JPH11179979A - Image recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten processing time by performing transfer horizontal/vertical conversion simultaneously with transfer of a raster image data, stored at an address determined according to a preset offset value, to a recording head. SOLUTION: A data delivered from a host computer 100 to an image recorder is received by an interface control section 101 and subjected to command analysis by a CPU 102. n case of a raster image data, a storing address is set according to a value being set at an offset setting section for a storing address control section 105 by the interface control section 101 and stored temporarily in a print butter 104. When a data in the raster direction for longitudinal nozzle is stored, a CR drive section 109 is driven to transfer a recording data from the print buffer 104 to an HV(horizontal/vertical) converting section 106 where the data is subjected to horizontal/vertical conversion before being transferred to a head drive section 107.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus for inputting character data from an external device such as a host computer and recording the same on a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, raster pixel data from a host computer is sequentially stored in a receiving buffer. When storing the raster pixel data from the receiving buffer to a print buffer, the raster pixel data is stored again in a buffer corresponding to a column-direction (vertical arrangement) recording head. Then, the print buffer is created again by performing the vertical / horizontal conversion, and the pixel data is transferred to the print head.

FIG. 7 shows an example of such conventional raster image data information. a1, a2, a3, ... hn
Is 1-byte data, which is recorded as a raster image from the host computer to the recording device by a1, a2, a3,
..., b1, b2, ..., c1, c2, ..., h1, ...
.., Hn. In this case, n is the number of pixel data in the raster direction of the pixel data to be recorded, and varies depending on the size of the recording paper.

Next, an example of processing of raster data in a conventional example will be described with reference to FIG. 8: raster image data input from a host computer is stored in a buffer 1 in FIG. # Adr + 1 to # adr + 8n indicate buffer addresses. As described above, the raster image data from the host computer is sequentially stored according to the address of the buffer 1. Here, it is assumed that pixel data of 8 bits in length and n bytes in width are processed.

Next, the case of storing data in the buffer 2 will be described. In the buffer 1, since the raster image data is stored as it is in the raster direction, it is necessary to rearrange the data in the vertical direction in accordance with the recording head and store it again. In FIG. 7, a1, b1, c1, d1, e
When stored in the order of 1, f1, g1, h1, a2, b2,..., Hn, the buffer 2 shown in FIG. 8 is obtained.

FIG. 9 shows details of the buffer 2 shown in FIG. A part of the buffer 2 is an upper view of FIG. a18, a1
7, a16, a15, a14, a13, a12, a11
Represents each bit. That is, in this case, the recording data at the storage address in the storage unit (data of 1 byte) is still data in the raster direction and does not correspond to the recording head as it is. Then, call it "HV conversion")
Must be done. Here, “HV conversion” is performed as shown in the lower diagram of FIG. 9 using a matrix of 8 bits × 8 bits, and the content of the storage address is data corresponding to the vertically aligned head.

[0007]

However, the above-mentioned prior art has the following disadvantages. That is, as shown in the above-described conventional example, when the printhead configuration is vertically aligned, the raster image input is aligned with the vertically aligned printhead,
Since the number of copies to the buffer increases and the length and width must be converted, the processing time for creating the printhead data is greatly increased, and the software processing becomes complicated, resulting in a decrease in throughput. .

[0008] The present invention has been made in view of the above-described aspects, and when raster image data is received from a host computer and stored in a storage unit, the storage address is not incremented sequentially but is set in advance. According to the offset value, the raster image data is stored at the storage address determined by the offset, and when the raster image data is transferred to the recording head, the transfer and the HV conversion are performed simultaneously, thereby shortening the processing time. I have.

[0009]

In recent years, a recording device called a serial printer has a resolution of 300 dpi and 360 dpi.
Pi, 600 dpi. Accompanying this, there are various types of recording heads such as 64 dots vertically and 128 dots. The print data from the host computer is a code representing a character etc.
There is a case where the image data represents a graphic or the like. In the case of the above-described character code, the character code is developed into font data in the recording device, transferred to the recording head as dot data, and recorded on the recording medium.

In the case of image data to be described later, there are cases where the data is sent from the host computer as data in the vertical direction, and cases where it is sent as image data in the horizontal direction, that is, the raster direction. Since the recording head has various configurations, raster image data has higher versatility and is often used when printing a natural image or the like.

However, in the case of raster image data, as described in the above-mentioned conventional example, several processes are required to correspond to a vertically arranged recording head.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a received data storage method according to the present invention described later. The upper diagram of FIG. 2 shows the raster image data information. The raster data from the host computer is a1, a2, a3, a4,..., An, b
1, b2, b3,..., Hn. Height 8
Assuming that the HV conversion is performed for each bit, when data is to be stored, input data is stored every eight storage addresses and the number of bytes in the raster direction is stored as shown in the lower diagram of FIG. Thereafter, the storage address is set again as the start address, the number of vertical bits is added, and the address is set as the storage address, and the data is stored again every eight addresses. The above is repeatedly stored in a buffer to form a print buffer.

The data stored in the print buffer is subjected to the HV conversion shown in FIG. 9 and is transferred to the recording head.
At the time of creating the print buffer, the addresses are already configured in consideration of the vertically arranged print heads, so there is no need to recreate a buffer for transferring to the print heads.
Moreover, since HV conversion is performed when data is transferred to the recording head, software processing is reduced.

In order to realize the above-described configuration, the present invention provides an image recording apparatus according to any one of the following items (1) to (4) to achieve the above object. It is.

(1) An image recording apparatus that prints character data and image data from an external device such as a host computer as image data has a storage unit that receives raster image data from the host computer and stores the image data. The pixel data is sequentially received in the raster direction, and when storing the received data in the storage unit, an offset value is provided in advance in the column direction, and the offset value is added to a storage address of the storage unit. Comprising hardware for storing the received raster data at the added storage address, when forming an image on a recording medium, perform vertical / horizontal conversion of data when transferring data from the storage address to a recording head, Hardware that creates data corresponding to this printhead and transfers it to this printhead Image recording apparatus characterized by being equipped with air.

(2) The offset value in the column direction has means for changing the setting by the printhead, means for changing the print dot, or means for changing the storage area of the storage unit. The image recording apparatus according to the above (1), which is characterized in that:

(3) The received data stored in the storage unit is one-byte raster data, and is hardware for changing the raster data to column data corresponding to the print head before transferring the data to the print head. And a means for storing the column data after the vertical / horizontal conversion in a register corresponding to the printhead, and a means for sequentially transferring data from the register to the printhead, and read out from the storage unit. The image recording apparatus according to (1), wherein raster data is stored in the register by a DMA method and transferred to the recording head.

(4) The recording head includes discharge nozzles arranged in the column direction. The carriage on which the recording head is mounted scans the recording medium in a horizontal direction to discharge ink. The image recording apparatus according to the above (1), wherein the image is formed by causing the image to be formed.

[0019]

According to the configuration of the present invention as described above, when raster image data is received from a host computer and stored in a storage unit, address management is performed in accordance with a recording head, received data is stored, and transferred to the recording head. , HV conversion and transfer to the recording head, software processing is simplified, and an improvement in throughput can be realized. In addition, since there is no reception buffer for temporarily storing data received from the host computer, the memory capacity can be reduced.

[0020]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.
An embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

[0021]

FIG. 1 is an electric block diagram showing a control system of an image recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes a host computer for sending data to the recording apparatus; 101 is a host computer 1
An interface control unit 102 that controls communication with an external device such as 00 and receives print data sent from the host computer 100 is a CPU that executes operations and processes in this device. A ROM 110 for storing various data such as a control program and character fonts is a display unit connected to the CPU 102. Reference numeral 104 denotes an RA for temporarily storing various data.
At M, a print buffer for storing print data in one line is included here.

Reference numeral 105 denotes a storage address control unit for controlling a storage address for storing raster image data in the print buffer RAM 104. Reference numeral 106 denotes a print head for transferring print data from the print buffer 104 to the print head driving unit 107. HV that performs vertical / horizontal conversion according to
It is a conversion unit. Details of 105 and 106 will be described later. Reference numeral 107 denotes a head driving unit which supplies a control signal from the CPU 102 to a head driver so that the recording apparatus records an image on a recording medium, and transfers image data from the HV conversion unit 106 to a recording head to print.

A carriage motor driver and a CR drive unit 109 of the carriage motor, and a paper feed motor driver and an LF drive unit 108 of the paper feed motor supply control signals from the CPU 102 to the respective drivers to perform printing on a recording medium. This is a control system for prompting the necessary horizontal and vertical movements of the recording head.

(Control Procedure) Next, the control procedure of the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1 as well. First, data sent from the host computer 100 to the image recording apparatus is processed by an interface control unit. 101 and R
CPU1 according to the program stored in OM103
02, the command is analyzed. In the case of raster image data, data is sent from the interface control unit 101 to the address control unit 105, and temporarily stored in the print buffer 104 of the storage address set in the storage address control unit 105. Will be saved.

When the raster data for the nozzles in the vertical direction of the recording head is stored, the CR driving unit 109 is driven, and the print buffer 104 is sent to the HV conversion unit 106.
Then, the print data is transferred, the HV conversion unit 106 performs vertical / horizontal conversion, and the print data is transferred to the head drive unit 107. After printing is completed, the LF drive unit 108 is driven, and a series of sequences ends.

Next, the storage address control unit 10 of this embodiment
5 and the HV converter 106 will be described in detail: Vertical 6
A recording apparatus having a 4-dot recording head will be described as an example. FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of the configuration of the storage address control unit, FIG. 4 shows raster image information, FIG. 8 shows a method of storing received data, and FIG. 9 shows an HV conversion unit.

FIG. 4 shows a configuration of n bytes in the raster direction and 8 × m bits in the column direction, and the host computer 100 sends 11D1 and 11D
2,..., 11Dn in the raster direction.

In FIG. 3, the number of recording bytes in the raster direction 200 differs depending on the paper size and the like. Therefore, first, the number of horizontal recording bytes is set, and when data is received from the host computer 100 (FIG. 1), the strobe from the host computer 100 The signal is counted and the number of received data in the raster direction is managed.

When the predetermined number of horizontal recording bytes matches the number of received data, a raster end signal is output to the storage address setting unit 202 and the column counter 204.
In the offset setting unit 201, the number of vertical recording dots is set in advance. The storage address of the received data has an offset depending on the number of vertical recording dots.

As shown in the received data storage method of FIG.
An offset is stored for every 64 bits vertically and stored. First #
When 11D1 is stored in adr, the next received 11D1
D2 is stored at the address of # adr + 64. In this way, an offset is provided according to the number of vertical recording dots, and a storage address is set.

The storage address setting unit 202 sets a storage address according to the offset set by the offset setting unit 201. The print buffer start address is set in advance. Host computer 100
Then, the offset value is added to the storage address in accordance with the strobe signal from, and is used as the next received data storage address. In this way, the storage address is updated for each offset value.

The storage address is reset by the raster end signal output from the raster size counter 200. That is, when the reception data of one column is stored, the reception data of the second column is stored at the address incremented to the print buffer start address.
Data 12 in the second column of the raster image information in FIG.
D1 is stored at the address of # adr + 1 in FIG.
The DMA (direct memory access) control unit 203
This is for directly storing the received data at the storage address determined by the storage address setting unit 202.
The M address and data control signals are output.

The column counter 204 is counted up by a raster end signal from the raster size counter 200, and outputs a print buffer full signal to the CPU 102 when the number of horizontal recording dots matches a preset number of horizontal recording dots. By performing the above, as shown in FIG. 5, the raster image is rearranged into data in the column direction according to the number of recording dots. However, since the byte data stored at each address is raster data, it is transferred to the print head while performing HV conversion. FIG. 6 shows the HV converter.

R1 is an 8.times.8-bit matrix register for actually performing HV conversion as shown in FIG. One-byte raster data is stored in the horizontal direction, and when storage of eight bytes is completed, eight bytes are taken out for each bit and sequentially stored in R2. That is, each of the 8 bits located at bit 8 in R1 is set as one byte and stored at the head of R2. Next, one byte of bit 7, one byte of bit 6,..., One byte of bit 1 are extracted in the vertical direction of R1.
2 is stored. When the transfer to R2 is completed eight times in this way, eight bytes are transferred to R1 again.

Since the received data is stored as shown in FIG. 5, the HV conversion is performed in a unit of 8 bits in a unit of 64 bits. R2 of FIG. 6 has 8 bits × 64 after HV conversion.
Bit data is stored. When the storage in R2 is completed, the data is transferred to the recording head. The data is sequentially transferred in R2 bit units in accordance with a recording head of 64 dots vertically.
At this time, the data is transferred bit by bit in the vertical direction of the 8 × 64 bit matrix of the R2 register.

[0036]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When receiving raster image data from a host computer and storing it in a storage unit, the address is managed according to the printhead, the received data is stored, and transferred to the printhead while performing HV conversion when transferred to the printhead. In addition, software processing is simplified, and an improvement in throughput can be realized. Further, since there is no reception buffer for temporarily storing data received from the host computer, an effect of reducing the memory capacity can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 shows an example of a received data storage method according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration block diagram of a storage address control unit according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is raster image information of an embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a method of storing received data according to the embodiment;

FIG. 6 is an HV converter according to the embodiment.

FIG. 7 shows an example of conventional raster image data information.

FIG. 8 shows a conventional raster data processing example.

FIG. 9 is an example of a conventional HV conversion diagram

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 100 host computer 101 interface control unit 102 CPU 103 control ROM 104 RAM print buffer 105 storage address control unit 106 HV conversion unit 107 head drive unit 108 LF drive unit 109 CR drive unit 110 display unit 200 raster size counter 201 offset setting unit 202 Storage address setting unit 203 DMA control unit 204 Column counter

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image recording apparatus for printing character data and image data from an external device such as a host computer as image data, comprising a storage unit for receiving raster image data from the host computer and storing the image data. The pixel data is sequentially received in the raster direction, and when storing the received data in the storage unit, an offset value is provided in advance in the column direction, and the offset value is added to a storage address of the storage unit. Hardware for storing the received raster data at the added storage address, and when forming an image on a recording medium, perform vertical / horizontal conversion of data when transferring data from the storage address to a recording head. Hardware that creates data corresponding to the recording head and transfers it to this recording head An image recording apparatus comprising: 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the offset value in the column direction has means for changing the setting by the printhead, means for changing the print dot, or means for changing the storage area of a storage unit. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1. 3. The received data stored in the storage unit,
Hardware for changing the raster data into column data corresponding to the printhead before transferring the raster data to the printhead, and storing the raster data in a register corresponding to the printhead before and after the transfer to the printhead. Means for storing column data, and means for sequentially transferring data from the register to the printhead, storing raster data read from the storage unit in the register by DMA and transferring the data to the printhead. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: 4. The recording head includes discharge nozzles arranged in the column direction, and causes a carriage on which the recording head is mounted to scan the recording medium in a horizontal direction to discharge ink. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an image is formed.