JPH04272879A - Printing date processor - 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]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print data processing device for controlling print output in a printer.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a print data processing device that controls a printer, when printing data on a predetermined form, such as when issuing a slip, a fixed form 101 for each page, as shown in FIG. Prepare the data 102 to be printed that is created according to the form, and overlap the two data, that is, print the data 102 on the form 101.
2 is overwritten to create data for one printed matter 103, and the data is supplied to the printer to be printed.

0003

However, such print data processing apparatuses can only handle one form on one page.

[0004] Therefore, if you want to use multiple forms for printing one page from an application, you must have an area that can be substituted for the form in the data section of the application itself, not as a form, and you cannot change the area. had to change all applications with the same content.

The reason for this is that the print data processing device can only handle one form on one page.

[0006] If one page can handle multiple forms, one application can use multiple forms, and common forms that can be shared by multiple applications can be combined into one (one file). It is clear that this is possible.

[0007] An object of the present invention is to make it possible to handle a plurality of forms on one page.

[0008]

Means for Solving the Problems The means of the present invention are as follows. A supply data storage means 1 (see the functional block diagram of FIG. 1; the same applies hereinafter) supplies information to the printing device 2 so that a plurality of forms and their corresponding data to be printed are printed in a superimposed manner. The supply data to be supplied is expanded. Form storage means 3 stores various forms. The storage means 4 stores a plurality of data to be printed;
Form information consisting of information on the storage location in the form storage means 3 of the form corresponding to each data to be printed and information on the printing position of the form is stored in correspondence with each other. The receiving means 5 receives a print command for printing by the printing device 2. When the receiving means 5 receives the printing command, the supply data creating means 6 stores each form in the form storing means 3 based on the storage location information of the form information stored in the storing means 4.
The above-mentioned supply data is created by reading the above-mentioned forms and superimposing them on the corresponding data to be printed based on the information on the printing position and developing them in the above-mentioned supply data storage means 1.

[0009]

[Operation] The operation of the means of the present invention is as follows. When the receiving means 5 receives a print command for the printing device 2 to print, the supply data creating means 6 stores each form based on the storage location information of the form information stored in the storage means 4. The supply data is created by reading the form from the means 3 and superimposing each read form with the corresponding data to be printed based on the print position information in the form information and developing it in the supply data storage means 1. and supplies it to the printing device 2. Therefore, multiple forms can be handled on one page.

0010

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the print data processing apparatus according to the embodiment. In the figure, 11 is a CPU that controls the entire system.
It is. Reference numeral 12 denotes an application use memory into which an application program for printing is loaded;
This application uses the above CPU11, keyboard1
3 and a display unit 14 such as a CRT to create print data to be printed. 15 is a data memory for storing the created print data, and 16 is a data storage disk for storing data. CPU
11 reads the data stored in the data storage disk 16 into the data memory 15 as data to be printed according to the application.

17 is a form storage disk that stores information on various forms; 18 is a data holding memory that stores information on forms for the number of forms to be printed; and 19 is a data storage memory for storing form information for the number of forms to be printed. It is a form memory. That is, the CPU 11 stores necessary form information in the form storage disk 17 according to the application.
The information of all the stored forms is converted into one page's worth of forms and stored in the form memory 19.

A supply data memory 20 stores data to be supplied to the printer 21. According to the application, the CPU 11 converts the print data stored in the data memory 15 and the form stored in the form memory 19 into one page worth of supply data on the supply data memory 20, and supplies the data to the printer 21. As a result, printer 2
At step 1, a form or the like in which the form and print data are superimposed is printed out.

Next, the operation of the print data processing apparatus having such a configuration will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

That is, when a print command is issued from an application, a header containing information such as a form and print data for one page are read from the data storage disk 16 and stored in the data memory 15 (step S1). Here, it is determined whether or not there is form information in the header, that is, whether there is a form specification (step S2), and if there is no form specification, the read data is printed as is. That is, the print data stored in the data memory 15 is set in the supply memory 20 (step S3), and printing is performed by supplying it to the printer (step S4).
. If the print data for the next page is still on the data storage disk 16 (step S5), the process returns to step S1 to print the next page.

Further, when it is determined in step S2 that there is a form specification, the first form information among the form information acquired from the header is obtained (form information acquisition processing). Here, (A) and (B) in FIG.
As shown in , if we are creating a slip with four forms A to D on one page, the header includes information on all forms used on one page as form information. A minimum of four information items shown in FIG. 5 are included for one form. That is, (1) the "X coordinate" of the upper left corner of the form, (2) the "Y coordinate" of the upper left corner of the form, and (3) the "form name" of the form to represent the form output area of the form, that is, the printing position. ”, and (4) “form storage location” indicating the storage location of the form on the form storage disk 17. Further, when the same form as all pages is specified, form information including information representing the same specification is written in the header instead of form information including the above four information items.

Therefore, next, it is determined whether the obtained form information includes information representing the same designation as the previous page, that is, the previous page (step S6), and if the information is a different designation, the form is read out. Process. That is, the position on the form storage disk 17 is determined from the contents of the information item "form storage location" in the form information, the form with the name represented by the contents of the information item "form name" is read from there, and the form is stored in the data holding memory. 18 (form reading process) (step S7). And each time you load one form, form memory 1
The print data of the form is superimposed on the coordinate positions indicated by the contents of the information items "X coordinate" and "Y coordinate" in step S8 (superimposition process on form memory). Then, the process from acquiring the form information to superimposing it on the form memory is repeated for the number of times specified by the form (step S9).

Once all the forms on one page have been created on the form memory 19 in this way, this form memory 19
The form and print data in the data memory 15 are superimposed on the supply data memory 20 to create data for one page to be supplied to the printer 21 (data and form superimposition process) (step S10). Then, printing is performed by supplying the data in the supply data memory 20 to the printer (step S4). If the print data for the next page is still on the data storage disk 16 (step S5), the process returns to step S1 to print the next page.

Furthermore, if it is determined in step S6 that the information represents the same designation as the previous page, there is no need to read the form again, so step S10 is performed.
Jump to and perform the overlapping process of data and form.

[0020] Note that only the application needs to be aware of the form size (X-axis, Y-axis length, etc.) and contents (format that matches the data print position); nothing needs to be considered during actual printing. You can overlay forms without any hassle. Forms can be superimposed at the specified position (X,
It is only necessary to perform the process of reading a file with the form name from the storage destination disk at the Y coordinate for the number of forms, and then OR all the form data.

[0021]

According to the present invention, a plurality of forms can be used on one page by providing form information as a header at the beginning of a spool file. This also allows multiple forms to be used in one application. Therefore, it is possible to combine common forms that can be shared by multiple applications into one (one file).

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a print data processing device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 4(A) is a diagram showing printing instructions for a plurality of forms, and FIG. 4(B) is a diagram for explaining the position of each form.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a storage structure of a header and data in a data memory.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a conventional slip printout operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Supply data storage means, 2... Printing device, 3... Form storage means, 4... Storage means, 5... Receiving means, 6... Supply data creation means.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Supply data storage means for expanding supply data to be supplied to a printing device so that a plurality of forms and corresponding data to be printed are printed in a superimposed manner; A form consisting of a form storage means for storing a form, a plurality of data to be printed, information on the storage location in the form storage means of the form corresponding to each data to be printed, and information on the print position of the form. a storage means for storing information in correspondence with each other; a receiving means for receiving a print command to be printed by the printing device; and a form stored in the storage means when the receiving means receives the print command. The supply data storage means reads out each form from the form storage means based on the information on the storage location of information, and overlaps each read form with the corresponding data to be printed based on the information on the printing position. A print data processing apparatus comprising: supply data creation means for creating the supply data by expanding the data into the data.