JPH11327822A - Method and processor of information processing and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently use a storage means which is used as an electronic sorter by comparing the data amounts of an information file described in a specific language, an intermediate-language file generated at the time of expansion into raster image information, and an information file expanded into the raster image information and storing the file having the smallest amount. SOLUTION: A document generated by a host computer 101 is converted to file information described in a page description language and transferred to a network printer 102. Of the network printer 102, an image controller(ASIC) 205 expands the information file described in the page description language into raster image information. A CPU 202 compares the data amounts of the information file described in the page description language, the intermediate- language file generated at the time of expansion into the raster image information, and the information file expanded into the raster image information are compared and the smallest file is stored on a hard disk 207.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing method and apparatus, and a storage medium storing a control program for controlling the information processing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, networking has progressed, and a printer as an information processing apparatus has been incorporated into a network from a local printer, and a single printer can be shared by a plurality of users. Under such an environment, a network printer incorporating a large sorter is also on the market. Further, a printer that stores a print image using a memory medium such as a hard disk and is equipped with an electronic sorter having a role of a sorter has also been proposed.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, an image file described in a page description language is developed into a raster image, and the developed image is stored in a memory medium. I have. For example, there is a problem that a raster image image having many white areas and a raster image image having many changes require the same memory area, and a limited memory medium cannot be used effectively.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and a first object of the present invention is to make effective use of storage means used as, for example, an electronic sorter. It is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing method and apparatus capable of achieving the above.

It is a second object of the present invention to provide a storage medium storing a control program capable of smoothly controlling the above-described information processing apparatus of the present invention.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method comprising: a storage step of storing information in a storage means; A developing step of developing the image information, and comparing an information file described in the predetermined language with an intermediate language file generated when developing the raster image information and a data amount of the information file expanded into the raster image information. A comparison step; and a control step of controlling a file having the smallest comparison result in the comparison step to be stored in the storage unit.

In order to achieve the first object, an information processing method according to claim 2 is characterized in that, in the information processing method according to claim 1, the information is an image.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method according to the first aspect, wherein the storage means is a hard disk.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method according to the first aspect, wherein the predetermined language is a page description language.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus, comprising: storage means for storing information; and expansion means for expanding an information file described in a predetermined language into raster image information. Comparing means for comparing data amounts of an information file described in the predetermined language and an intermediate language file generated when the raster image information is expanded and an information file expanded to the raster image information; and And control means for controlling the storage means to store the smallest file in the storage means.

In order to achieve the first object, an information processing apparatus according to claim 6 is the information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the information is an image.

In order to achieve the first object, an information processing apparatus according to claim 7 is characterized in that, in the information processing apparatus according to claim 5, the storage means is a hard disk.

In order to achieve the first object, an information processing apparatus according to claim 8 is the information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the predetermined language is a page description language.

In order to achieve the first object, an information processing apparatus according to a ninth aspect is characterized in that, in the information processing apparatus according to the fifth aspect, the information processing apparatus is a printer.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a storage medium for storing a control program for controlling an information processing apparatus, wherein information is stored in storage means. An information file described in a predetermined language is expanded into raster image information, and an intermediate file generated when the information file described in the predetermined language and the raster image information are expanded and the information expanded into the raster image information. A control program having a control module of a step of comparing the data amounts of the files and, as a result of the comparison, controlling to store the smallest file in the storage means is stored.

In order to achieve the second object, a storage medium according to claim 11 is the storage medium according to claim 10, wherein the information is an image.

In order to achieve the second object, a storage medium according to claim 12 is the storage medium according to claim 10, wherein the storage means is a hard disk.

Further, in order to achieve the second object, a storage medium according to claim 13 is the storage medium according to claim 10, wherein the predetermined language is a page description language.

[0019]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information processing system having an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes a host computer, and 102 denotes an embodiment of the present invention. The host computer 101 and the network printer 102 are connected by a high-speed network 103, respectively. When the host computer 101 designates the network 103 and obtains a print output, the edited document is converted into a file described in a page description language and can be transferred to the network printer 102 via the network 103. It has become. As will be described in detail later, the data can be output directly to the printer engine 209 of the network printer 102 or temporarily stored in the hard disk (HD) 207 so that a print output can be obtained at a convenient time. . These file conversion and print output selection are performed by driver software installed in the host computer 101.

The network printer 102 includes a network controller 201 and a CPU (central processing unit).
202, ROM (read only memory) 203, work RAM (random access memory) 204, ASIC
(Image controller) 205, HD I / F (hard disk interface) 206, HD (hard disk) 207, operation unit 208, printer engine 209
And an image memory 210 as constituent elements.

The network controller 201 is connected to the network 103 and
Controls the protocol for receiving data from The CPU 202 controls the entire network printer 102. The ROM 203 stores the CPU 20
2 stores a control program to be executed. Work R
The AM 204 stores various types of information, and stores
02 also functions as a work area. ASIC205
Has a function of developing a raster image image in the image memory 210 based on a file described in a page description language and transferring the developed image based on a synchronization signal from the printer engine 209. The ASIC 205
Will be described later in detail. The H.D I / F 206 is
H.D207 is controlled. H ・ D2
Reference numeral 07 temporarily stores an image file. The operation unit 208 is capable of performing various operations from the outside and displaying various information such as error information. The printer engine 209 drives the printer unit, is connected to the ASIC 205 via the video bus 213, and outputs a synchronization signal. The image memory 210 includes an ASIC 205
And the raster image is developed.

Network controller 201, CPU
202, ROM 203, work RAM 204, ASIC
205, an HD I / F 206, an HD 207, an operation unit 208, and a printer engine 209
It is connected to a bus 211.

Next, the operation of the system having the above configuration will be described.

The image file described in the page description language sent from the host computer 101 by direct printing is sent to the network controller 20.
1 and the work RA
It is temporarily stored in M204. The CPU 202 performs the work R
The page description language data temporarily stored in the AM 204 is referred to, converted into an intermediate language that can be used by the ASIC 205, and sequentially stored in the work RAM 204 again.

When the conversion to the intermediate language is completed, the CPU 202 sends an image development start command to the ASIC 205, and the ASIC 205 sends the rasterized image to the image memory 210 at high speed while referring to the intermediate language stored in the work RAM 204. Develop image images. CPU2
02 receives an interrupt from the ASIC 205 to terminate the image development, sends a start command to the printer engine 209, and starts the printer engine 209. At the same time, the CPU 202 sends a command to the ASIC 205 to set the video output mode and wait for a synchronization signal 212 from the printer engine 209.

When the printer engine 209 is started, a printing paper (not shown) is fed, and a horizontal synchronizing signal and a vertical synchronizing signal (hereinafter collectively referred to as a synchronizing signal 212) are generated and sent to the ASIC 205. ASIC205
When the synchronization signal 212 is input, the image memory 210
Are sequentially transferred to the printer engine 209 via the video bus 213.

Next, the operation of temporarily storing an image in the HD 207 will be described.

A memory area (hereinafter referred to as a memory box) for each of a plurality of users in the HD 207 in advance.
And an address for distinguishing each is allocated in advance. As described above, when printing a document, the user can select whether to obtain a printout directly or to store the document in a temporarily provided memory box. This is because when a plurality of users on the network 103 use one network printer 102, for example, when print outputs overlap, they overlap on the output tray, which complicates sorting or collects print outputs. This is because if the user forgets to do so, loss or the like will occur. By temporarily storing the document in a given memory box, the document can be obtained in a convenient free time, thereby improving the convenience. When a document stored in the memory box is retrieved, the document can be specified from the host computer 101 or from the operation unit 208 of the network printer 102.

Next, a procedure for temporarily storing a document in a memory box secured on the HD 207 will be described.

The document created and edited by the host computer 101 is converted into a file described in the page description language as described above, and transferred to the network printer 102 via the network 103. At the same time, apart from the print command, for example, a command of “temporarily store on the hard disk” and a memory box number, for example, if the user of the host computer 101 has secured the memory box number 11, the memory box number . 11 is issued. This can be freely selected by the user on the host computer 101.

Next, the flow of the processing operation inside the network printer 102 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

First, in FIG. 2, whether the command transferred in step S201 is a normal print,
07 is to be stored in the memory box. Then, it is determined in step S202 whether or not the print is the normal print. If the print is the normal print, the process proceeds to step S209.
After performing the normal printing operation, the present processing operation is terminated. If the normal print is not to be performed in step S202 but to be stored in a memory box, the free space of the designated memory box in the HD 207 is checked in step S203. Then, at step S204, H
It is determined whether there is free space in the designated memory box in D207. If there is no free space, the process proceeds to step S210.
Then, the process shifts to the normal printing operation, and after notifying the host computer 101 of the fact, the processing operation ends.

In step S204, H.multidot.
If there is free space in the designated memory box in D207, in step S205, the temporarily stored image file described in the page description language is stored in the designated memory box. The file name at this time is specified by a driver in the host computer 101.
e. P ". Here, although the “suffix.P” will be described later, it distinguishes between “intermediate language file.M” and “raster image file.I”.

Next, in step S206, it is determined whether there is another new job or a job from another host computer. If there is another new job or a job from another host computer, it is determined. In step S211, a new job is prioritized. This is because the processing described below uses the idle time of the job of the network printer 102 to improve the efficiency of the entire processing. After the processing in step S206 is completed, the process proceeds to step S207. If there is no other new job or a job from another host computer in step S206, the process proceeds directly to step S20.
Proceed to 7.

In step S207, the file. P is read from the work RAM 204, conversion into an intermediate language that can be used by the ASIC 205 is started, and the file name is set to “file.M”.
Since the number of pages and the paper size of the raster image image to be developed can be known in advance, the memory capacity of the raster image image after the development can be calculated from such information. Therefore,
In step S208, “file.P” and “file.
By comparing the memory capacity of the raster image image after expansion with “M” and storing the smallest capacity in the HD 207, the HD 207 can be used efficiently.

Next, in FIG. 3, in step S212, the memory capacity of the specified page of the raster image image after expansion is compared with that of “file.P”, and the raster image after expansion is determined based on the memory capacity of “file.P”. If the memory capacity for the specified page of the image is small, the process proceeds to step S213. In this step S213, the memory capacity of the designated page of the raster image image after expansion is compared with the memory capacity of “file.M”, and the memory capacity of the specified page of the raster image image after expansion is compared with the memory capacity of “file. If is smaller, the process proceeds to step S214. This step S2
At 14, the raster image is expanded in the memory 210 from the file “file.M”, which is an intermediate language file, and “f.
ile. After replacing the “file.P” in the designated memory box with the “file.P” in the designated memory box from the memory 210 via the ASIC 205, the processing ends.

In step S212, "f"
ile. If the memory capacity for the designated page of the raster image image after the expansion is larger than the memory capacity of “P.”, the memory capacities of “file.P” and “file.M” are compared in step S216. If the memory capacity of “file.P” is smaller than the memory capacity of “file.M”, it is stored as it is in the designated memory box as “file.P” in step S217, and this processing operation is ended.

In step S213,
If the memory capacity of the specified page of the raster image image after expansion is larger than the memory capacity of “file.M”,
In step S215, after the file is replaced with "file.P" in the designated memory box as "file.M" and stored, the processing operation ends.

In step S216,
If the memory capacity of “file.P” is larger than the memory capacity of “file.M”, the process returns to the step S215 and replaces “file.P” in the designated memory box with “file.P” and stores it. Then, this processing operation ends.

As described above, the file format with the smallest capacity is searched for using the idle time of the job, and the HD 207 in which the memory box is arranged is used effectively.

When printing a file in the memory box, for example, by designating the memory box from the operation unit 208 and specifying a desired file among the stored files, a print output can be obtained. Has become. Of course, it can also be specified from the host computer 101. Also, when obtaining a print output, the processing is changed depending on the suffix of the file read from the memory box. For example, if the suffix is [.
P], the data is read out to the work RAM 204, and the normal print processing is performed as described above. If the suffix is [. M], it is read out to the work RAM 204, but the intermediate language conversion processing is omitted and the processing is performed. Further, if the suffix is [. In the case of [I], the data is naturally read out to the image memory 210 and printed.

[0043]

As described above in detail, according to the information processing method and apparatus of the present invention, there is an effect that the storage means used as an electronic sorter can be effectively used.

Further, according to the storage medium of the present invention, it is possible to smoothly control the above-described information processing apparatus of the present invention.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an operation of the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an operation of the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention;

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 101 host computer 102 network printer (information processing device) 103 network 201 network controller 202 CPU (central processing unit) 203 ROM (read only memory) 204 work ROM (read only memory) 205 ASIC (image controller) 206 HDI / F (hard disk interface) 207 HD (hard disk) 208 operation unit 209 printer engine 210 image memory 211 CPU bus 212 synchronization signal 213 video bus

Claims (13)

[Claims] A storage step of storing information in storage means;
Developing an information file described in a predetermined language into raster image information; developing an information file described in the predetermined language and an intermediate language file generated when the raster image information is developed into the raster image information An information processing method, comprising: a comparing step of comparing respective data amounts of the information files thus obtained; and a control step of controlling to store a file having the smallest comparison result in the comparing step in the storage unit. 2. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein said information is an image. 3. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein said storage means is a hard disk. 4. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined language is a page description language. 5. A storage means for storing information; a developing means for developing an information file described in a predetermined language into raster image information; and a developing means for developing the information file described in the predetermined language and the raster image information. Comparing means for comparing each data amount of the intermediate language file generated in the above and the information file expanded to the raster image information, and control means for controlling to store a file having the smallest comparison result of the comparing means in the storage means. An information processing apparatus comprising: 6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said information is an image. 7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said storage means is a hard disk. 8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the predetermined language is a page description language. 9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the information processing apparatus is a printer. 10. A storage medium for storing a control program for controlling an information processing apparatus, wherein information is stored in a storage means, an information file described in a predetermined language is expanded into raster image information, and The data amount described in the information file described in the language and the intermediate language file generated when the raster image information is expanded and the data amount of the information file expanded in the raster image information are compared. A storage medium storing a control program having a control module of a step of controlling to store in a storage means. 11. The storage medium according to claim 10, wherein said information is an image. 12. The storage medium according to claim 10, wherein said storage means is a hard disk. 13. The storage medium according to claim 10, wherein said predetermined language is a page description language.