JPH0516486A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] Image data corresponding to print data and printed by a printing device is transmitted to a host computer. [Structure] The processor 3 receives an edit instruction signal together with a read instruction signal from the host computer 3, and issues a read instruction and an edit instruction to the compression / expansion circuit 7, the image reduction / expansion circuit 8 and the page memory 9. The page memory 9 compresses / decompresses the image data stored on the basis of the editing instruction signal 7 or the image reduction / enlargement circuit 8
Output to. The image data output to the compression / expansion circuit 7 and the image reduction / expansion circuit 8 is edited based on the edit instruction signal. Image data edited based on the edit instruction signal is sent to the host computer 1 via the processor 3.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus capable of printing print data received from a host computer (hereinafter simply referred to as a host) and transmitting the printed data to the host side, that is, image data. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a printing apparatus that includes a dot printer, a laser printer, or the like and functions as a terminal device of a host receives print data transmitted from the host and selects a printer type equipped with the received print data. The image data is printed by the printer after being converted into the corresponding image data.

In the document filing system, documents and drawings are stored as image data in a mass storage device such as an optical disk device in order to save space. When a case occurs in which the print data transmitted from the host is printed by the printing device and also stored in the mass storage device in the document filing system, the print data is converted into image data for printing in the printing device. Does not have the function to send the printed image data to the host side,
Image data was not captured by the host.

[0004]

Therefore, when the host needs the image data, a document reading device for reading the image data on the paper on which the image data is printed and taking the read image data into the host is provided. There was a problem that I had to prepare.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a printing apparatus capable of converting print data to be printed into image data and transmitting the image data to a host.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a storage device for storing image data corresponding to print data in a printing apparatus for printing print data transmitted from a host computer. An editing means for editing the image data, such as reducing, enlarging, or compressing the image data stored in the storage means, and receiving an editing instruction signal from the host computer to instruct the editing means to perform the editing and to perform the editing instruction signal. Control means for sending the image data edited based on the above to the host computer.

[0007]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, the image data corresponding to the print data is edited by the editing means according to the request form of the host computer and sent from the printing device to the host computer.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a host, which communicates with a processor 3 constituting the printing apparatus 2 to send print data to the printing apparatus 2 and give various instructions.
Processor 3 communicates with host 1 and print device 2
It controls each element described later that constitutes the.

The printing device 2 includes, in addition to the processor 3,
A memory 4 consisting of ROM or RAM that acts as firmware and work memory for the processor 3 and decodes print data and instructions sent from the host 1 together with the processor 3, stores alphanumeric fonts and kanji fonts, and reads them using the division mark code. The font ROM5, the font data output from the font ROM5 is reduced or enlarged, or the character / graphic reduction / enlargement circuit 6 for drawing figures such as lines, circles and arcs, and the image data
For example, a compression / expansion circuit 7 that expands compressed data compressed to CCITT standard or compressed to CCITT standard to image data, an image reduction / expansion circuit 8 that expands or reduces image data supplied from the compression / expansion circuit 7, font ROM 5 From the page data 9 that consists of the bitmap data that stores the font data and character / graphics reduction / expansion circuit 6, the compression / expansion circuit 7, or the data edited by the image reduction / expansion circuit 8, and the dot printer, laser printer, etc. Printer that prints out the data stored in the page memory 9
Composed of 10.

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention having the above construction will be described.

First, when a command for drawing a character or a graphic is sent from the host 1 to the printer 2 together with print data, it is decoded by the processor 3 and the memory 4.
In the case of character drawing, the print data transmitted is code data, and this code data is input to the font ROM5, and the font data corresponding to the code data is output from the font ROM5. The font data output from the font ROM 5 is output to the character / graphic reduction / enlargement circuit 6 when there is an instruction for enlargement or reduction.
After the enlargement or reduction edit processing is performed by the character / graphic reduction / enlargement circuit 6, it is drawn as image data at the drawing position of the page memory 9 designated by the processor 3. Also, when there is no instruction to enlarge or reduce,
The font data is directly drawn at the drawing position of the page memory 9. In the case of graphic drawing, the graphic data is input to the character / graphic reduction / expansion circuit 6, and after the graphic data is edited in the character / graphic reduction / expansion circuit 6, the image data corresponding to the graphic data is converted into characters / graphics. Scale-up circuit 6
Is drawn from the page memory 9 to the drawing position.

When the print data transmitted from the host 1 is image data and the print data is compressed image data, the compressed image data is input to the compression / expansion circuit 7 to be expanded. The decompressed image data is further output to the image reduction / enlargement circuit 9 when there is an instruction for enlargement or reduction, and after the image reduction / enlargement circuit 9 performs an enlargement or reduction editing process, it is designated by the processor 3. It is drawn at the drawing position in the page memory 9. When there is no instruction to enlarge or reduce, the image data is drawn from the compression / expansion circuit 7 to the drawing position of the page memory 9.

When the print data transmitted from the host 1 is not compressed image data, the image data is enlarged or reduced in the image reduction / enlargement circuit 9 as necessary and drawn at the drawing position of the page memory 9. ..

When a page break instruction is sent from the host 1 following the print data, the processor 3 gives a print instruction to the printer 10 and outputs the image data stored in the page memory 9 to the printer 10. Give instructions. The printer 10 visibly prints out the input image data.

Next, when an instruction to read image data is sent from the host 1 to the printer 2, the processor 3 gives a reading instruction to the page memory 9 so that the image data stored in the page memory 9 is It is sent to the host 1 via the processor 3. The format of image data sent from the page memory 9 to the host 1 is (1) data that is compressed data and is expanded or reduced, (2) data that is not expanded or reduced by compressed data, and (3) There are uncompressed data that has been enlarged or reduced and edited, and (4) uncompressed data that does not undergo enlarged or reduced editing. There is a form in which image data is edited and sent in which form. Is determined by the editing instruction from host 1.

That is, in the case of (1) above,
The processor 3 gives a compression instruction to the compression / expansion circuit 7 and an enlargement or reduction instruction to the image reduction / expansion circuit 8 together with the reading instruction and the editing instruction to the page memory 9, respectively.
The image data read from the page memory 9 is input to the image reduction / enlargement circuit 8. Image reduction / enlargement circuit
At 8, the input image data is enlarged or reduced and edited, and the edited image data is output to the compression / expansion circuit 7. The compression / expansion circuit 7 compresses the input edited image data according to the CCITT standard, for example, and sends the compressed image data to the host 1 via the processor 3.

In the case of (2) above, a compression instruction is given to the compression / expansion circuit 7, the image data read from the page memory 9 is input to the compression / expansion circuit 7, and compressed by the compression / expansion circuit 7. To be done. The compressed image data is sent to the host 1 via the processor 3.

Further, in the case of the above (3), an enlargement or reduction instruction is given to the image reduction / expansion circuit 8, and the image data read from the page memory 9 is input to the image reduction / expansion circuit 8 to reduce the image. It is enlarged or reduced by the enlargement circuit 8. The enlarged or reduced edited image data is sent to the host 1 via the processor 3.

Further, in the case of the above (4), the compression instruction to the compression / expansion circuit 7 and the image reduction / expansion circuit 8 are performed.
The enlargement or reduction instruction to is not given from the processor 3, and the image data read from the page memory 9 is directly sent to the host 1 via the processor 3.

On the other hand, when the image data stored in the page memory 9 is printed out, the processor 3 instructs the page memory 9 to output the image data to the printer 10 and the printer.
The print instruction is output to 10 and the image data is printed to the printer 10.
Is printed out.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0023]

As described in detail above, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention, it is necessary to prepare a document reading apparatus for reading the image data by sending the image data from the printing apparatus to the host computer. And without having to print on print paper,
To send the image data to the host computer,
It is possible to obtain an effect that the host computer takes a short time to capture image data.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Host computer 2 ... Printing device 3 ... Processor (control means) 7 ... Compression / expansion circuit (editing means) 8 ... Image reduction / enlargement circuit (editing means) 9 ... Page memory (storage means)

Claims (1)

Claim: What is claimed is: 1. In a printing apparatus for printing print data transmitted from a host computer, storage means for storing image data corresponding to the print data, and an image stored in the storage means. Editing means for image editing such as data reduction, enlargement, compression, and the like, and an editing instruction signal received from the host computer to instruct the editing means to perform editing, and image data edited based on the editing instruction signal A printing apparatus comprising: a control unit for sending the data to a host computer.