JPH0452968B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Technical Field) The present invention relates to a printing terminal device, and more particularly to a printing terminal device capable of overlaying format data.

(Prior art) In the past, this type of printing terminal device either stored format data in a fixed manner within the device, or otherwise always sent print data and format data together. However, the disadvantages are that the format data that can be used is limited and the amount of data to be transferred becomes extremely large.

(Object of the Invention) An object of the present invention is to provide a printing terminal device that eliminates these drawbacks, reduces communication traffic, and has high operating efficiency.

(Structure of the Invention) The printing terminal device of the present invention is a printing terminal device capable of overlaying format data, and has a function of storing a plurality of print data and a plurality of format data;
The present invention is characterized by having a function of requesting necessary format data from a host computer.

(Example) Next, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

The drawing shows a printing terminal device which is an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, one embodiment of the present invention includes a print data storage section 2 that can store a plurality of print data, a format data storage section 5 that can store a plurality of format data,
It includes a printing device 6 capable of overlaying format data. Here, the communication processing section 1 transfers the print data received from the host computer to the print data storage section 2.
Stored sequentially in . On the other hand, the print processing unit 3 extracts print data from the print data storage unit 2 in the order in which it should be output, notifies the format data load processing unit 4 of the format data name written in the print data, and loads the format data. The processing section 4 reads out the format data having the notified format data name from the format data storage section 5 and loads it into the printing device 6. The print processing section 3 waits for the loading of the format data to be completed and then outputs the print data to the printing device 6.

When the output of one print data is finished, the print processing section 3
takes out the next print data from the print data storage section 2 and enters the next processing cycle.

Since the operation management section 7 prepares the format data required for the print data in the format data storage section 5 in advance, the print data stored in the print data storage section 2 is sequentially downloaded according to the order in which it is output. When it is detected that the format data required by the print data is not in the format data storage section 5, it is checked whether there is enough space to store new format data in the format data storage section 5. , if there is room, requests the required format data from the host computer via the communication processing section 1. If there is no room to store new format data, one of the format data that is least likely to be used among the format data that is not used in the print data that is printed before the data is discarded, and the communication processing unit 1 is The required format data is requested from the host computer via the host computer. On the other hand, when the requested format data is sent from the host computer, the communication processing section 1 stores the format data in the format data storage section 5.

Although this embodiment has been described above, it is clear that several modifications are possible. For example, frequently used format data may be stored permanently in the format data storage section 5, or when the host computer sends print data to the printing terminal device, there is sufficient space in the format data storage section 5 and necessary format data is available. If it is known in advance that the format data is not held in the print terminal device, the format data may be sent together with the print data.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, since the printing terminal device of the present invention can request format data from the host computer as necessary, there is no restriction on the format data that can be used, and the printing data and format data By having a storage function, the more frequently used format data has a higher probability of remaining in the printing terminal device, resulting in a reduction in communication traffic, and the necessary format data is prepared when printing data is output. This has the effect of increasing the operating efficiency of the printing terminal device.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawing is a diagram showing a printing terminal device in an embodiment of the present invention. 1...Communication processing unit, 2...Print data storage unit,
3...Print processing unit, 4...Form data load processing unit, 5...Form data storage unit, 6...Printing device,
7...Operations management department.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 In a printing terminal device that can overlay format data, the function of storing multiple print data,
It has a function that stores multiple format data, reads in advance multiple stored print data, requests the necessary format data from the host computer in advance, and has the ability to add and store new format data if requested. If not, the printing terminal device is characterized by having a function of discarding the format data that has the lowest probability of being used later among the stored format data.