basis in the character management table 304 for the driver, even if a paper jam occurs after the character set deletion processing, the character map can be newly developed without performing the processing for newly expanding the bitmap data. The set can be re-registered, and the processing speed can be increased. <Transfer Data from Host Computer to Printer> Next, the transfer data format will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4 shows the structure of page data for one page created by the host computer. (Job Start Data Section) The job start data 401 is a table in which information of each data to be transferred is registered, and includes initial setting data necessary for performing a drawing process such as page layout information data. . (Character Set Data Section) The character set data 402 is data configured so that bitmap font data of characters used for drawing the page can be easily found from the character ID.

The size of one character set is a multiple of a fixed length determined by the printer, and the number of registered characters changes depending on the font size, compression ratio, and the like. If the size is smaller than the fixed size, the space is adjusted to the fixed size by filling the space. The character set data includes a character set header section 405, a relative address 406, and a character data section 40.
7 are included.

The character set header section 405 includes a character set ID 4051, the number of characters 4052 registered in the character set, a first page 4053 as the first page in which the character set is used, and a last page 4054 as the last page. .

In the relative address portion 406, the byte offset value from the header portion for accessing each character data in the character set data is set for the number of registered characters.

A character data portion 407 is a portion in which character data is actually registered. The character data portion 407 is followed by a character header portion in which information such as the character width, height, compression type, and size is stored. Map data is compressed and registered. (Character drawing command data section) Character drawing command data 403
Is a group of commands for instructing a character drawing position. Each character drawing command data is divided into band units, and is indicated by an ID of a character set including a character to be printed and an offset value of the character in the character set. As the drawing position, a relative coordinate position in the band is set.

The data size of the entire character drawing command data is also adjusted to be a multiple of the fixed length size. (Image Data Section) The image data section 404 is image data generated and compressed in height and width for each band, which is a unit processed by the printer. <Character Set Management and Character Drawing Instruction Creation Procedure> Next, using the flowchart of FIG. 8 and the data structure of FIGS. Will be described.

S801: The print data is spooled for one job. Among them, only character data is processed to construct a driver management character set 301. At this time, the page number in which the character appears is set in the min.
Page 902 and maxPage 903 are used for management.

S802: Characters used on a plurality of pages are searched from the driver management character set by minPage 902 and maXPage 903 indicating the number of pages where the characters appear, and characters used on a plurality of pages are grouped.

S803: Characters used in the page of interest being processed are represented by minP indicating the number of pages in which the characters appear.
group based on age902 and maXPage903. From this group and the character group created in S802, a character set 302 for transferring characters used in the page of interest is created. At this time, characters belonging to different groups are registered in different character sets.

S804: A character drawing command for the page of interest is created and transferred to the printer together with the character set created in S803. The character drawing command is a character set ID 905
And a relative address 906 in the character set in combination with the drawing position. All other data is developed into an image, rendered as an image drawing command, and transferred to the printer.

S805: A delete command for deleting a character set that is no longer necessary after the page of interest is generated and transferred to the printer. The character set to be deleted is usually S
This is a character set that includes the characters grouped in 803, and the character set grouped in S802 is not used as a target after the page of interest and is not a deletion target.

S806: If there is a next page in this job, the page is set as the page of interest, and the process returns to S803. If there is no next page, the process ends.

According to the above procedure, a character set for printer transfer is created and transmitted to the printer together with a character drawing command. <Data Format in Printer> Next, a procedure for storing data in the RAM of the printer and a registered data format will be described with reference to FIGS.

In step S1101, the printer 102 reads the job start data of the transfer data 400 created by the driver, and performs initial settings of the printer.

S1102: Thereafter, data is read into the RAM according to the size of the data included in the job start command.

The receiving buffer 103 is composed of a number of fixed-length receiving cells. Each received cell 501 has an address part (next) which is a pointer to the next empty buffer.
p) and a data section. The size of one character set data created by the host computer matches the size of the received cell. Although the data can be managed even if they do not match, the printer manages the use or non-use of the area for each received cell, so data of odd size occupies one received cell, and memory is effectively used Can not.

The reception buffer 103 is managed by the reception buffer control structure 502. The reception buffer control structure 502 includes a pointer F to the empty reception cell.
repeat, pointer F to the last cell of the idle reception cell
It is composed of a line EndP, a pointer Fontp to the top of the character set data section, a pointer Renderp to the top of the character drawing command data section, and a pointer Imagep to the top of the image data section. In the initial state, the pointer Freep indicates the head of the reception buffer,
The pointer FreeEndp points to the last reception cell in the reception buffer, and a pointer to the next reception cell is written in the address portion of each reception cell.

Data received from the host computer is packed in units of reception buffer cells at the destination indicated by the pointer Freep. The pointer Freep is updated with the value of the pointer nextp of the received cell in which the data is stored. Data can be read until the pointer Free becomes equal to the pointer FreeEndp.

S1103: Top position of character set data (Fontp), top position of character drawing command data (Renderp), top position of image data (Imageep) are calculated from the data size of the job read command read first. The position is registered in the reception buffer control structure 502.

It should be noted that the image data may not fit in one page, but in that case, the image data is stored as much as possible.

S1104: Following the pointer fontp, a character set table 503 is created for each character set, which stores a character set ID and a pointer to the corresponding character set. <Printing Procedure> Next, a process from receiving a plurality of pages in the above memory space to printing out the pages will be described with reference to FIG.

600: At the start of drawing, the receiving buffer is in the initialized state.

601: nextp from the upper part of the receiving buffer
, The received character set data and character drawing data are stored.

602: The image data is stored until the memory becomes full, and pointers Fontp, Renderp, Im are obtained from each data size included in the job start command.
Set agep.

For the stored character sets, the head address is registered in the character set table for each set. This is the procedure of FIG.

603: Drawing is started. Pointer Ima
The CPU then analyzes the band image data indicated by “gep” in the band memory, analyzes the character drawing instruction data indicated by the pointer “Renderer” on the band memory, obtains the corresponding character image from the character set data, and draws characters. I do.

Accordingly, the receiving cells of the image data section developed in the band memory are released. Until then, the address of the released receiving cell is set in the pointer nextp section of the receiving cell pointed to by the pointer FreeEndp, and then the address of the released receiving cell is also set in FreeEndp.

In the released receiving cell, data waiting to be stored in the receiving buffer is read as needed.

604: After all the data for one page has been read into the reception cell, the data for the next page is also taken in. In the state 604, the character set data of the second page is stored in the empty area following the image data of the first page.

FIG. 605 shows a state immediately before all data processing for one page is completed. The character set data of the first page, the character drawing command, and a part of the image data are stored. Also, the character set data of the second page, a character drawing command, and part of the image data are stored.

606: A command to delete character set data is sent from the host computer as necessary. When the processing of the character drawing instruction for the page of interest is completed, the received cell storing the character set data that is no longer needed and the drawing instruction for the first page is released in accordance with the character set deletion instruction. After that, the job start command of the second page is read and parameters are set.

When deleting character data, the start address of the released received cell is set in the pointer nexttp of the destination cell pointed to by the pointer FreeEndp, and the final address is set in FreeEndp. <Processing Procedure of Delete Command> Next, a processing procedure for a character set deleting command will be described with reference to FIG.

S1201: A character set ID specified as a deletion target is searched from the character set table 503 held in the printer.

S1202: If not found, error processing is performed.

S1203: The address of the receiving cell of the character set corresponding to the designated character set ID is obtained from the character set table, and the receiving cell is released. The release of the reception cell is performed by connecting the current free area and the area to be newly released by the pointer nextp of each reception cell. That is, the pointer Fr to the end of the current free area
pointer next of the reception cell pointed to by eeEndp
tp is set to the address of the newly released receiving cell, and then the pointer FreeEndp is also set to the address of the newly released receiving cell.

S1204: Delete and update the entry in the character set table corresponding to the deleted character set ID.

By deleting the character set data as described above, the empty area is released for each received cell.
Therefore, the opened area can be reused without collecting it. The procedure for releasing the receiving cell is not limited to the character set data. The receiving cell in which the character drawing command that has been output for one page and the band image data that has been output for one band are stored is released. Also used when.

FIG. 7 shows a state when the drawing processing has progressed.
Follow the pointer Free, and from the indicated reception cell to n
The destination following the ext is the free area. In addition, next
If p indicates a continuous received cell, its ne
The arrow representing xtp is omitted.

As described above, when the character set size is non-fixed length and discontinuously occupies the memory, the size of the free area formed when the character set data is deleted is not uniform, and the character set data is registered in units of one character. Deleting a given character set creates a discontinuous free space. Therefore, it takes a lot of time to reconstruct the character set data in order to collect free memory, and it is impossible to reconstruct the character set data between pages during continuous page output.

On the other hand, in the printing system according to the present embodiment, the memory of the printer is managed in units of fixed-length receiving cells. Therefore, the free area released in the memory of the printer is a unit of the received cell, and can be reused immediately without collecting the free area.

In such a case, if the character set data is created for each character, for example, a large amount of area is wasted to store the character set data for one character in one reception cell. In the present embodiment, the host computer creates the character set data in a fixed length in units of the size corresponding to the receiving cell, so that the character set data fits in the receiving cell without waste and reduces the memory utilization efficiency. Nothing.

The printing system that executes the character set deletion command by determining the timing of executing the character set data deletion command on the printer side has been described above. If you can get the information, let the printer notify the host computer of the end of the printout of the page,
The host computer may transmit to the printer a character set deletion command that is not used after that page based on the information. <Printer Engine> There is no particular limitation on what printer engine is used in the above embodiment. Here, two representative types of engines applicable to the printer of this embodiment will be described.

FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view showing the internal structure of a laser beam printer (hereinafter abbreviated as LBP) in this case. This LBP can be inputted with character pattern data and printed on a recording paper.

In the figure, reference numeral 740 denotes an LBP main body,
An image is formed on recording paper, which is a recording medium, based on the supplied character pattern and the like. Reference numeral 700 denotes an operation panel on which a switch for operation, an LED display, and the like are arranged.
Is a printer control unit for controlling the entire LBP 740 and analyzing character pattern information and the like. The printer control unit 701 mainly converts character pattern information into a video signal and outputs the video signal to the laser driver 702.

The laser driver 702 is a semiconductor laser 70
And a laser beam emitted from the semiconductor laser 703 in response to an input video signal.
04 is turned on / off. The laser beam 704 is swung right and left by a rotary polygon mirror 705 to scan on an electrostatic drum 706. Thus, an electrostatic latent image of a character pattern is formed on the electrostatic drum 706. This latent image is developed by a developing unit 707 around the electrostatic drum 706,
Transferred to recording paper. A cut sheet is used as the recording paper. The cut sheet recording paper is stored in a paper cassette 708 mounted on the LBP 740, is taken into the apparatus by a paper feed roller 709 and transport rollers 710 and 711, and is supplied to the electrostatic drum 706. Is done.

FIG. 14 is a schematic view of an ink jet recording apparatus IJRA to which the present invention can be applied. In the figure,
The carriage HC that engages with the spiral groove 5004 of the lead screw 5005 that rotates via the driving force transmission gears 5011 and 5009 in conjunction with the forward and reverse rotation of the drive motor 5013 has a pin (not shown), , B. An ink jet cartridge IJC is mounted on the carriage HC. Reference numeral 5002 denotes a paper pressing plate, which presses the paper against the platen 5000 in the moving direction of the carriage. Reference numerals 5007 and 5008 denote home position detecting means for confirming the presence of the lever 5006 of the carriage in this area and switching the rotation direction of the motor 5013. 50
16 is a cap member 5 for capping the front surface of the recording head.
Reference numeral 5015 denotes a suction unit for sucking the inside of the cap, and performs suction recovery of the recording head through the opening 5023 in the cap. Reference numeral 5017 denotes a cleaning blade. Reference numeral 5019 denotes a member which allows the blade to move in the front-rear direction. These members are supported by a main body support plate 5018. It goes without saying that the blade is not limited to this form and a known cleaning blade can be applied to this example. Reference numeral 5021 denotes a lever for starting suction for recovery of suction, which moves with the movement of the cam 5020 which engages with the carriage, and controls the movement of the driving force from the drive motor by a known transmission means such as clutch switching. Is done.

[0094]

[Other Embodiments] Even if the present invention is applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), an apparatus (for example, a copying machine) Machine, facsimile machine, etc.).

Further, an object of the present invention is to provide a storage medium storing a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or an apparatus, and to provide a computer (or CPU) of the system or apparatus.
Or MPU) reads and executes the program code stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

Examples of a storage medium for supplying the program code include a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, and CD.
-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also the OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. ) Performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided on a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instruction of the program code, The case where the CPU of the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by the processing.

[0100]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Despite the simple configuration, the character portion is received as a character code and expanded into a character image, thereby greatly reducing the time required for the character expansion processing in the host and the amount of data transferred from the host, and furthermore, the printing device There is an effect that the memory capacity can be suppressed and the memory capacity can be efficiently used.

[0101]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a print control system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a data creation process of a driver and a printing process of a printer.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the structure of character set management data on the driver side.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a detailed structure of a transfer character set.

FIG. 5 shows the structure and storage form of a receiving buffer of a printer (1).
FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a memory management method of the printer.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a structure and a storage mode (during output of a plurality of pages) of a reception buffer of the printer.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a character processing procedure in the host computer.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the structure of a driver management character set.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of how a driver management character set is used.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a procedure for receiving print data in a printer.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a procedure for deleting character set data in a printer.

FIG. 13 is a diagram of an engine of a laser beam printer.

FIG. 14 is a diagram of an engine of the inkjet printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 101 host computer 102 printer controller 103 input buffer 104 ROM 105 CPU 106 character hard renderer 107 image renderer 108 band memory 110 printer engine

Claims (22)

[Claims] 1. A printing system comprising an information processing apparatus for creating print data including character data and a printing system, wherein the information processing apparatus extracts character data from print data for one print job. Character extracting means, a registration number of character data extracted by the character extracting means, a character image, and a first storing means for retrievably storing a page in which the character image appears, and a first storing means, A character set generating means for generating character set data of a predetermined length including a character registration number and a character image from the character data stored in the first storage means; and a character registration number for each page to be printed. Transmitting means for generating a character drawing command and transmitting the character drawing command, the character set data, and a delete command for deleting the character set data to a printing apparatus; A second storage unit that stores the received character drawing command, character set data, and deletion command; and writes and deletes data to and from the second storage unit in units of a predetermined length area. A printing unit comprising: a management unit that manages each page; and an output unit that forms an image for each page based on a character drawing command, character set data, and a deletion command stored in the storage unit. . 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a conversion unit configured to convert print data excluding the character data extracted by the extraction unit into image data, and the transmission unit further includes a printing device that converts the image data for each page. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the transmission is performed. 3. The printing system according to claim 2, wherein the transmission unit transmits the character drawing data and the image data in units of the predetermined length. 4. The character set generating means, from a page in which each character data stored in the first storage means appears, a character appearing on a plurality of pages and a character appearing on a single page. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the character set data is generated as separate groups, and the transmission unit transmits a deletion instruction for deleting character set data appearing on a single page. 5. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the management unit executes a delete command to delete the character set data after the image formation of one page is completed. 6. The information processing apparatus further includes a receiving unit that receives a notification of the end of one-page image formation from the printing device, and the transmitting unit receives the notification of the end of one-page image formation based on the notification of the end of one-page image formation. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein an instruction to delete character set data not used after the page is transmitted to the printing apparatus. 7. A print control apparatus for generating print data including character data and printing the print data by a printing apparatus, comprising: character extracting means for extracting character data from print data for one print job; Storage means for retrievably storing the registration number of the extracted character data, the character image, and the page where the character image appears, and character data stored in the first storage means according to the page to be printed. Character set generating means for generating character set data of a predetermined length including the registration number of the character and the character image thereof; and generating a character drawing instruction including the registration number of the character for each page to be printed; A print control device comprising: a transmission unit that transmits character set data and a delete command for deleting character set data to a printing device. , 8. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a conversion unit configured to convert print data excluding the character data extracted by the extraction unit into image data, and the transmission unit further transmits the image data to a printing apparatus page by page. The print control device according to claim 7, wherein: 9. The print control apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the transmission unit transmits the character drawing data and the image data in units of the predetermined length. 10. The character set generation unit separates a character appearing on a plurality of pages and a character appearing on a single page from a page in which each character data stored in the storage unit appears into a separate group. The print control apparatus according to claim 7, wherein character set data is generated, and the transmission unit transmits a delete command for deleting character set data appearing on a single page. 11. A printing apparatus, comprising: a receiving unit configured to receive a notification of completion of one-page image formation from the printing apparatus;
8. The print control apparatus according to claim 7, wherein an instruction to delete character set data not used after the page is transmitted to the printing apparatus. 12. A printing apparatus that receives a character drawing command, character set data, and a character set data deletion command from an information processing device and prints the received character drawing command, character set data, and deletion command. Storage means for storing; management means for managing writing and deletion of data to and from the second storage means for each page in units of a predetermined length area; character drawing instructions and character sets stored in the storage means A printing apparatus comprising: an output unit that forms an image for each page based on data and a delete command. 13. The printing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the management unit deletes the character set data by executing a deletion command after image formation of one page is completed. 14. A print control method for generating print data including character data and printing the print data by a printing apparatus, comprising: a character extracting step of extracting character data from print data for one print job; A storage step of retrievably storing a registration number and a character image of the extracted character data and a page in which the character image appears in a memory; and registering characters from the character data stored in the memory according to a page to be printed. A character set generating step of generating character set data of a predetermined length including a number and a character image thereof; generating a character drawing instruction including a registration number of a character for each page to be printed; A printing control method comprising: transmitting data and a deletion command for deleting character set data to a printing apparatus. , 15. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a conversion step of converting print data excluding the character data extracted in the extraction step into image data, wherein the transmission step further transmits the image data page by page to a printing apparatus. The print control method according to claim 14, wherein: 16. The print control method according to claim 15, wherein said transmitting step transmits said character drawing data and image data to said printing apparatus in units of said predetermined length. 17. The character set generating step includes, as a separate group, a character appearing on a plurality of pages and a character appearing on a single page from a page in which each character data stored in the memory appears. 15. The print control method according to claim 14, wherein character set data is generated, and the transmitting step transmits a deletion command for deleting character set data appearing on a single page to a printing apparatus. 18. The print control method according to claim 14, wherein the management step deletes the character set data by executing a delete command after image formation of one page is completed. 19. The image forming apparatus according to claim 19, further comprising a receiving step of receiving a notification of the end of the image forming of one page from the printing apparatus, wherein the transmitting step does not use the subsequent pages based on the notification of the end of the image forming of the one page. 15. The print control method according to claim 14, wherein a command to delete character set data is transmitted. 20. A printing method for receiving a character drawing command, character set data, and a character set data deletion command from an information processing apparatus and printing the received character drawing command, character set data, and deletion command. Storage means for storing data in a memory; management step of managing writing and deletion of data to and from the second storage means for each page in units of a predetermined length area; and a character drawing command and characters stored in the memory A printing method comprising: an image forming step of forming an image for each page based on set data and a delete command. 21. The printing method according to claim 20, wherein the management step deletes the character set data by executing a deletion command after image formation of one page is completed. 22. A computer-readable storage medium for storing a program for creating print data including character data and causing the printing device to print the print data, comprising: character extracting means for extracting character data from print data for one print job; A storage unit for retrievably storing the registration number of the character data extracted by the character extraction unit, the character image, and the page where the character image appears, and a storage unit for storing in the first storage unit according to the page to be printed. A character set generating means for generating character set data of a predetermined length including a character registration number and a character image from the character data; and a character drawing instruction including a character registration number for each page to be printed. The compiling unit transmits a drawing command, the character set data, and a deletion command for deleting the character set data to a printing apparatus. Storage medium characterized by storing a program that causes a chromatography data.