JPH0648459B2 - Print control method - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print control method, and particularly, in a printing apparatus connected to a higher-level device, print data from the higher-level device is printed on a printing paper by a printing mechanism. The present invention relates to a print control method for performing print control.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in a printing apparatus that performs printing using an electrostatic image, such as a laser beam printer, the print data to be printed on the printing paper is expanded in advance in the image memory (full dot memory) as a bitmap image and then printed on the printing paper. Print. In this case, in the printing apparatus, a memory having a size of at least one page of printing paper is provided as an image memory, and print data of a bitmap image is generated in the image memory and printing is performed in association with the printing paper. To do.

As a print control method for associating the print data on the image memory and the printing paper in such a printing apparatus, for example, a printer control method described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-254516 is known. This printer control method is a print control method in which the number of screens created in the image memory is variable in accordance with the size of printing paper. In this printer control method, it is necessary to consider the print paper size and further change the memory size of the image memory according to the print paper size.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

By the way, in the conventional print control method of the printing apparatus as described above, since the print control relating to the print data is a simple one for printing the character data, the control of the print paper size and the paper feed in the printing apparatus is as follows. In particular, no consideration has been given to fine print control suitable for the print paper, and there is a problem that the relationship between the print paper and the page control of each print data to be printed is not clear.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a print control method that can easily control the relationship between a print sheet and a page of print data to be printed in a printing apparatus.

Another object of the present invention is to correlate an actual print sheet with a logical page to be printed on it by using a page buffer of one page, and control one page of print data and control of the sheet. It is to provide a print control method that can be performed simultaneously.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a print control method for performing print control on a printing apparatus as a unified format of print control data for paper feed control and page control of a paper.

The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention will be apparent from the description of this specification and the accompanying drawings.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

In order to achieve the above object, the print control method of the present invention is a printing apparatus having a printing mechanism for receiving print data sent from a higher-level device and printing the print data on a printing paper. A page buffer for storing one page and a page control processing circuit for performing print control by breaking page management information given together with print data from a higher-level device. It is characterized in that the expansion control is performed and the paper feed control of the printing paper is performed.

The page management information is composed of segment control information indicating the division type of print data, paper control information indicating the presence / absence of a page break, and page size control information for controlling the expansion position of characters in the print data. It is characterized by

[Action]

According to the means, the printing apparatus includes the page buffer and the page control processing circuit. The page control processing circuit controls the expansion of the print data to be expanded in the page buffer according to the page management information, controls the paper feed of the print paper, and performs the page control for the print control.

That is, the page management information is composed of segment control information indicating the division type of print data, paper control information indicating the presence or absence of a page break, and page size control information for controlling the expansion position of characters in the print data. Therefore, the page control processing circuit expands the print data in the page buffer according to the instruction of the page management information from the higher-level device. This is because the page control processing circuit breaks the page management information given together with the print data from the higher-level device, and first identifies in which division position of the page buffer the print data is developed. The division position is identified by determining the head, middle, end, or a single flag of the segment control information indicating the division type of the print data of the page management information added to the print data. Next, in order to determine the size of the page buffer, a logical grid is created from the page size control information in the page buffer. After that, the print data for one page is completed by arranging the characters and ruled lines of the print data according to the logical grid. Then, finally, the relationship between the position of the page buffer and the position of the paper is associated with each other, and whether or not the print paper is fed is determined based on the paper control information to perform print control.

In this way, the expansion of the page buffer can be controlled by setting the page management information to be added to the print data, and the print control operation suitable for the page can be performed for the printing apparatus. Easily mapped. Further, the page size control information allows one page to be freely set in the page buffer, so that when printing is performed, one page can be controlled for printing regardless of the size and type of paper. Further, the paper feed control of the paper can be performed in various combinations by the print data including the page management information. Even when these print controls are performed, the print control data can be uniformly set by the page management information of the format, so that the print control can be uniformly performed in detail.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining an overall processing outline of print control according to a print control method according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is print data given to the printing apparatus from the host apparatus, and 2 is a page buffer in the printing apparatus. The print data 1 includes data of page management information (PMD) 1a for print control and print content 1b of print content. The page buffer 2 uses a dot map memory having an area equal to or larger than the size of the paper that can be printed by the printing mechanism. The printing device receives the print data 1 sent from the host device,
The print content data 1b is expanded in the page buffer 2 based on the print control data of the page management information 1a, and then printed on the print paper by the print mechanism unit.

Here, the print result image of the print data expanded in the page buffer 2 is displayed in the block of the page buffer 2. The print control data of the page management information 1a is used to create and set the print sheet position 3 and the logical grid 4 of the sheet to be printed, the print content data 1b is developed, and the page is printed on the page.

Depending on the content to be printed, the print data 1 is given to the page buffer 2 of the printing device as the print data 11, 12, 13, 14 of a plurality of blocks. The print data 11, 12, 13, 14 of each of the plurality of blocks has a head, as page management information 1a added before the print data of one block to indicate that the print data is a series. Flags (segment control information) 11a, 12a, 13a, 14a indicating division types of print data such as intermediate and final are added.

When the print data of one block is independent (when it is the same as the beginning and the end), a single flag is added to the segment control information.

Further, the page management information 1a is additionally provided with paper control information indicating the presence or absence of a page break and page size control information for controlling the expansion position of the characters in the print data.
In the printing apparatus, the page size control information is used to create and set the logical grid 4 for the printing paper position 3 to be printed, and the data A, data B, and data C to be printed are set with the position of the logical grid 4 as a reference. , Expand the data n. As a result of this expansion, the print data 11, 12, 13, 14 of multiple blocks are
Each expansion position 5a, 5 in the page buffer 2
The print data of the dot map image for one page is created by expanding at each position of b, 5c, 5d, and the print data of the dot map image for one page is created by the print mechanism unit such as the laser beam print mechanism. Is printed on the printing paper as it is.

That is, the printing apparatus is provided with a page buffer 2 having a size equal to or larger than the size of printing paper 3, and print data 1 is given to the page buffer 2 from the outside (upper device). Since the size of the print data 1 given at one time is generally a part of the print data of one page, the print data 11, 12, 13, 14 is given over a plurality of times. In this case, 1 of each print data 11, 12, 13, 14
First, middle, middle, and last identification flags 11a, 12a, 13a, and 14a for indicating the division position of the print data of the page, respectively.
Is added to the print data 11, 12, 13, 14 and given to the page buffer 2. The print data for one page of paper is
When given from print data of a plurality of blocks, print control is performed for each print data of each block. In this case, when printing the beginning and the end of the printing paper,
Paper feed control of the paper to be printed is required. The paper feed control is suction and discharge of the cut paper to the printing mechanism unit when the print paper is a cut paper, and page break when the cut paper is continuous paper. The print control data for the paper feed control is also externally given as a part of the page management information 1a. Further, as print control data given by another part of the page management information 1a, a page size created by a logical grid (logical grid) 4 partitioned into lines and columns of character positions to be printed developed in the page buffer 2. Control information is given. The size of the logical grid 4 created by the page size control information determines the size of one page actually printed on the paper and the positions of the vertical and horizontal ruled lines indicated by the print data. Further, the logical grid 4 is used as positioning information for each print character position of print data. In this way, the page management information 1a added to the print content data 1b of the print data 1 of each block is used as print control data to perform print control, thereby creating one page of print data in the page buffer 2. The print control process is performed to print on the actual print paper.

Next, the print control using the page buffer described above will be described more specifically based on an example of the printing operation in the printing apparatus connected to the host computer.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system configuration in which the printing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention is used by being connected to a host computer of a host apparatus. In FIG. 2, 20 is a communication line, 21 is a host computer of a higher-level device, and 22 is a printing device. The host computer 21 is connected to the printing device 22 via the communication line 20, and sends the print data to the printing device 22. The printing device 22 (the printing device may be connected to a host computer via another terminal control device) has a page buffer 25 provided therein, and print data sent from the host computer 22. Is stored in the page buffer 25, the print control device 23 performs print control processing in the page buffer 25, and is expanded into dot image data to be printed. Then, based on the print data stored in the page buffer 25, the printing mechanism unit 24 finally prints on the printing paper such as the cut paper 26 or the continuous paper 27 and outputs it.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the main configuration of the print control apparatus. This block diagram is an internal block diagram showing the flow of processing of a printing apparatus that performs printing control using a page buffer, controls the printing mechanism unit, and prints on printing paper. The print data 1 given from the host computer via the communication line is received by the communication control circuit 31 and input to the page control circuit 32. The page control circuit 32 performs various page controls based on page management information received from the host computer. The print control data relating to the paper feed control of the print paper is passed from the page control circuit 32 to the paper feed control unit 37 to control the paper feed mechanism of the print mechanism unit 38. Also,
Print control data and print content data relating to the page buffer are supplied from the page control circuit 32 to the page buffer control circuit 33. The page buffer control circuit 33 uses the page buffer 34 to perform print control processing based on these print control data and print content data. That is, the logical grid, ruled lines, and the like are created in the page buffer 34, and the print content data is stored in the page buffer 34 according to the page position. The print data stored in the page buffer 34 is read by the print control circuit 35,
The print control circuit 35 uses the character generation circuit 36 to generate font data as necessary, and supplies it to the printing mechanism unit 38 as dot image data to be printed. The printing mechanism unit 38 controls the paper feeding from the paper feeding unit, and actually prints on the printing paper by using, for example, a laser beam electrostatic printing mechanism.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a format of print data received by the printing apparatus from the host computer. At the top of the print data 40, a page management information field 41 for performing print control with a page buffer is provided.
A print content data field 42 is provided following the page management information field 41. The print control data set in the page management information field 41 includes the following information.

(1) Segment control information 41a: Type flag data indicating which position in the page buffer of one page the print content data following the page management information is. There are four types of flags that indicate the start, middle, end, and single.

(2) Paper control information 41b: Control data for controlling paper feed of printing paper during printing operation. There are two types of control data, with and without page breaks. The presence or absence of page breaks indicates the inhalation and ejection of paper on cut sheets,
Indicates whether or not there is a page break on continuous paper.

(3) Page size control information 41c: This is data indicating the page size, and the page position of the printing start on the printing paper is the x direction from the top left edge of the paper and y.
There is page position data indicated by the distance in the direction, and logical grid data of a line pitch, a digit pitch (interval), a line size, and a digit size (page size) of the logical grid for partitioning one page by the logical grid.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the contents of the page buffer and the print result when print control is performed by the print control data of the page management information. Here, each relationship among the page size, the paper position, and the logical grid in the page buffer 50 designated by the page size control information of the page management information is shown. The lengths of x and y indicated by the page position data of the page size control information indicate the respective distances from the upper left end of the paper position, and the positions separated by the length indicated by x and y. Determines the position of one page that is actually printed. Further, a logical grid 51 that defines the size of one page and the positions of ruled lines and characters as rows and columns is generated based on the respective values indicated by the logical grid data of the page size control information. The row pitch indicates the vertical row spacing, and the digit pitch indicates the horizontal digit spacing. Further, the size of one page is determined by the size of the row size and the digit size.
In this case, the ruled line is set at the position of the grid divided by the logical grid 51, and the character to be printed is also placed at the position of the grid.

This logical grid 51 can be set to any position by changing the interval of the logical grid 51 without being aware of the actual paper size and paper type (single sheet or continuous paper). And characters can be set.

FIG. 6 is a table showing print control data values of combinations of segment control information and paper control information in page management information. In FIG. 6, for example, "A1" indicates the value of the print control data in which the segment control information indicates the leading type flag and the paper control information indicates the control data without page break. Also, "A2
1 "indicates the value of the print control data, which is the value indicating the type flag at the beginning of the segment control information, the paper control information indicating that there is a page break, and the control data for performing page break before printing of a single slip. There is. Note that "---" indicates that there is no combination of the print control data.

The print data for one page is divided into the beginning, the middle, and the end, or is formed as a single piece, and this is indicated by the print control data of the page management information and sent to the printing apparatus. The printing apparatus uses the page buffer according to the print control data to perform print control processing. Paper feed is a page break (inhalation and discharge in case of single cut)
There are two types of whether to perform. Therefore, the beginning, middle,
The paper feed control of the paper is performed by the print control data that is a combination of four types of the type flags indicating the final type and the single type. In the print data to which the type flag indicating the middle is added, the paper feed control is performed with the first print data or the last print data. Therefore, in the print control data with the intermediate type flag, “B1” without a page break Only.

Further, in the print control data in the case where the type flag indicating single is added to continuous paper, it is necessary to give an instruction as to whether or not to perform a page break before or after printing. This is the same when there is a continuous leaf page on a cut sheet. For this reason, in the print control data with a page break, the type is divided into a page break before printing and a page break after printing, and the combined print control data value is used. By combining such print control data, values of print control data of the type shown in FIG. 6 are set.
The page break before printing here means that the data to be printed is output to a print sheet next to the immediately preceding printing paper by the page break operation, and the page break after printing is the result of printing. The control is to perform a page break of only one printing sheet and prepare the next new printing sheet.

By such segment control information and paper control information of the print data, it is possible to freely and finely control the paper feed according to the type of print paper in the print control.

A specific example of performing print control using such various types of print control data will be described below.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of paper control when print control for printing one page on one paper is performed. The higher-level device 61 transfers the print data 62 to the start data 62a, intermediate data 62b, and final data in the page buffer 64 of the printing device 63.
It is divided into 62c and sent. In this case, the value of the print control data is set to "A21" in the first data 62a, the value of the print control data is set to "C22" in the final data 62c, and a page break is instructed. As a result, when the head data 62a is received and print control is performed, a page break is performed first, a new paper is set before printing the head data 62a, and printing is performed. In the intermediate data 62b that is subsequently transmitted, the value of the print control data is "B1", and no page break is performed and printing is performed. Then, when the final data 62c is subsequently transmitted, printing control of the final data 62c is performed. In this case, since the value of the print control data is "C22", the printing is performed first, and the page break is performed after the printing is completed. This allows
A print sheet is output after printing the final data 62c, and as a result, one page of the print data 62 that has been divided and transmitted is printed on one print sheet.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of paper control when print control for printing a plurality of pages on one paper is performed. The higher-level device 71 sends 2 pages to the page buffer 75 of the printing device 74.
The page print data 72 and the print data 73 are transmitted.
The print data 72 of the first page A is divided into the first data
72a, intermediate data 72b, final data 72c as the printing device 7
Sent to 4. The printing device 74 transmits the print data 72 to control printing. In this case, the value of the print control data of the final data 72c of the print data 72 is "C1" and no page break is instructed. As a result, in the printing device 74, the page A is printed on the printing paper, but the printing paper printed as it is is not output. Next, since the print data 73 of page B is transmitted from the higher-level device 71, the printing device 74
Then, print control of the print data 73 is performed. The print data 73 of page B is also divided into the first data 73a and the intermediate data 7
3b, final data 73c is transmitted to the printing device 74. In this case, the value of the print control data of the head data 73a of the print data 73 is "A1", and no page break is instructed. Therefore, in the print control of the print data 73 of the page B, the print positioning for printing is performed (changing the print position) on the same print sheet as the print sheet of the page A remaining in the printing device 74, and the print position of the page B is changed. The print data 73 of will be printed. Since the value of the print control data of the final data 73c of the print data 73 of page B is "C22" and the page break is instructed, after the printing of page B is finished,
Print paper is output. As a result, a plurality of pages of print data are printed on one sheet. In this way, by instructing the presence or absence of a page break at the beginning and end of the print data for one page, and performing print control to change the print position at the top left edge of one page, printing of multiple pages on one sheet can be performed. It will be possible.

As described above, according to the embodiments of the present invention, the following effects are obtained.

(1) By using the page buffer, print control for one page can be performed regardless of the size and type of print paper.

(2) Since one page in the page buffer can be set freely, logical page printing can be performed without being affected by the physical properties of the paper.

(3) By controlling the page buffer with the page management information, it is possible to perform fine page management in the host device.

(4) The paper feed control of the paper can be performed in various combinations according to the print control data.

(5) The print positions of ruled lines and characters are clearly determined by the logical grid.

The present invention has been specifically described above based on the embodiments,
It is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments and can be variously modified without departing from the scope of the invention.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the print control for controlling the expansion into the page buffer by setting the page management information added to the print data and performing the print paper feed control suitable for the page to the printing apparatus. It can be performed. Further, when the print control operation is performed, the relationship between the print paper and the page can be easily associated. By the page size control information of the page management information, it becomes possible to freely set one page in the page buffer, and when printing,
It is possible to control printing of one page regardless of the size and type of paper. Further, the paper feed control of the paper can be performed in various combinations by the print control data of the management information for the page. Even when these print controls are performed, the print control data can be uniformly set by the page management information of the format, so that the print control can be uniformly performed in detail.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining the overall processing outline of print control of a print control method according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a host in which the printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is a host device. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a system configuration used by being connected to a computer, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a print control device, and FIG. 4 is an example of a format of print data received by the printing device from a host computer. 5 and 5 are views showing the contents of the page buffer and print results when print control is performed by the print control data of the page management information, and FIG. 6 is segment control information and paper control in the page management information. FIG. 7 is a table showing an example of print control data values in combination with information, and FIG. 7 describes an example of paper control when print control is performed to print one page on one paper. That figure 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a sheet control when performing printing control for printing multiple pages on one sheet. In the figure, 1,11,12,13,14,40,62,72,73 ... print data,
2, 25, 34, 50, 64, 75 ... Page buffer, 1a ... Page management information, 1b ... Print content data, 3 ... Print paper position,
4, 51 ... Logical grid, 20 ... Communication line, 21 ... Host computer, 22 ... Printing device, 23 ... Printing control device, 24, 38 ... Printing mechanism section, 26 ... Single-cut paper, 27 ... Continuous paper, 31 ... Communication Control circuit,
32 ... Page control circuit, 33 ... Page buffer control circuit, 35
... print control circuit, 36 ... character generating circuit, 37 ... paper feed control section, 41 ... page management information field, 42 ... print content data field.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A printing apparatus having a printing mechanism for receiving print data sent from a higher-level device and printing the print data on a printing paper, and a page buffer for storing one page of print data from the higher-level device, It is composed of segment control information indicating the division type of print data, paper control information indicating the presence or absence of a page break, and page size control information for controlling the expansion position of the characters in the print data, which is given together with the print data from the host device. And a page control processing circuit for performing print control by breaking the stored page management information, and controlling the expansion of the print data to be expanded in the page buffer according to the page management information and controlling the paper feed of the printing paper. Print control method. 2. A page control processing circuit controls division reception of print data from segment control information of page management information given by a higher-level device, controls page break of printing paper by paper control information, and controls page size. 2. The printing control method according to claim 1, wherein a logical grid for controlling a character position to be printed is created according to information. 3. The page control processing circuit, based on the value of the flag of the segment control information of the page management information given from the host device, prints data from the host device at the beginning, middle, end, or end of one page. Whether it is a single page or not, and based on the value of the paper control information, it corresponds to the beginning, middle, end, and single of the page of the print data from the host device, and the page break of the paper at the time of printing The printing control method according to claim 1, wherein whether or not to perform the printing is controlled. 4. A page control processing circuit, based on a page size control value of page management information supplied from a higher-level device, defines vertical and horizontal logics for defining a position of a page on a printing paper and a size of the page. The print control method according to claim 1, wherein a grid is created and a print character position is determined. 5. A logical grid is created by setting the intervals of the vertical grid and the horizontal grid and the number of grids respectively, and one page is divided by the vertical grid and the horizontal grid to serve as a reference for determining the print character position. The print control method according to claim 4, wherein a logical page size of one page is created, and the print data positions of the ruled line and the character are set according to the created logical grid. 6. A print data from a host device, segment control information indicating a division type of the print data, paper control information indicating presence / absence of a page break, and page size control for controlling a character development position of the print data. A printing apparatus having a printing mechanism for printing print data on a printing paper by receiving page management information composed of information and a page buffer for storing print data for one page and one page in the page buffer. Minute print data according to the segment control information of the page management information and the page size control information, the page buffer control circuit, the paper feed control mechanism that controls the paper feed of the print paper, and the paper control information of the page management information A print control device comprising a page control circuit for performing page control on a paper feed control mechanism.