JPH11179975A - Color printer control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To rapidly print data monochromatically using a color printer control device. SOLUTION: The color printer control device is equipped with image transfer modules 20a-20d per color, in order to transfer sets of image data of YMCK for color printing to a color printer, in the parallel transfer mode. When the operation is set in the monochromatic printing mode, the output buffer memory units 22a-22c of image transfer modules 20a-20c for colors such as YMC through which an image is not transferred, are logically integrated, and an intermeditate buffer is formed between HDD 10d in which K color (black and white) image data is accumulated and an image transfer module 20d for the K color. The image data leaded into the HDD 10d is once read by the intermediate buffer, from which the image data is transferred to the image transfer module 20d.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a color printer control device for transferring image data of a document to be printed to a color printer compatible with a color while synchronizing the same, and printing the same. On technology for conversion.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A printer control device is a device that supplies data of a print document supplied from an external device to the printer in the form of image data that can be handled by the printer. The printer control device is, for example, a print server having means for expanding a print job described in a page description language into image data of each page. A color printer control device that controls a color printer converts image data for each color of ink used in the color printer (generally, four colors of Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan), and K (black)). And output them to a color printer.

Conventionally, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-52472, a YMCK
A high-speed color printer control device capable of transferring image data of four colors in parallel is known. This device uses YMC
An output buffer memory is provided for each of the K colors, and a video interface capable of transferring image data of the four colors in parallel is provided. The image data of each color of the page to be printed is once developed on the four output buffer memories and transferred to the color printer in parallel via the video interface.

The color printer control device incorporates a large-capacity storage device such as a hard disk device in order to be able to accept input of print data from an external device independently of an output processing operation of the color printer. In some cases, image data input from an external device is temporarily stored in the mass storage device. In this type of color printer control device, when transferring image data to a color printer, the image data is expanded from a mass storage device to an output buffer memory, and the image data is transferred from the output buffer memory to a color printer via a video interface. To transfer. With this configuration, even when the output buffer memory is used, a large amount of print data can be received from an external device. Even in such a color printer control device with a built-in large-capacity storage device, an output buffer memory can be separately provided for each color of YMCK so that image data of each color can be transferred in parallel.

[0005]

Although such a color printer control device has a black-and-white printing function,
The printing speed was inferior to that of a printer controller dedicated to black and white. The reason is that, in a color printer control device having an output buffer memory for each of YMCK, the capacity per color of the output buffer memory is smaller than that of a black and white dedicated machine due to cost and the like. This is because when the apparatus controls monochrome printing, only the output buffer memory for K color is used. If the capacity of the output buffer memory is small, the number of times image data is expanded on the output buffer memory increases, and the processing speed decreases due to processing overhead.

This problem becomes significant in a color printer control device of a type in which image data input from an external device is temporarily stored in a built-in mass storage device. In this type of color printer control device, when transferring image data to a color printer, it is necessary to temporarily expand the image data from the mass storage device to the output buffer memory. However, a large-capacity storage device such as a hard disk generally takes a long time to access, so that if the number of accesses increases, the processing takes time. Therefore, when the capacity of the output buffer memory is small in monochrome printing, image data must be frequently read from the large-capacity storage device, so that the number of accesses increases and the time required for the image data transfer processing increases.

An apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-86967 is known as an apparatus for increasing the speed of monochrome printing in a color printer control apparatus. In this apparatus, one memory is used in a different manner between color printing and black and white printing. That is, in this apparatus, the memory is divided into an input buffer for storing input print data during color printing and an output buffer memory for each of YMCK colors, whereas the input buffer and the output of K color are output during monochrome printing. Output buffer memory for
Increase the capacity of the output buffer memory for color.

[0008] However, such a system is based on YMC
It cannot be directly applied to an apparatus configuration in which an image transfer module (particularly, an output buffer memory) is physically provided separately for each of the K colors.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a color printer control device for high-speed color printing having an image transfer module separately for each color when printing in a mode other than black and white or full color. The purpose of the present invention is to improve the processing speed.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a large-capacity storage device for storing image data for each color of a document to be printed input from an external device, and separately for each of the colors. A plurality of image transfer modules having an output buffer memory for temporarily storing image data of a corresponding color, and a video interface for transferring the image data stored in the output buffer memory to the color printer; A transfer control unit that supplies image data of each color in the capacity storage device to the corresponding image transfer module and transfers the image data from each image transfer module to the color printer in parallel. The control unit controls the output buffer memory of the image transfer module of the color not used in monochrome printing. Combining re together logically, characterized by the use as an intermediate buffer when transferring images said to color image transfer module to be used from the mass storage device.

The large-capacity storage device mentioned here refers to a storage device such as a hard disk device having a high capacity-price ratio but a low access speed as compared with a semiconductor memory. on the other hand,
The output buffer memory is composed of a semiconductor memory or a high-speed memory having a write / read speed equivalent thereto for the purpose of transferring image data at a high speed. The image transfer module is provided individually for each color used for printing. For example, in color printing using YMCK ink, a total of four image transfer modules are provided for each color of YMCK. The monochrome printing here includes not only monochrome printing but also monochrome printing of colors other than black, such as one color of Y (yellow).

In this configuration, at the time of monochrome printing, the output buffer memories of the image transfer module not used for the image transfer processing are logically combined and used as an intermediate buffer for image data of colors used for printing. Since the capacity of the intermediate buffer is larger than the capacity of one output buffer memory, more image data can be read from the mass storage device at one time. Therefore, access to the mass storage device can be reduced, and as a result, the time required for the transfer processing can be reduced. Moreover, this configuration is not limited to simply increasing the capacity of the image memory for reading data from the large-capacity storage device for colors used in monochrome printing, and adopts a two-stage buffer configuration of an intermediate buffer and an output buffer memory. By doing
Since the image transfer module can receive the supply of the image data from the high-speed intermediate buffer memory without directly accessing the large-capacity storage device, the transfer processing speed of the image transfer module is greatly improved.

[0013] In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the image transfer control unit includes a process for transferring image data from the mass storage device to the intermediate buffer and a process for transferring image data from the intermediate buffer to the image transfer module for the color to be used. And are executed in parallel. According to this configuration, the image transfer module that performs image transfer at the time of monochrome printing can be operated independently of the time-consuming process of reading image data from the large-capacity storage device. Can be improved.

In a further preferred aspect of the present invention, each time the free space in the intermediate buffer reaches a predetermined threshold,
The image data is transferred from the mass storage device to the intermediate buffer. According to this configuration, data is not read from the large-capacity storage device until the free space of the intermediate buffer reaches the threshold, so that the number of accesses to the large-capacity storage device can be further reduced, It is possible to suppress a reduction in processing speed due to access processing overhead.

In another aspect of the present invention, the large-capacity storage device can further store compressed image data for each color of the document to be printed, which is input from an external device, and is provided separately for each color. And a plurality of decompression transfer modules having a decompression device for decompressing the compressed image data of the corresponding color, and a video interface for transferring the image data output from the decompression device to a color printer. When printing compressed image data in color,
The compressed image data of each color is supplied from the large-capacity storage device to the corresponding decompression transfer module, and the output buffer memory of each image transfer module is logically connected at the time of monochrome printing of the compressed image data. It is used as an intermediate buffer when transferring compressed image data from the large-capacity storage device to the expansion transfer module corresponding to the color to be used. According to this aspect, the effect of improving the speed of monochrome printing can be obtained even in the case of transferring compressed image data.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as embodiments) will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an example of a system to which a color printer control device according to the present invention is applied. The external device 2 is a device serving as a supply source of print image data when viewed from the color printer control device 6 side, and has a hard disk device (HDD) 2a for storing print image data. A general computer that generates a document or the like by an application program, or a raster computer that receives print data described in a page description language from the computer and converts this into image data
Image processors (also called RIPs)
This is an example of the external device. The external device 2 transmits print image data to the color printer control device 6 via the local area network 4. Further, when transmitting the print image data, the external device 2 transmits print control information indicating print processing contents such as the type (color or black and white) and the number of copies of the print image data. The color printer control device 6 temporarily stores the print image data in the HDD, which is an attached large-capacity storage device, and stores the print control information in the HDD or the main memory. The image data and the print control data are associated with each other by, for example, giving the same identification number (job number). The color printer control device 6 manages a pair of image data and print control information as one print job. The color printer control device 6 queues the input print jobs and sequentially supplies the print jobs to the color printer 8 for printing.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the color printer control device 6. The processing of the color printer control device 6 described below is performed by executing a control program stored in a ROM (read only memory) 34 by a CPU.
(Central processing unit) 30. The RAM (random access memory) 32 is used as a working memory or the like when the CPU 30 performs processing.

The print image data from the external device 2 is input into the color printer control device 6 from a network I / F (interface) 36. The color printer control device 6 separates the input print image data into
An image data file for each color of K is generated. The color printer control device 6 includes HDDs 10a, 10b, 10c, and 10d as a large-capacity storage device for each color of YMCK.
Are provided, and the image data file for each color is stored in the corresponding HDD 10a, 10b, 10c,
10d. These HDDs 10a to 10a
d does not necessarily have to be physically separate,
One HDD may be physically divided into four and used.

The color printer control unit 6 has a YMCK
Image transfer modules 20a, 20b, 2
Boards 0c and 20d are mounted. The image transfer modules 20a to 20d include an output buffer memory 22a,
22b, 22c, 22d and video I / Fs 24a, 24
b, 24c and 24d. The output buffer memories 22a to 22d are high-speed memories for temporarily storing input image data, and are video I / Fs 24a to 24d.
24d are output buffer memories 22a to 22d, respectively.
Is an interface for outputting the image data stored in the printer to the color printer 8 while synchronizing the image data. The reason why the image transfer modules 20a to 20d are physically provided individually for each color is to transfer image data of each color to the color printer 8 in parallel to speed up color printing. It is.

When color print image data is input from the external device 2 to the color printer control device 6, image data files of each color of YMCK are generated from the print image data by color separation and stored in the HDDs 10a to 10d. Is done. At this time, the print control information sent simultaneously with the print image data is also stored in the RAM or the HDD. Image data file of each color of all pages is H
When the print job is stored in the DDs 10a to 10d, registration of the print job in the color printer control device 6, that is, addition to the queue is completed. When the printing order of a color image print job in the queue comes, the print control information determines that the print job is color. Then, CPU
Under the control of 30, image data of each color of the print job is sequentially read from the HDDs 10a to 10d and input to the corresponding image transfer modules 20a to 20d. The image data of each of these colors is stored in the output buffer memories 22a to 22a.
The data is transferred in parallel to the color printer 8 via the 2d and video I / Fs 24a to 24d. At this time, information necessary for controlling the color printer 8 among the print control information is transmitted to the color printer 8 in an appropriate signal format. In the color printer control device 6 as described above, the HDD
10a to 10d to image transfer modules 20a to 20d
The mechanism that controls the transfer of image data to the image transfer control unit is hereinafter referred to as an image transfer control unit (shown as an image transfer control unit 100 in FIG. 3 and the like). The function of this image transfer processing unit is
Is executed by executing a transfer processing control program stored in the ROM 34.

On the other hand, the color printer control device 6
When black and white print image data is input from the external device 2, a K color image data file is generated from the print image data and stored in the HDD 10d. When the black-and-white print jobs queued in this way are printed, the image data transfer processing to the color printer 8 starts. At this time, since the image data to be transferred is K color data, the K color image transfer module 20d
Image transfer module 20a for each color of YMC
20c does not output image data. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the output buffer memories 22a to 22c of the image transfer modules 20a to 20c of the respective YMC colors that do not perform image transfer are stored in the image transfer modules 20 of the K color.
d to be used as an intermediate buffer when transferring an image. Moreover, the output buffer memories 22a to 22
By logically combining 22c into one memory,
A relatively large intermediate buffer is configured. Thus, the distance between the HDD 10d storing the K color (black and white) image data and the video I / F 24d for the K color image data is two times.
A stage buffer is configured.

With reference to FIG. 3, the processing of the color printer control device 6 during monochrome printing will be described in more detail. When the printing order of the black and white print job comes, the image transfer control unit 100 checks the print control information of the job and determines whether the job is monochrome or color. In this example, the print job is determined to be black and white. Then, the image transfer control unit 100 sets the output buffer memory 22a of the image transfer modules 20a to 20c of the respective YMC colors that do not perform image transfer.
To 22c are logically combined. That is, addresses are assigned so that the memory spaces of the output buffer memories 22a to 22c are continuous.
2a to 22c function as one image memory. Then, the image transfer control unit 100 controls the three output buffer memories 22a to 22c thus combined.
However, the logical configuration is performed so as to be the intermediate buffer 110 for the image transfer module 20d of K color. Then, the image transfer control unit 100 first temporarily transfers the K color image data stored in the HDD 10d to the intermediate buffer 110. The transfer process during this time is performed by a DMA (Direct Memory Access) method. Then, the image transfer control unit 1
00 sequentially transfers the image data developed in the intermediate buffer 110 to the output buffer memory 22d of the image transfer module 20d for K color. Output buffer memory 22
The image data expanded to d is output from the video I / F 24d to the color printer 8. When the output of the image data in the output buffer memory 22d is completed, the intermediate buffer 110 outputs the image data from the output buffer memory 22d.
To the next image data.

In this configuration, in the color printer control device 6, the intermediate buffer 11
0, from the intermediate buffer 110 to the output buffer memory 2
Two-stage image transfer processing to 2d is performed (three stages when transfer from the output buffer memory 22d to the video I / F 24d is included). These two-stage transfer processes are performed completely independently of each other and in parallel (the output buffer memory 22).
Since the transfer from d to the video I / F 24d is performed under the control of the image transfer module 20d, it is independent of the previous two-stage transfer). With such a configuration,
Since the image transfer module 20d can operate completely independently of the process of reading (transferring) the image data from the HDD 10d, the image transfer module 20d can perform the image transfer process at high speed. Moreover, the intermediate buffer 110 is transferred from the HDD 10d.
The transfer of image data to the
Since the capacity of 10 is larger than the single output buffer memory 10d, a large amount of data can be transferred at one time.
Therefore, access to the HDD 10d can be reduced in the transfer processing to the intermediate buffer 110.
Deterioration in processing speed can be suppressed.

The intermediate buffer 110 is configured as a ring buffer.
Image data is transferred from D10d. Where HDD
To reduce access to 10d, the intermediate buffer 11
It is preferable to set a threshold value for the free space of 0 in advance, and to transfer data from the HDD 10d to the intermediate buffer 110 when the free space reaches the threshold value. That is, according to such a configuration,
Since the number of accesses to the HDD 10d is reduced,
Deterioration in processing speed due to access processing to D can be suppressed.

As described above, according to the color printer control device of the present embodiment, when printing a monochrome print job,
The output buffer memories of the YMC color image transfer modules that do not perform image transfer are connected to form a relatively large-capacity intermediate buffer between the HDD and the K color image transfer module. As a result, the K color image transfer module can be operated independently of the time-consuming data reading process from the HDD, and the number of accesses to the HDD can be reduced. H
It is possible to speed up the process of transferring the K color image data stored in the DD to the color printer.

It should be noted that in the above configuration, the K
The image data is always transferred to the color output buffer memory 22d via the intermediate buffer 110. However, when the image data cannot be stored in the output buffer memory 22d, the subsequent image data is transferred to the intermediate buffer 11d.
It may be configured to transfer to 0.

Although the above-described example deals with a black-and-white print job, the method of the present embodiment is also applicable to printing of non-monochrome non-full-color image data (for example, image data of Y1 color, M1 color, etc.). It goes without saying that it is applicable. In this case, if the print control information of the print job includes information of the color instead of the full-color printing, the image transfer control unit 100 responds to the print control information as in the case of monochrome. Thus, the intermediate buffer may be formed by logically combining output buffer memories of colors other than the colors used for printing.

Embodiment 2 Although the first embodiment is for uncompressed image data, the present invention is also applicable to a type of color printer control device that stores both types of image data of uncompressed and compressed image data. . Hereinafter, the embodiment will be described.

A color printer control device of the type that stores both types of image data, that is, uncompressed and compressed image data, transfers the compressed image data to the color printer while expanding the compressed image data in addition to the image transfer module described in the first embodiment. An extension transfer module is provided. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, the image transfer module 20 for transferring uncompressed image data
A decompression transfer module 40d for transferring compressed image data is provided corresponding to d, and the outputs of both are connected to a color printer via a MUX (multiplexer) 50.
The decompression transfer module 40d has a decompressor 42d for performing data decompression processing, and a video I / F 44d for transmitting decompressed image data to the color printer 8. FIG.
Here, to avoid complexity, only the pair of the image transfer module 20d and the decompression transfer module 40d for K color is shown, but the color printer control device 6 includes such a pair of the image transfer module and the decompression transfer module. Are provided for each color of YMCK.

The hardware configuration of the present embodiment is as follows.
This is the same as the first embodiment, except that a decompression transfer module (and MUX) is provided for each MCK color. In terms of software, transfer processing of uncompressed image data is the same as that of the first embodiment for color and monochrome. Therefore, the transfer processing of the compressed image data will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, 4, and 5.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

In the present embodiment, the color printer control device 6 can compress the image data sent from the external device 2 and store it in the HDDs 10a to 10d. For print jobs stored as compressed image data, information to that effect is added to the print control information. Of course, print jobs given as compressed image data from the external device 2 are stored in the HDDs 10a to 10d as they are.

When the order in which a certain print job is printed is reached, the image transfer control unit 100 checks the print control information and determines whether the print job is compressed image data. If the data is compressed image data, the switch of the MUX 50 is connected to the decompression transfer module (for example, 40d). Further, the image transfer control unit 100 refers to the print control information and checks whether the print job is color or monochrome.

If the print job is compressed image data and is in color, the image transfer control unit 100
The image data of each color is sequentially supplied from a to d to the decompression transfer module 40d of the corresponding color. Alternatively, the output buffer memory 2 is temporarily stored in the image transfer modules 20a to 20d for transferring the uncompressed image data for each color.
After expansion to 2a to 22d, the decompression transfer module 40
The image data is supplied to d and the like. As a result, image data of each color is transferred in parallel to the color printer 8 from the expansion transfer module 40 for each color.

On the other hand, when the print job is compressed image data and is black and white, the image transfer control unit 100 controls the image transfer modules 20a to 20d for transferring uncompressed image data.
The output buffer memories 22a to 22d are logically combined into one to form an intermediate buffer 110 as shown in FIG. Then, the intermediate buffer 1 is transferred from the K color HDD 10d.
The image data is transferred to the intermediate buffer 11 once.
The image data expanded to 0 is expanded and transferred to the module 40d.
Transfer to At this time, the intermediate buffer 1 is transferred from the HDD 10d.
10 and the transfer process from the intermediate buffer 110 to the decompression transfer module 40d are performed independently and in parallel.

In this configuration, in the transfer processing of monochrome compressed image data, the decompression transfer module 40d
Since the operation can be performed without directly accessing 10d, high-speed transfer processing can be performed.

It is needless to say that the method of the second embodiment can be applied to not only monochrome printing but also full-color printing.

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In monochrome printing, an output buffer memory of an image transfer module that does not perform image transfer is connected, and an intermediate buffer is configured between a large-capacity storage device that stores image data and an image transfer module that performs image transfer. Accordingly, the image transfer module can be operated independently of reading data from the mass storage device, so that the transfer processing of monochrome image data can be speeded up.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a system configuration to which a color printer control device according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a color printer control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining image data transfer processing during monochrome printing in the color printer control device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a color printer control device that can handle both non-compressed image data and compressed image data.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining image data transfer processing during monochrome printing in the color printer control device according to the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 external devices, 4 local area network, 6
Color printer controller, 8 color printer, 10
a to 10d HDD (hard disk device), 20a to
20d image transfer module, 22a to 22d output buffer memory, 24a to 24d video I / F (interface), 30 CPU, 32 RAM, 34 RO
M, 36 network I / F, 38 internal bus, 40
d Decompression transfer module, 42d decompressor, 44d video I / F, 100 image transfer controller, 110 intermediate buffer.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A color printer control device for supplying image data to a color printer, comprising: a large-capacity storage device for storing image data for each color of a document to be printed; A plurality of image transfer modules each having an output buffer memory for temporarily storing image data of a color to be transferred, and a video interface for transferring the image data stored in the output buffer memory to the color printer; A transfer control unit that supplies image data of each color to the corresponding image transfer module, and transfers the image data of each color to the color printer in parallel from each image transfer module. During monochrome printing, the output buffer of the image transfer module for the unused color is used. The Amemori together logically coupled, the color printer controller, characterized by the use as an intermediate buffer when transferring an image to the color image transfer module to be used from the mass storage device. 2. The image transfer module according to claim 1, wherein the image transfer control unit transfers image data from the mass storage device to the intermediate buffer, and an image transfer module of the color to be used from the intermediate buffer. And a process for transferring image data to the printer in parallel. 3. The image transfer control unit according to claim 1, wherein the image transfer control unit sends the intermediate transfer data from the large-capacity storage device every time the free space of the intermediate buffer reaches a predetermined threshold value. A color printer control device for transferring image data to a buffer memory. 4. The color printer control device according to claim 1, wherein the large-capacity storage device can further store compressed image data for each color of the document to be printed. A plurality of decompression transfer modules provided separately for each color and having a decompressor for decompressing compressed image data of a corresponding color, and a video interface for transferring image data output from the decompressor to a color printer. The image transfer control unit supplies the compressed image data of each color to the corresponding decompression transfer module from the large-capacity storage device at the time of color printing of the compressed image data, and at the time of monochrome printing of the compressed image data, The output buffer memories of the respective image transfer modules are logically connected to each other, and the decompression corresponding to the color used in monochrome printing is performed. A color printer control device, which is used as an intermediate buffer when transferring compressed image data from the mass storage device to a long transfer module.