JPH1124853A - Document editing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a document editing device which previously produces the print image data and transfers these image data to a printer to print them at a high speed and at a low cost. SOLUTION: When a user who is operating a document editing device 1 designates registration of the document data via an input device 4, the image data are registered in an external storage 12. Then the recorded image data are converted into the print data, and the produced print image data are stored in the storage 12. In a print mode, the print image data are transferred to a printer 11 from the device 1. If it's decided that the data to be printed are equal to the image data, it's checked whether the image data are stored in the storage 12. When the print image data are previously produced, these data are read out of the storage 12 and sent to the printer 11.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a method for providing means for printing image data at high speed in a document editing apparatus capable of inputting and editing image data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-4230, in a conventional apparatus, in addition to a CPU for developing character data in a document, a dedicated image data is used for image data. Printing has been speeded up by using a method of developing using a CPU.

[0003]

In the conventional apparatus,
The image data input to the document editing device is handled in a data format suitable for editing, displaying, storing, etc., so that even if the image data of the source image is edited, the deterioration of the quality is small, or In general, data is handled by common data, such as JPEG, which is compressed so that the storage capacity is reduced.

When printing is performed, this data is transferred to the printing apparatus. Therefore, the printing apparatus first performs decompression processing on the data, and the printing apparatus further performs a gradation expression such as an ink jet printer or a laser printer. If not, processing such as dither processing or error diffusion processing must be performed, and furthermore, image processing is required to optimize the quality characteristics of the printing apparatus. Or as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-4230, there is a problem that the use of two CPUs increases the cost.

An object of the present invention is to input image data,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for printing image data at high speed by an inexpensive method in a document creating apparatus for editing and printing.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, when a created or edited document is stored in a storage device in a document editing apparatus, image data converted for printing is created simultaneously with registration of the image data. And memorize. This is achieved by transferring printing image data created and stored in advance to a printing apparatus during printing.

[0007]

1 to 4 show an embodiment of the present invention.
This will be described below. FIG. 1 shows an example of a configuration diagram of a document editing apparatus according to the present invention. When the power is turned on, the microprocessor 2 transfers a document editing program stored in a large-capacity external storage device 12 such as a hard disk to the RAM 5 according to the program stored in the program ROM 6 which is a nonvolatile memory, and transfers the program to the RAM 5. The processing is started according to the set program.

The RAM 5 is a readable and writable memory, and the microprocessor 2 fetches and executes the program on the RAM 5 after the program stored in the external storage device 12 is transferred. The RAM 5 is also used for temporarily storing data required when the microprocessor 2 executes a program.

The input device 4 is an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse, and is used for inputting characters and for giving instructions such as editing characters and image data and starting printing. The input device interface 3 is a circuit for converting serial data input from the input device 4 into parallel data and transferring the parallel data to the microprocessor 2.

The image input device 14 is a device for inputting image data, such as an image scanner or a digital camera. Image input device interface 15
Is a SCSI, RS-232 for transferring data input from the image input device 14 to the microprocessor 2.
C or a circuit for controlling an IC card.

The display memory 8 is a readable and writable memory for storing a dot pattern to be displayed on a display device 9 such as a CRT display or a liquid crystal display. The display control circuit 7 reads out the dot pattern stored in the display memory 8 in synchronization with a synchronizing signal necessary for displaying it on the display device 9 or arbitrates the data to be written by the microprocessor 2 with the reading out. While writing to the display memory 8.

The printing device 11 is an ink jet printer,
The printer 2 is a printing device such as a wire dot printer or a laser printer, and performs printing in accordance with data written by the microprocessor 2 via the printing device interface 10. The printing device interface 10 is a circuit such as a latch and a buffer for transferring data output from the microprocessor 2 to the printing device 11.

The bus 13 is for transferring data between the microprocessor 2 and each circuit, and comprises a data bus, an address bus and control signals for controlling these buses.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a flowchart of a process for registering and deleting image data in the document editing apparatus. When the user who operates the document editing apparatus 1 gives an instruction to register document data from the input device 4, the determination is made by the process 101, and the process 102 is executed. In process 102, the image data is registered in the external storage device 12. The format of the registered image data is, for example, JP
This format is a common format such as EG, and the data is expressed in multi-value units of, for example, about 16 million colors for each pixel, so that the data is later enlarged or reduced or the contrast is changed. The data is such that even if image processing is performed, the quality is hardly deteriorated.
Is compressed so as to reduce the capacity when storing it.

Next, in step 103, the image data recorded in step 102 is converted into data for printing. As described above, the data registered in the process 102 is represented by multi-values so that the data is not deteriorated even if edited later, and is compressed so as to reduce the capacity when stored in the storage device. However, when the printing apparatus is actually an ink jet printer or a laser printer, for example, color gradation cannot be expressed for each pixel. Data is created by a process of converting color gradation data into a set of single-color data by a method such as a method. Next, in step 104, the print image data created in step 103 is stored in the external storage device 12, and the process ends. If it is determined in step 101 that the image data is to be deleted, the process proceeds to step 106 in which the external storage device 12 is deleted.
And deletes the image data stored in
At 07, the print image data is also deleted.

FIG. 3 is an example of a flowchart for transferring print data from the document editing apparatus 1 to the printing apparatus 11. In step 201, it is determined whether the data to be printed is image data. If the data is other than image data, the data is a character or a graphic, so the process 207 performs dot development of the character indicated by the character code or development of the specified graphic, and transfers the data to the printing apparatus 11 by process 205. To end the processing.

If it is determined in step 201 that the data to be printed is image data, it is checked in step 202 whether the image data for printing is in the external storage device 12. When it is determined that the image data for printing has not been created in advance, the processing 203 converts the image data into image data for printing.
03. If the data converted to the print image data by the process 203 or the print image data has been created in advance, the image data is read from the external storage device 12 by the process 204, and then the print device And the process ends.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an example of another method for creating print image data. According to the process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 2, when registering the image data, the image data for printing is created and registered. However, according to the method of FIG. 2, the registration takes a long time. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of converting image data into print data using the idle time of the CPU.

If there is no data to be converted into print image data in step 301, the process ends. In some cases, the image data is converted into print data in step 302, and the data converted in step 303 is registered.

[0020]

According to the present invention, image data for printing can be created in advance in the document editing apparatus.
The printing time of image data can be shortened without using a CPU or the like for high-speed processing on the printing apparatus side.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a document editing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of image data registration and deletion processing.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a document printing process.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of print image data creation.

[Explanation of symbols]

4 ... input device, 9 ... display device, 11 ... printing device, 12 ...
External storage device, 14 ... Image input device.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A document editing apparatus having means for inputting document data and image data, means for editing, means for storing and means for printing, wherein data suitable for means for printing the image data when storing the image data is stored. A document editing apparatus characterized in that when creating, storing, and transferring image data to a printing unit, the stored image data suitable for the printing unit is transferred. 2. A document editing apparatus having means for inputting document data and image data, means for editing, means for storing and means for printing, wherein the means for printing image data when the microprocessor is idle is provided. A document editing apparatus which creates and stores suitable data, and transfers the stored image data suitable for the printing means when transferring the image data to the printing means.