JPH05318839A - Formation of image, device thereof and information processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable high-speed printing by supplying printing data to an expansion stage when such a stage is incorporated that a function in a library is executed and image expansion is performed on a memory for forming a picture and the inputted printing data are the data of a format for executing the expansion stage. CONSTITUTION:An input part 11 has the automatic exchange function of an interface and analysis parts A, B and receives printing data from external devices 301, 302. At this time, only the initially received data are made effective and the analysis parts 12a, 12b correspond thereto are identified. Emulation data A, Bare sent to the respective analysis parts 12a, 12b. The respective analysis parts A, B refer to an intermediate representation generative standard library 13 and font scalers 15a, 15b and form intermediate language data. In other words, herein the printing data for necessitating image expansion generate image information in the analysis parts 12a or 12b and also generate both the position for expanding the image and clipping information as the intermediate representation data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming method, an apparatus and an information processing system therefor, and more specifically, an image forming method and an apparatus for printing an image based on input print data on a predetermined recording medium and outputting it. The present invention relates to an information processing system having the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A typical device of this type is as follows.
Page printers that enable high definition and high speed, especially laser beam printers, are available. Recently, various functions such as a function of printing smooth characters regardless of enlargement / reduction such as an outline font have been introduced.

In addition, this type of device inherits the assets of many application software currently in use.
In many cases, those applications have a function of emulating a conventional printer which is a print target. That is, it emulates multiple models by allowing interpretation of multiple printer languages.

By the way, the page printer is literally 1
An image is recorded by receiving data for a page, but prior to the recording, an image such as a character pattern to be printed in the memory for one page must be developed.
Before expanding each character pattern, it is necessary to decide where to expand it in memory. Depending on the case, it is necessary to determine what size and type of character pattern is to be developed.

[0005]

Consider, for example, emulating print data intended for a printer that only reciprocates a carriage. Usually, in such data, there is only a control command that determines the recording position of the first character, and the character codes are simply arranged after that. Even when emulating such data, it will eventually generate various data in the format described above,
Since the pattern expansion based on the generated data has to be performed, the complicated processing required until the pattern expansion is not released.

Further, in the case of having a large number of emulation functions, it is necessary to have as many analysis units (emulation programs) as the number of target printer languages, so that the memory size is inevitably large, leading to an increase in cost. ..

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming method, an apparatus, and an information processing system which can print at high speed without depending on the printer language. is there.

The image forming method of the present invention which achieves this object has the following constitution. That is, in the image forming method of inputting print data and forming an image on a predetermined recording medium, by executing a function in a library storing various function groups related to pattern generation according to a given procedure. A discrimination step of discriminating whether or not the input print data is data of a format executed in the development step, and a step of developing the image on a memory for image formation, and an input data Is a data type that is executed in the expansion stroke, the supply stroke supplies the data to the expansion stroke.

The image forming apparatus of the present invention has the following structure. That is, in an image forming apparatus that inputs print data and forms an image on a predetermined recording medium, a library that stores various function groups related to pattern generation and a function group that is stored in the library are used to provide By executing according to the procedure described above, a developing means for developing an image on the image forming memory, and a determining means for determining whether or not the input print data is of a format executed by the developing means. And a supply means for supplying the data to the expanding means when the input data is in a format executed by the expanding means by the determining means.

The information processing system of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, in the information processing system including a data generating device that generates print data and an image forming device that is connected to the data generating source and that receives the print data and forms an image on a predetermined recording medium, The apparatus uses a library that stores various function groups related to pattern generation and a function group that is stored in the library, and executes it according to a given procedure to develop an image on an image forming memory. And means
The data source is a library that stores various function groups related to pattern generation, and print data received from a logically higher-level device can be directly interpreted by the expansion unit of the image forming apparatus by referring to the library. Conversion means for converting into level language data, and output means for outputting the converted low level language data to the image forming apparatus.

[0011]

In such a process or configuration, when the data sent from the print data generating source is the data of the format used in the expansion means or the expansion process, the analysis process is not performed and the image is directly expanded on the memory. To do.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the embodiment, a laser beam printer (resolution of 300 dpi) will be described as an example, but as will be apparent from the following description, the printing method can be applied to thermal transfer, ink jet, or wire dot impact method. Is. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to this method.

[Description of Construction Concept and Operation Outline] FIG. 1 is a construction conceptual diagram of an image forming apparatus of an embodiment. The outline of the operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG.

A plurality of external devices 301 and 302 as print data generating sources are connected to this device (provided with a plurality of input interfaces for that purpose). Reference numeral 101 denotes a printer control unit which will be described later, and the input unit 11 receives print data sent from the external devices 301 and 302. Then, the input unit 11 validates only the data of the external device that first sent the print data, and while the print data is continuously input from the external device, the print data cannot be received from other devices. To

The content of the received print data is analyzed, and it is determined which analysis unit of the apparatus should perform the print processing. In other words, the input unit 11 checks the control command included in the received print data, determines what printer language the command corresponds to, and selects the printer among the plurality of analysis units 12a and 12b. The print data is passed to the analysis unit that can interpret the language. That is, the input unit 11 includes automatic interface switching and automatic analysis unit switching.

In other words, the analysis units 12a and 12b are emulation programs having a function of interpreting control commands in different printer languages. What is noteworthy in the embodiment is which analysis unit (emulation The program) only generates common intermediate language data (hereinafter, simply referred to as intermediate language data), and does not perform the dot expansion processing. The details of the intermediate language data will be described later.

Each analysis unit inputs a printer language suitable for itself and outputs the result to the intermediate representation generation standard library 13
Intermediate language data for dot pattern generation is created by referring to (aggregate of various functions relating to dot pattern generation) and font scalers 15a and 15b. To repeat, the printer languages analyzed by the respective analysis units are different, but the intermediate language data generated by each is common.

Therefore, it is possible to pass the output from any analysis unit to one common dot pattern development unit (rasterizer) 14, and the data is developed in the page memory (bitmap memory) 16 as dot data. In this way, the dot images developed in the page memory 18 are sequentially output as video signals by the output unit 17 to the output mechanism (printer engine) 200, whereby printing is performed.

When a new analysis unit (emulation program) is created by the above processing, a program for dot expansion processing is not included, and only a program for creating data in a format that can be executed by the rasterizer 14 is used. Since it is good, the burden of production is reduced. In addition, the scale (memory capacity) of the analysis unit can be naturally reduced, which also contributes to cost reduction.

[Explanation of Intermediate Language Data] Here, the intermediate language will be described.

Usually, the received print data is relatively easy for humans to understand. In other words, the print data is not in a format that can be directly interpreted by the CPU in the image forming apparatus. It is also possible to receive each print data and interpret the received data on the spot to generate the corresponding dot data. However, the time required for this may not be ignored and the result As a result, the external device takes a long time to be released from the print data output process.

Therefore, the received data is first converted into language data of a lower level (data in a format that can be easily interpreted by the CPU), and the converted data is stored and held. Then, when the low-level language data is stored in, for example, one page in the intermediate language area 24C described later, the actual dot development processing is performed. The low-level language data referred to here is called intermediate language data in the embodiment.

For example, even if one character is printed, the CPU generates one character pattern only when there is various information such as the character type, enlargement ratio, print position, rotation direction, and decoration information, and this is used as a printing memory. Can be deployed to. Therefore, the format of the intermediate language data generated in each of the analysis units 12a and 12b in the embodiment is as follows, an identification code for identifying what kind of processing the data is, and
The parameters passed to the process are in a continuous format.

Intermediate language data format (binary data:
... identification code, p1, p2, ... pn, identification code, p
1, p2, ... Pm, ... (p1 and the like indicate parameters, and the number of parameters depends on the identification code) The rasterizer 14 corresponds to the identification code when executing the intermediate language data thus generated. A function (subroutine program) is taken out (or directly called) from the intermediate representation generation standard library 13 and executed. At this time, if the corresponding parameter exists, that parameter is also passed prior to its execution.

Here, FIGS. 4 and 5 briefly show the outline of the processing flow of the embodiment. FIG. 4 shows processing contents relating to character handling, and FIG. 5 shows processing contents relating to images. Briefly describing FIG. 4, when the analysis unit 12a (or 12b) receives a position designation command, a font selection command, a character code, etc. included in the data received via the input unit 11, the analysis unit 12a (or 12b) analyzes the data, Identification information (ID that identifies various functions stored in the intermediate language generation standard library 13)
Code) and its associated arguments (parameters) are generated to generate intermediate representation information. The same applies to the analysis unit 12a (or 12b) for the image of FIG. In the case of a character, the generated information includes a bitmap of the character, designation of physical X and Y coordinates, and various information such as clipping information. Further, in the case of image data, the analysis unit 12a (or 12b) generates information for securing each input image and specifying the secured image, and the intermediate representation data includes the secured and stored image. The expansion position, clipping information, and, if necessary (when the received print data includes instruction data to that effect), the image transformation information and the like are used as intermediate representation data.

Here, an example of the intermediate language at the time of character handling is shown in FIG. 22, and that at the time of image handling is shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, the intermediate language generated during character handling includes clipping information, drawing logic information, enlargement ratio information, bitmap patterns, and the like. Further, the intermediate language at the time of image handling includes not only data of the same format but also data relating to image patterns. Of course, these intermediate language data are not all the intermediate language data handled in the embodiment. An identification ID code (information for specifying a function to be called) indicating what each intermediate language data means is present at the head of the generated intermediate language data in either characters or images. And each identification I
The information following D is an argument passed when processing the identification information (that is, reading a function in the library 13), and the number of them depends on the identification ID.

Note that the clipping information (existing in common for character handling and image handling) means that characters are specified only within a specified rectangular area (specified by the X, Y coordinates of the upper left corner, width and height). It is for expanding patterns or images. In other words,
It is a declarative statement to prevent the data beyond this area from being expanded unless further clipping information is applied to the subsequent data expansion. In addition, drawing logic information (exists for both character handling and image handling)
In the argument "drawing logic information" in, the instruction information for designating the logic expression when the pattern or image is developed is stored. Specifically, when a character pattern (or image) is expanded in the page memory 16, it is determined whether the pattern already expanded is overwritten expansion, transparent expansion (logical sum), or exclusive logical sum expansion. Information to be instructed is stored. It should be noted that, also in this case, unless otherwise specified, it is indicated that the subsequent processing is performed according to the same logic. Further, the enlargement ratio information has two arguments because the enlargement ratios in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction are independent in the apparatus of the embodiment. Further, for the bitmap pattern, in addition to the information specifying one bitmap pattern to be developed, there is a parameter of the coordinate position to be developed.

Although the intermediate language data at the time of image handling is almost the same, the format of the intermediate language data when developing the received image, which is a feature thereof, will be described here. As described above, when the image data is received, the analysis unit 12a (or 12b) stores the received image data in the work area 24a of the RAM 24, which will be described later, and generates a unique ID number for the data. To do. The “image pattern code” in FIG. 23C is
This ID code is shown. The six parameters that follow are, of course, the arguments passed to the image pattern expansion process (function in the library), which means what the image data specified by the image pattern code is. It is data indicating whether to transform into. Specifically, these six pieces of information indicate each element in the determinant used when the image pattern expansion function performs the transformation process. The image pattern expansion function calculates the transformation coordinates (XD, YD) by calculating the original coordinates (XS, YS) of each pixel in the specified pattern by the determinant composed of the given parameters, A process of transferring a pixel existing at (XS, YS) in the original pattern to coordinates (XD, YD) is performed. It should be noted that these coordinates do not indicate absolute coordinate values of the memory for developing the image for printing, but are local coordinate values within the rectangle specified by the clipping information.

Incidentally, in FIG. 4 or FIG.
The format of the print data input to a and 12b naturally varies greatly depending on the printer language to be analyzed by the analysis unit.

[Description of Specific Configuration] Next, FIG. 2 shows a specific configuration example of the image forming apparatus of the above-described embodiment. It should be noted that this drawing is also described as a common structure in each of the embodiments described later.

In the figure, 21 is a printer control unit which will be described later, and 21a and 21b are interfaces (I / F) for connecting to external devices (host computers etc.) 301 and 302. However, each interface may be any interface other than parallel and serial. 22 is a CP that controls the entire apparatus
U and 23 are ROMs that store basic programs (such as programs for fetching data via the I / F and the flowchart of FIG. 6 described later) in the processing procedure executed by the CPU 22. 24 is a RAM, which is the CPU 2
2 is a work area 24 that is referred to while executing various processes.
a, a reception buffer area 24b for temporarily storing the received print data, or an intermediate language area 24c for storing the intermediate language data described above. This RAM
Various data areas other than this are created in 24, which will be described later. Reference numerals 25a and 25b denote memories storing emulation programs for interpreting various printer languages (analyzing units 12a and 12 in FIG. 1).
(corresponding to b), and the memories 25a and 25b are R
It is composed of OM and the like. Reference numeral 26 denotes an intermediate language generation library memory (corresponding to the intermediate expression generation standard library 13 in FIG. 1) that stores a set of various functions related to dot pattern generation. Also, 27a, 27b
Is a memory that stores font scaler data, and is capable of printing a plurality of types of characters (for example, Gothic font or Mincho font) as shown in the embodiment. These font scaler memories 27a, 27
The content of b includes outline font data 15 of each character type and a program for generating a final character pattern based on the data.
The memories 26, 27a and 27b are also composed of ROM and the like.

Reference numeral 28 is a bit map memory (corresponding to the page memory 16 in FIG. 1) having a capacity enough to develop a dot image for at least one page. 29
Is an output I / F which sequentially outputs the dot information expanded in the bitmap memory 28 to the printer engine unit 200 as a video signal. Reference numeral 31 is a non-volatile memory (hereinafter referred to as NVRAM) that stores and holds various setting contents, and is composed of, for example, an E ² PROM. Thirty
Is an operation panel including various operation buttons and an LCD display unit. 32 is R from the external device 301, 302
This is a hard disk that stores various data downloaded to the work area 24a on the AM 24 as needed. Then, each of these components is connected to the system bus 33.

Next, the structure of the printer engine unit 200 of the laser beam printer of the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

In the figure, reference numeral 100 is a laser beam printer main body, 101 is a printer control unit, and includes the respective components within the dotted frame in FIG. The printer control unit 101 mainly converts character information into a video signal of a corresponding character pattern to convert the laser driver 1 into a video signal.
Output to 02.

The laser driver 102 is the semiconductor laser 10.
3 is a circuit for driving the laser diode 3, and switches on / off the laser beam 104 emitted from the semiconductor laser 103 in accordance with the video signal input via the output I / F 29. The laser light 104 is oscillated in the left-right direction by the rotating polygon mirror 105 to scan and expose the electrostatic drum 106. As a result, an electrostatic latent image of a character pattern is formed on the electrostatic drum 106. This latent image is developed by a developing unit 107 arranged around the electrostatic drum 106, and then transferred to a recording paper. A cut sheet is used as the recording paper, and the cut sheet recording paper is stored in a paper cassette 108 mounted on the LBP 100, and is taken into the apparatus by a paper feed roller 109 and conveyance rollers 110 and 111, and the electrostatic drum 106 is used. Is supplied to.

[Explanation of Processing Contents] Although explanation will be repeated, in the embodiment, when the external device 301 outputs print data, the corresponding I / F 21a generates an interrupt signal to the CPU 22. Upon receiving this interrupt signal, the CPU
22 executes an interrupt process (routine), which will be briefly described below.

The interrupt routine reads the received data from the interrupted I / F 21a and stores it in the receive buffer area 24b. However, when all I / Fs are released, such as when the power is turned on, only the I / F that first input the print data (first generated the interrupt signal) is enabled and the other I / Fs are activated. Is disabled (print data is not accepted).

The operation processing procedure (main processing) of the CPU 22 of the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 6 in consideration of the fact that the interrupt processing is performed.

First, when the power of this apparatus is turned on, initialization processing is performed in step S1. This initialization processing also includes processing such as releasing all the input I / Fs 21a and 21b. In the next step S2, all I / Fs 21
It is determined whether or not a and 21b are in the online state (data receivable state), and when it is in the online state, the process proceeds to step S3, and it is determined whether print data is stored in the reception buffer 24b.

If there is received data, the process proceeds to step S4 to initialize the I / F release time (reset a timer (not shown)). The meaning of this I / F release time will be clarified from the description below.

Next, in step S5, it is determined whether or not the analysis unit to process the received data is determined, that is, the emulation program memory 25.
It is determined whether it is decided which of a and 25b will be used. In the initial state, this has not been decided, so
In this case, the process proceeds to step S6, but if the process for the print data has advanced to some extent, that is, if the emulation program is determined, the process branches to step S9.

In step S6, the reception buffer area 2
Based on the control code included in the data stored in 4b, it is determined which printer language the data is, and the process for selecting the corresponding emulation program is performed.
At this time, when it is determined that the corresponding emulation program does not exist or there may exist a plurality of emulation programs (step S7), the process proceeds to step S8 and a predetermined emulation program is selected. Of course, when it is determined that there are a plurality of candidates at this time, the emulation program having the highest priority is selected from the candidates (the priority is assumed to be predetermined). Thus, one emulation program is decided.

If it is determined in step S5 that one of the emulation programs has already been determined, if one of the matching emulation programs is selected in step S6, and further the default emulation program is selected. If so, the process proceeds to step S9.

In step S9, the determined (or already determined) emulation program (analyzing unit) is executed (called). The emulation program executed here has different processing contents for each emulation, but in any case, this analysis processing is executed and the main routine (step S10) is executed.
When the process returns to, the intermediate language data to be printed on one sheet of recording paper is stored in the intermediate language area 24c in the RAM 24.

Therefore, in the next step S10, the bitmap memory 28 is generated based on the generated intermediate language data.
Pattern expansion processing corresponding to is performed.

In this way, when the pattern to be recorded on one recording sheet is developed, the process proceeds to step S11 to perform the printing process by the known output process of the video signal via the output I / F 29. .. When the printing process for one sheet is completed, the process returns to step S3, and the above-described process is repeated. During this time, since the I / F release time is reset each time and the emulation program is determined, the determination in step S5 is "YES", and the processing in steps S6 to S8 is not performed. ..

The print processing based on the emulation program uniquely determined is being advanced, and the external device which has been outputting the print data until then stops the output of the print data,
Moreover, when there is no data to be processed in the reception buffer area 24b, the process proceeds from step S3 to step S3.
It will be branched to 12.

Here, it is determined whether or not the I / F release time has exceeded a predetermined time. That is, it is determined whether or not the external device that has been received up to now has completed the output process of the series of print data. If it is determined that the predetermined time has not elapsed, the process proceeds to step S2 and steps S3 and S12.
Will loop. When it is determined that the print data is not received from the external device that has been the reception target until the predetermined time has elapsed, the process proceeds from step S12 to step S13, and all the input I / Fs 21 are input.
a and 21b are released and all external devices 301 and 302 are released.
Enable reception from.

As described above, in the main processing, the expansion into the bitmap memory 28 is performed according to the common intermediate language data created by the respective emulation programs, so that each emulation program expands the bitmap data. Will be released from.

Here, an example of the analysis processing contents of the emulation program in step S9 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The emulation program described below corresponds to one of the page description languages.

From the main processing to this emulation program, for example, emulation program memory 25a
Is called, in step S21, analysis processing is performed using the reception data stored in the reception buffer area 24b. Then, in the next step S22, it is determined whether or not the data is a page break command (print command). If it is determined that the command is not a page break command, the process proceeds to step S23, the data is analyzed (step S23), and the intermediate language generation library memory 26
The identification codes for the various functions and the parameters to be passed to them are generated (step S24) and stored in the intermediate language area 24c. Hereinafter, the processing from step S21 is repeated until the page break command is detected, and when the page break command is detected, the procedure returns to step S10 of the main processing.

Thus, when returning to the main routine, one page of intermediate language data is generated in the intermediate language area 24c.

In principle, an emulation program for a printer language dedicated to a printer intended to perform reciprocating movement of a carriage, for example, performs similar processing. However, since the page break command is not always received, in the process corresponding to step S22, the number of lines based on the line pitch of the language to be emulated is also a target of determination.

Further, for example, even if a printer language in which a font to be used specially is not specified is received (even if the emulation program is a program which does not depend on a specific font scaler), the user operates the operation panel 30. Just select the font scaler to use or decide it in advance (setting contents are NVRAM
You can get the print result of your choice. In other words, the font scalers 15a and 15b of the apparatus itself can be freely used as a common property.

As described above, according to this embodiment, by having the common intermediate language generating library memory 26, each emulation program 25a, 25b performs only the processing for generating the common intermediate language data. I'm fine. Therefore, the development environment for newly developing the emulation program is improved, and the amount of memory required for that is reduced, so that the cost can be reduced. Also, one emulation program can switch and use the fonts of a plurality of font scalers.

In the above-described embodiment, each analysis unit returns to the main routine each time one page of intermediate language is generated, but it is not always necessary to wait for one page of intermediate language data. Further, the dot pattern development processing based on the intermediate language data may be operated in parallel.

[Explanation of the Second Embodiment] In the above-mentioned embodiment (referred to as the first embodiment), the font scalers 15a and 15b which the device itself had in advance were used, but an external device may be used as desired. The font scaler 15c may be transmitted to the apparatus and registered. That is, this device downloads the font scaler data from the external device. This example will be described below as a second embodiment.
The font scaler to be newly registered is not limited to one type and may be two or more types.

The concept of the second embodiment is shown in FIG. 8, and the processing outline will be described.

In the figure, for example, from the external device 301, a control command (download command) for downloading to this device, a code indicating that the font scaler data is downloaded, the total number of bytes to be sent, and It sends font scaler data and checksum data. In addition to the download command, the code indicating the type of the data is sent because the download target is not only the font scaler data (this will be described in the embodiment described later). Due to its nature, the determination process as to whether or not this is a download command is performed before the process (step S6 in FIG. 6) for determining the printer language when the input unit 11 receives normal print data. The external device is not limited to the external device 301, and may be the external device 302 or another external device.

Of course, it is also possible to add processing for determining whether or not the command is a download command to each emulation program, and if so, processing for downloading. The program itself to be downloaded here does not necessarily have to be included in each emulation program, and if the program is stored in the ROM 23, it is only necessary to determine whether it is a download command and to call the process. , The amount of memory can be ignored.

In the second embodiment, the external device follows the data indicating the total number of bytes of the download command and the font scaler (the program for enlarging / reducing and generating the character pattern and its outline font data), and then the actual font. Send the scaler data. Then, it is assumed that these data are stored in the reception buffer 24b of the RAM 24.

The font scaler data thus sent is finally stored in the work area 24a on the RAM 24. The work area 24a of the RAM 24
The management information (font attribute table) of the font scaler which is secured in the above is updated. However, power off
If this is set, the downloaded data and font attribute table will be erased. Therefore, if necessary, the downloaded data is stored in the hard disk 32, and when the power is turned on, the font attribute table is reproduced based on this data. You can also let it. The RAM 24
The contents are held by a backup power supply (not shown).

In this way, the user can utilize the newly downloaded font scaler 15c as a common resource. That is, similarly to the existing font scalers 15a and 15b, the downloaded font scaler data can be freely selected without depending on each emulation program.

In order to realize the above-mentioned processing, the operation processing procedure of the CPU 22 of the second embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. It should be noted that, when this flowchart is judged as "NO" in the judgment processing of step S5 of FIG.
That is, it is inserted immediately before step S6.

Here, the determination of step S5 becomes "NO" when it is determined that the analysis unit (emulation program) to be printed has not been determined, that is, when the power is turned on and print data is first displayed. If received, or
I / F21 for all input after a series of printing process is completed
Note that this is done if new data is received after releasing a, 21b.

Now, the judgment in step S5 shown in FIG. 6 becomes "NO", and step S31 of this processing shown in FIG.
Proceeding to, it is determined whether the received data is a download command. When it is determined that the print data is not the download command, the process proceeds to step S6 in FIG. After this, it is as described above.

If it is determined in step S31 that the download command is received, in step S32,
Then get the total number of bytes input. Then, in step S33, the total number of bytes to be received is compared with the empty area of the work area 24a of the RAM 24 to determine whether the data can be secured in the work area 24a of the RAM 24. When it is determined that the data cannot be secured, the data received thereafter is skipped and the process returns to step S2 in FIG. At this time, when the read skip processing is completed, the other input I / F disabled by it is released.

When it is determined that the data can be secured in the work area 24a of the RAM 24, it is determined in step S35 whether the data to be sent is font scaler data. If it is determined that the data is not the font scaler data, the process proceeds to step S36, the corresponding data is downloaded, and the process returns to step S2. Also at this time, when the download process is completed, the other input I / F disabled by it is released.

When it is determined that the received data is font scaler data, the process proceeds to step S37, and the sequentially input data is stored in the work area 24a secured in the RAM 24. At this time, when storing the received data, the sum of each byte is calculated.
Furthermore, the data downloaded to the work area 24a can be stored in the hard disk 32 as required.

Thus, finally, the received data is the RAM 2
Although it is downloaded to the work area 24a of No. 4, the last received byte is compared with the result received and added up to that time to determine whether the data has been correctly received.
If it is determined that the reception was successful, step S39.
Then, the downloaded font is registered in the font attribute table previously secured in the work area 24a. If the checksum is NG, the process proceeds to step S40 to delete all the downloaded data and release the reserved work area 24a so that it can be used for other processing.

In any case, in steps S39 and S40, other input I / Fs disabled by the reception processing are performed.
Is released and the process returns to step S2.

Here, an example of the font attribute table is shown in FIG. 10 (common to each embodiment). As shown in the figure, this table is composed of the name of the font scaler and the storage destination address of the program for realizing the font scaler. The drawing shows a state in which the font scaler data is updated by downloading.
In the figure, "EOT" is a mark indicating the end of the table.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, since the font scaler data can be downloaded from the external device (host computer or the like), the font scaler 15c can be newly registered.

Further, in each emulation, the font scalers 15a and 15b provided as standard equipment and the newly registered font scaler 15c can be switched appropriately, so that it is possible to obtain an expressive output.

[Description of Third Embodiment] Next, an example of downloading a new analysis unit (emulation program) will be described. The purpose is, of course, to easily deal with a printer language which has not been supported until then, without providing a new circuit in the apparatus. In order to simplify the description, an example will be described in which the analysis units (emulation programs) 12a and 12b of the apparatus of the embodiment are standard equipment, and the analysis unit 12c is newly downloaded. Of course, these analysis units 12a, 12b, 12c generate the intermediate language data described in the first and second embodiments.

A conceptual diagram of the third embodiment is shown in FIG.

In the figure, the analyzer 12a,
An example is shown in which two emulation programs 12b are provided and the third analysis unit 12c is newly registered in the emulation program. For example, the data of the emulation program downloaded from the external device 301 is finally the work area 24 on the RAM 24, as in the second embodiment.
It shall be stored in a. Also, the work area 24a
It is assumed that a management table (which will be described later) that manages what kind of analysis unit is currently registered and the like is provided. The external device is not limited to the external device 301,
It may be the external device 302 or another external device.

Since the process of downloading the emulation program from the external device 301 is substantially the same as the download of the font scaler data described in the second embodiment, the detailed description thereof is omitted here. However, the download of the emulation program is performed in step S36 in FIG.

FIG. 12 shows the contents of the emulation program data in all the data sent by the external device 301.

As shown in the figure, the header has a name indicating which printer language the emulation program of its own corresponds to, followed by the determination program data, the setting program data, and finally the actual emulation program data. There is. Incidentally, before these data, there are the download command described in the second embodiment, a code indicating that the emulation data is downloaded, the total number of bytes to be output, and the like.

The discriminating program data is used in the process of step S6 of FIG. 6 in the first embodiment, and discriminates whether the input data corresponds to its own emulation. Therefore, this discrimination program includes a plurality of characteristic control commands of the printer language analyzed by itself (and data format information indicating what type of parameter is added, etc.).

The setting program data is a program for determining various setting items for using the emulation program, and details thereof will be described later.

The data of the form shown in FIG.
After successfully downloading to the work area 24a of M24, the CPU 22 updates various tables of the device according to each data therein. Specifically, work area 24
The determination program table and the management table provided in a are updated. That is, the newly downloaded emulation program is registered in those tables.

Here, an example of the determination program table is shown in FIG. 13 and an example of the management table is shown in FIG. In the figure, "EOT" is a mark indicating the end of the data in the table. Further, the formats of these tables are common to the above-mentioned respective embodiments and the later-described embodiments.

The discrimination program table of FIG. 13 shows that the apparatus has the emulation programs A and B from the beginning, and that the emulation program C is newly registered. Incidentally, in the automatic discrimination processing in step S6 of FIG. 6 of the first embodiment, the discrimination programs of the respective analysis units indicated by this discrimination program table are sequentially called, and the discrimination is made based on the result. For example, each determination program may be considered as a program that returns a determination result as to whether or not the control command in the data stored in the reception buffer area 24b matches the emulation program of its own.

The same applies to the management table of FIG.
Items other than "emulation C" are provided in the apparatus from the beginning.

Various environments of the printer are set on the panel 30. In the environment, there are settings that can be commonly used in all emulations, such as the transfer speed of the interface described below, and environment settings unique to each emulation. This environment setting is finally NVRA
Stored in M31, its contents are retained even when the power is turned off.

The apparatus of the embodiment is provided with a plurality of input I / Fs 21a and 21b as shown in FIG. 1 or 2. Some of them include parallel interfaces, and some include serial interfaces such as RS-232C.

The "interface" in this management table manages such an I / F relationship (I / F).
The storage address of the related program is stored). In this program, for example, I /
When F is a serial interface, it includes processing such as setting the transfer speed and the like.

The "control" in the table manages, for example, the size and margin of the recording paper loaded (the storage destination address of the control-related program is stored).

"Memory" means the amount of memory currently installed (it is possible to appropriately add more memory),
It manages settings such as the size of the reception buffer area 24b (when this size is increased, the external device is released from its own print data output process sooner).

"Emulations A, B, C" manage programs for environment setting unique to each emulation and storage addresses of the emulation programs. As the environment setting program, for example, in the emulation A, what kind and size of font is selected by default.

"Initialization" means that various environmental values stored in the NVRAM 31 are returned to the factory default values.

The registration of the downloaded emulation program is inserted immediately before this "initialization".

Of the programs managed by such a table, all but the downloaded programs and data are emulated program memory 25a,
Alternatively, it is stored in 25b.

The processing procedure of the user interface based on the management table will be described with reference to FIG. However,
The setup key and the selection key in the following description are both part of the key group provided on the operation panel 30,
“I” is a pointer variable indicating an item of the management table secured in the work area in the RAM 24.

First, if it is determined in step S61 that there is a key input, it is determined in step S62 whether the key is the setup key. If the key is other than the setup key, the process proceeds to step 63 to perform the corresponding process.

When the input of the setup key is detected, the process proceeds to step S64, the initial value "0" is substituted into the variable i, and the variable i is incremented by one in the next step S65. In the next step S66, it is determined whether or not the i-th item in the management table is "EOT". If it is determined that it is "EOT", it means that the pointer variable i indicates the end of the table, so the correction is made so as to indicate the first item in the next step S67.

In any case, in step S68, the i-th item name is displayed on the LCD display section provided on the operation panel 30, and in step S69, the next key input is awaited.

If it is determined that the input key is the setup key (step S70), the process returns to step S65 to perform the above-mentioned process to display the next item name. In this way, each time the setup key is pressed, the operation item names are sequentially displayed on the LCD display section.

Now, press the setup key several times,
After confirming the display of the desired item name, press the select key. When the pressing of the selection key is detected (step S71), the process proceeds to step S72 to call the setting program for the item indicated by the variable i at that time. Since each setting program depends on each item, a description thereof will be omitted here, but in any case, the user will proceed with the operation according to the contents displayed on the LCD display unit.

As described above, according to the third embodiment, it is possible to appropriately add a desired emulation function without special modification.

Also, regarding the operation method of the operation panel, an operation part for common environment setting related to the entire apparatus and an operation part for environment setting unique to each emulation are separated, and this state is obtained when a new emulation is downloaded. Is also maintained. In other words, from the user's point of view, only by increasing the operation knowledge of the downloaded emulation program, the unified operation environment can be maintained, and an extremely useful user interface can be provided. Furthermore, from the standpoint of developing an emulation program, it is only necessary to create a program for the operation related to the corresponding emulation.
Development becomes easy.

Further, since the downloaded emulation program data also includes a program for determining whether the print data is in the printer language supported by itself, the automatic determination function can be directly executed.

[Explanation of Fourth Embodiment] In the above-described first to third embodiments, the intermediate language data is finally generated by any of the analysis units. Then, the bit pattern corresponding to the bit map memory 28 is developed by the common developing process, and the printing process is performed.

In view of recent electronic technology fields, there is a remarkable improvement in the processing capability (processing speed) of an external device (host computer, etc.). Therefore, an example will be described as a fourth embodiment in which an external device is responsible for the above-described processing of generating intermediate language data to realize a higher speed printing process.

FIG. 16 shows a conceptual diagram of the structure of the fourth embodiment.

As shown in the figure, in an ordinary external device (for example, the external device 302), an application program 304 operating on the external device 302 sends print data to the printer driver 30.
7, the external device (for example, the external device 301) targeted by the fourth embodiment is the intermediate language library 13 and the font scalers 15a, 15
b, the analysis units 12a and 12b, and the like, which have the components necessary for generating an intermediate language, and reduce the print data output by the application program 303 to the intermediate language data level via the printer driver 305 or 306. Output to the control unit 101 of the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 18 shows the format of the intermediate language data output by the external device 301. In the figure,
“1000” is a numerical value indicating the total number of bytes of the intermediate language data, and this portion changes depending on the situation. In this case, 10 between “#> GS, 1000CR” and “#> EOT” of the end mark (paper ejection instruction command)
00 bytes means intermediate language data.

As the processing, the reception buffer area 24b
A process of determining whether the data stored in is the intermediate language data is performed. Then, the reception buffer area 24b
If it is determined that the data stored in is not the data in the intermediate language format, the processes of the above-described first to third embodiments are performed,
If so, the bit pattern based on the data may be directly expanded in the bitmap memory (page memory 16) and the printing process may be performed.

Specifically, it can be realized by inserting the judgment processing step S81 shown in FIG. 17 immediately before step S6 of FIG. 6 (or immediately before step S31 of FIG. 9).

In the bitmap expansion processing when it is determined that the received data is the data in the intermediate language format and the process proceeds to step S10, the intermediate language data to be processed is not the intermediate language area 24c but the reception buffer area 24b. Process as if it were in

As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, the image forming apparatus itself directly inputs the intermediate language data. Therefore, the processing relating to the intermediate language data generation described in the above-described first to third embodiments is released, and the print processing can be improved. Moreover, when downloading a new emulation program, there is a risk that additional memory may be needed.
According to the fourth embodiment, there is no need to consider such fears at all, and it becomes possible to provide a device having a large number of emulation functions at low cost.

[Explanation of the Fifth Embodiment] As described above, there are various printer languages output by the external device. Further, printer languages include, for example, one suitable for sentences, one suitable for figures, and one suitable for images.

In the fifth embodiment, an example will be described in which it is possible to record an image based on a plurality of printer languages in one page, that is, to record on the same page by a plurality of emulations.

In order to realize this, as shown in FIG. 19, from the external device, data consisting of a pair of emulation instruction command indicating the type of emulation data and data length (size) and the actual print data is continuously provided. Will be sent. Then, at the end, a paper discharge instruction command for executing the print processing and discharging the paper is added.

In the figure, the emulation data A indicates print language data suitable for text printing,
Hereinafter, it is shown that the emulation data B is a figure, the emulation data C is a dot image, and the emulation data D is a figure.

FIG. 20 shows a specific format example of the input data.

As shown in the figure, the emulation instruction command includes an emulation name starting with "#>", a comma,
It consists of size and line feed code. Further, the discharge instruction command is “#> EOT”.

FIG. 21 shows an example of operation processing contents of this apparatus in the above data format, which will be described below.

It should be noted that the I / F in the case where it is detected whether data is present in the receiving buffer area 24b or not, such as the initialization processing performed when the power of the apparatus is turned on. The release time reset and the processing when there is no data in the reception buffer are the same as those in the first embodiment, and step S95 and subsequent steps will be described below.

In step S95, the data stored in the reception buffer area 24b is examined for the first portion of the unprocessed data, and it is determined whether or not it is an emulation instruction command. If it is determined here that the command is an emulation instruction command, step S9
In step 6, the designated emulation program (analyzing unit) is caused to generate intermediate language data of the designated size. After this process is completed, step S
Returning to 93, the processing for the next data is performed. In this way, the intermediate language data instructed by the emulation instruction command is generated.

When it is determined that the head portion of the received data at the start of one printing process or the data following the received data used for the generation of the intermediate language data by one analysis unit is not the emulation instruction command. ,
The process proceeds to step S97, and it is determined whether or not it is a paper discharge instruction command. If it is determined that the command is not the paper discharge instruction command, the process proceeds to step S98, and the processes of the first to fourth embodiments described above are performed.

If it is determined that the command is the discharge instruction command, the pattern based on the intermediate language generated in the intermediate language area 24c by the processing up to that point is developed in the bit map memory 28, and in the next step S100. Output it.

In the processing described above, the pattern expansion processing is performed after the intermediate language data for one page is generated by each analysis unit (emulation program).
The pattern expansion process may be performed every time the intermediate language data is generated by each analysis unit. In this case, the expansion process may be performed immediately after step S96.

This is not the case when the pattern expansion processing is separately operated in parallel. Further, each analysis unit (emulation program) receives the number of bytes to be processed when called from the main routine, and the intermediate language data generation process corresponding to the number of bytes may be performed, so the description thereof will be omitted.

As described above, according to the fifth embodiment, it is possible to record and output images based on a plurality of printer languages in one page, so that it is possible to obtain a good-looking image. Become.

Incidentally, in order to send out a high-level instruction command as shown in the fifth embodiment, such a function may be added to the OS or printer driver operating on the external device. .. Therefore, in some cases, the application program running on the external device may instruct the respective printer languages for the sentence, figure, image, etc. being created. Further, the OS synthesizes the partial information designated by the application for creating a sentence, the application for creating a figure, and the application for editing an image read by a scanner in a cut-and-paste format, and outputs it. Sometimes, the data of the format shown in the fifth embodiment may be constructed and output.

In the first to fifth embodiments, the external devices (301, 302) and their corresponding input interfaces (21a, 21b) and analysis unit (12a,
12b) and the font scalers (15a, 15b) are not limited to two types, and may be two or more types.
Also, the newly registered analysis unit 12c and font scaler 1
5c is not limited to one type, and may be two or more types.

Further, the present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices, may be applied to an apparatus composed of one device, or may be achieved by supplying a program to the system or the device. It goes without saying that it can be applied to cases where It should be noted that the laser beam printer has been described as an example of the image forming apparatus of the present embodiment, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to an inkjet printer or the like described below.

(I) General Description of Apparatus Main Body FIG. 16 is a schematic view of an inkjet recording apparatus IJRA to which the present invention can be applied. In the figure, the drive motor 5
The driving force transmission gear 5011 is interlocked with the forward / reverse rotation of 013,
The carriage HC that engages with the spiral groove 5004 of the lead screw 5005 that rotates via 5009 has a pin (not shown) and is reciprocated in the directions of arrows a and b.
An inkjet cartridge IJC is mounted on the carriage HC. 5002 is a paper pressing plate,
The paper is pressed against the platen 5000 in the carriage movement direction. Reference numerals 5007 and 5008 denote photocouplers, which are home position detecting means for confirming the presence of the carriage lever 5006 in this area and switching the rotation direction of the motor 5013. Reference numeral 5016 is a member that supports a cap member 5022 that caps the front surface of the recording head. Reference numeral 5015 is a suction unit that suctions the inside of the cap to perform suction recovery of the recording head through the in-cap opening 5023. 5017 is a cleaning blade, 50
Reference numeral 19 denotes a member that allows the blade to move in the front-rear direction, and these members are supported by the main body support plate 5018.
Needless to say, a known cleaning blade can be applied to this example instead of this form. Also, 50
Reference numeral 12 denotes a lever for starting suction for suction recovery, which moves in accordance with the movement of the cam 5020 that engages with the carriage, and the driving force from the driving motor is movement-controlled by a known transmission means such as clutch switching. ..

The capping, cleaning, and suction recovery are performed so that the desired processing can be performed at the position corresponding to the warp by the action of the lead screw 5005 when the carriage comes to the home position side area. As long as the desired operation is performed at the timing, any of these can be applied to this example. (Ii) Description of Control Configuration Next, a control configuration for executing recording control for each portion of the above-described device configuration will be described with reference to the block diagram shown in FIG. In the figure showing the control circuit, 1700
Is an interface for inputting a recording signal, and 1701 is M
PU, 1702 is a program ROM that stores the control program executed by the MPU 1701, and 1703 is various data (the above-mentioned recording signals, recording data supplied to the head, etc.).
It is a dynamic RAM that stores the data. 170
A gate array 4 controls the supply of print data to the print head 1708.
0, data transfer control between the MPU 1701 and the RAM 1703 is also performed. Reference numeral 1710 is a carrier motor for carrying the recording head 1708, and 1709 is a carrying motor for carrying the recording paper. Reference numeral 1705 denotes a head visitor 1706 for driving the head, and 1707 denotes a transport motor 170, respectively.
9, a motor driver for driving the carrier motor 1710.

The operation of the above control structure will be described. When a recording signal is input to the interface 1700, the gate array 1
The recording signal is converted between the 704 and the MPU 1701 to print data for printing. And the motor driver 1
The recording heads 706 and 1707 are driven, and the recording head is driven according to the recording data sent to the head driver 1705 to perform printing.

It is obvious that the constituent elements of the present invention can be incorporated in the control configuration of the ink jet printer as described above, and the present invention can be applied not only to the laser beam printer but also to the above ink jet printer and the like.

[0135]

As described above, according to the image forming method, the apparatus therefor, and the information processing system of the present invention, the image forming apparatus can print at high speed without depending on the printer language. Moreover, since the emulation program is substantially unnecessary, the cost can be reduced.

[0136]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration conceptual diagram of an image forming apparatus according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus common to each embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a structure of a printer engine unit common to each embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of processing of character handling in the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of processing of image handling in the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing main processing in the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing one processing example of an analysis unit in the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a structural conceptual diagram of an image forming apparatus according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the processing contents added in the second embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a font attribute table common to each embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a conceptual diagram of a configuration of an image forming apparatus according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a format of emulation program data downloaded in a third embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a discrimination program table common to each embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a management table common to each embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing the processing contents related to the operation panel in the third embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a conceptual diagram of a configuration of an image forming apparatus according to a fourth embodiment.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing a process added in the process of the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing a format of intermediate language data sent from an external device in the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example of a relationship between input data and an output image in the fifth embodiment.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an input data format in the fifth embodiment.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing a main process in the fifth embodiment.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing a specific format of an intermediate language during character handling in each example.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing a specific format of an intermediate language during image handling in each example.

FIG. 24 is a diagram showing an internal structure of an inkjet printer to which the present invention can be applied.

25 is a configuration diagram of a control circuit of the inkjet printer of FIG. 24.

[Explanation of symbols]

 21a, 21b Input I / F 22 CPU 23 ROM 24 RAM 24a Work area 24b Receive buffer area 24c Intermediate language area 25a Emulation program memory A 25b Emulation program memory B 26 Intermediate language generation library memory 27a Font scaler memory 27b Font scaler Memory 28 Bitmap memory 29 Output I / F 30 Operation panel 31 NVRAM 32 Hard disk 33 System bus 101 Control unit 200 Output mechanism 301 External device 1 302 External device 2

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An image forming method for inputting print data to form an image on a predetermined recording medium, executing a function in a library storing various function groups related to pattern generation according to a given procedure. By doing so, there is a step of developing the image on the memory for image formation, and further, a determination step of determining whether or not the input print data is data of a format executed in the development step. An image forming method, comprising: when the input data is data of a format executed in the developing step, a supply step of supplying the data to the developing step. 2. An image forming apparatus for inputting print data to form an image on a predetermined recording medium, comprising: a library storing various function groups relating to pattern generation; and a function group stored in the library. It is used to determine whether or not the expansion means for expanding the image on the image forming memory and the input print data are data of the format executed by the expansion means by executing according to the given procedure. An image forming apparatus comprising: a discriminating means for performing the discrimination, and a supplying means for supplying the data to the developing means when the input data is data of a format executed by the developing means. 3. An information processing system comprising a data generating device for generating print data and an image forming device connected to the data generating source to receive the print data and form an image on a predetermined recording medium, The image forming apparatus uses a library that stores various function groups related to pattern generation and a function group that is stored in the library to execute an image according to a given procedure, thereby creating an image on an image forming memory. A developing unit for expanding the image forming device, wherein the data generation source stores a library of various function groups related to pattern generation, and print data received from a logically upper device by referring to the library. Converting means for converting into low-level language data that can be directly interpreted by the developing means, and the converted low-level language data to the image forming apparatus. An information processing system comprising: output means for outputting.