JPS5936849A - Method for controlling overlay of form - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the storage capacity of a page memory and to attain the cost down of a device, by storing form data and printing data in one page memory and storing the address on the page memory in a table memory. CONSTITUTION:Image data obtained through a register 4 are stored in the page memory 6. The table memory 10 stores the number of pages of a form, correcting data, etc. in addition to the information indicating the place and quantity of printing data on the page memory 6. All the printing data are decomposed to character images by a character generator 5 and stored in the page memory 6. The address of the printing data which is stored in the page memory 6 is stored in the table memory 10. If the page memory 6 is cleared by the address, only the printing data are erased from the page memory 6 to enable the succeeding printing data to be received.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a form overlay control method for a printer used in an information processing system.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

In laser beam printers, the form format (preprint) and print data can be printed simultaneously, rather than printing the form format on pre-printed paper. Formover 1
It's called /i.

Form overlay data contains not only code data (alphanumeric and kana characters are expressed as 1-byte codes, and kanji characters as 2-byte codes), but also graphic data (-image data;
Dot information expressed in 1 pixel degree "11 is black"
[)° means white] may also be included. In order to process page printing at high speed, it is necessary to generate pixel information at regular intervals and prepare a page memory with one page's worth of pixels to turn on and off the laser beam.

Furthermore, if the print data includes not only code data but also image data, a page memory for the print data is also required for high-speed processing. Therefore, in order to realize the auto overlay function, it is necessary to have a capacity for two pages as a page memory.

Incidentally, the memory capacity constituting this IQ is approximately 9 dots/*j1 (both vertically and horizontally) in size A, and requires approximately 630 bytes. Therefore, the above example has the disadvantage that the cost of configuring the page memory is high, making it impractical to construct a system.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above drawbacks, and is intended to increase the speed of a printer or its control device that prints form overlay data including code data and image data, and print data including food data and image data. It is an object of the present invention to provide a fall overlay control system that achieves a significant cost reduction by realizing a page memory with a capacity for two pages, which was required for the above, with a capacity for one page.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention, in a printer having a form overlay function or its control device, stores form data including code data and image data and print data in an image-developed format in one page memory, and stores the print data in the page memory. A table memory is prepared to remember the addresses developed on the page memory, and the print data developed on the page memory is cleared based on this table memory.

As a result, the page memory, which had a capacity for two pages, which was required for high-speed processing, can be reduced to a capacity for one page, resulting in a significant cost reduction in system development.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail using the drawings while comparing it with a conventional example.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a conventional device that implements form overlay control.

In the figure, 1 is an upper position, 2 is an interface between the host device 1 and the printer control device 3, and 4 is a register for temporarily storing data arriving via the interface 2. 5 is a character generator that converts code data into corresponding image data and outputs the data. For example, when a kanji code (2 bytes) is input to the character generator 5, 24X
It is converted into 24-dot kanji image data and output. A memory 6 stores print data in image format. This memory has a capacity for one page. 7
is a memory that stores data for form overlay and can store one page of the image.

The image data obtained through the register 4 is not input to the character generator 5 but is stored in the page memory 6 or 7.
supplied to The serial data outputted from the page memories 6 and 7 are subjected to an OR condition in an OR circuit 8 and sent to a printer mechanism 9 as a video signal.

Note that 10 is a table memory in which the number of forms, modification data, etc. are stored. Details regarding this memory 10 will be described later.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an apparatus for realizing the present invention. In the figure, the blocks designated by the same numbers as those in FIG. 1 have the same functions and names, so their explanations will be omitted here to avoid redundancy.

10 stores the number of units in the form, correction data, etc., as in the case of FIG. 1, but also stores information indicating where and how much print data has been written in the memory 6, even though there is only one piece of print data. .

Figures 3 and 4 show flowcharts of form overlay control (printing), Figure 3 shows the print data reception and form data reception flow, and Figure 4 shows the print flow by starting printing and correcting the form for each page. shows. In the figure, each number indicates a respective processing block.

FIG. 5 shows the results of printing based on food data and print data. In this figure, the print data is apple, 5
．． 1000, and the outer enclosure (frame) is only shown for ease of understanding and is neither print data nor form data. The above print data is stored in the page memory 6, and all other parts are stored as form information. For example, if the total number of people in the form is three copies, the title will be corrected to make the first page the delivery note, the second page the invoice, and the third page the receipt, and three pages of slip paper will be created. Become.

That is, the form correction data is rewritten for each page. In the figure, 11 is form correction data, 12 is print data, and 13 is form information, and this form information consists of ruled lines, characters, etc.゛The operation will be explained in detail below. First, the operation of the conventional device will be explained using FIGS. 1, 3, and 4.

First, form data arrives at the register 4 from the host device 1 via the interface 3.

(The data consists of a character code, a control code, and an image, and various controls are performed using the control code. Here, the beginning of the data is a control code indicating whether it is form data or print data.) Step 103 By checking the control code, it can be seen that the following data is a form. That is, the process proceeds to step 1θ4. In step 104, the next data is fetched from register 4, and in step 105 it is checked whether it is an image control code. If an image is specified, the data is fetched one after another from the register 4 in the block 106, the start address of the form page memory 7, the image data length, etc. are known, and the image data is stored in the page memory 7. . When storage of the image data is completed, a check is made in the spoop 107 to determine whether the current data is a form or a print. Here, the process moves to steps 104 and 106 assuming that the form is valid.

If it is image data again, the process moves to step 1θ6 and similar processing is performed. (If not, step 10
8, it is checked whether it is a form modification control code, and if so, the process moves to step 109. Here, information necessary for the form (for example, the total number of members of the form, information on correction data for each page, etc.) is received and stored as control information. Then, the process proceeds to step 110, and the control code is checked again in steps 705 and 1011. If the control code is not an image form control code, the process moves to step 111.

In step 111, the character code is processed using the form data, and the character code is transferred to the character generator 5, where it is converted into a character image (for example, in the case of a 24x24 kanji font, 72 bytes of image data is taken from 5). The resulting output is stored in the form page memory 7. Regarding the location (address) at which the character image is stored in the page memory 7θ, the address is calculated so that the character image is printed at the correct position on the paper when printing. In this way, the character parts in the form data are processed one after another in step 711. That is, step 11
2.11. 'l.

Loop 105, 108, 111. The end of the form data is when the form data end control code is detected, which is checked by the controller 13, and the process moves to step (2).

Since the data from now on is for printing, step 102,
The process moves to step 103. Here, since the print data control code is placed at the beginning of the print data, the process proceeds to step 29, and in exactly the same way as in the case of the form, steps 114,
Step 116, and if it is image data, step 10
6, the image data of the print data is stored in the page memory 6.
is memorized. If it is a character, the process moves to step 116. Conventionally, according to the example, the process of step 117 does not exist,
The processing in steps 118 and 119 will be performed. In this case, as in the case of the form, the print code is sent to the character generator 5, and the character image converted here is received and stored in the page memory 6.

After all xFj worth of print data is decomposed into character images by the character generator 5 and expanded into the page memory 6, a print start code is detected in step 119. Then, processing of the stent 120 is started. That is, the process proceeds to the flowchart shown in FIG.

In step 12, the contents of the page memories 6 and 7 are read out in order, logically summed by the OR circuit 8, and sent to the printer mechanism 9 as a video signal. As a result, when the completion of printing on the paper is detected, it is checked in step 123 whether or not all the total number of pages of the form have been printed. Now, assuming that the total number of pages is equivalent to 5 copies, the process proceeds to step 124,
A second form correction is performed using the form correction data processed in step 109. and step 12
Perform the second printing again in step 1. In step 124, the third form is corrected again---and the fifth printing is performed.In step 114, it is detected that the total number of pages of the form has been printed, and the process advances to step 125, step 41.

Conventionally, according to the example, the process of step 125 does not exist and the process proceeds to step 126. After the page memory 6 is cleared, it receives the next print data and starts printing.

Next, processing step 1 added according to the present invention described above.
17.1251, the operation will be explained using FIG.

The difference in structure between the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 2 and the conventional example shown in FIG. 1 is summarized in that form image data is stored in the page memory 6. By storing print data also in the page memory 6, the page memory 7 can be eliminated. Although the form is corrected for each page, unless the form is known, the print data stored in the page memory 6 is changed every time five pages are printed if the form is five copies. A method for realizing this function using only the page memory 6 will be described below.

In the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, in step 117, the address stored in the page memory 6 regarding print data is stored in the table memory 10, and in step 125, the address stored in step 117 is stored in the table memory 10. By clearing the page memory 6 with , it is possible to erase only the print data on the page memory.

In FIG. 5, the part where print data is stored in the page memory 6 in step 117, ie, printing.

Th, ffi will be cleared (erase). When the next print data is on the drawing room T side, the apple, 5゜1000 of the previous data disappears, and the same position paste IJ, 10
, 300 are printed. According to the apparatus configuration shown in FIG. 2, the form correction in step 124 involves rewriting the contents of the page memory 6 to perform the correction.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the page memory for two pages required for high-speed processing can be reduced to the capacity of IN, and a significant cost reduction can be expected in constructing the system.

For reference, when A,'tJ size printing is performed at an M image resolution of 9 lines/interval, approximately 630 bytes of form page memory can be saved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

MT diagram is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a conventional device that implements the form overlay control method, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the device implementing the present invention, and FIGS. Overlay control flowchart 1.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the results of printing using form data and print data.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a printer with a seven-dimensional overlay function or its control device, form data and print data are allocated to the same location in a certain memory space, and a page memory in which each data is developed and stored as an image, and a page related to the above print data are allocated. It has a memory in which the addresses developed on the memory are stored in a table format, and based on the contents of this memory, the print data developed on the page memory is cleared, and the form data developed on the page memory is cleared. A form overlay control method characterized by updating.