JPH0580953A - Method and device for printing - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] Performing high-speed printing of multiple types of large amounts of data in the same format with simple operations. [Structure] The data area of the bitmap memory 1c on the printing apparatus 1 is divided into an image data area and other character areas, and the image stored in the image data area at the time of the first printing is kept as it is and the next time or later. Is used at the time of printing, only the stored data in the character area is rewritten for each printing, and this is printed over the image data in the image data area. As a result, it is possible to omit the time required to transfer the image data to the printing apparatus 1 each time printing is performed, and it is possible to perform a large amount of printing in a short time.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing method and an apparatus therefor, and more particularly to a printing method suitable for printing a large amount of various types or a large amount of tabulation data created in a fixed format. And its device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the widespread use of office automation equipment, documents in companies are changing from handwriting to electronic documents created by a data processing device (hereinafter referred to as a document creating device) such as a word processor dedicated machine or a personal computer. is there. Under such circumstances, the amount of documents itself is increasing. Further, in order to make a large amount of documents easy to see, it is common to define a standard format common to each document and perform printing in a printing format according to the standard format. In creating a document, first, it is necessary to create image data such as a table set in a prescribed fixed format on a document creating apparatus, and create print data according to the format.

In recent office processing, there are many cases in which a large amount of print data having the same format but different data contents are created. When printing such data, it is necessary to transfer the format data, which is image data, and the print data from the document creating device to the printing device for each printing unit, and therefore it takes time to transfer the data. Takes a long time. Therefore, it is essential to register the format data on the printing device in advance, and to transfer only the print data from the document creating device in the actual printing and to omit the work of transferring the format data every time. Will be things. In this conventional printing method, format data is registered in advance from a document creation device or the like in the printing device using a dedicated command or language.

Incidentally, as ones related to the prior art, for example, JP-A-63-101926 and JP-A-61-152.
There is No. 69 etc.

[0005]

The above-mentioned prior art does not consider the operation method when registering or selecting the standard format on the printing apparatus, and the operator uses a command specific to the printing apparatus. Alternatively, the work of registering the format using a programming language is required.
Furthermore, when selecting a format to be used from multiple registered formats, operations such as operating the operation panel on the printing device to select it and embedding the number information of the format to be used in the print data are required. There is a problem in that printing is not possible unless it becomes necessary and the command or the like dedicated to the printing apparatus is mastered. That is, conventionally, it is troublesome because it is necessary to learn a dedicated command and a programming language for registering the format. Also, when selecting a format, it is often necessary to manage other than creating document data, such as how to operate the operation panel and how the target format is registered. The setup efficiency is poor, and since commands and languages are used, it is necessary to learn dedicated commands and languages for each type of printing device.
There is a problem in terms of usability.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing method and an apparatus thereof which can easily and efficiently print a large amount of data of the same format without having to register a fixed format in advance.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The above-mentioned object is that when printing a large amount of various types of data in the same format in which the table setting information and the like are defined, the format data of the previous print data is retained and this format This is achieved by printing the print data in an overlapping manner.

[0008]

In the case of printing many kinds and a large amount of data in the same format, conventionally, both the format data and the data such as characters included in each print data are transferred from the document creating device to the printing device for each printing. However, in the present invention, when the data of this format is once transferred to the printing apparatus, the data of this format is held and used in the printing apparatus unless the format is changed during printing. Therefore, it is possible to omit the transfer time of the format data (because it is image data, the amount of data is large and transfer takes time), and it is possible to print a large amount of data in a short time.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The printing apparatus 1 is connected to the document creating apparatus 2 by a cable via a parallel or serial interface. The data receiving device 1a of the printing device 1
An interface unit that receives print data sent from the document creation device 2. Reference numeral 1b is a control device, which performs control relating to printing and control in response to command input from the input device 1e. Reference numeral 1c denotes a storage device, which is a memory capable of holding bit map image data and is composed of two areas for character data and image data. 1d is a printing device, which is controlled by the control device 1b based on the data stored in the storage device 1c,
This is the part that actually prints on the paper. Input device 1
Reference numeral e is a portion for allowing the user to input control of the printing apparatus itself through the operation panel. For example, when printing a large amount in the same format, the user inputs a command to hold image data of the format from the input device 1e. To do.

First, the operator creates print data including the specified format information by the document creating device 2, transfers the data to the printing device, and prints. When the next printing is continuously performed, only the print data not including the format information is transferred from the document creating device 2 to the printing device,
Print. By performing such printing, the format information included in the previous print data and the print data of this time are overlapped and printed, and it is not necessary to transfer the format data again in the second and subsequent prints. Printing in the same format can be performed quickly and easily.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining printing when a table format is used as the standard format, and shows the standard format of the table group in the quotation. First, the operator creates the format data of FIG. 2 by the document creation device 2 and transfers the created data to the printing device 1. The print data received by the receiving device 1a of the printing device 1 is determined by the control device 1b whether the data is image data representing a table framework or the like or character data designated by a character code. The data in FIG. 2 is image data showing a table framework. The storage device 1c is composed of two memory areas, a memory for image data and a memory for character data. Since the data in FIG. 2 is image data, it is first bit-expanded and stored in the memory area for image data. It

Next, the print data of only the character information shown in FIG. 3 is created (of course, on the screen of the document creating device 2, the data of FIG. 3 is displayed together with the table frame data of FIG. This facilitates creation of print data containing only information), and transfers this data to the printing apparatus 1. Since the data shown in FIG. 3 is character data, it is bit-expanded and stored in the character data memory area on the storage device 1c. The printing apparatus 1 starts printing when it has received all the data in FIG. In this printing, the information in the memory area for image data and the information in the memory area for character data are superimposed and printed. As a result, FIG.
The printing result shown in is obtained.

After printing the table shown in FIG. 4, the table shown in FIG.
When printing the table shown in FIG. 5, the operator then transfers the data including only the character information shown in FIG. Since this data is character data, the contents of the data are bit-expanded and stored in the character data storage area in the storage device 1c. Printing is started when all the data in FIG. 5 are received, but since the table framework information in the previous FIG. 2 is still held in the image data memory storage area of the storage device 1c, it is combined with the data. Then, the print result is as shown in FIG.

In the description of the present embodiment, first, only the data of the table framework is transferred to the printer 1 and the character data is transferred separately. However, the data including the character data and the table framework data as shown in FIG. 4 is transferred together. Even when printed, the image data and the character data are distinguished and stored in the memory after being expanded, and the image data such as this table frame is retained even after the printing is completed, so that it can be used in the subsequent printing. The image data such as the table frame can be used as it is, and the same result as the above can be obtained as the print result.

[0015]

According to the present invention, if the format used in a series of printing such as a standard format is the same, the print data for the first time and the print data for the second time and thereafter can be overlapped and printed. Therefore, it is possible to save the labor of transferring the format data to the printing apparatus every time, and as a result, the printing time is shortened.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of table framework data in a fixed format.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of character data in a fixed format.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a print result in which tabular framework data and character data are combined when printing in a fixed format.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of character data when printing the next character data with the table framework data format fixed.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a print result in which the character data shown in FIG. 5 and the table framework data shown in FIG. 2 are combined.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Printing device, 1a ... Data receiving device, 1b ... Control device, 1c ... Storage device, 1d ... Printing device, 1e ... Input device, 2 ... Document creation device.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. Image data in print data is directly bit-expanded on a bit map memory, and data specified by a character code in the print data is bit-expanded on the bit map memory in a character font corresponding to the code. In the printing device that prints the image data and the data specified by the character code in an overlapping manner, without deleting the bitmap memory information of the image data in the previous print data, the data specified by the character code is printed. A printing method comprising: printing together with the image data. 2. The image data in the print data sent from the document creation device is directly bit-expanded on a bit map memory, and the data specified by the character code in the print data is a character font corresponding to the code. In a printing apparatus that performs bit expansion on the bitmap memory and prints the image data and the data specified by the character code in an overlapping manner, holds the bitmap memory information of the image data in the previous print data to create the document. A printing method, wherein character font data of a character code without image data sent from a device is expanded on a bitmap memory, and the character font data is printed so as to overlap with the image data. 3. Image data in print data is directly bit-expanded on a bitmap memory, and data specified by a character code in the print data is bit-expanded on the bitmap memory in a character font corresponding to the code. In the printing apparatus for printing the image data and the data designated by the character code in an overlapping manner, means for holding the bitmap memory information of the image data in the previous print data during a series of printing, and the character code to be printed this time. A printing apparatus, comprising: a unit for expanding only designated data on the bitmap memory and printing the data overlaid on the held image data. 4. The image data in the print data sent from the document creation device is directly bit-developed on a bitmap memory, and the data specified by the character code in the print data is a character font corresponding to the code. In the printing apparatus, which performs bit expansion on the bitmap memory and prints the image data and the data specified by the character code in an overlapping manner, means for holding bitmap memory information of the image data in the previous print data; A printing apparatus, comprising: character font data of a character code without image data sent from a document creating apparatus, expanded on a bitmap memory, and printing the character font data overlaid on the image data. .. 5. A document creation device for creating or selecting a required format, creating a document based on the required format, transferring the created data to a printing device, and printing the data, in a printing device. In the case of printing, after the image data of the format is first transferred to the printing device, the image data is not transferred to the printing device, and only the character code of each document is transferred to the printing device. Document creation device. 6. A printing apparatus connected to the document creating apparatus according to claim 5, wherein a bitmap memory is divided into an image data development area and a character data development area, and data developed in both development areas is provided. In a printing apparatus that prints in an overlapping manner, means for holding the developed data of the image data developed area, and data stored in the image data developed area for the developed data of the character data developed area that is rewritten one after another for each printing. A printing apparatus comprising: a unit that prints on top of each other.