JPH11144062A - Printing processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a fast and resource-saving printing processing by using the same hardware resources by providing a means which selects hardware constitution that can perform processes most efficiently by bands of output. SOLUTION: A token cut out of print data at a word and phrase analysis part 30 is inputted to an intermediate data generation part 31 and converted into the form intermediate data of initial level for every band. The data are read out of a conversion expansion time prediction part 7, band by band, and hardware constitution ID of an expanding process part 4 and the format of intermediate data inputted thereto are determined, band by band, and outputted to an intermediate data conversion part 32. The intermediate data conversion part 32 converts intermediate data of the respective bands of the intermediate data generation part 31 in to the form designated based on the output of the conversion expansion time prediction part 7. Then hardware constitution information is inputted to an expending process part 4 to change hardware constitution, the intermediate data are processed, and an output part 5 performs the expanding process.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print processing apparatus capable of performing print processing in page units. In detail, select the hardware configuration that can perform the most efficient processing for each output band according to the content of the print data, and realize high-speed processing using the same hardware resources of the print processing device. The present invention relates to a print processing apparatus capable of performing the above.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the development of an electrophotographic page printer suitable for small, high-speed digital printing, images, figures, characters, and the like, which have escaped from the conventional printing of mainly character information, are handled in the same manner. 2. Description of the Related Art A printing processing apparatus using a description language in which enlargement, rotation, deformation, and the like of an image can be freely controlled has been widely used. As a representative example of such a description language, Postscript (Adobe System)
s), Interpress (trademark of Xerox), Acrobat (trademark of Adobe Systems), GDI (Graphics Device I)
Internet, trademark of Microsoft Corporation) and the like are known.

[0003] Print data created in a description language is:
It is composed of commands and data strings in which drawing commands and data representing images, figures, and characters at arbitrary positions in a page are arranged in an arbitrary order. In order to print with the page printer according to the present invention, printing is performed. First, the print data must be rasterized. Rasterization is the process of developing a raster scan line by developing it into a series of individual dots or pixels that traverse a page or portion of a page, and generating successive scan lines below the page. In a conventional page printer, print data of an entire page is rasterized before printing and stored in a page buffer memory. However, storing raster data for an entire page requires a large amount of memory. In particular, in the latest electrophotographic color page printer, C (Cyan), M
(Magenta), Y (Yellow), BK (Bl
ack) requires raster data corresponding to the four color toners, and image quality is required more than that of a black and white page printer. Need.

In response to the need for a large amount of memory, band memory technology has recently emerged as a technology for reducing memory requirements from the viewpoint of cost reduction. Band memory technology can rasterize print data created in a description language faster than rasterizing print data, instead of rasterizing all print data for one page before printing by a page printer. Convert to relatively simple intermediate data,
This technique divides a page into a plurality of adjacent areas (bands), stores intermediate data corresponding to each band, sequentially transfers the intermediate data to a raster development processing unit, and develops the data in a buffer memory corresponding to the band. In the band memory technology, a memory for storing intermediate data is newly required, but it is possible to reduce a buffer memory that requires a large capacity for raster data. However, in a general band memory technique, it is necessary to finish developing raster data from intermediate data for the next band by the end of printing of raster data of a certain band. When the print data includes a complicated graphic drawing instruction or an image drawing instruction with a large amount of data to be handled, or when a specific band in one page includes a complicated graphic drawing instruction or an image drawing instruction, There is a possibility that a situation may occur where the development of the intermediate data into the raster data is not in time.

Therefore, it has been considered to use dedicated hardware in order to speed up the process of developing the intermediate data into raster data. As described above, objects to be drawn in a page include images, figures, and characters, each of which requires different development processing. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare dedicated hardware corresponding to each processing, and even if the amount of memory can be reduced, there is a problem that the amount of dedicated hardware to be added increases and the entire system becomes expensive. In addition, since print data expressed in a description language has no upper limit on its complexity, dedicated hardware is provided in parallel to almost completely process the expansion processing, or raster data is thinned out in time. There is a problem that a means for creating the image is required, and there is a possibility that the cost may be further increased and the image quality may be deteriorated.

Conventionally, as an attempt to solve such a problem, instead of providing hardware for all functions in parallel, the functions are changed by reconfiguring the hardware programmability or structure, and the hardware is reduced. Attempts have been made to realize many functions at high speed. As prior art relating to the present invention having such a concept, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. Hei 6-131155 and
-282432 and the like.

[0007]

Problems to be Solved by the Invention
The configuration described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-105556 reconfigures the means for generating an address for the data storage area and reconfigures the arithmetic means for the data in the data storage area obtained by the means for generating the address, so that various images can be generated. The goal is to achieve processing with less hardware.
However, this configuration can reconstruct image processing that is significant in address information, but cannot cope with vector processing such as graphics and characters. Also, since image processing is always performed by reconstructing,
When various images appear arbitrarily as in the case of DL, there is a problem that the reconstruction time increases.

The configuration described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 6-282432 is intended to control a data flow by providing a plurality of arithmetic circuits capable of operating in parallel in a necessary type in advance. Such a method is suitable for applications in which a small number of types of arithmetic circuits are frequently used, such as in some image processing, but is applicable to various types of mixed circuits such as images, figures, and characters. In addition, since many types of arithmetic circuits are required, there is a problem that the amount of hardware, which is the original purpose, cannot be reduced.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art.
High-speed and resource-saving printing using the same hardware resources by providing means for selecting the hardware configuration that can process the most efficiently for each output band according to the contents of print data including graphics and characters The purpose is to realize the processing.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a print processing apparatus for achieving the above object. That is, the present invention has at least one of a character, a graphic, and an image drawing element, and is capable of inputting print data described by a predetermined drawing command and outputting the print data input to the input means. Output means for outputting data processed in a simple structure, and first intermediate data expressed in a format including at least one type of basic graphic, which has a higher degree of abstraction than a data structure that can be output by the output means, based on print data. Generating means for generating the first intermediate data generated by the generating means and converting the data into a second intermediate data format represented by a format including at least one type of basic graphic And expansion means for expanding the second intermediate data into a data structure that can be output by the output device. The expansion means can be changed to a plurality of different configurations, and a plurality of different configuration information which can be configured by the expansion means. Based on the number and size of the basic graphics constituting at least the first intermediate data generated by the generating means, based on at least the configuration information managing means for managing the Expansion time of the second intermediate data: T _H , and conversion time for converting the first intermediate data to the second intermediate data: T _S
And a conversion time predicted by the conversion expansion time predicting means: T _H , and a conversion time:
Configuration selecting means for selecting an optimum configuration of the expanding means based on T _S and the configuration information of the configuration data managing means, wherein the converting means is configured based on the optimum configuration of the expanding means selected by the configuration selecting means. Then, the configuration change information is added to the second intermediate data, and the expanding means changes the configuration based on the configuration change information added to the second intermediate data, and the second intermediate data is changed by the changed expansion means configuration. It is characterized by having a configuration for expanding data into a data structure that can be output by an output device.

In the print processing apparatus according to the present invention, the generating means generates the first intermediate data in band units obtained by dividing the print data into predetermined areas, and the converting means generates the first intermediate data for the second intermediate data. The change information adding process is executed in band units, and the expanding unit changes the configuration of the expanding unit for each band for which the expanding process is executed based on the configuration change information added in the band unit of the second intermediate data. The second intermediate data is expanded into a data structure that can be output by the output device by the changed expansion unit configuration.

In the print processing apparatus according to the present invention, the optimum configuration of the developing means selected by the configuration selecting means has a developing processing time which can follow the output speed of the output means and has a minimum conversion time. It is characterized by being.

Further, in the print processing apparatus according to the present invention, the first intermediate data and the second intermediate data are a plurality of vector data for each basic figure included in the print data and a synthesis for synthesizing the vector data. It is characterized by including attribute data.

Further, in the print processing apparatus according to the present invention, the vector data of the basic graphic has height identification data of the basic graphic as data indicating the size of the basic graphic.

Further, in the print processing apparatus according to the present invention, the vector data of the basic graphic includes height identification data and area identification data of the basic graphic as data indicating the size of the basic graphic. I do.

In the print processing apparatus according to the present invention, the conversion development time prediction means includes a coefficient for predicting a development time in the development means based on the vector data of the basic graphic and a vector data of the basic graphic. And a coefficient for estimating the conversion time of the conversion means.

Further, in the print processing apparatus according to the present invention, the coefficient is determined by converting a basic unit from the basic figure into the edge conversion processing time A _H ,
Conversion processing time B _H from edge data other than image to raster data, conversion processing time C _H from image edge data to raster data, and edge conversion from basic figure to predetermined unit data in the conversion method performed by the conversion means. It is characterized by including a processing time A _S , a conversion processing time B _{S from} conversion of edge data other than an image to raster data, and a conversion processing time C _S from conversion of edge data of an image to raster data.

Further, in the print processing apparatus of the present invention, based on the estimated conversion time for each band obtained by the conversion expansion time prediction means, the expansion processing of each corresponding band is started after the individual band conversion processing. As described above, the present invention is characterized in that a deployment start time of a band on which the deployment process is executed is set first, and the deployment process is started from the set time.

Further, in the print processing apparatus of the present invention, the configuration information management means has configuration information necessary to execute at least a part of the data processing executed by the generation means and the conversion means, By inputting configuration information from the configuration information management unit to the expansion processing unit, a part of data processing executable by the generation unit and the conversion unit can be executed by the expansion unit.

Further, in the print processing apparatus of the present invention, the print data has information on the number or attribute of characters, graphics or images included in the print data, and the conversion development time is estimated based on the information. It is characterized by being executed.

[0021]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a print processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a print processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the block diagram of FIG. 1, the print processing device includes a print data creation unit 1, a print data input unit 2,
It comprises a generation processing unit 3, a development processing unit 4, an output unit 5, a configuration data management unit 6, and a conversion development time prediction unit 7. Further, the generation processing unit 3 includes a lexical analysis unit 30 and
It comprises an intermediate data generator 31 and an intermediate data converter 32.

The print data creation unit 1 has a function of creating print data described in a description language from document data generated by an application program for processing document creation and editing in a personal computer or a workstation. Things. The description language targeted in the present embodiment is, for example, PDF (Portable Document Fo) represented by GDI and Acrobat.
rmat), Page Description Languages such as PosTSScript (Page Description Language)
e) and the like.

The print data input unit 2 has a communication function for inputting the print data generated by the print data creation unit 1,
Alternatively, it has a function of temporarily storing print data until the print data is output to the generation processing unit 3.

The generation processing unit 3 generates intermediate data that can be expanded into raster data in the expansion processing unit 4 from the print data input from the print data input unit 2. The generation processing unit 3 includes a lexical analysis unit 30 and an intermediate data generation unit 31
And an intermediate data conversion unit 32.

The lexical analysis section 30 cuts out the print data input from the print data input section 2 as a token according to the syntax of a predetermined description language, and outputs the token to the intermediate data generation section 31.

The intermediate data generation unit 31 includes a lexical analysis unit 30
Receives and interprets the tokens output from, executes drawing commands, generates trapezoidal data for each drawing command as a basic unit, and manages and stores them as first intermediate data for each band. These data are read from the expansion processing unit 4 and the conversion expansion time prediction unit 7 as necessary, and further converted by the intermediate data conversion unit 32. The purpose of generating the intermediate data is to enable high-speed expansion processing in the expansion processing unit 4 and to simplify the prediction in the conversion expansion time prediction unit 7. Therefore, the intermediate data is represented by a set of simple figures and the like, and is classified in band units.

The intermediate data conversion unit 32 converts the intermediate data of each band generated by the intermediate data generation unit 31 based on a level conversion instruction of the intermediate data for each band input from the conversion development time prediction unit 7 described below. One intermediate data is converted into second intermediate data in a format that matches the hardware configuration of the expansion processing unit 4.

The conversion expansion time prediction unit 7 reads out the first intermediate data generated by the intermediate data generation unit 31 and converts the intermediate data into a format that can be input to the output unit 5. The expansion processing time of each hardware configuration stored in the data management unit 6 and the conversion processing time to the second intermediate data in a format that can be input to the expansion processing unit 4 of each hardware configuration are estimated. Further, based on these estimated processing times, the hardware configuration of the expansion processing unit 4 for each band is determined by a method described later, and the intermediate data conversion unit 32 is notified of the hardware configuration of the expansion processing unit 4 for each band.
And an instruction to convert the intermediate data of each band into a format that can be input to the hardware configuration.

The expansion processing unit 4 receives an ID for determining its own hardware configuration for each band from the intermediate data generation unit 31.
And the intermediate data converted into a format that can be processed by the hardware configuration, input the hardware configuration information from the configuration data management unit 6 using the hardware configuration ID, and change its own configuration. Raster data that can be input to the output unit 5 is generated from the intermediate data according to the configuration, and is stored in the band buffer memory in the expansion processing unit 4. This processing is performed so as to be alternately stored in two band buffer memories in the expansion processing unit 4. As will be described later, the output unit 5 used in this embodiment is a color page printer, and the raster data alternately stored in the buffer memory corresponds to the print data of the recording color printed by the output unit 5. ing. Subsequently, the raster data stored in the two band buffer memories is alternately output to the output unit 5 in response to a data request from the output unit 5.

The output unit 5 receives the raster data output from the band buffer memory of the rasterization processing unit 4, prints it on recording paper, and outputs it. More specifically,
CMYBk (cyan, magenta, yellow, black)
This is a color page printer using an electrophotographic laser scanning system capable of outputting a full-color image by repeating exposure, development, and transfer for each color. The output unit 5 may be an ink jet type color printer. In this case, the raster data output from the band buffer memory of the expansion processing unit 4 to the output unit 5 is simultaneous for four colors.

Here, the configuration and operation of a color page printer using a general laser scanning type electrophotographic system will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 2, a video interface 50 inputs raster data corresponding to C, M, Y, and Bk color information sequentially transmitted from the expansion processing unit 4 to a driver (not shown) for controlling the lighting of a semiconductor laser, and Convert to a signal. The semiconductor laser scanning device 51 includes an infrared semiconductor laser 510, a lens 511,
It is constituted by a polygon mirror and scans the photosensitive drum 52 as a spot light of several tens μm. Photoconductor drum 52
Is charged by the charger 53, and the light signal
An electrostatic latent image is formed. The paper passes through a paper transport path 58, and the latent image becomes a toner image by two-component magnetic brush development on a rotary developing device 54, and is transferred onto the paper adsorbed on the transfer drum 55. Excess toner is removed from the photosensitive drum 52 by the cleaner 56. This process is repeated in the order of Bk, Y, M, and C, and multiple transfer is performed on paper. Finally, the sheet is peeled off by the transfer drum 55, and the toner is fixed by the fixing device 57.

Next, the flow of print data in the print processing apparatus configured as described above will be summarized. The print data created by the print data creation unit 1 is input to the lexical analysis unit 30 of the generation processing unit 3 via the print data input unit 2. The token cut out from the print data in the lexical analysis unit 30 is input to the intermediate data generation unit 31, and is converted into an initial level intermediate data format for each band.
This data is read out from the conversion development time prediction section 7 for each band, and the hardware configuration I of the development processing section 4 is read for each band.
D and the intermediate data format to be input thereto are determined and output to the intermediate data conversion unit 32. Intermediate data converter 32
Converts the intermediate data of each band of the intermediate data generation unit 31 into an instructed format based on the output from the conversion development time prediction unit 7, and outputs the data together with the hardware configuration ID as data for each band. Return to 31.

The hardware configuration ID and the intermediate data for each band are sequentially output to the expansion processing unit 4, and the hardware configuration information of the configuration data management unit 6 is input to the expansion processing unit 4 from the hardware configuration ID, and The configuration is changed, and the expansion processing is performed until the intermediate buffer is processed and the band buffer memory is filled with the raster data first recorded in the output unit 5. When the cycle-up of the output unit 5 is completed, raster data is transferred from the band buffer memory to the output unit 5 line by line according to the recording speed of the output unit 5, and printing is performed. While the raster data in one band buffer memory is being printed, the rasterization processing is executed until one band buffer memory is filled with the raster data. The rasterization processing by the rasterization processing unit 4 and the printing by the output unit 5 are repeated for each color until one page of print data is processed. Further, when the print data includes a plurality of pages, the process is repeated until the output of all pages is completed.

The outline of the print processing apparatus of the present invention has been described above. Next, details of a main part of the print processing apparatus will be described.

First, the intermediate data generator 31 will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 3, the intermediate data generation unit 31 includes a token interpretation unit 310, an instruction execution unit 311,
Image processing unit 312, drawing state storage unit 313, vector data generation unit 314, font management unit 315, matrix conversion unit 316, short vector generation unit 3
17, a trapezoidal data generation unit 318, and a band decomposition unit 31
9 and an intermediate data storage unit 3110.

The token interpreter 310 is used by the lexical analyzer 30
, Interprets the token, converts it into an internal instruction, and sends it to the instruction execution unit 311. The command execution unit 311 transfers the command to the image processing unit 312, the drawing state storage unit 313, and the vector data generation unit 314 according to the command sent from the token interpretation unit 310. The image processing unit 312 performs various kinds of image processing based on the input image header and image data to generate an output image header and output image data, and transfers the output image header and the output image data to the band division unit 319. The drawing state storage unit 313 stores information necessary for drawing given by a command from the command execution unit 311. The vector data generation unit 314 generates vector data to be drawn using the command of the command execution unit 311 and the information added thereto, the information from the drawing state storage unit 313, and the information from the font management unit 315. The data is transferred to the conversion unit 316. Font management unit 31
Reference numeral 5 manages and stores outline data of various fonts, and provides outline data of characters as required. The matrix conversion unit 316 affine-transforms the vector data input from the vector data generation unit 314 using the conversion matrix of the drawing state storage unit 313,
Transfer to the short vector generation unit 317. The short vector generation unit 317 approximates the vector for the curve in the input vector with a plurality of linear vector sets (short vectors) and sends the vector to the trapezoid data generation unit 318.
The trapezoid data generation unit 318 generates trapezoid data to be drawn from the input short vector, and
Transfer to 19. The band decomposition unit 319 divides the trapezoidal data spanning a plurality of bands from the input trapezoidal data into trapezoidal data of each band, and further determines which band the trapezoidal data divided in band units belongs to. A band ID, a circumscribed rectangle for a trapezoidal data set divided in band units, data management information and color information input from the drawing state storage unit 313 or image data input from the image processing unit 312, and expansion processing information Is added to the intermediate data storage unit 311
Send to 0. The intermediate data storage unit 3110 stores one page of intermediate data in band units. The processing from the token interpretation unit 310 to the intermediate data storage unit 3110 described above is repeatedly performed each time a drawing command is input.

In the following, the operation of the intermediate data generator 31 will be described in more detail while showing the actual data structure.

The token interpretation unit 310
Interprets the tokens input from the, converts them into internal instructions and their arguments, and converts the set of these internal instructions and arguments into the instruction execution unit 31
Transfer to 1. For example, the internal commands include a drawing command for executing drawing of characters / graphics / images, and a drawing state command for setting information required for drawing such as color and line attribute.

The instruction execution unit 311 includes the token interpretation unit 31
Execute the internal instruction sent from 0. The commands executed here mainly include a drawing command and a drawing state command. For example, the drawing commands include three types of drawing commands as shown in Table 1, and information necessary for each drawing is shown. Among them, information having an underline is given as an argument in a drawing command, and other information is stored in the drawing state storage unit 313 in advance by initial setting or a preceding command. To execute the drawing command, the received drawing command other than the image drawing is transferred to the vector data generating unit 314 as it is. In the case of image drawing, the received drawing command is transferred to the image processing unit 312, and the vertical and horizontal sizes of the image header are transferred to the vector data generating unit 314. For the drawing state command, the command is stored in the drawing state storage unit 31.
Transfer to 3.

The image processing unit 312 receives an input image header and input image data, which are arguments of a command input from the command execution unit 311, and receives a compressed image based on the compression ID added to the header. To expand the compression,
Affine transformation is performed using the transformation matrix obtained from the drawing state storage unit 313. Further, in some cases, the processed image is compressed, an output image header and output image data are generated, and transferred to the band decomposition unit 319. This compression includes
Usually, a compression method in which image data is compressed on the PDL side is usually used, but it is not always necessary to do so. For example, if the data is compressed by the DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) method on the PDL side, it may be compressed by the DCT method, may be compressed by the LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) method, or may be compressed. Need not be performed. In the affine transformation to be performed, affine transformation may be intentionally performed for a resolution smaller than the resolution of the output device in order to reduce the amount of memory of the intermediate data buffer.

The drawing state storage unit 313 stores the instruction execution unit 31
For example, the values of the information without the underline shown in Table 1 are set with the values of the arguments included in the instruction received from No. 1 and stored. The image processing unit 31
2. According to the requests of the vector data generation unit 314, the matrix conversion unit 316, the short vector generation unit 317, the band decomposition unit 319, etc., these values are transferred.

[0042]

[Table 1]

The vector data generating unit 314 generates vector data for new drawing except for the solid drawing, using the command and argument sent from the command executing unit 311 and the value of the drawing state storage unit 313. I do. First, the case of character drawing will be described. The character code given by the argument and the font ID obtained from the drawing state storage unit 313
Is transferred to the font management unit 315 to obtain character outline data. Since the acquired outline data does not include information on the drawing origin (current point), the target vector data is generated by adding the offset of the current point acquired from the drawing state storage unit 313 to the outline data. In the case of image drawing, a rectangular vector corresponding to the vertical and horizontal sizes of the image header given by the argument is generated, and the offset of the current point acquired from the drawing state storage unit 313 is added to obtain the target vector data. Generate.
In the case of stroke drawing, from the vector given by the argument and various line attributes acquired from the drawing state storage unit 313,
An outline vector of a line having a thickness as shown in FIG. 4 is generated. The vector generated in this manner (in the case of a solid drawing, the vector directly received from the instruction execution unit 311) is transferred to the matrix conversion unit 316.

The font management unit 315 stores outline vector data for various fonts, and provides outline vector data for the character in accordance with a given character code and font ID.

The matrix conversion unit 316 affine-transforms the vector data received from the vector data generation unit 314 using the conversion matrix obtained from the drawing state storage unit 313. The main purpose of the affine transformation is to convert the resolution (coordinate system) of the application to the resolution (coordinate system) of the printer. A 3 × 3 matrix as shown in the following equation (1) is used for the conversion matrix. The input vector data (Xn, Yn) is converted into output vector data (Xn ′, Yn ′) and sent to the short vector generation unit 317. Sent.

[0046]

(Equation 1)

The short vector generating unit 317 converts the vector of the curve, when there is a vector of the curve into the input vectors, such that the error is smaller than the flatness value obtained from the drawing state storage unit 313. Performs approximation with a linear vector. For example, a Bezier curve represented by four control points shown in FIG. 5 is used as a curve vector. In this case, the short vector processing recursively divides the Bezier curve as shown in FIG. 5, and ends the division when the height (distance d) becomes smaller than the value given by flatness. Then, the start point and the end point of each of the divided Bezier curves are connected in order, thereby completing the short vectorization. The generated short vector is sent to the trapezoid data generator 318.

The trapezoid data generation unit 318 generates a set of trapezoid data (in some cases, a triangle, but the data structure is the same as the trapezoid) indicating the drawing area from the input vector data. For example, a polygonal vector indicated by a thick line shown in FIG. 6A has a drawing area indicated by four trapezoids. This trapezoid is a trapezoid having two sides parallel to the scan line of the output device, and one trapezoid is represented by (sx, sy, x0, x1, x2, h) as shown in FIG. It is represented by two data. The generated trapezoid is sent to the band decomposition unit 319.

The band decomposing unit 319 divides trapezoidal data over a plurality of bands from the input trapezoidal data into trapezoidal data for each band. For example, in FIG. 7, four trapezoidal data are divided into six trapezoidal data by the band decomposition unit. Further, intermediate data is generated by adding additional information to the trapezoid data decomposed for each band. The additional information is management information for managing the intermediate data and color information indicating in what color the trapezoidal data is to be painted. The management information for the character / graphic drawing command is a band ID, an object ID, an object type, data on the number of trapezoids, and a circumscribed rectangle for the trapezoid data set to indicate to which band they belong. The object ID is an identification number assigned to one drawing command, the type of object is identification data for a target to be drawn such as a character / figure / image, and the color information is, for example, a value of CMYBk.

As shown in FIG. 8A, the additional information is added before the trapezoidal data for each band generated by the drawing command. Therefore, the object is composed of a plurality of trapezoidal data to which a set of drawing attributes is attached. Also,
Intermediate data is a set of data for such an object. The management information for the image drawing command is text /
It is the same as a figure, but the color information is an image header and image data. Further, as shown in FIG. 8B, one image header and one image data are added to each of the trapezoidal data for each band generated by the drawing command. The image header and the image data are input from the image processing unit 312, and the image data added as the intermediate data is shown in FIG.
The image data may be image data for the minimum rectangle of a vector indicating an image converted as shown in FIG. 7, or may be image data for the minimum rectangle of each trapezoid. Further, since the image data has a large capacity, it may be stored in a compressed form. The image header includes the type of the color conversion process and the type of the compression method, in addition to the parameter indicating the size of the image.

The data output from the band decomposing unit 319 is sent to the intermediate data storage unit 3110, where the band ID is interpreted by the intermediate data storage unit 3110 and is stored collectively for each band.

Here, the subsequent processing flow of the intermediate data stored in the intermediate data storage unit 3110 will be outlined. In the intermediate data based on the trapezoid generated by the intermediate data generator 31, each trapezoid is held in a format as shown in FIG. This trapezoid is converted into a horizontal line format for each Y coordinate as shown in FIG. 10B in the next step (this is hereinafter referred to as an edge). In the next step, as shown in FIG. 10C, each pixel corresponding to the edge is superimposed on the output buffer memory while substituting color information or pixel data in the case of an image. 5 is rasterized into data that can be output to

If these processes are all performed by the expansion processing unit 4
In this case, it is necessary to perform the processing in accordance with the printing speed of the output unit 5 for each band, but large-scale hardware is required to guarantee this for any band. . Therefore, in the present invention, the reconfigurable expansion processing unit 4 and the intermediate data conversion unit 3 capable of replacing the expansion processing
By selecting the most efficient processing allocation and hardware configuration for each band in the conversion development time prediction unit 7 described below, the processing time can be guaranteed and the processing can be performed with a small amount of hardware resources.

Next, the conversion development time prediction unit 7 will be described in detail. FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the conversion development time prediction unit 7 in the present embodiment. The conversion development time prediction unit 7 reads the first intermediate data generated by the intermediate data generation unit 31 for each band, and
A prediction processing unit 70 that predicts the time required for conversion / decompression processing corresponding to each hardware configuration that can be taken, and a coefficient required by the prediction processing unit 70 and what input format each hardware configuration takes. It comprises a prediction information storage unit 71 for storing information, and a configuration selection unit 72 for determining a hardware configuration to be used for the expansion processing of each band from the prediction result of the prediction processing unit 70.

The print data converted to trapezoidal data in band units by the intermediate data generation unit 31 is read out to the prediction processing unit 70 in band units, and the expansion processing unit 4 executes the expansion processing for each of the possible hardware configurations. A conversion time T _S to intermediate data that can be input to the unit 4 and a development time T _H to data that can be input to the output unit 5 are predicted.

Hereinafter, the calculation of the conversion / expansion prediction time will be described in detail with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. Note that, here, for the sake of simplicity, there are three hardware configurations that can be taken by the expansion processing unit 4, and the description will be made assuming that the input formats are trapezoidal, edge, and raster data. Many different hardware configurations are conceivable, such as using an intermediate format other than the above, and further inputting and processing the characters / graphics and images in different formats to the expansion processing unit 4. In the following, the flow of the prediction process for one band will be described, but this process is actually performed for all the bands in the page.

First, in step 1, id = 1 is selected as a hardware configuration ID. Note that a hardware configuration ID as an identifier, id = 1 to 3, is assigned to each of the three types of hardware configurations that can be taken by the expansion processing unit 4. In step 2, it is determined whether or not id is greater than 3. If id> 3, the process is terminated. Next, in step 3, the hardware configuration is set to id
Is set to 0 for the conversion processing prediction time T _S [id] and the expansion processing prediction time T _H [id].

Next, in step 4, the input format of the expansion processing unit 4 when the hardware configuration is id is read from the prediction information storage unit 71. If the input format is a trapezoid, the process goes to S1 in FIG. In the case of, control is transferred to step 5.

In step 5, it is further determined whether or not the input format of the expansion processing unit 4 when the hardware configuration is id is an edge. If the input format is an edge, the process proceeds to step S2 in FIG. Shifts the control to S3 in FIG. In step 6, the hardware configuration ID is changed to the next configuration (id = id + 1), control is returned to step 2, and the same processing is performed.

In step S1 shown in FIG.
It is checked whether the band includes unprocessed trapezoidal data, that is, whether the trapezoidal data is completed or not. If the band is completed, the process is terminated and the process returns to the flow of FIG. If there is trapezoidal data to be processed, step 1
1, the trapezoid data is read out, and in step 12, the area of the trapezoid is calculated by the equation described in the flowchart: S = h × (2 × 0−x1)
Calculated in -x2), it is determined whether the trapezoid data in step 13 is an image, wherein according to step 15 if an _{image: T H [id] = T} H [id] + ( A
_(H h + C _H S), the expansion processing prediction time T _H [id] is updated, and if it is not an image, the expression described in step 14: T _H
The expansion processing prediction time T _H [id] is updated with [id] = T _H [id] + (A _H h + B _H S), and the process returns to step S10.
The coefficients A _S , A _H ,
B _S , B _H , C _S , and C _H are stored in the prediction information storage unit 71 in advance, and the details of these coefficients will be described later.

In step S2 shown in FIG.
0, it is checked whether or not trapezoidal data that has not been processed is included in the band, that is, whether or not the trapezoidal data of the band is completed.
It returns to the flow of 2. There is still trapezoid data to process,
If it is not the end, the trapezoid data is read out in step 21, and the area of the trapezoid is calculated in step 22 by the equation: S = h × (2x0−x1−x2) described in the flowchart, and described in step 23. Equation: T _S [id] = T _S [id] + A
_The conversion processing estimated time T _S is updated by Sh, and it is determined in step 24 whether the trapezoid data is an image. If the image is an image, the expression described in step 26: T _H [id] =
The expansion processing prediction time T _H [id] is updated by T _H [id] + C _H S, and if it is not an image, the expression described in step 25 is:
_{T H [id] = T H} [id] + B H S deployment process estimated time to update the T _H [id] returns to step 20.

Similarly, in S3 shown in FIG. 15, first, at step 30, it is checked whether or not unprocessed trapezoidal data is included in the band, that is, whether or not the trapezoidal data is completed. Then, the process returns to the flow of FIG. If there is trapezoidal data to be processed and it is not the end, the trapezoidal data is read out in step 31 and
In step 32, the area of the trapezoid is calculated by the equation: S = h × (2x0−x1-x2) described in the flow chart. In step 33, it is determined whether or not the trapezoid data is an image. In some cases, the expression described in step 35: T
_{S [id] = T S [} id] + (A S h + C S S) conversion processing prediction time: T _S updates the [id], the formulas described in step 34 if not an image: T _S [id ] = T _S [id] +
_{(A S h + B S S} ) by updating the conversion processing prediction time T _S [id] returns to step 10.

In the above description, the conversion processing estimated time T
_S and deployment process prediction time T _H is being sought by weighted addition of the height h or trapezoidal area S of the trapezoid as shown in FIG. 13 to 15, which is dependent on the drawing processing method in this embodiment The calculation method is different when another method is used.

The formulas shown in FIGS. 13 to 15 will be described. When converting the trapezoid into the edge shown in FIG. 10B, usually, DDA (Digital Differen) is used.
The left / right coordinates of the trapezoid are obtained by a Tear Analyzer process, and edges are sequentially generated as one edge from the X coordinate value of the left side to the X coordinate value of the right side in the same Y coordinate. Using such a processing method,
Assuming that the processing time for one row for generating the edge by obtaining the right / left coordinates of the trapezoid is A, the processing time required for calculating the left / right coordinates of the trapezoid having the height h is Ah. This coefficient A
Is considered to be different between the generation processing unit 3 and the development processing unit 4, so that different coefficients are prepared and stored in the prediction information storage unit 71, and the coefficients are switched depending on which of the trapezoid-to-edge conversion is performed. I have.

When the edge is converted into raster data shown in FIG. 10C, each point on the edge is drawn one pixel at a time.
Then, the processing time required to draw a trapezoid of area S is BS
Becomes The drawing time B per pixel greatly differs between the case of character / graphic data drawing the same pixel value and the case of image data drawing different pixel values for each pixel while referring to the original image data. Therefore, in each flow, a character / figure and an image are determined, and in the case of an image, a different coefficient C is used. Also, as described above, the processing time varies depending on whether the edge-to-raster data conversion is performed by the generation processing unit 3 or the development processing unit 4, and accordingly, the coefficients in the processing by the generation processing unit are:
A _S , B _S , and C _S, and the coefficient of processing in the expansion processing unit is
The coefficients are switched as A _H , B _H , and C _H.

The coefficients A _S , A _H , B _S , B _H , C _S ,
_CH is stored in the prediction information storage unit 71 in advance, and is read out and used by the prediction processing unit 70 as needed.

Incidentally, the coefficients C _S and C _H of the image may differ depending on conditions such as the attributes (the number of bits, the number of colors, etc.) of the input image. In such a case, coefficients corresponding to each condition are prepared. ,
It is necessary to calculate the predicted time by performing more detailed discrimination processing in addition to whether the image is an image.

As a result of the processing described above, the prediction processing unit 70 can obtain the predicted time information shown in FIG.
This result is sent to the configuration selection unit 72, and the hardware configuration for each band is determined by the method described below.

The page is composed of m bands,
Assuming that there are n hardware configurations that can be taken by the expansion processing unit 4, as shown in FIG. 16, the predicted values of the conversion time and the expansion time are obtained for each hardware configuration of each band. Here, assuming that the output speed of the output unit 6 is 6 sheets / minute and one page is composed of 50 bands, one band cannot be produced unless it is developed within 200 msec by the following formula. In such a case, a defect such as a lack of a part of the output image occurs.

[0070]

## EQU2 ## 60 (sec) / 6 (sheets / min) / 50 (band / page) = 0.2 (sec) = 200 (msec)

Referring to FIG. 16 on the premise of this, the expansion time exceeds 200 msec in the portion surrounded by the thick frame in FIG. 16, and when these processes are executed, image defects may occur in the output result. Therefore, the hardware configurations 1 and 2 cannot be used, for example, for the band 3 expansion processing. Further, in the band 1, the expansion time is sufficient for any hardware configuration. For example, when the hardware configuration 2 is used, the conversion process takes 30 msec. On the other hand, the hardware configuration 1 does not require much time for the conversion process. The expansion process can be started faster, and as a result, an output can be obtained faster.

As described above, for each band, it is necessary to select a band whose expansion time is equal to or less than the threshold calculated from the output speed or the number of bands and whose conversion time is as short as possible. It can be judged good for both. If the hardware configuration of each band in FIG. 16 is selected from this viewpoint, it can be determined that the configuration of the hatched portion in FIG. 16 is good. The configuration selection unit 72 determines the hardware configuration for each band based on the prediction performed by the prediction processing unit 70 and determines the hardware configuration for each band, and inputs the result to the hardware configuration. To the intermediate data conversion unit 32.

Here, for the sake of simplicity, only the band expansion prediction time is compared with the above-mentioned threshold value. However, the expansion processing unit 4 actually changes the hardware configuration so that the configuration data management unit 5 The time obtained by adding the time for reading and setting the hardware configuration information from the PC and the time for the control for switching the band and the transfer of the intermediate data from the generation processing unit 3 to the expansion processing unit 4 are equal to or less than the previous threshold value. is necessary. If these can be estimated accurately, it is necessary to subtract this value from the previous threshold value and compare it with the estimated deployment time. Further, since errors are expected in the deployment prediction time, it is necessary to take measures such as multiplying the threshold by a safety coefficient in consideration of these errors. Taking these measures into account, the following equation is obtained.

[0074]

## EQU3 ## 60 (sec) / 6 (sheets / min) / 50 (band / page) × 0.9 (safety coefficient) = 0.18 (sec) = 180 (msec)

Next, the intermediate data converter 32 will be described in detail. FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the intermediate data conversion unit 32 in the present embodiment. A trapezoid conversion unit 320 that reads the first intermediate data with the trapezoid generated by the intermediate data generation unit 31 as a basic unit and converts the first intermediate data into a second intermediate data format with the edge as a basic unit; An edge conversion unit 321 for converting intermediate data generated by the trapezoid conversion unit 320 using the edge as a basic unit into a raster data format, and information on the hardware configuration ID of the expansion processing unit 4 is added to the intermediate data for each band. It comprises a configuration information adding section 322 and an intermediate data conversion control section 323 for controlling each section.

By the processing of the conversion development time prediction unit 7, the intermediate data conversion control unit 323 sends the hardware configuration ID of the development processing unit 4 and the instruction of the conversion process necessary for inputting to the hardware configuration to the intermediate data conversion control unit 323. Entered every time. An example of input information to the intermediate data conversion control unit 323 is shown in FIG.
Shown in

The intermediate data conversion control unit 323 converts the intermediate data of the band stored in the intermediate data generation unit 31 by moving the trapezoid conversion unit 320 and the edge conversion unit 321 based on the conversion instruction for each band. , Adding the hardware configuration ID input from the conversion development time prediction unit 7,
The data is stored again in the intermediate data generator 31. Assuming that the information shown in FIG. 18 has been input, the intermediate data conversion unit 32 performs processing as shown in the following table according to an instruction from the intermediate data conversion control unit 323.

[0078]

[Table 2] Band 1: Input → Add hardware configuration ID → Output Band 2: Input → Add hardware configuration ID → Output Band 3: Input → Trapezoid conversion → Edge conversion → Add hardware configuration ID → Output Band 4: Input → Convert trapezoid → Add hardware configuration ID → Output:::: Band m: Input → Add hardware configuration ID → Output

By such processing, the intermediate data generated by the intermediate data generator 31 is converted from the format shown in FIG. 19A to the format shown in FIG. 19B. When the conversion process is completed, the intermediate data is sequentially sent to the expansion processing unit 4 for each band.

Next, the expansion processing section 4 will be described in detail. FIG. 20 shows a block diagram of the development processing unit 4. The development processing unit 4 includes a memory unit 40 including a buffer for storing intermediate data input from the generation processing unit 3 and raster data obtained by developing the intermediate data and a work area required for processing, and an FPGA (Field Programmable Ga).
te Array), a reconfigurable hardware unit 41 for developing intermediate data using reconfigurable hardware resources, and configuration data management based on a hardware configuration ID for each band stored in the memory unit 40 And a reconfiguration control unit 42 that reads the corresponding hardware configuration information from the unit 6 and changes the configuration of the reconfiguration hardware unit 41.

The intermediate data for each band generated by the generation processing unit 3 is alternately written to two intermediate data buffer areas existing in the memory unit 40. When the writing of the intermediate data of a certain band is completed, the reconfiguration control unit 42 reads the hardware configuration ID from the beginning, and if the configuration is different from the current configuration of the reconfiguration hardware unit 41, the configuration data management unit 42 specifies The hardware configuration information corresponding to the assigned ID is read and written to the reconfiguration hardware unit 41 to change the hardware configuration. After that, the reconfiguration hardware unit 41 sequentially reads out the intermediate data from the memory unit 40, performs the expansion processing, and writes the raster data to one of the two band buffers existing in the memory unit 40. The written raster data is read in accordance with the printing speed of the output unit 5 and printing is performed. The output unit 5 uses two intermediate data buffers and two band buffers.
The expansion processing is performed in synchronism with the output processing, such that the band k is expanded by the reconfiguration hardware unit 41 while the data after the expansion of the band k-1 is transmitted to the output unit 5. And prints.

For simplicity, the description has been made so that the expansion processing starts after the intermediate data conversion processing ends, and the output processing starts when the expansion of the first band ends. However, since the predicted value of the conversion time is obtained by the above-described conversion expansion time prediction, if this is used, the expansion / output processing can be started without waiting for the end of the conversion processing.

FIG. 21B is a time chart for explaining an example in which the expansion / output processing is started without waiting for the end of the conversion processing. When the generation of the intermediate data is completed, the conversion / expansion time is predicted, and then the conversion processing is started. The time required for the conversion process varies according to the content of the conversion process for each band. The development of each band cannot be started until the conversion is completed, and must operate in synchronization with the output. From these conditions, calculate the earliest expansion start time at which the expansion of each band synchronized with the output will start after the conversion of the band, and start expansion at that time, allowing for faster output Becomes In FIG. 21 (a), the development is started after the conversion is completed. In FIG. 21 (b), the development is started at the earliest time when the development of each band is completed after the conversion of the band. As a result, the output can be terminated earlier than in the case of FIG.

In this embodiment, the intermediate data generation / conversion processing has been described as being performed by the intermediate data generation unit 31 and the intermediate data conversion unit 32, respectively. It is also possible to change the hardware configuration of the processing unit 4 and cause the expansion processing unit 4 to execute the processing.

For example, in the above description, the trapezoid of the intermediate data →
The edge conversion is performed by the trapezoid conversion unit 32 in the intermediate data conversion unit 32.
0, the processing is performed, but the developing unit 4 can also perform the processing by changing the hardware configuration in such a manner. Therefore, hardware configuration information for performing trapezoid-to-edge conversion is separately prepared in the configuration data management unit 5 and processed by the expansion processing unit 4 or processed by sharing with the trapezoid conversion unit 320, thereby achieving faster processing. The conversion can be terminated.

Further, in this embodiment, the conversion development time is predicted from only the data generated by the intermediate data generation unit 31. However, information is added when the print data generation unit 1 generates data, and the information is added. , The prediction process can be simplified.

For example, when print data is created by the print data creation unit 1, the number of characters / graphics / images included in one page is counted, added to the print data, and interpreted by the lexical analysis unit 30. Is input to the conversion development time prediction unit 7.
As mentioned earlier in the prediction of conversion / decompression time,
Graphic data is lighter in processing than image data. Therefore,
If the page contains only characters / graphics and the number is less than a predetermined threshold value, it is determined that expansion processing can be performed in time with intermediate data having a trapezoid as a basic unit, and prediction / conversion processing is performed. (Hardware configuration I
The processing proceeds to the expansion processing (just by adding D). With such a processing method, it is possible to further shorten the entire processing time.

[0088]

As described above, according to the present invention, characters,
A print processing device that has one of a drawing element of a figure and an image and receives print data described by a predetermined drawing command and outputs the print data to an output device. It is possible to realize high-speed and resource-saving print processing using the same hardware resources by providing a means for selecting the hardware configuration that can perform the processing most efficiently for each output band, in addition to the hardware. become.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a color page printer.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an intermediate data generation unit.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an outline vector.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating recursive division of a Bezier curve.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating trapezoidal data.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating division of trapezoidal data at a band boundary.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data representation of trapezoidal data.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining correspondence of image data to trapezoidal data.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating trapezoidal, edge, and raster data.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a conversion development time prediction unit.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a procedure of estimating a conversion development time.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a continuation of the flowchart showing the procedure of estimating the conversion development time.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a continuation of the flowchart showing the procedure of predicting the conversion development time.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a continuation of the flowchart showing the procedure of estimating the conversion development time.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a result of a conversion development time prediction.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating an intermediate data conversion unit.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an input from a conversion development time prediction unit to an intermediate data conversion unit.

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating conversion by an intermediate data conversion unit.

FIG. 20 is a block diagram illustrating a development processing unit.

FIG. 21 is a diagram for explaining expansion / output processing without waiting for the end of the conversion processing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 print data creation unit 2 print data input unit 3 conversion processing unit 4 expansion processing unit 5 output unit 6 configuration data management unit 7 conversion development time prediction unit 30 lexical analysis unit 31 intermediate data generation unit 32 intermediate data conversion unit 40 memory unit 41 Reconstruction hardware unit 42 Reconstruction control unit 50 Video interface 51 Semiconductor laser scanning device 52 Photoconductor drum 53 Charger 54 Rotary developing unit 55 Transfer drum 56 Cleaner 57 Fixing unit 58 Paper transport path 70 Prediction processing unit 71 Predicted time storage Unit 72 configuration selection unit 310 token interpretation unit 311 instruction execution unit 312 image processing unit 313 drawing state storage unit 314 vector data generation unit 315 font management unit 316 matrix conversion unit 317 short vector generation unit 318 trapezoid data generation unit 319 band decomposition unit 320 trapezoid conversion unit 321 edge conversion unit 322 configuration information addition unit 323 intermediate data conversion control unit 510 polygon mirror 511 lens 3110 intermediate data storage unit

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI G09G 5/36 530 B41J 3/12 G G06F 15/72 G

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. An input unit having at least one of a character, a graphic, and an image drawing element and inputting print data described by a predetermined drawing command, and capable of outputting the print data input to the input unit. An output unit that outputs data processed in a simple configuration, the first intermediate data having a higher degree of abstraction than a data structure that can be output by the output unit, and representing the first intermediate data expressed in a format including at least one type of basic graphic. Generating means for generating based on the first intermediate data generated by the generating means, and having a degree of abstraction equal to or less than the first intermediate data, and converting to a second intermediate data format expressed in a format including at least one type of basic graphic A conversion unit that expands the second intermediate data into a data structure that can be output by the output device, wherein the expansion unit can be changed to a plurality of different configurations; A configuration information management unit that manages a plurality of different configuration information that can be generated, and at least a number and a size of the basic graphics that form the first intermediate data generated by the generation unit, Possible development time of the second intermediate data in each of the plurality of different configurations: T
_H , and a conversion time for converting the first intermediate data into the second intermediate data: a conversion development time prediction means for predicting T _S , respectively, and a development time predicted by the conversion development time prediction means:
A configuration selection unit that selects an optimum configuration of the expansion unit based on T _H , conversion time: T _S , and configuration information of the configuration data management unit, wherein the conversion unit is configured by the configuration selection unit Adding configuration change information to the second intermediate data based on the optimal configuration of the selected expansion unit; and expanding the configuration based on the configuration change information added to the second intermediate data. A print processing apparatus having a configuration in which the second intermediate data is expanded into a data structure that can be output by the output device by a changed configuration of the expansion unit. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the generation unit generates the first intermediate data in band units obtained by dividing the print data into predetermined regions, and the conversion unit generates the configuration change information for the second intermediate data. Is performed on a per-band basis, and the decompression unit performs the decompression processing for each band for which the decompression process is performed based on the configuration change information added to the band unit of the second intermediate data. 2. The print processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print processing apparatus has a configuration in which a configuration is changed and the second intermediate data is expanded into a data structure that can be output by the output device by the changed expansion unit configuration. 3. An optimum configuration of the expansion means selected by the configuration selection means has a development processing time that can follow the output speed of the output means and has a minimum conversion time. 3. The print processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: 4. The first intermediate data and the second intermediate data include a plurality of vector data for each of the basic graphics included in the print data and synthesis attribute data for synthesizing the vector data. The print processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: 5. The vector data of the basic graphic includes height identification data of the basic graphic as data indicating the size of the basic graphic.
A print processing apparatus according to claim 1. 6. The basic graphic vector data according to claim 4, wherein the vector data of the basic graphic includes height identification data and area identification data of the basic graphic as data indicating the size of the basic graphic. The print processing apparatus according to the above. 7. The conversion development time prediction means includes a coefficient for predicting a development time in the development means based on vector data of the basic graphic, and the conversion means based on vector data of the basic graphic. The print processing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a prediction information storage unit that stores therein a coefficient for predicting the conversion time in the prediction information storage unit. 8. The conversion processing time A _H , and the conversion processing time B from the edge data other than the image to the raster data, of the predetermined unit data in the expansion processing method executed by the expansion means. _H , the conversion processing time C _H from the edge data of the image to the raster data, the edge conversion processing time A _S from the basic figure of the predetermined unit data in the conversion method performed by the conversion means, and the raster processing from the edge data other than the image. The print processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a conversion processing time B _S to data and a conversion processing time C _S from image edge data to raster data. 9. Initially, based on the predicted conversion time for each band obtained by the conversion expansion time prediction means, the expansion processing of each corresponding band is started after the individual conversion processing of the band. The print processing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising: setting a band expansion start time of the band for executing the expansion processing, and starting the expansion processing from the set time. 10. The configuration information management means has configuration information necessary to execute at least a part of data processing executed by the generation means and the conversion means, and the configuration information management means 2. A part of data processing that can be executed by the generation unit and the conversion unit can be executed by the expansion unit by inputting the configuration information to the expansion processing unit. 10. The print processing apparatus according to any one of claims 9 to 9. 11. The print data has information on the number or attributes of characters, graphics, or images included in the print data, and a conversion development time is predicted based on the information. The print processing apparatus according to claim 1.