KR100628564B1 - Image forming apparatus having function of converting printing data file format and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

An image forming apparatus having a print data file format conversion function and a method thereof are disclosed. An image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes an interface for receiving print data and print information thereof from an information processing apparatus, a graphic processing unit for generating an image file of at least one format designated according to print information using print data, and printing. It includes a control unit for interpreting the information to confirm the format and to control the graphics processing unit to generate an image file. Accordingly, the format of the image file may be changed or various document files other than the image file may be converted into image files of a desired format without having to purchase or install a separate application program.

File format, image file, print data, image forming device

Description

Image forming apparatus having function of converting printing data file format and method

1 is a block diagram showing an image forming apparatus and a host apparatus having a print data file conversion function according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing in detail the configuration of the graphic processor of FIG. 1; and

3 is a block diagram provided to explain an operation for file conversion of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

110: application unit 120: driver unit

210: interface unit 220: panel operation unit

230: printer engine 240: memory

250: control unit 260: graphics processing unit

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a print data file conversion function and a method thereof, and more particularly, to convert a received print data file to generate an image file of a predetermined format, to print or to transmit to an external device for storage. An image forming apparatus having a file format converting function and a method thereof are provided.

BACKGROUND ART Image forming apparatuses, such as printers and multifunction printers, typically transmit and receive data with an information processing apparatus such as a computer through serial or parallel lines, and receive print data from the information processing apparatus and print the printed data on printing paper.

The user loads an application program in the information processing apparatus to create or load a file including text and images to generate print data, transmit the image data to the image forming apparatus, and print on a printing sheet.

When creating or saving a file for the first time in an application program, the user creates the text file format and saves it as it is, or creates and saves an image file by specifying an image file format such as BMP, PDF, or TIFF.

When a print command is input from an application program to print the created file, an image forming apparatus such as PCL (Printer Control Language) or PS (Post Script) is created for the stored data file in a text file format or an image file format by the printer driver. The printer processes the data in a language recognizable by the printer to generate print data and transmit the data to the image forming apparatus.

Accordingly, when the image forming apparatus receives the print data transmitted from the information processing apparatus, the image forming apparatus generates a display list for the received print data file, and uses the generated display list to form a bitmap file consisting of binary data for a print job. After converting the image to a printer, various image processing tasks for printing are performed and printed on paper.

On the other hand, with the recent increase in the number of Internet users and the increasing number of users who operate web pages such as homepages, image files are widely used for web page editing, and it is common for users to create and edit such image files directly.

The format of an image file is various, such as JPEG, TIFF, PDF, etc., and each web page has a different type of image file format that can be used in the web page depending on the service provider providing the web service. Therefore, the user needs to change the format of the text file into the image file or convert the format of the existing image file in order to upload the material to the web page.

However, the format of the image file is fixed when the image file is first created, and in order to change the text file into the image file or convert the format of the image file, a format conversion program unique to the format and the format to be changed is provided. There must be a fairly inconvenient problem.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus and a method for converting a received print data file into an image file having a predetermined format, and having a print data file format converting function capable of printing or transmitting the image to an external device and storing the same. have.

An image forming apparatus having a print data file format conversion function according to the present invention for achieving the above object is an interface for receiving print data and print information thereof from an information processing apparatus, and according to the print information using the print data. And a graphic processing unit for generating an image file of at least one designated format, and a control unit for interpreting the print information to identify the format and controlling the graphic processing unit to generate the image file.

Preferably, the graphic processing unit, a bitmap generation unit for generating bitmap data for printing using the print data, and encoding the bitmap data according to the format to generate the image file It includes a coding unit.

More preferably, the print information includes at least one of whether the image file is generated for the print data, the format, and whether the image file is transmitted to the information processing apparatus after the image file is generated.

On the other hand, a print data file format conversion method of an image forming apparatus includes receiving print data and print information thereof from an information processing apparatus, generating bitmap data using the print data, and interpreting the print information. Checking whether the print data file format is converted and the format to be converted, and generating an image file according to the format using the bitmap data.

Preferably, the method may further include transmitting and storing the image file generated by the information processing apparatus according to the print information.

Hereinafter, with reference to the drawings will be described the present invention in more detail.

1 is a block diagram showing an image forming apparatus and a host apparatus having a print data file converting function according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown, the image forming apparatus 200 is connected to an external device such as the information processing apparatus 100 through a network, and the data generated or stored in the information processing apparatus 100 is converted into print data to convert the image forming apparatus ( 200).

Therefore, the image forming apparatus 200 processes the received print data, prints or generates an image file according to a specified format, and transmits it to the information processing apparatus 100 or to another external memory device (not shown) for storage. can do.

Referring to the drawings, the information processing apparatus 100 includes an application program unit (APP) 110, a driver unit 120, a controller 130, a network card 140, and a storage unit 150. .

Application program unit 110 may be a Microsoft Word program, Hangul and computer company under Hangul, such as a document writing program or a self-made application program, and creates a document file or load the stored document file.

In the present exemplary embodiment, the application program unit 110 mainly describes a document writing program for word processing and a corresponding document file for convenience of explanation and understanding. In addition, an image program for editing and generating an image file, and an image The same can be applied to various application programs capable of generating print data transmitted from the host computer 100 to the image forming apparatus 200 such as a file.

When a print command is input to a document file generated or loaded by the application program unit 110, a GDI (Graphic Device Interface) program (not shown) may display a font and a bitmap for characters and graphics constituting the document file. (bitmap) and vector (vector) information is grasped, converted into a function that can be recognized by the driver unit 120 and transmitted to the driver unit 120.

The driver 120 receives a function for a document file and converts it into print data that can be recognized by the image forming apparatus 200. Print data is generated using a language such as PCL or PS. In particular, the driver unit 120 provides a user with a menu for selecting various options for printing, such as a print data file format conversion function, in the form of a pop-up window according to a print command, and controls the options selected by the user from the menu. Forward to 130.

Here, the print option selection menu window provided by the driver unit 120 provides an item for selecting a print data file format conversion function. For example, the format of an image file to be converted, an information processing device after file format conversion ( Submenu items for selecting details such as whether to transmit the converted file or whether to transmit the converted file to other external devices are provided.

The controller 130 controls the overall operation of the information processing apparatus 100 according to the driving program stored in the storage 150 to be described later. For example, the control unit 130 controls the application program unit 100 to generate a document file, and when a print command for the generated document file is input, the control unit 130 controls the driver unit 120 to provide a print option selection menu. And generate print data according to the selected option, and transmit the generated print data to the image forming apparatus 200 through the network card 140.

In particular, the controller 130 generates print information on the print data according to the print option input through the driver 120 and transmits the print information to the image forming apparatus together with the print data.

The network card 140 is for connecting the information processing apparatus 100 with a network such as a LAN or the Internet, and includes an I / O interface unit (not shown). The network card 140 is connected to the image forming apparatus 200 to perform mutual data communication between the information processing apparatus 100 and the image forming apparatus 200, and transmits print data to the information processing apparatus 100. Then, the image file converted by the image forming apparatus 200 is received.

The storage unit 150 includes a nonvolatile memory device (ROM) (not shown) and a volatile memory device (RAM) (not shown). The ROM (not shown) stores various control programs necessary to implement the functions of the information processing apparatus 100, and the RAM (not shown) temporarily stores data according to program execution of the controller 130. In addition, the storage unit 150 temporarily stores the print data generated by the driver unit 120 according to the present invention in a RAM (not shown), and when the image file converted from the image forming apparatus 200 is transmitted, a ROM (not shown) is transmitted. Store in

Meanwhile, referring back to FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus 200 may include an interface 210, a panel operator 220, a printer engine 230, a memory 240, a controller 250, and a graphics processor ( 260). In FIG. 1, only blocks related to the print data file format conversion function according to the present invention are shown in the image forming apparatus, and other blocks are omitted for convenience of description.

The interface unit 210 receives data applied from the information processing apparatus 100 by interfacing between the information processing apparatus 100 such as a personal computer or an external device such as a memory device and the controller 250, or the image forming apparatus. Data is transmitted from the 200 to the information processing apparatus 100 or the memory device.

The panel operation unit (OPE) 220 includes an input unit (not shown) including a plurality of numeric keys and function keys, and applies a control signal generated by a user's key operation to the controller 250. In addition, the panel manipulation unit (OPE) 220 includes an LCD (not shown) for displaying an operation state of the image forming apparatus.

The printer engine 230 prints print data stored in the memory 240 according to a print command input by the control of the controller 250 or prints data transmitted from the information processing apparatus 100.

The memory 240 is a non-volatile memory that stores various control programs for performing an operation of the image forming apparatus 200 having a print data file format conversion function, and data and data generated during the operation of the image forming apparatus 200. It includes a volatile memory for storing details about. For example, the volatile memory temporarily stores print data received from the information processing apparatus 100 through the interface unit 210 and temporarily stores an image file generated according to a file format conversion function. In addition, the nonvolatile memory stores various programs necessary for the operation of the graphic processor 260.

The controller 250 generally controls the image forming apparatus 200 according to a driving program embedded in the memory 240, and receives the print data according to the print data and the print information received from the information processing apparatus 100. Whether the file format is converted, whether the print job is performed, the format of the print data and the image file to be converted, and the like are controlled, and the graphic processor 260 is controlled to convert the file into a file having a specified format.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating in detail the configuration of the graphic processor of FIG. 1.

The format of an image file refers to the type of file in which an image is stored. Depending on how the file is compressed and stored, the file size can be reduced and increased, and the file format is converted accordingly. Examples of such image file formats include BMP (BitMaP), TIFF (Tag Image File Format), and PDF (Portable Document Format). Each of the above file formats is generated according to a format defined in the standard and distinguished by the compression scheme and the header.

The graphic processor 260 generates a bitmap file which is a raw data of the bitmap method for printing from the received data file under the control of the controller 250, and uses the generated bitmap file to generate a bitmap file. Create an image file. Referring to FIG. 2, the file converter 260 includes a bitmap generator 261 and a coding unit 263.

The bitmap generator 261 generates a display list for the print data, and renders the display list by using a graphic engine unit (GEU) (not shown) which is generally implemented as an ASIC. Generate map data. Bitmap data for printing is data consisting of binary codes of 0 and 1, and is a data format basically generated in the image forming apparatus 200 to perform various image processing processes for printing.

The coding unit 262 generates an image file according to the format of a file to be converted input from the control unit 250 using the bitmap data for printing generated by the bitmap generation unit 261.

The coding unit 262 encodes the bitmap data using a program corresponding to a format of an image file to be converted stored in a nonvolatile memory of the memory 240 according to a control signal input from the controller 250. Create an image file of that format.

Image file formats include, for example, TIFF format and PDF format, and the controller 250 controls the coding unit 262 to perform encoding on uncompressed bitmap data to generate an image file of a corresponding format. do.

The TIFF file consists of three parts: image file header (IFH), image file directory (IFD), and image data.Limel Ziv Welch (LZW), etc. Compression techniques are also used. In TIFF files, IFH occupies a fixed position of the first 8 bytes of the file, but the position of the IFD and image data is not fixed.

On the other hand, PDF files are generated by applying compression techniques such as LZW and Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) to bitmap raw data, and include header, body, cross reference (xref) table and trailer. It consists of four parts: Here, the body part includes data about all objects such as a font, an image, and a bookmark. The header part indicates the type of the PDF file, and the trailer includes a pointer to the xref table and a key object included in the trailer directory. The xref table also contains pointers to all the objects contained in the PDF.

As described above, the TIFF format and the PDF format have been described as examples, but the present invention can be generally applied to an image file format that can be generated using bitmap data. The encoding program required for generation is previously stored in the nonvolatile memory area of the memory 240 of the image forming apparatus 200.

3 is a block diagram provided to explain an operation for converting a print data file format of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

First, a user generates a document file using the application program unit 110 of the information processing apparatus 100 or loads a document file stored in the storage unit 150, and converts the print data file format through the driver unit 120. Print data is generated by selecting various options for printing such as a function and entering a print command. Various options for printing include whether to convert the image file format of the print data, the format of the image file to be converted, whether to transfer the converted file to the information processing apparatus 100 or other external device after the file format is converted.

Subsequently, the control unit 130 of the information processing apparatus 100 transmits the print data and the print information such as the selected print option to the image forming apparatus 200 through the network card 140.

When the print data transmitted through the interface 210 and the print information thereof are received (S310), the controller 250 of the image forming apparatus 200 interprets the print information to determine whether to convert the file format of the received print data. Check whether the print job is performed, the print data to be converted and the format of the image file, and control the graphic processor 260 to generate a display list for the print data and generate a bitmap file for printing by using the same. (S320).

Subsequently, the controller 250 controls the coding unit 262 of the graphic processor 260 when the format is converted into an image file for the print data according to whether to convert the file format for the print data (S330). A program necessary to encode an image file of a format to be converted is activated from the memory 240 to encode bitmap data and generate an image file (S340).

In addition, the controller 250 temporarily stores the generated image file in the volatile memory of the memory 240, and then transmits the generated image file to the information processing apparatus 100 through the interface 210 according to the interpreted print information, or a memory stick. It transmits and stores to an external device (S350).

On the other hand, if the print data file format conversion is not selected, the controller 250 transmits the generated bitmap data to the printer engine 230 to perform various image processing and to print on paper (S360).

As described above, according to the present invention, after generating bitmap data for printing on the print data transmitted from the information processing apparatus, converts it into an image file of a specified format, retransmits it to the information processing apparatus, or transmits to an external memory device. Can be stored.

In addition, the format of the image file may be changed or various document files other than the image file may be converted into image files of a desired format without having to purchase or install a separate application program.

In addition, although the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been shown and described above, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, but the technical field to which the invention belongs without departing from the spirit of the invention claimed in the claims. Of course, various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art, and these modifications should not be individually understood from the technical spirit or the prospect of the present invention.

Claims (5)

An interface for receiving print data and print information thereof from the information processing apparatus; A graphic processing unit including a bitmap generation unit generating bitmap data for printing using the print data and a coding unit generating the image file by encoding the bitmap data according to the format; And And a control unit for interpreting the print information to check the format and to control the graphic processing unit to generate the image file. delete The method of claim 1, The print information may include at least one of whether the image file is generated for the print data, the format, and whether the image file is transmitted to the information processing apparatus after the image file is generated. Image forming apparatus. Receiving print data and print information thereof from the information processing apparatus; Generating bitmap data using the print data; And Analyzing the print information to determine whether to convert the print data file format and the format to be converted, and generating an image file according to the format using the bitmap data. How to convert the print data file format. The method of claim 4, wherein And transmitting and storing the image file generated by the information processing apparatus according to the print information.

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