JPH0433873A - printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable printing information expanding processing for the next page to be started by excluding transfer of an unnecessary printing data by a method wherein a printing data expanded in a memory is analyzed to judge an effective printing data, and an effective printing data among printable data expanded in the memory medium is extracted to be transferred to a printing means. CONSTITUTION:A memory part 22 is a memory means which stores a printing data, and is equipped with a printing mechanism part which forms a permanent visible image aiming at a printer part 23 on recording paper. When a printing data is expanded for a memory part 22 according to a paper size, a memory control processing part 212 analyzes the printing data to judge an effective printing area. A printer interface control processing part 213 extracts an effective printing data from printable data expanded in a memory medium to be transferred to the printer part 25 by controlling. Transfer of the printing data being no printing object is made unnecessary, and expansion of the printing data of a next page is started. Thereby, transfer of a blank printing data to a printing means becomes unnecessary, and expansion processing standly time to the memory medium of the printing data for the next page can be extremely shortened.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a printing device that performs printing based on manually inputted printing information, and particularly relates to a printing device that processes printing information by developing it into pages. .

[Background Art] In recent years, with the spread of electronic devices, printing devices as information output devices have become widespread.

These printing devices can be roughly divided into serial printers, which print by analyzing print information and control information corresponding to a print code, and printers, which develop pages of print information in storage means such as bi-soto map memory. There are printers that print out images.

Among these, page-type printers are equipped with the above-mentioned bitmap memory or frame buffer that stores print information according to the paper size, and always input a fixed amount of print information according to the specified paper size through communication. Print information is being expanded.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Therefore, even if the paper size is B5 size and print information is input such that the print area for this B5 size paper is limited to a small part of the paper, the B5 size paper is Even if printing information is input that covers the entire printing area for a paper of Expanding processing was required, and printing was performed regardless of the amount of information to be printed. For this reason, it is necessary to always wait until the data corresponding to the paper size has been transferred to the printing means before starting the data development process for the next print page, which makes it difficult to process the print data development for the next page (which cannot be executed). There were some problems.

This invention was made in order to solve the above problems, and it analyzes the print information developed in the note/l area reserved corresponding to the paper size, recognizes the print area, and develops the page. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a printing device that can eliminate unnecessary print data transfer and start printing information development processing for the next page by transferring only valid print data out of all printed data to a printing means. shall be.

[Means for Solving the Problems] A printing device according to the present invention includes a determination unit that analyzes print data developed on a storage medium and determines an effective print area;
Transfer control means is provided for controlling the extraction and transfer of valid print data from the printable data developed on the storage medium to the printing means based on the valid print area determined by the determination means.

[Operation] In the present invention, when the print data is developed on the storage medium in accordance with the paper size, the determining means analyzes the print data developed on the storage medium to determine the effective printing area. Based on the valid print area determined by the determination means, the transfer control means controls the extraction and transfer of valid print data from the printable data developed on the storage medium to the printing means, and controls the transfer of print data that is not to be printed. unnecessary,
It is possible to start printing data development for the next page.

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a printing apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 is a host computer;
Print information consisting of print data and a control coat is output to the printing device 2. The printing device 2 includes a control section 21. Memory section 22. It is composed of a printer section 23. The control unit 21 further includes a host interface control g'l121.
1. Memory control processing unit 212. It has various processing units such as a print interface control unit 213 and an interrupt processing unit 214. Of these, the host interface control unit 21
1 performs communication control with the host computer 1 for receiving print information from the host computer 1 . The memory control processing gfI 212 stores print data in the memory section 22 according to the print information received from the host computer 1.

The printer interface control section 213 controls the printer section 2.
3 and controls the drive of the printer section 23. The interrupt processing N1214 performs interrupt processing that is generated every preset number of lines from the printer unit 23, as will be described later.

The memory section 22 is a storage means for storing EI'7 data, and is equipped with a printing mechanism section for forming a permanent visible image on recording paper for the purpose of the printer section 23.

In the printing apparatus configured as described above, when the print data is developed in the storage medium (memory unit 22 in this embodiment) in accordance with the paper size, the determination unit (memory control processing unit 212 in this embodiment) ] analyzes the print data developed on the storage medium to determine the effective print area, and based on the effective print area determined by this determination means, the transfer control means (in this embodiment, the printer interface control processing unit 2
13) controls the extraction and transfer of valid print data from the printable data developed in the storage medium to the printing means (in this embodiment, the printer unit 23), eliminates the need to transfer print data that is not to be printed, and It is possible to start printing data development of the page.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the print data development state in the memory section 22 shown in FIG. The area pointed to by pointer SP and end pointer EP is the data to be printed this time.
This corresponds to the case where other areas become white areas.

Specifically, the area from the start address SA to the end address EA is the area in which print data is developed, and the development method is the same as in the format for printing on paper. That is, the start address SA corresponds to the top edge of the paper, and the end address EA corresponds to the bottom edge of the paper.

Furthermore, the storage area from the start address SA to the end address EA is continuous, with the start address SA being a low address and the end address EA being a high address. The print data start pointer SP and the print data end pointer EP are pointers that indicate the area where the print data to be printed exists, and each time the print data is expanded, the start address SA of the area expanded and the start point of the print data are The pointer SP, the end address EA, and the end pointer EP of the print data are compared, and the pointer is updated if necessary, as will be described later.

The print data processing operation in the printing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a print data expansion processing procedure by the memory control processing section 212 shown in FIG. Note that (1) to (12) indicate each step.

Print data input from the host computer 1 is developed into the memory control processing section 212 or the memory section 22 (1).

Next, it is determined whether the expanded print data is the first print data to be expanded into the memory section 22 (2), and if YES, the process proceeds to step (3), where the start address SA of the area to be expanded is set to the start pointer of the print data. SP, and the expanded end address of the current print data is assigned to the end pointer EP of the 211 character-data (4), and the process proceeds to step (9) onwards. As a result, from step (4) onwards, if NO, the print data start pointer SP and print data end pointer EPO values become valid.

On the other hand, if the judgment in step (2) is NO (if the print data has already been expanded in the memory section 22), the size of the already set start pointer SP of the print data and the expansion start address of the expanded print data make a comparison,
Start pointer SP of print data> Determine whether it is the expansion start address (start address SD) of the print data 5) If YES (when the expansion start address is smaller than the start pointer SP of the print data), the start pointer SP of the print data The expansion start address is assigned to the pointer SP and updated 6), and the process proceeds to step (7) onwards.

On the other hand, in the case of NO in the judgment in step (5), the end pointer EP of the already set print data and the developed end address of the developed print data are compared in size,
Determine whether end pointer EP of print data < expanded end address (end address ED) of print data 7) If YES (when expanded end address is larger than print data end pointer (higher address))
Then, the end pointer EP of the print data is updated by substituting the expanded end address (8), and the process proceeds to step (9) and subsequent steps.

On the other hand, if the judgment in step (7) is NO, it is judged whether all print data has been expanded to the memory section 22 (f9), and if NO, the process is terminated, and if YES, the start address SA is Set the number of lines in the direction perpendicular to the paper feeding direction in the area that does not require printing from to the start pointer SP of the print data to the top margin counter (for example, configured with a control register of the memory control processing unit 212). ), the number of lines in the area where the print data exists is counted by the print area counter (for example, the memory control processing unit 21
11),
The print counter indicating the current print line of the printer section 23 is cleared (12), and the process ends. After the ab processing is completed for all print data in this way, the print data is transferred to the printer section 23 through the printer interface control processing section 213, and the printer section 23 forms a visible image on the recording paper. Data transfer to the blink unit 23 is made possible by generating an interrupt after one line is printed by the printer unit 23, and processing the interrupt signal by the interrupt processing unit 214.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a printing start processing procedure by the control unit 21 shown in FIG. In addition, (1
), (2+ indicates each step.

First, it is determined whether the top margin counter is rOJ1). If NO, the process is terminated to wait for an interrupt after printing one line without transferring memory data; if YES (the print data is one line 2), transfer one line of memory data from the start address SA of the memory unit 22 to the printer unit 23), and end the process to wait for an interrupt after printing one line from the printer unit 23. do.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of an interrupt processing procedure by the interrupt processing unit 214 shown in FIG. Note that (1) to (6) indicate each step.

First, increment the print counter (1)
, Next, the line printed by the printer unit 23 is made to match the line indicated by the print counter.

Next, the top margin counter and the print counter are compared in size, and it is determined whether the top margin counter>print counter holds.2) If YES, the next interrupt is executed without transferring data to the printer unit 23. To wait, proceed to step (5) and subsequent steps.

On the other hand, if the judgment in step (2) is NO (if the print counter is greater than or equal to the top margin count value), the sum of the top margin counter and the print area counter is SUM.
Compare the size of the print counter with
In the case of S, the line indicated by the print counter is memory section 2.
Since this is a line in which print data exists in 2, the memory data for one line is transferred to the printer section 23 from the address of the line indicated by the print counter 4), and the process proceeds to step (5) and subsequent steps.

On the other hand, if the determination in step (3) is NO, the line is not transferred because the line is after the highest address of the area where the print data exists in the memory section 22. The processing between steps (1) to (3) above is performed for all lines in the memory, and it is determined that when the processing for all lines is completed, that is, all printing in the memory section 22 is completed. At point (5), clear the memory (6)
, ends the process. Next, the process waits for the next print data development process.

Note that the process shown in FIG. 5 for the fourth cause above corresponds to the process when the print data exists in the memory section 22, and if no print data exists in the memory section 22 at all, the print data is processed before the print data is expanded. By setting a start address in the start pointer SP and end pointer EP of the print data, and comparing the start pointer of the print data and the end pointer of the print data in the print start process, it is possible to recognize that there is no print data at all. Therefore, the above 4th
The processing in FIG. 5 is not executed.

In addition, in the above embodiment, when transferring data in the memory unit 22, a case was explained in which the determination is made by an interrupt process from the printer unit 23 after printing one line, but there is no need to be limited to this. As long as the information for transfer can be obtained, the above process may be performed by an interrupt by a timer or by an interrupt process from the printer section 23 after printing a plurality of lines.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, all the data between the highest address and the lowest address of the memory area where the print data exists is transferred to the printer section 23, but the print data between the highest address and the lowest address is transferred to the printer unit 23. If there is an area where the data does not exist, it is possible to further shorten the processing time for the transfer by not transferring the data to the printer unit 23 by performing the same process as in the above embodiment, and thereby further reducing the print data processing time. Efficiency can be increased.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the present invention includes a determination means for determining an effective print area by analyzing print data developed on a storage medium, and a storage method based on the effective print area determined by the determination means. Transfer control means is provided to control the extraction and transfer of valid print data from the printable data developed on the medium to the printing means, so that only the print data for the main print area of the entire print area of the designated recording medium is transferred. It can be transferred to the printing means while being recognized.

Therefore, it is no longer necessary to transfer the blank print data to the printing means as in the past, and the waiting time for developing the print data for the next page onto the storage medium can be significantly reduced. The printing process can be performed in proportion to the actual black printing area, and has the excellent effect of greatly increasing the overall printing processing efficiency compared to conventional fixed page area processing.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a printing apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the print data development state in the memory section shown in FIG. 1, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the print data expansion processing procedure by the memory control processing section shown in FIG.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of a print start processing procedure by the control section shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of an interrupt processing procedure by the interrupt processing section shown in FIG. In the figure, 1 is a host computer, 2 is a printing device, 21 is a control section, 22 is a memory section, 23 is a printer section, 211 is a host interface control processing section, 212 is a memory control processing section, and 213 is a printer interface control processing section. ,
214 is an interrupt processing section. Figure 2 Memory structure (high address) Figure 4 Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a printing device having a printing means for performing printing based on print data obtained by developing pages of print information on a storage medium, a determination means for determining an effective printing area by analyzing the print data developed on the storage medium; and transfer control means for controlling the extraction and transfer of valid print data from printable data developed on the storage medium to the printing means based on the valid print area determined by the determination means. printing device