JPH07290773A - Data processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] The present invention relates to a data processing apparatus, wherein a development processing unit, which was on the printing apparatus side of the data processing apparatus, is moved to the processing apparatus side, and a basic bit map memory for the printing apparatus is provided. Eliminating the erase process during the erase, write, and transfer processes, which are the processes, and obtain the print result in two passes: write and transfer. [Configuration] A printer is connected to the processor, and the print data expanded on the processor side is transferred to the printer having a bitmap memory, and is generated by the processor in the data processor that obtains a print result. A means for detecting a region in which print target data does not exist in the print data obtained by expanding the print data, and transferring dot data representing a blank instead of the print data corresponding to the detected region to a bitmap. It is configured to have a means for writing to the memory.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer having a bitmap memory and a printer connected to a processor.
The present invention relates to a data processing device that transfers print data expanded on the processing device side to obtain a print result.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a conventional data processing device. In the conventional data processing device, both the processing device (for example, the workstation) 2 and the printing device 1 have a low processing capacity, and therefore print processing is performed with the configuration shown in FIG. 4 for the purpose of distributing the load. Was there.

That is, the characteristic of this conventional data processing device is that the printing data described in the page description language generated by the application 20 on the processing device 2 side is expanded and the printing such as transfer to a printing paper is performed. All the related processing is performed in the printing device 1, and the work in the processing device 2 is performed by the application 20 to retrieve the print data stored in a storage device (not shown) from the storage device. , It was only transferred to printer 1 according to the established procedure.

In this case, in the data expansion processing section 11 of the printing apparatus 1, the operation of the bitmap memory 10 is performed by erasing the bitmap memory 10, writing new expanded data, and writing the written data. Of the transfer to the photosensitive drum of the image data transfer section 12 and the transfer end notification from the image data transfer section 12,
The above-described erasing process, writing process, and transfer process are repeated for the print data of the next page.

For this reason, the processing device 2 entrusts all the complicated control to the peripheral device (that is, the printing device) 1, and the load of the workstation as a whole is placed on the input / output device such as each printing device 1. Even if the processing device 2 can be dispersed and the processing device 2 has a low processing capacity, there is an advantage that the high load of the entire workstation is difficult to see.

[0006]

However, since the input / output device (here, the printing device in this case) 1 needs to process all the complicated and diverse processes in the printing device 1, it can be efficiently developed. There was a problem that the hardware and software areas had to be strengthened in order to transfer them.

Further, unlike the processing device 2, the processing performance of the printing device 1 depends on the transfer time to the paper. This is because the image data required for transfer must be stored in the specified bitmap memory 10 because it is necessary to transfer the image data to a photosensitive drum (not shown) all at once. Data development processing unit 11
Even if the expansion speed is fast, the data is written in the bitmap memory 10 in synchronization with each page, that is, the transfer unit 12
There is a limit to the transfer speed to the photosensitive drum in. Therefore, it is necessary to synchronize the stop request for the data transfer from the processor 2.

Further, since the image data written in the bit map memory 10 is carried over to the next page unless it is erased page by page, it is necessary to perform an erase process at the beginning of the page unit process. Since the process is performed on the entire bitmap memory 10, there is a problem that the printer 1 has a heavy load.

As described above, the conventional printing apparatus has a problem that there is a limit to the improvement of performance. In view of the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, the present invention moves the data expansion unit conventionally provided in the printing apparatus to the processing apparatus side with the recent improvement in the performance of the processing apparatus, and the basic operation of the bitmap memory. By eliminating the data erasing, writing, and transfer operations, and the erasing process in the basic operations of the above-mentioned synchronization, the load on the printing device is reduced and the performance of the processing device and the printing device as a whole is reduced. It is an object of the present invention to provide a data processing device capable of improving the above.

[0010]

1 to 3 are views showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 shows an example of the entire configuration of a data processing apparatus, and FIG. 2 shows data expansion. FIG. 3 shows a processing flow of the processing unit, and FIG. 3 shows an example of storing blank data in the bitmap memory. The above problems can be solved by a data processing device configured as follows.

The printing device 1 is connected to the processing device 2, and the print data expanded on the processing device 2 side is transferred to the printing device 1 having the bit map memory 10 to obtain a print result. Device 2 A means to detect the area where the data to be transferred does not exist in the print data obtained by data expansion processing of the generated print data, and the dot data representing a blank area is transferred instead of the print data corresponding to the detected area. Then, it is configured to have a means for writing to the bitmap memory 10.

[0012]

In the printing apparatus 1 having the bit map memory 10 for one page, the printing result is basically obtained by the following procedure due to the nature of its function. 1) Initialization of bitmap memory 10 2) Expansion from page description language to image data and writing to bitmap memory 10 3) Transfer to print medium 4) Waiting for transfer completion, that is, the above-mentioned synchronization In the process, initialization of bitmap memory 10 is necessary to prevent the value expanded on the previous page from being transferred again on the next page. It is extra processing that has nothing to do with.

Therefore, the performance of the data processing apparatus is improved depending on how the processing time for this processing is shortened. Therefore, in the present invention, the initialization of the bitmap memory 10 described in 1) above is performed only for that area if there is a blank portion on the next page even if there is expanded data on the previous page. For example, paying attention to the fact that it is sufficient to write blank data, (1) blank area on the page (2) blank area between lines (3) blank row (4) blank area at the bottom is detected, and Further, if the blank data composed of dot data is written, the above initialization processing can be eliminated.

On the other hand, the print data in the page description language created by the application on the side of the processor 2 includes attributes for each page, line, and character, such as page cue line, line feed pitch, character size, and page length. Etc. are described, the data expansion processing unit 2
As a function of 1, by recognizing the above attributes, a means a for obtaining from the head of the bitmap memory to the first line of the page in the expansion processing, and a means b for expanding and outputting the line
,, means c for writing blank data (dot data) in raster units, and means d for knowing the page length by referring to the above attributes, the current expanded position, and the position of the next line. , A means e for finding the width (character width) of the current output line and the line feed pitch at the same time, a means f for finding the middle of the line to the end of the line, and a space from the current output line position to the bottom of the bitmap memory The means g for obtaining the region is realized by, for example, soft area means.

When a blank portion in the page is detected, the blank character is expanded to form image data, and the blank data is not transferred to the printer 1, but the blank data originally composed of dot data, for example, If the printing device is Y,
In the M, C, B color printer, the dot data whose value is "1" is rasterized in units of a predetermined length.
By providing the means c for writing the blank data (dot data) which is continuously transferred, the blank data can be transferred to the bitmap memory 10 at high speed without performing code conversion.

FIG. 2 is a data expansion processing unit in the processing device 2.
21 is a flowchart showing the processing sequence in 21.
In this flow chart, page cueing (process step 1
00) corresponds to the processing step for detecting the blank portion at the upper end shown in (1) above. If the blank portion at the upper end can be recognized, the blank data can be stored at high speed in the blank portion at the upper end of the bitmap memory 10 by the blank data transfer means c in raster units.

Then, character expansion for one line (processing step
(See 102), the current position and the position of the next line are recognized from the above-mentioned attribute data, for example, the line pitch and the character size. Can be recognized, and for the blank portion between the rows, by the blank data transfer means c of the raster unit, for the blank portion between the rows of the bitmap memory 10,
Blank data can be stored at high speed.

In addition, the character expansion for one line described above (processing step
(See 102), if there is no character code to be expanded, the blank line in (3) above, which is a blank line from that position to the end of the line, is printed, and the blank line is recognized. If possible, the blank line is transferred to the blank line of the bitmap memory 10 by the blank data transfer means c for each raster unit in cooperation with the output process of the next expanded data (see processing step 103) for the blank line. By combining the blank data generated as described above and the character expansion data obtained by the character expansion processing for one line, and outputting the expansion data and the blank data in raster units, the blank data can be processed at high speed. , It can be stored in the blank area on the bitmap memory 10.

Further, cueing processing to the next next line (see processing step 104) (Specifically, means e for simultaneously obtaining the above-mentioned current position and next line position from the character width and the line feed pitch) In the above, the recognition processing corresponds to the printing processing of the margin portion at the lower end shown in (4) above, and if the expansion character is recognized from a certain line to the bottom end of the page, By the blank data transfer means c of the raster unit together with the real bottom edge of the
Blank data can be stored at high speed.

Since it operates in this way, the above (1) to (4)
By performing the control up to, it is possible to completely omit the erasing process at the beginning of the page, which was performed in the conventional printing system, and to unify only the writing process to the bitmap memory 10. The processing time corresponding to the initialization processing of 10 can be shortened. Also, the interface for initializing the bitmap memory 10, which is conventionally shown to the processing device 2 side, for example, the activation and termination notification of the initialization process can be eliminated on the printing device 1 side.

Therefore, in the printing apparatus 1, the expansion process is eliminated and the process of erasing the bit map memory 10 is eliminated. Therefore, a processing circuit for the expansion process, for example, an integrated circuit such as a mover or a vector generator is used. Is unnecessary, and the printer 1 can be simplified.

Further, since the processing device 2 has a display device, it is originally provided with an integrated circuit such as the mover or vector generator. Therefore, the printing device 1 side processes the data expansion processing unit. Even if the device is moved to the device 2, the hardware does not increase, so that the cost of the entire printing system can be reduced.

[0023]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 3 described above are views showing an embodiment of the present invention.

In the present invention, when the print data written in the page description language generated by the application 20 of the processing device 2 is expanded and transferred to the bitmap memory 10 of the printing device 1 for printing, Erase processing, write processing of basic operations for bitmap memory 10
Of the three operations of the transfer process, the erasing process is deleted, and the control is performed so as to obtain the print result by the two-pass operations of writing and transferring. As means for deleting the erasing process, the page description language is used. Page of print data described,
A means for obtaining from the head of the bitmap memory to the first line of the page in the expansion process from the attribute of each line and character a
, A means b for expanding and outputting lines, a means c for writing blank data (dot data) in raster units, a means d for checking the page length by referring to the above attributes, and a means for expanding the current Position e and the position of the next line from the width (character width) of the current output line at the same time, f from the middle of the line to the end of the line, and the bit map memory from the current output line position With means g for finding the blank area up to the bottom of
A means for transferring the dot data representing a blank and writing the data in the bitmap memory instead of the print data when the area where the data to be transferred does not exist is detected is a means necessary for carrying out the present invention. The same reference numerals indicate the same objects throughout the drawings.

The configuration and operation of the page printer control apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. In the data processing apparatus of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, the data expansion processing unit 21 is provided on the processing apparatus 2 side,
The printing apparatus 1 includes only the data receiving unit 13, the bitmap memory 10, and the image data transfer unit 12,
The data expansion processing unit 21 on the side of the processing device 2 basically has a means A for expanding one row, a means B for recognizing the current position, and a next row as shown in FIG. From the means C for recognizing the position of and the means D for transferring the blank data,
In the expansion processing, means a for obtaining from the beginning of the bitmap memory to the first line of the page and means b for expanding and outputting the line
,, means c for writing blank data (dot data) in raster units, and means d for knowing the page length by referring to the above attributes, the current expanded position, and the position of the next line. , A means e for obtaining the width (character width) of the current output line and the line feed pitch at the same time, a means f for obtaining from the middle of the line to the end of the line, and a space from the current output line position to the bottom of the bitmap memory. When the means g for obtaining the area is formed and it is detected that the transfer target data does not exist, the dot data representing the blank is transferred instead of the print data and written in the bitmap memory instead of the print data. Is configured. Then, the following processes a) to d) are executed. That is, a) processing for the top margin of the paper: corresponding to means a for obtaining from the head of the bit map memory to the first line of the page in the expansion processing, the structure shown in FIG. 1 and the data expansion processing shown in FIG. Part 2
1 processing sequence (processing step 100 to processing step
When the margin of the upper edge of the paper is formed on the bitmap memory 10 by the sequence up to 104), the page from the beginning of the bitmap memory 10 is processed at the page cueing process of the processing step 100 shown in FIG. The blank rasters are written in raster units up to the first row of. The blank raster includes the blank data {Y, M,
In the C and B color systems, a means D for transferring all "0" data} and a means c for writing blank data are used. Further, the current output line position (raster position) is updated to find the actual print data.

In the conventional printing method, since the entire bitmap memory 10 is initialized (blank writing), the writing amount is greatly reduced and the processing time is shortened.

B) Gap processing between lines in page: Corresponding to means e for simultaneously obtaining the position of the developed line and the position of the next line First, the above-mentioned one line is expanded in the sequence shown in FIG. The means A for performing character expansion for one line. At this time, by means of the means B for recognizing the current position and the means C for recognizing the position of the next row, it is confirmed that there is a gap between the positions of the next row and the next row. As a result, when there is a gap, this amount is calculated, and the unit for transferring the blank data and the unit for writing the blank data c are used for each raster in the same manner as in the process a). Write blank data to bitmap memory 10.

C) Processing of blank in line within page: Corresponding to means f for determining from the beginning of a line or the middle to the end of a line In the process of b) above, character expansion for one line is performed. At this time, when the page description for one line is analyzed and the character or image to be expanded is not detected, from the position, the end of the line (this is the attribute of the page in the above page description language. Can be recognized by analyzing the above) is a blank line, the process corresponds to the process of detecting a blank line of (3) described in the above action column, and if the blank line can be recognized, With respect to the blank line, in the next expansion data output processing (see processing step 103 in FIG. 2), the blank data transfer means D in raster units and the blank data writing means c cause the blank row in the bitmap memory 10 to be written. By combining the blank data generated for the above and the rasterized character rasterized data by the character rasterization processing up to the middle of the one line, the rasterized data and the blank data are output, and the bitma It is possible to combine the character expansion data and the blank data to the corresponding line of the up memory 10, transfer the data in raster units, and write the character data and the blank data in the bitmap memory 10.

In the conventional method, in this case, the blank line is subjected to processing such as replacement as a blank character,
In the end, since the expansion of the characters was performed, the time required for the expansion is shortened.

D) Margin processing at the bottom of the page: Corresponding to the means g for obtaining a blank area from the current output row position to the bottom of the bitmap memory. After writing all the rows in the page to the bitmap memory 10, From the means d for knowing the length of the page and the means B for knowing the position of the current output line by analyzing the attributes of the page in the print data in the description language, to the area up to the lower end of the paper, Blank image in raster units
The blank data is written by means D for transferring (dot data) and means c for writing blank data.

FIG. 3 schematically shows a printing format within a page. In FIG. 3, a to d correspond to the processes a to d described in the above-described embodiment of the present invention, and a portion a transfers blank data to the upper end margin of the conventional paper, and blanks. Shows the case where the line is printed, the line b shows the case where the line in the page is expanded and printed, and the part c shows when the character to be expanded is no longer detected during the expansion of the line. To the end of the line or to the blank space between lines,
It shows a case where blank data is transferred and printed, and a portion d shows a case where blank data is transferred and printed with respect to a margin portion at the lower end of the page.

As described above, the data processing apparatus according to the present invention transfers the print data expanded on the processing apparatus side to the printing apparatus having the bitmap memory and obtains the print result by using the page description language. From the page, line, and character-by-character attributes (page cue, line feed pitch, character size) of the print data that is being printed, a means for obtaining from the beginning of the bitmap memory to the first line of the page during expansion processing, and expansion And a means for obtaining the position of the next line and the position of the next line at the same time, a means for obtaining from the middle of the line to the end of the line, and a means for obtaining the current output line position to the bottom end of the bitmap memory. Then, when a region where the transfer target data does not exist is detected, dot data representing a blank is transferred instead of the print data and written to the bitmap memory instead of the print data. To so that, the page printing,
Writing of character data or blank data and transfer 2
The feature is that I got it by pass.

[0033]

As described above in detail, according to the page printer control apparatus of the present invention, by performing the processes a) to d), the erasing process performed at the beginning of the page is completely completed. This can be omitted, and the processing time corresponding to the initialization work of the bitmap, which has been performed by the conventional expansion method, can be shortened.

Further, on the printing apparatus side, it is possible to eliminate the interface (startup, end notification, etc.) for initializing the bitmap memory, which is conventionally shown to the processing apparatus, and the printing apparatus is simplified. The cost of the entire printing system can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention (No. 1).

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention (Part 2).

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention (part 3).

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a conventional data processing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Printing device 10 Bitmap memory 12 Image data transfer unit 13 Data receiving unit 2 Processing device 11,21 Data expansion processing unit 100 to 104 Processing flow in data expansion processing unit (processing sequence) A to D Data expansion processing of processing device Basic means in parts a to g Each processing means in the data expansion processing part of the processing unit Attribute for each character

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printing device (1) is connected to a processing device (2),
Transfer the print data expanded on the side of the processing device (2) to the printing device (1) equipped with the bitmap memory (10), and obtain the print result.In the data processing device, the print data generated by the processing device (2) From the print data that has undergone data expansion processing, a means for detecting an area in which the transfer target data does not exist, and instead of the print data corresponding to the detected area, dot data representing a blank is transferred to the bitmap memory ( 10) A data processing device, characterized in that it has a writing means.