JPS60159929A - Printer control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To print out a character and a graphic by a line printing operation of once by providing a graphic image generating part, a character image generating part, and a line buffer for storing a printing image of a line unit, on a printer. CONSTITUTION:When a character and graphic printing data is received from a higher rank device H-CPU through a receiving interface part 12, a CPU11 executes an access to a character pattern memory 13 successively in accordance with each character code of its one line portion, and develops a generated character image onto a line buffer 15. Also, thereafter, a graphic image is generated in accordance with a parameter of a graphic data of te corresponding line position, overlaps and stores its graphic image on the line buffer 15, and the character image and the graphic image are synthesized on the line buffer 15. Thereafter, it is sent out to a printer 30, and the character and the graphic are printed out simultaneously by a line movement of a printing head of once, by which the number of times of movement of the printing head can be reduced.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention has a graphic image generation means that generates a graphic image from parameters of graphic data, and develops a print image line by line on a line buffer and prints it out. The present invention relates to a printer control device used in a printer.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems] Conventionally, in processing devices such as word processors that handle characters and graphics, when printing images of characters, graphics, etc. on a printer, these printed images are printed one page at a time. There was one that was developed in units of page memory, and was sequentially taken out and printed out according to printing operations. However, this type of print control means requires a large page memory for storing print images on a page-by-page basis, resulting in an economically disadvantageous configuration. was. Therefore, a configuration was realized in which graphic data is given as parameters and graphic images are developed on a row buffer. However, in conventional devices of this type, character images and graphic images are developed on a line buffer at separate line printing timings, and characters and figures are printed out by operating on the same line twice. This has the disadvantage that a large amount of time is consumed in printing the entire page.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and includes extracting parameters of a figure to be printed from parameters of figure data,
In a printer that has a graphic image generation section that generates a graphic image, a character image generation section that generates a character image from a character code, and a line buffer that stores a line-by-line print image, it is possible to print characters on the same line. Even when figures are mixed, the characters and figures can be printed out in a single line printing operation, greatly reducing the time required to print a page when letters and figures are mixed. The purpose of this invention is to provide a printer control device.

[Summary of the Invention] The present invention, when both characters and figures are included in a line to be printed, performs both character image generation processing and figure image generation processing when printing that line. This system obtains character images and graphic images, combines each image on a line buffer (or writes), and prints out the resulting image.
The printer can be output with just one print head movement operation, greatly reducing the number of print head movements (number of line printing operations) and greatly shortening the printing time for the entire page.

[Embodiment of the Invention] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1st
The figure is a block diagram showing the overall configuration.

In the figure, 11 is a processing device (CPtJ) that controls the printer control bag Mi, and 12 is a host side device (H-CPU).
a receiving interface unit (R-1/F) that receives various data for printing sent from the computer; 13 is a character pattern that converts the input character code into a character image (character pattern) unique to that code; It's memory. 1
Reference numeral 4 denotes an internal memory having a control program storage area (EA), a graphic image generation program storage area (EB), a graphic generation parameter storage area (hereinafter referred to as parameter area; EC), and the like. 15 is a line buffer for storing one line of image (dot pattern data) to be printed; 16 is a transmission interface unit (T-1/
F). Here, the printer 30 to be controlled is
Use a serial printer and do not feed the paper backwards.

FIG. 2 is a control block configuration diagram of the main parts in the above embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 20 denotes a print execution control unit that receives various printing information received by the reception interface unit 12 and controls printing including print image development control, print execution control, paper feeding control, etc. according to the commands. , 21 is a character image generation unit that generates a character image according to the code from the character code given by the print execution control unit 20, and 22 is a graphic image according to the parameter from the parameters of the graphic data given by the print execution control unit 20. This is a graphic image generation unit that generates. 23 determines whether or not to print text and graphic images on the same line position from the data taken into the print execution control unit 20, and when printing text and graphic images on the same line position, A character/graphic image synthesis control section that controls the operation of the image generation section 21 and the graphic image generation section 22 at predetermined timings, and develops each generated image into a dot at a corresponding position on the □ line buffer 15. It is.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the above embodiment, and in the figure, S
is the range that can be printed in one printing operation, that is, the print head width (for example, 24 dot width), Pi and Pj are the vertex position coordinates indicated by the parameters of each figure, and LF+ is the line feed.

Here, the operation of one embodiment will be described without reference to the drawings. When the processing device 11 receives character and graphic print data from the higher-level device (H-CPLJ) via the receiving interface unit 12, it sequentially accesses the character pattern memory 13 according to each character code for one line, and The generated character image is developed on the line buffer 15. Furthermore, after that, a graphic image is generated according to the parameters of the graphic data at the corresponding row position, and the graphic image is repeatedly stored (or written) on the row buffer 15.
5, the character image and graphic image are combined.

A specific example of the operation at this time will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. Here, an example will be explained in which a rope is registered as a figure and processed.

When one line of print data is input to the print execution control unit 20, the character/graphic image composition control unit 23 determines whether or not the print data includes character data and graphic data. If the character image generator 21 contains the input character code and graphic data, the character image generator 21 is activated and a character image (dot pattern data) according to the input character code generated by the character image generator 21 is placed on the line buffer 15. Expand the dots. For example, in the case of printing on the top indicated by S in FIG. Next, the figure image generation section 22
is activated, and a graphic image according to the input parameters generated by the graphic image generation section 22 is overwritten (or written) on the row buffer 15. Taking FIG. 3 as an example, the dot positions are made to correspond to the characters rABcDEJ that have already been written, and a hatching pattern is OR-written.

When the images of characters and graphics for one line are combined and stored on the line buffer 15 in this way, the images stored in the line buffer 15 are transferred to the transmission interface unit 16 under the control of the print execution control unit 20. sequentially via printer 3
0 and printed out. This line-by-line printing process is sequentially executed until the end of the page.

As mentioned above, when printing characters and figures on the same line, the character image and the figure image are combined by OR writing on the line buffer 15, and then sent to the printer 30 for one printing. By simultaneously printing out characters and graphics by moving the head in rows, the number of times the print head moves can be significantly reduced, thereby significantly reducing the printing time for the entire page.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the present invention, there is provided a graphic image generation unit that extracts parameters of a figure to be printed from parameters of graphic data and generates a graphic image, and generates a character image from character codes. In a printer that has a character image generation unit and a line buffer that stores print images line by line, when characters and figures coexist on the same line, the image of the character and the image of the figure are stored on the line buffer. By using a configuration that prints lines after composing them in It is possible to provide a printer control device that can significantly shorten the time required to print pages when a mixture of pages is printed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall hardware configuration, FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of the main parts, and FIG. 3 is an operation explanatory diagram. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11... Processing device, 12... Reception interface part, 13... Character pattern memory, 14... Internal memory, 15... Line buffer 1.1G... Transmission interface part, 2o... Print execution control unit, 21...Character image generation unit, 22...Graphic image generation unit, 23.
. . . Character/figure image synthesis control unit, 30 . . . Printer. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue No. 1 Figure j Figure 2 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] It has a graphic image generation section that generates a graphic image from parameters of graphic data, a character image generation section that generates a character image from character codes, and a line buffer that stores print images on a line-by-line basis. A printer that edits a print image determines whether or not to develop images of characters and graphics on the same line position, and when developing images of characters and graphics on the same line position, the character image The generating section generates a character image, the graphic image generating section generates a graphic image, and the means for synthesizing the character image and the graphic image on the line buffer is provided. A printer control device characterized in that it prints out by one line printing scan.