KR100196789B1 - The increased band buffering printing - Google Patents

Abstract

end. The technical field to which the invention described in the claims belongs

The present invention relates to an incremental band buffered printing method.

I. The technical problem to be solved by the invention

Complex images are printed by band buffering printing.

All. Summary of Solution of the Invention

Converting the received print data into a symbolic command while receiving the print data until receiving the print data of one page from the host, and when the reception of the print data of the one page is completed, the complexity of the image with the symbolic command Detecting a number of band buffers, and if the complexity of the image is detected, setting the number of band buffers by the number of band buffers corresponding to the complexity of the detected image among the predetermined number of band buffers corresponding to the complexity of the image; And if the number of band buffers is set, band buffering printing using the number of band buffers.

la. Important uses of the invention

Used for page printers.

Description

Incremental Band Buffering Printing Method

The present invention relates to a printing method, and more particularly, to a band buffered printing method.

In general, a page printer emulates data corresponding to one page among print data received from a host, converts the data into image data, and buffers the image data. The buffered image data is input to the print engine to perform printing on one page.

In order to print in this manner, the page printer needed a memory for buffering image data corresponding to one page and other necessary memory. For example, about 1 [Mbytes] of memory is required to store image data corresponding to letter size (8 × 11). In addition, since all image data corresponding to one page is generated in advance and an image is generated according to the generated image data, printing time is required a lot.

In order to reduce the capacity of the expensive memory and shorten the printing time, a band buffering printing method is conventionally employed.

In order to implement the band buffered printing method, the page printer should have a memory capable of storing two image data and a memory capable of storing one page of symbolic commands. In this case, the two regions are referred to as a first band buffer and a second band buffer for convenience by dividing the regions of the memory for storing the two band image data into two. The memory for storing the symbolic command is called a symbolic memory.

The printing process of the page printer having the memory as described above is as follows. The video controller of the page printer converts data corresponding to one page of data received from the host into a symbolic command. The data converted by the symbolic command is stored in the symbolic memory. When the conversion of the image data corresponding to the one page is completed, the video controller converts the symbolic commands corresponding to the two bands to the image data in the symbolic command. When the conversion of the image data is completed, the video controller stores the image data in the first band buffer and the second band buffer. At this time, the video controller transmits the image data stored in the first band buffer to the engine unit. At this time, the engine unit prints an image corresponding to the image data. At this time, when the engine unit is performing printing, the video controller searches whether it is time to transmit image data for the next band. At this time, if it is not time to transmit the image data for the next band, the video controller converts the symbol data for the next band into image data and stores the symbol data in the empty first band buffer. When the image data for the next band is to be transmitted, the next image data is read from the band buffer in which the next image is stored and transmitted to the engine unit to perform printing on the engine unit.

By performing the printing in this manner, unlike the conventional method, a memory of a capacity capable of storing one page of image data was able to perform normal printing even with a low capacity memory.

However, in the above-described method, when the image to be printed is a very complex image such as a photograph and the like, which requires a shade or color other than black and white, the conversion time from the symbolic command to image data is very large. Accordingly, even when the engine unit has finished printing one band, it may not be able to generate image data corresponding to the next band. In this case, the engine unit could no longer print an image normally.

As described above, the conventional band buffering printing method has a problem that normal printing cannot be performed when an image to be printed is complicated.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an incremental band buffering printing method that enables normal printing even when printing a complex image.

1 is a block diagram of a conventional page printer.

2 is a flow chart of an incremental band buffered printing method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention for achieving the above object is a step of converting the received print data into a symbolic command while receiving the print data until receiving the print data of one page from the host; Detecting the complexity of the image with the symbolic command, and if the complexity of the image is detected, from the number of band buffers corresponding to the complexity of the image in advance, the number of band buffers corresponding to the complexity of the detected image. And setting the number of band buffers, and if the number of band buffers is set, performing band buffering printing using the number of band buffers.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description and the annexed drawings, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. And a detailed description of known functions and configurations that may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention will be omitted.

Referring to FIG. 1, which shows a schematic configuration diagram of a laser beam printer, which is a type of page printer, the laser beam printer includes a video controller 10, a print engine unit 20, and an operation panel 18. As shown in FIG.

The video controller 10 includes a computer interface 12, a video controller 14, and an engine interface 16. The computer interface 12 interfaces an input / output signal connected between the host computer and the video controller 14. The video controller 14 includes a ROM having a control program, an operation panel 18 and a RAM for temporarily storing various data, and symbolizes data codes received from the computer interface 12. The symbol data is converted into image data and transmitted to the print engine unit 20. The engine interface 16 interfaces the input / output signals with the print engine unit 20 under the control of the video control unit 14.

The operation panel 18 is controlled by the video control unit 14 and includes a plurality of keys for inputting various commands and a display device for displaying information according to the operation of the printer.

The print engine unit 20 includes a video interface 22, an engine controller 24, an input / output interface 26, and an engine unit 28 and is connected to the video controller 10. The video interface 22 provides an interface for transmission and reception signals between the video controller 10 and the engine controller 24. The engine controller 24 controls the engine unit 28 under the control of the video controller 10 to print an image according to the image data received from the video controller 10 on a sheet of paper. The input / output interface 26 interfaces between the engine control unit 24 and the engine unit 29.

2 shows a flowchart of an incremental band buffered printing method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. In operation 30 of FIG. 2, the video controller 14 searches whether data is received. In this case, when the data is received, the video controller 14 performs step 32, and when the data is not received, performs the step 30 again. In step 32, the video controller 14 searches whether all data of one page has been received. In this case, the video controller 14 proceeds to step 36 if all of the data of one page is received, and proceeds to step 34 otherwise. In step 34, the video controller 14 converts the received print data into a symbolic command to generate a symbolic command. In this case, the symbolic command is data in an intermediate state between the print data and the image data input from the host. When the conversion of the received print data into symbolic data is performed, the video controller 14 performs step 30.

In step 36, the video controller 14 detects the complexity by searching the generated symbolic command. Here, the time required when converting a symbolic command corresponding to a complex image such as a photograph into image data is longer than the time required when converting a symbolic command corresponding to a document into image data. In addition, the more complex the image, the larger the data amount of the symbolic command. Accordingly, the complexity of the image can be retrieved by retrieving the data amount of the symbolic command. At this time, the complexity is set corresponding to the data amount of the symbolic command. The complexity may be set in a number of steps corresponding to a symbolic command. In the embodiment of the present invention, the complexity is classified into three types of 'up', 'middle', and 'low'.

The complexity 'up' means that the complexity of the image is very high, so that the conversion time from the symbolic command to the image data is very long. Therefore, when the complexity is 'high', it takes a long time to convert from symbolic commands to image data, and thus, a band buffer used for band buffering printing is frequently used. To this end, the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of band buffers. At this time, when band buffering printing a very complex image such as a photograph, if the band buffer is set to seven, the print engine unit 20 can form an image normally. Accordingly, in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, seven band buffers are set. At this time, in the description of the present invention described below, when the complexity is 'up', the band buffer is set to N, where N may be 7 or more.

The complexity "low" means that the image complexity is low, so that the conversion time from the symbolic command to the image data is short. In this way, when the conversion time from the symbolic command to the image data is short, the number of band buffers used for band buffering printing is not affected at least. Accordingly, the band buffer is set to a decimal number. In the embodiment of the present invention, the number of band buffers set when the complexity is 'low' is referred to as L, which may be two. The number 2 is the number of band buffers included in the band buffering printing method which is commonly used, and this is the number of band buffers that the print engine unit 20 can print without any problem when printing an image that is not complicated.

The complexity of 'medium' indicates that the complexity of the image is medium and the conversion time from the symbolic command to the image data is medium. Accordingly, the number of band buffers is set by the number between N or L described above. That is, the number of the band buffers is less than seven and more than two. This is indicated by M in the description below.

In step 36, the video controller 14 searches whether the complexity is 'phase'. If the complexity is 'up', the video controller 14 performs step 38, and if the complexity is not 'up', the video controller 14 performs step 40. In step 38, the video controller 14 sets the number of band buffers to N. When the setting of the band buffer is completed, the video controller 14 performs step 46.

In step 40, the video controller 14 searches whether the complexity is 'medium'. If the complexity is 'medium', the video controller 14 performs step 42, and if the complexity is not 'medium', the video controller 14 performs step 44. In step 42, the video controller 14 sets the number of band buffers to M pieces. When the number of band buffers is set, the video controller 14 performs step 46.

In step 44, the video controller 14 sets the number of band buffers to L. The complexity at this time is 'ha'. When the number of band buffers is set, the video controller 14 performs step 46.

In step 46, the video controller 14 converts symbolic data corresponding to the set number of band buffers into image data. When the conversion of the image data is finished, the video controller 14 buffers the image data in a set number of band buffers. When the buffering ends, the video controller 14 proceeds to step 48 and transmits image data corresponding to the first band buffered in the first band buffer to the print engine unit 20. After transmitting the image data to the print engine 20, the video controller 14 performs step 50. In step 50, the video controller 14 searches whether it is time to transmit the next image data to the print engine 20. FIG. At this time, the video controller 14 performs step 56 when it is time to transmit the next image data to the print engine unit 20, and performs step 52 when it is not time to transmit the next image data. do. In step 52, the video controller 14 searches whether data conversion corresponding to the last band has been performed. In this case, the video controller 14 performs step (50) when data conversion corresponding to the last band is performed, and performs step (54) when data conversion corresponding to the last band is not performed. In step 54, the video controller 14 converts the symbolic data corresponding to the next band of the finally converted band into image data. When the conversion of the image data is finished, the video controller 14 performs step 50.

In operation 52, the video controller 14 transmits image data corresponding to the next band of the band finally transmitted to the print engine 20 to the print engine 20. At this time, the print engine unit 20 receives the image data to form an image corresponding to the image data. When the transmission of the image data is finished, the video controller 14 performs step 58. In step 58, the video controller 14 searches whether the image data transmitted in step 56 is image data corresponding to the last band. At this time, the video controller 14 ends if the image data is image data corresponding to the last band, and if the image data is not image data corresponding to the last band, performs the step (50) again.

As described above, in the present invention, in performing band buffering printing, the number of band buffers to be buffered is changed corresponding to the complexity of the image to be printed. Accordingly, since the number of band buffers is increased when printing a very complicated image, the print engine 20 can form an image without difficulty even in the case of a complicated image.

As described above, the present invention can band-buffer a complex image.

Claims (3)

An incremental band buffered printing method comprising the steps of: converting received print data into a symbolic command while receiving print data until a print data of one page is received from a host; and receiving the print data of one page is completed. Detecting the complexity of the image using the symbolic command; and if the complexity of the image is detected, the number of band buffers corresponding to the complexity of the detected image among the predetermined number of band buffers corresponding to the complexity of the image is banded. And setting the number of buffers, and if the number of the band buffers is set, performing band buffering printing using the number of band buffers. 22. The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein the complexity of the image is detected by the data amount of the symbolic command. The method according to claim 2, wherein the number of band buffers previously determined corresponding to the complexity of the image is determined to be larger than the number of the band buffers, if the complexity of the image indicates the complexity of the image, and the complexity of the image is not complicated. Increasing band buffering printing method characterized in that it is usually determined by the number less than the number of band buffers.