JPH03136465A - image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that forms images at a plurality of resolutions.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printer device is generally known as a device that inputs data from a host device (such as a host computer) and forms an image. Devices of this type include type printers, wire dot printers, inkjet printers, laser beam printers, etc., depending on the mechanical parts that form images. Among them, laser beam printers turn on the laser beam in synchronization with the image signal.
This device forms an image using electrophotographic technology by horizontally scanning a laser beam with a polygonal mirror called a polygon mirror to form a latent image of light on a photosensitive drum.

For this reason, recently, a technique has been disclosed in which the main scanning resolution is changed by changing the rotation speed of a polygon mirror, and the sub-scanning resolution is changed by changing the speed of paper conveyance.

Furthermore, in laser beam printers, characters are formed by a collection of laser beam dots, so characters of any size, font, etc. can be printed. For this purpose, for example, if you want to print characters other than the character pattern built into the printer itself, download that character pattern from the host device, register it inside the printer, and later use the character code etc. to print that character pattern. It is now possible to print by giving instructions.

Similarly, by registering image data, ruled line data, etc. to be used for multiple pages in advance and instructing them later, it is now possible to save time in sending the same data for each page.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the conventional example described above, much of the various image information to be registered depends on the resolution (if the resolution is changed, it becomes unusable, so all of this registered information is initialized and had been deleted.

Additionally, if there is software that supports multiple resolutions running on a host device (host computer, etc.), the software must be registered every time the software is changed.
In particular, since kanji have a large number of characters, it took time to register them.

The present invention was made to solve the above problems, and
When changing the resolution, save the registered information and
An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that reduces the workload of an operator by restoring saved registration information when the original resolution is restored.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, an image forming apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, the image forming apparatus is capable of forming images at a plurality of resolutions, and includes a setting means for setting each resolution, a storage means for storing data corresponding to the current resolution when setting with the setting means, and a storage means for storing data corresponding to the current resolution. The apparatus includes a restoring means for comparing the resolution of the data stored by the means and the new resolution set by the setting means, and restoring the data if they match.

Preferably, the storage means outputs error information when the storage area is insufficient.

[Operation] In the above configuration, when setting a new resolution, data corresponding to the current resolution is saved, the resolution of the saved data and the new resolution are compared, and if they match, the data of the matching resolution is saved. It works to restore it.

Also, if there is insufficient storage space when saving, it will output error information.

[Embodiment] Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<Description of Configuration (FIG. 1)> FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing the configuration of an image forming apparatus in this embodiment. In the figure, 100 is an image signal 121 that analyzes an input signal 120 from a host device (not shown).
This is a controller that sends out a control signal 122 that notifies the image forming mechanism section 106 of the specified resolution to be described later. Reference numeral 106 denotes an image forming mechanism section that receives the above-mentioned control signal 122 and image signal 121 and forms an image at a specified resolution.

Furthermore, the internal configuration of the controller 100 in this embodiment is as follows:
As shown in the figure, an input interface 101 that receives input data, a CPU 102 that performs control, a character generator 103 that generates a character pattern from a specified character code and character size, and a system that temporarily generates the character pattern, image data, etc. Image memory 104 to store, image memory 10
4, an output interface 105 that reads an image from 4 and sends out an image signal 121 with an image clock according to a specified resolution; a storage management table 107 for storing registration information (described later); a registration management table 108 for managing registration information; It consists of a registration memory 109 that stores registration information and a panel 110 that performs operations.

Note that the resolution of this device is set to a certain resolution when the power is turned on. That is, the resolution at power-on is stored in a storage device such as a non-volatile memory (not shown) that retains information even when the power is turned off, and the resolution is set accordingly.

In that case, the resolution is determined by the CPU 102 via the output interface 105 and the control signal 122 from the image forming unit 10.
6, and the image forming unit 106 is configured to receive the signal and set internal main scanning and sub-scanning resolutions.

Switching the resolution> Here, when switching the set resolution, the operator operates the panel 111 and sends an instruction signal 123 to the CPU 102 to switch to the desired resolution, or the higher-level device can switch the resolution. The resolution is switched according to the sent resolution switching control command. As shown in FIG. 5, this resolution switching control command is composed of an ID code 501 that identifies it as a control code and a resolution 502 that is actually to be specified, and a code different from the general character code is used. ing.

When the CPU 102 inputs an instruction to change the resolution using such a method, the controller 100 prepares for changing the resolution.

The control procedure of the CPU 102 in this case will be explained according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, in step 5601, the current resolution and the designated resolution are compared, and if they are the same, nothing is done and the process proceeds to initialization processing in step 5606. However, if the resolutions are different, the process advances to the next step 5602, and it is checked whether there is any registered data. This process checks the number of registration tables 201 in the registration management table shown in Figure 2, and if the value is "0", it is determined that there is "no registered data", otherwise it is determined that there is "registered data". This is a judgment process. As a result, if there is "registered data", the process advances to step 5603, and a save process, which will be described in detail later, is executed.However, if "there is no registered data", the process directly advances to step 5604, and the specified new resolution is That is, the control signal 122 of the new resolution is notified to the image forming mechanism section 106 via the output interface 105.

Next, when the control signal 122 indicating the end of resolution switching is input from the image forming mechanism section 106, the next step 560 is performed.
The process proceeds to step 5, and if there is previously saved registration information for the new resolution, a restoration process is performed to restore the original information. In step 8606, various control tables are initialized to correspond to the newly designated resolution, and the process ends.

Here, details of the above-mentioned save processing in step 5603 and return processing in step 5605 will be explained below according to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 7 to 9.

In addition, for explanation, each configuration example of the above-mentioned registration management table 108 and storage management table 107 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the registration management table 108 in this embodiment. As shown in the figure, the main management table 108 includes an area 201 for storing the number of registered tables.
．． Area 20 for storing the start address of the registration memory 109
2. Area 203 for storing the start address of free memory;
It consists of an area 204 that stores free memory capacity.

In the above configuration, in this embodiment, two types of registration information (registration table 1.2) 211 and 212 are stored in the registration memory 1.
09 respectively. Note that the number of registration tables is determined by the capacity of the registration memory 109.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of the storage management table 107 in this embodiment. This management table 107 has a storage management table area 310° and a storage table area 32.
0, and the storage management table area 310 includes fixed areas 301 to 3 that do not depend on the number of saved resolutions.
05, and saved resolution tables 306, 307, . . . corresponding to each saved resolution. The storage management table area 310 includes an area 301 for storing the number of saved resolutions, an area 3029 for storing the total number of saved tables, an area 303 for storing the address of the next saved resolution table, and an area 303 for storing the address of the next saved table. An area 304 for storing . It is made up of an area 305 that stores the capacity of the remaining storage table.

The storage resolution table also includes an area 311 for storing one resolution, an area 312 for storing the address of the storage table 320, and so on. an area 313 for storing the number of save tables;
Area 31 for storing the address of the next save table 320
4, and manages a storage table area 320 that stores registered data for one resolution.

On the other hand, the storage table area 320 is an area composed of storage tables 321, 322, 323, etc., and when changing the resolution and saving registered data, the registration tables 211, 212 are stored in the storage table area 320. Created by moving it to the area.

Next, details of the above-mentioned storage process will be explained below according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, in step S701, the address 303 of the storage resolution table of the storage management table 310 described above is referred to, and the next storage resolution table 307 is secured. This table has a fixed size, and one table corresponds to one resolution. In this example,
It is assumed that the area 307 has been secured.

However, if there is not enough space for the storage resolution table, an error message or the like is output to the panel 110. Next, in step 5702, the existing resolution is set to the resolution area 307 of the stored resolution table 307. Similarly, in the following step 5703, the start address 303 of the storage table is set to the area 312, and in step 5704
The number of registration tables (201 in FIG. 2) is set in the area 313 as the number of storage tables.

Next, in step 5705, the number of registration tables (20
1) only in the registration table (in this example, 211 in Fig. 2).
, 212) according to the start address 312 of the storage table. At this time, each time one registration table is copied, address 3 of the storage table of the storage management table is copied.
04. The value of the capacity 305 of the remaining storage table is updated.

Also, by checking this capacity 305, it can be determined whether there is an empty area for the next storage table, and if there is not, an error message is output before copying.

When the copying is completed, the process advances to step 5706.
Each area of the storage management table 310 is updated. Specifically, the number of storage resolutions (301) is increased, the total number of storage tables (302) is increased, and the number of registration tables (20 in Figure 2) is increased.
1) and then adds the above-mentioned fixed size to the address (303) of the next storage resolution table.

Next, in step 5707, the number of registration tables (201)
is initialized to "0", and each registration table 109 is also initialized. The configuration of this registration table 109 is the same as the storage table 321 shown in FIG.

Here, each item 401 to 404 is information that does not depend on the contents of the registration information, and has the same configuration as the registration table shown in FIG. 2. The above-mentioned initialization process initializes the start address of the registration memory and sets it to "O", which is the capacity of the registration memory.

Next, in step 5708, registration memory relocation processing is performed. This process poses no problem if the registered information is only registered and the registered information is not deleted individually, but if it is deleted midway through, an empty area may be created in the memory. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating this state. Here, 4
21, 423 is registered information, and 422 inside indicates an empty area. Also, 321.322 is step 5705
Save table 1 and save table 2 copied in
It shows its internal configuration. In the figure, 401 is an identification code indicating the type of registration, and 402 is a management table 32.
The size is 1. 403 is the start address of the registration memory where the actual registration information of this registration type is stored, and indicates the start address of 421. Further, 404 is the capacity of the registration memory, which is the size of 421. Similarly, information corresponding to 401 to 404 is written in 322, and this part has the same configuration regardless of the type of registration. Note that 405 and 406 are management tables for each registration, depending on each registration type.

Therefore, the internal configuration and size are also different.

Next, detailed processing in step 8708 described above will be explained below according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

In step S801, the start address value 312 of the save resolution table is set in the pointer register. The term "pointer register" is used here because the content indicated by the address set in the register matters. Then, in step 5802, the start address value 202 of the registration memory of the registration management table 108 is set in register 1.

Assuming that the pointer register now indicates 450 in FIG. 4, the pointer is advanced in step 5803 so that it indicates 451. Next, in step 5804, the value of the address pointed to by the pointer, that is, the value of 403, is transferred to register 2.
(420 is shown in this figure). In the following step 5805, the values of register 1 and register 2 are compared,
If they are equal, it is determined that the area is not empty, and in step 5807, the registered memory amount is added to register 2. That is, 404
, and advance to the next registered memory address.

If they are not equal, it is determined in step 3806 that the registered memory area is free, and the memory at the address of register 2 is moved to the memory at the address of register 1.

After updating the value of the address indicated by the pointer to the value of register 1, it is moved from register 2 to the address of register 1. The amount of movement is only the value 404, which is the value of advancing the pointer by one.

Both register 1 and register 2 have been updated by the value of 404 after the move. This completes one save table (for example, 321 here) and the next step 5808
The value of the pointer is advanced to the start address of the next storage table (for example, 452 in the figure). Next, step 5809
(The number of storage tables is written in 313 in FIG. 3) to determine whether the process is finished. If not, the process returns to step 5803 and continues. If the process ends here, all the registered memories are filled up, resulting in states 421' and 423' in FIG. 4. And register 2 shows 420' in FIG. 4, and this 420'
becomes the start address of the new registration memory. That is, step 5810 sets the value of register 2 to the start address area 202 of the registration memory of the registration management table 108, and ends the relocation process.

With the above processing, the storage processing at step 5603 in FIG. 6 is completed. Next, the return processing in step 5605 will be explained below.

The flowchart in FIG. 9 is a processing procedure showing details of the return processing. Reverting is the opposite of saving.

First, in step 5901, the value 301 of the number of storage resolutions in the storage management table 310 shown in FIG. 3 is checked to see if there is any storage, and if not, the process is immediately terminated. However, if it is saved, check whether information equivalent to the newly set resolution is saved. In other words, in step 8902, the saved resolution table (311 in FIG. 3)
Set the start address of to the pointer register mentioned above,
In the next step 5903, the newly set resolution and each resolution in the saved resolution table are checked (steps 8905 to 5906).

If there is a saved resolution table with the same resolution, the process advances to step 5904 and the pointer register is set to 1.
The contents indicated by the pointer (the start address of the storage table) are stored in register 2. Next step 590
In step 7, the contents of the save table indicated by register 2 are copied to the registration table 109. Note that the destination of the registration table address is determined by the registration identification code 401.

Next, in step 5908, the registration management table 201
~204 is updated (increased by 1).

Then, in step 5909, the number of saved tables is “Oo”.
Check whether it is "0", and if it is not "0", return to step 5907 and continue copying to the registration table.

When the contents of the storage tables with the same resolution are all copied to the registration table in this way, the process advances to step 5910, and subsequent storage resolution tables are moved to the storage resolution table currently indicated by the pointer register. Also move the storage table. For example, referring to FIG. 3, if the storage resolution table 306 is no longer needed, the storage resolution table 307 is moved to 306 and the storage table 3 is moved to the location of the storage table 1.

Next, in step 5911, the storage management table 301~
305 is updated. That is, reduce the number of resolutions in 301 by one, reduce the total number of tables in 302 by the restored number of saved tables, set the address of the new saved resolution table in addresses 303 and 304, and
Increase the remaining capacity of 05 by the amount restored. In this way, return the data from the save table to the registration table,
The saved data of that resolution is deleted from the saved table and the restoration process ends.

As explained above, according to this embodiment, when the resolution is changed, if registered information exists, it is saved, and when a new resolution is obtained, the information on that resolution is saved. If it is saved, you can restore it to save time for registration.

This is especially effective when the amount of data is huge, such as with kanji fonts.

Furthermore, when multiple host devices are connected and they operate at different resolutions, the present invention allows the host device to always position it as its own device without being influenced by other host devices. Therefore, it is effective as an image forming apparatus for distributed processing.

In this embodiment, only the management table was prepared as the storage memory, and the registration memory was commonly used for the actual registration information, but it is also possible to prepare a separate storage memory or an external storage device and save it there. is also possible. In this case, a certain amount of registration memory is always secured regardless of whether the data is saved or not.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, when an error occurs due to insufficient memory, it is also possible to stop and continue the saving process in response to an instruction from the panel or a continuation instruction from a host device.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, registered information is saved when changing the resolution, and when the original resolution is returned, the saved registered information is restored. , the workload of the operator such as registration can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image forming apparatus in this embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the registration management table in this embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of the storage management table in this embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the detailed configuration of the storage table in this embodiment, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing control instructions in this embodiment, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure in this embodiment. , FIGS. 7 to 9 are flowcharts showing details of each process shown in FIG. 6. In the figure, 101...input interface, 102...
CPU, 103... Character generator, 104... Image memory, 105... Output interface, 106...
Image forming mechanism section, 107... Storage management table, 10
8... Registration management table, 109... Registration memory,
110...Panel.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) An image forming apparatus capable of forming images at multiple resolutions, including a setting means for setting each resolution, and a storage means for saving data corresponding to the current resolution when setting with the setting means; An image forming apparatus comprising: a restoration means that compares the resolution of the data stored by the storage means and the new resolution set by the setting means, and restores the data if they match. (2) The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage means outputs error information when the storage area is insufficient.