JPH1091366A - Print processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a print processor which can efficiently operate the hardware of a printer at successive print requests. SOLUTION: Print data requested to be printed are registered sequentially in a print queue 23 and the print data registered in this print queue 23 are expanded into print images, which are transferred to a printer 3. This print processor performs image expanding processes for expanding the print data into print images in parallel at successive print requests. Further, the data which are expanded into the print images are saved in an image buffer 24 by the requests, and transferred to the printer 3 when predetermined print conditions are met. Further, storage conditions are met when the data are saved in the image buffer 24, the data are compressed and stored in the image buffer 24, but when not, the data are stored in the image buffer 24 without being compressed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a print processing apparatus for processing a print request such as a document including an image or a text-only document.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When printing is performed, print data in which character attributes (font type, size, etc.), graphic shapes, and the like are specified by a printer language is created. The printing process, from extracting the print data extracted from the user print request file to a print image and transferring it to the hardware of the printer, consists of the process of queuing the print data written in the printer language and extracting the data from the print queue. The process can be broadly divided into the process of developing an image and the process of transferring the image to hardware for printing and issuing a print request.

The performance of printing depends on the performance of the printer hardware itself, but greatly affects the time required to develop print data into a print image. The image development time affects not only the accumulation of the time itself, but also the performance of the printer hardware.

[0004] If there is no next print request within a certain period of time from the completion of the previous print, the hardware of the printer cancels the warm-up state by stopping the rotation of the rollers, etc.
The next printing must start from an initialization process such as rotation of the rollers. Therefore, in order to process successive print requests efficiently, it is necessary to reduce the time required to develop the print image and to give the next print request to the printer within the printer's time limit.

Conventionally, in order to reduce the time for developing print data into a print image, parallel processing for independently operating image development processing and print request processing has been performed. When the time exceeds the printer's time limit, there is no effect. The print data forming a queue in the print queue has to wait until the print job corresponding to the previous print request is completed, although there is room for the printer hardware.

[0006]

As described above, conventionally, although the printer hardware has room, it is necessary to wait for the processing of the next print request until the print job for the previous print request ends. If there was print data that took a long time to develop the image, it became a bottleneck and the functions of the printer hardware could not be fully utilized.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a print processing apparatus capable of efficiently operating printer hardware for continuous print requests. .

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention takes the following measures. According to the present invention, in addition to the parallel processing for making the image development processing and the print request part independent and operating, the image development processing itself is processed in parallel for successive print requests.

Further, according to the present invention, a condition for judging whether or not the image-developed data can be printed is provided, and the data is transferred to the printer by dynamically changing the print priority (changing the judgment condition).・ Printer requests are issued and printer hardware is operated efficiently.

Further, according to the present invention, a condition for judging whether or not to perform compression processing is set in a compression processing function for compressing image-decompressed data, and if the storage area is allowed to be limited (for example, the number of pages is small), the compression Saved in the image buffer without performing extra processing such as processing and decompression processing.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a software configuration of a print processing apparatus according to this embodiment, and FIG. 2 shows a hardware configuration of a system including the print processing apparatus. A system equipped with this print processing apparatus includes a computer 1 that performs control of the entire print processing, queuing processing, image expansion processing, compression processing, decompression processing, printer control processing, and storage and control of print data stored in a print queue. It comprises a disk 2 functioning as an image buffer for data that has undergone image development, and a printer 3 that receives image data created by the computer 1 and prints it on paper at the same resolution.

This print processing apparatus is provided with a control unit 10 for managing a series of processes in a print process. A series of processes in the printing process includes a print queue registration process as a queuing process, an image expansion process, an image compression process, an image buffer management process, an image expansion process, and a printer control process.

The print queue registration process 11 is a process for registering print data requested by an application or the like in a print queue. At the time of registration in the print queue, the print data is analyzed, the total area of printing or writing of vectors such as characters, images, straight lines, curves, and fills is calculated, and the processing time is converted by the data amount / processing time conversion table 25. Is stored in the queue management table 21 for each job / page together with the number of pages.

The image development processing 12 analyzes the printer language and performs one-character processing based on character information, image information, and vector information.
This is a process for creating a print image equivalent to the print resolution of the printer for the page. The total number of pages, the number of pages for which image development has been completed (current page), and the print start designation page are stored in the image buffer management table 22.

The scheduling process 14 is a process for determining the order of printing the print images stored in the image buffer 24 according to the information in the image buffer management table 22.

The printer control process 17 includes a process for transferring the print data stored in the image buffer 24 to the printer 3 and a process for controlling the hardware of the printer 3.

If necessary, the control unit 10
Then, the image compression processing 13 and the image expansion processing 15 are started. The image compression process 13 is a process of compressing the image-decompressed data and storing it in the image buffer 24, and the image decompression process 15 is a process of decompressing the print data stored in the image buffer 24 to be sent to the printer 3. This is the processing to be performed.

The print processing apparatus also includes various tables and buffers for managing the execution states of the various processes 11 to 17 and storing print data and expanded data.

The data amount / processing time conversion table 25
9 is a table for converting processing time for each area of a character, an image, a straight line, a curve, and a fill included in print data.

The queue management table 21 is a table for storing information on each job, such as the total number of pages, the processing status, and the like. Each queue and each page obtained by using the data amount / processing time conversion table 25 are stored. Stores the processing time.

The image buffer management table 22 is a table for storing image development information (current page / total number of pages) of each job developed from print data by the image development processing 12.

The print data queue 23 is a buffer for storing print data written in a printer language. Also,
The image buffer 24 is a buffer that stores print data that has undergone image expansion and compressed print data.

A description will be given of the contents of the printing process in the embodiment configured as described above. FIG. 3 is a diagram conceptually showing the overall flow of print processing in this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, when a user issues a print request for print data created on the computer 1 or read from an external storage device, the control unit 10 starts a print queue registration process 11. . In the print queue registration process 11, the print data instructed by the user to print is stored in the print data queue 23. The information about the print data registered at the end of the print data queue 23 is stored in the queue management table 2 shown in FIG.
Set to 1. That is, the number of pages is set at the position of the queue rank corresponding to the rank in the print data queue 23, and "registered" is set. This process is repeated each time a print request is instructed by the user. The control unit 10 repeats the image development start processing shown in FIG. 4 until the registered state disappears from the “processing state” in the queue management table 21. The “processing status” in the queue management table 21 is searched from the top in the queue order, and print data with a registered status for which image development has not been started yet is set. The image data is allocated to the print data, and the image data is expanded. As shown in FIG. 3, the print data queued in the print data queue 23 is sequentially activated, so that the image development processing is executed in parallel. For the print data on which image development processing has been executed from the print data queue 23, the "processing status" of the queue management table 21 is changed from registered to image development.

Each time one page of image development is completed for each print data image developed in parallel by the image development process 12, as shown in FIG. To change. Therefore, the image buffer management table 22 manages the number of processed pages to which images are developed for all currently queued print data.

As described above, by developing a plurality of print data in parallel, resources such as a CPU and a disk can be used efficiently, and when there are a plurality of print requests, the image can be developed at high speed. it can. The print data stored in the print data queue 23 has different times until the image development processing is completed. Conventionally, even if data takes only a few seconds to print because the total number of printed pages is only one, if the previous job takes several tens of minutes, the user has to wait during that time. By performing processing in parallel as in this embodiment, it is possible to prioritize and print a job in which image development ends first, or to print by interrupting a previous job.

As shown in FIG. 3, print image data developed from print data is stored in an image buffer 2.
4 is stored. In FIG. 3, the print image data in which the image has been expanded is subjected to the image compression processing before being stored in the image buffer 24, but the processing of this part will be described later.

In the scheduling process 14, the order of the print image data to be sent to the printer 3 is determined by referring to the information in the image buffer management table 22 according to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, the total number of pages of each print image data and the processing pages are checked from the image buffer management table 22 in order from the top in the queue order, and a job having a relationship of processing pages <total number of pages is searched. Then, it is determined whether or not the current page (process page) of the searched job has reached the print start designation page.

If there is a job that satisfies the relationship of processing page ≧ print start designation page, the processing status of the job in the queue management table 21 is changed to “printing” as shown in FIG. Then, the print image data corresponding to the job is taken out from the image buffer 24 and transferred to the printer 3. Note that in FIG.
The image decompression processing is performed before the print image data extracted from the printer 3 is transferred to the printer 3. This processing will be described later together with the image compression processing.

As described above, the print image data is transferred to the printer 3 with priority given to the job that satisfies the relationship of processing page ≧ print start designation page. Can be sequentially printed from the jobs for which. Further, if the number of pages designated to start printing is set to the total number of pages or an arbitrary number of pages, the printing order can be changed. For example, by setting the print start designation page to a small value, the print order can be made earlier.

FIG. 9 shows the necessity of image compression processing when storing print image data in the image buffer 24 and the necessity of image decompression processing when transferring print image data from the image buffer 24 to the printer 3. 9 shows a flowchart to which processing has been added.

That is, the process up to the point where the corresponding queue is searched from the queue management table 21 and the image is developed is the same as that shown in FIG. 4, but in this flowchart, the storage conditions are confirmed and whether or not to perform the compression process is determined. Deciding. The storage conditions are registered in advance, and the number of pages, the disk capacity, and the like can be used. The compression process is performed when the number of pages exceeds a predetermined number or when the disk capacity falls below a predetermined value.

When performing a compression process, an image compression process 12 is started. The image compression process 12 compresses the print image data into which the image has been expanded by a predetermined method, and then stores the compressed image data in the image buffer 24. As shown in FIG. 10, an item for registering compression information is provided in the queue management table 21. When print image data is stored in the image buffer 24 in a compressed or uncompressed state, the compressed information is stored in the queue management table 21. register.

On the other hand, when the number of expanded pages reaches the designated print start page and the image is transferred from the image buffer 24 to the printer 3, the compression information in the queue management table 21 is checked. As a result, if the print image data is compressed and stored, the image decompression process 15 is started to decompress the image and then transferred to the printer 3.

As described above, when the data obtained by developing the print data into the print image is stored in the image buffer 24, only the print image data meeting the storage conditions is compressed and stored, and the compressed print image data is stored. Since the image is decompressed and then transferred to the printer 3, the compression and decompression processes can be performed only when necessary, as determined in the storage conditions, and unnecessary compression and decompression processes can be reduced.

Next, an approximate time until the completion of the image development is calculated in advance, and it is determined whether or not the image can be developed within the print processing time, which is the time limit of the hardware of the printer 3, and the print image data is transferred to the image buffer 24. A printing method to be temporarily stored and a printing method to be transferred to the printer 3 when one page of image data is developed are selected.

FIG. 11 shows a flowchart for obtaining the processing time until the completion of image development. From the file of the user print request data, a command for performing an image, a straight line, a curve, a fill, and the like included in the print data requested to be printed by the user is extracted. As shown in FIG. 13, an index for converting each processing instruction into time is registered in the data amount / processing time conversion table 25, and the instruction included in the print data from the data amount / processing time conversion table 25 is registered. Extract the time conversion index for.

Next, the area to be written as a print image is calculated from the processing according to the command, and integrated for each element such as a character, an image, a straight line, a curve, and a fill. This process is repeated until one page is completed, and the product of the integrated data for each element of one page and the time conversion index corresponding to each element is obtained. The processing time for one page is obtained from the sum of the products of all the elements. The processing time for one page obtained in this manner is set at a corresponding position in the queue management table 21 as shown in FIG. The above process is repeated for each job for which a print request has been made by the user.

The processing time of one page is checked in the queue management table 21. If the image can be developed within the print processing time of the hardware of the printer 3, the print image data is not directly stored in the image buffer 24 but directly stored in the printer. 3
Transfer to In addition, the processing time of one page is
If the image cannot be developed within the hardware print processing time, the image is temporarily stored in the image buffer 24.

As described above, the approximate time until the completion of the image development is calculated in advance, and the image buffer 2 is determined based on whether the image can be developed within the print processing time of the printer 3.
4 or can be directly transferred to the printer 3, so that a faster printing method can be selected. The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a print processing apparatus capable of efficiently operating the hardware of a printer in response to a continuous print request.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration of a print processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a printing system to which the print processing apparatus according to the embodiment is applied.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing an overall processing flow in the print processing apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an image development activation process in the print processing apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a queue management table.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of an image buffer management table.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a scheduling process in the print processing apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a queue management table after a processing status is changed.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a flowchart of a printing process including a compression process and a decompression process.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a queue management table in which compression statuses are registered.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of processing time calculation processing in the print processing apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a queue management table in which processing times are registered.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a data amount / processing time conversion table.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Computer 2 ... Disk 3 ... Printer 10 ... Control part 11 ... Print queue registration processing 12 ... Image expansion processing 13 ... Image compression processing 14 ... Scheduling processing 15 ... Image decompression processing 16 ... Image buffer management processing 17 ... Printer control processing 21 ... Queue management table 22 ... Image buffer management table 23 ... Print data queue 24 ... Image buffer 25 ... Data amount / processing time conversion table

Claims (4)

[Claims] A print processing apparatus for sequentially registering print data for which a print request has been issued in a print queue, expanding the print data registered in the print queue into a print image, and transferring the print image to a printer. A print processing apparatus for executing image development processing for developing print data into a print image in response to the print request. 2. A print processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein data developed from print data to a print image is stored in an image buffer for each print request, and a print request satisfying a predetermined print condition is sent to a printer. A print processing apparatus, wherein the print processing apparatus transfers the print data. 3. The print data for which a print request has been issued is sequentially registered in a print queue, the print data registered in the print queue is developed into a print image and stored in an image buffer. When the print image data is stored in the image buffer, if the print image data or the system environment satisfies a predetermined storage condition, the print image data is compressed. A print processing apparatus for storing the print image data in the image buffer without compression if the storage conditions are not satisfied. 4. A print processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said print processing apparatus calculates a time required to develop print data registered in a print queue into a print image. It is determined whether or not the image can be developed within the print processing time, which is the restriction time of the hardware of the printer, based on the developed time, and according to the determination result, the print image data is temporarily stored in the image buffer or the print image data of one page is stored. Means for instructing whether to transfer the data to a printer at the stage of development.