JP3048582B2 - Information processing method and apparatus - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing method and apparatus for outputting a character code to a printing apparatus for printing.

[Prior Art] In a conventional document processing apparatus such as a word processor, a main device 201 and a printer unit 202 are connected via an interface unit (I / F) as shown in FIG. .
Then, data such as a document created by an application program or the like on the main device 201 is converted into a print command by a printer driver incorporated in the main device 201, and the printer 20 is converted to a print command through an interface unit.
Printing is done by sending to 2. In this case, the printer 202 interprets the received printer command and the like,
Image data (dot image data) is created and printed out on recording paper.

In this case, the printer 202 interprets the received print command and expands the received code information into pattern data using font data built in the printer 202 to create image data. As such font data, recently, font data is provided as vector data in addition to the bit map font.
So-called outline fonts have been adopted.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Such outline fonts are effective in enlarging or reducing a character pattern, and have the advantage of improving formed character quality. There is a problem that deployment takes a lot of time. Therefore, bit map data that has undergone pattern development using outline fonts is temporarily stored in the font cache, and when the same font data is subjected to pattern development again, the pattern data stored in the font cache is used. There is known a method of shortening the outline font pattern development processing time by performing pattern development. However, since the capacity of the font cache is limited, if the number of types of patterns to be used increases, the proportion of pattern data created directly from the outline font increases, and it is difficult to shorten the pattern development processing time. Was.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, even when the printing apparatus does not have the desired font information, if the user determines that it is not necessary to print with the same font information, It is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing method and apparatus capable of performing printing using font information existing in the printing apparatus.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, an information processing apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, recognition means for recognizing font information present in the printing device, and determination means for determining whether font information to be printed exists in the printing device based on the font information recognized by the recognition means, A determination unit that determines whether or not the user has instructed to print with the font information existing in the printing device when the determination unit determines that the user does not exist; and a case where the determination unit determines that the user has instructed to print. Means for instructing printing with font information present in the printing apparatus, and means for transmitting the font information to be printed to the printing apparatus when it is determined that the user has not been instructed by the determining means, It is characterized by having.

In order to achieve the above object, an information processing method of the present invention includes the following steps. That is, a recognition step of recognizing font information present in a printing apparatus, and a determination step of determining whether font information to be printed exists in the printing apparatus based on the font information recognized in the recognition step, A determination step of determining whether or not the user has instructed to print with the font information existing in the printing device when it is determined that the font information does not exist in the determination step; and a determination that the user has instructed the determination in the determination step. Instructing to print with font information present in the printing device, and, when it is determined in the determining step that the user has not been instructed, transmitting the font information to be printed to the printing device; It is characterized by having.

[Operation] In the above configuration, font information existing in the printing device is recognized, and based on the recognized font information, it is determined whether or not font information to be printed exists in the printing device. Even if it is determined that
When the user instructs to print with the font information existing in the printing apparatus, the printing can be performed with the font information existing in the printing apparatus, and the user can print with the font information existing in the printing apparatus. If the instruction is not given, the operation is performed to transmit the font information to be printed to the printing apparatus.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[Description of Word Processor (FIG. 1)] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the word processor of the embodiment.

In the figure, 100 indicates a main device, and 150 indicates an external peripheral device connected to the main device 100, for example, a printer here. A control unit 101 controls the entire main device 100, and executes an operation based on an operating system (OS). A work area 102 is used for temporarily storing various data when the application program 103 or the OS is executed. 103 is the main unit 100 and OS
Application software for document creation that operates on the above, such as word processing software.

104 is a driver, application software 1
When outputting the document data generated in 03 to the printer 150, a print command is created and output. Reference numeral 105 denotes a buffer. The transfer speed of the interface unit 106 and the main unit 1
This is a small volatile memory provided to cover the difference in processing capability from the 00 itself. An interface unit 106 controls the interface between the main device 100 and the peripheral device (printer 150). A keyboard 107 is operated by an operator to input various commands and data. A display unit 108 such as a CRT displays input document information and messages to the operator.

 Next, the configuration of the printer unit 150 will be described.

A control unit 110 controls the entire printer 150. The control unit 110 includes a CPU 121 such as a microprocessor, a ROM 122 storing a control program of the CPU 121 and various data, a RAM 123 used as a work area of the CPU 121, and the like. Reference numeral 111 denotes an interface unit for receiving data sent from the main device 100, and 112, like the buffer 105 of the main device 100, compensates for the difference between the reception speed of the interface unit 111 and the printing speed of the printer 150, and smoothens the data. This is a buffer for performing proper reception.

Reference numeral 113 denotes a font memory, which is a non-volatile memory that previously stores font information as vector data. Reference numeral 114 denotes a cache memory, which is a volatile memory for temporarily storing font image data created by the control unit 110 based on the data in the font memory 113. 11
Reference numeral 6 denotes a main storage unit (bit map memory) for generating and holding image data to be printed. Reference numeral 117 denotes a printer engine that prints data generated and held in the bit map memory 116 on recording paper, and 115 denotes an operation panel that allows a user to set various parameters on the printer 150 and display messages from the printer 150. .

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a general printing process in the printer 150. A control program for executing this process is stored in the ROM 122 of the control unit 110.

First, in step S1, a print command sent from the main device 100 is received through the interface unit 111 and the buffer 112. Next, in step S2, the control unit 110
Interprets the received command, and
Check whether the pattern information corresponding to 114 has been expanded. At step S3, the presence or absence is determined. If not, the process proceeds to step S4, and the control unit 110
Based on the font data stored in the memory 13, various operations are performed to create bitmap font image data of a designated size and stored in the cache memory 114.

In step S4, if the physical memory capacity of the cache memory 114 is full with the font image pattern, a predetermined algorithm, for example, an infrequently used algorithm (for a certain period of time, No) The image pattern is erased from the cache memory 114, and the newly created image pattern is stored in the cache memory 114 instead.

Next, proceeding to step S5, the bit map data generated in the cache memory 114 is copied to the position of the bit map memory 116 corresponding to the position specified by the command from the main device 100, and is output for one character. Create image bit image data. The specified image data has already been stored in the cache memory in step S3.
If it is determined that the image data is stored in the cache memory 114, the corresponding image data is read out from the cache memory 114, and the process proceeds to step S5, where the image data is simply copied to the designated position in the bit map memory 116 as described above. good.

In this way, a series of sequences (step S1 to step S6) for expanding one character to the bit map memory 116 is repeated, and when one page of bit image data is generated in the bit map memory 116 in step S6, the control unit 110 The engine 117 is activated to print out the data generated in the bitmap memory 116, and the printing process ends.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation sequence in the main device 100 of the present embodiment, which will be described with reference to FIG.

First, in step S11, the user creates a document (for example, word processing software) using the application software 103 operating on the main device 100. When the creation of the document is completed, the process proceeds to step S12, and the application software 103 on the main device 100 allows the user to determine whether to print. When printing, the process proceeds to step S13, and when not printing, the process ends.

If the user desires printing, the process proceeds to step S13, and the main device 100 checks with the printer 150 whether the scalable font and bit map font information that has been expanded in the cache memory 114 is present. Ask and wait for a response from printer 150. When the response from the printer 150 is received, the process proceeds to step S14, where the obtained font information of the printer 150 is compared with the font information desired by the user to be printed, and if they match, the process proceeds to step S18.

If there is no match in step S14, the process proceeds to step S15, and the main device 100 displays information on the scalable font and bit map font currently loaded in the cache memory 114 of the printer 150 to the user on the display unit 108. Let me know. This allows the user to
Of the scalable font or bitmap font that has been developed in the cache memory 114 of the user is selected, and the selection result is input from the keyboard 107.

When the result of this selection is input from the keyboard 107 in step S16, the process proceeds to step S17, where the user
Checks whether printing has been permitted in the scalable font or bit map font in which the bit image has been expanded, and if so, the process proceeds to step S18 where the printer 150 prints the font bit image. To instruct.

On the other hand, if the input is not a permission input, the process proceeds to step S19, and the main device 100 transmits font information desired by the user to the printer 150. As a result, the printer 150 receives the font information, performs pattern development on the cache memory 114 based on the font information, and performs print processing.

Although the printer 150 has a plurality of font information in the font memory 113 and the font data currently expanded in the cache memory 114 is different from the font information desired by the user, the font information desired by the user is When the printer 150 is installed in the printer 150, the main device 100 only needs to instruct the printer 150 of the font information in step S19.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the printing process in the printer 150. The control program for executing this process is ROM1.
22. This process is started after one page of document data transmitted from the main device 100 is stored in a page buffer (not shown) of the RAM 123 as a code.

First, when data is received from the main device 100 in step S21, the flow advances to step S22 to check for a print start instruction command. If a print start instruction has been issued, the flow advances to step S25 to pattern develop the document information of the page buffer with the image data currently developed in the cache memory 114, and activates the engine 117 in step S26 to perform printing.

On the other hand, if the command is not a print start instruction command in step S22, the flow advances to step S23 to check whether font information has been received (corresponding to step S19 in FIG. 4). When the font information is received, the process proceeds to step S24, where the font information is developed into pattern information, and a dot image is stored in the cache memory 114.

If it is not the font information in step S23, the process proceeds to step S27, and it is determined whether or not the inquiry about the font information from the main device 100 is performed in step S13 in FIG. When the inquiry about the font information is made, the process proceeds to step S28, and the type of the font information currently loaded in the cache memory 114 is transmitted to the main device 100. As a result, the main device 100 can input the font information from the printer 150 in step S13 described above. In addition, step
If it is not an inquiry for font information in step S27, step S
Proceed to 29 to execute a process corresponding to the received command.

Although the above embodiment has been described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4, for example, the processing of steps S13 to S19 may be performed before the user edits the document in step S11.

Also, a list of expanded scalable fonts and bit map font information provided in the printer 150 can be displayed on the display unit 108 of the main device 100, so that the user can select desired font data from the list. To build a more flexible system.

As described above, according to this embodiment, a mode is provided in which printing is performed using a scalable font or a bitmap font that has been developed in a printer. Then, even when the font information of the printer does not match the font information desired by the user, the user can select whether or not to print using the font image. This makes it possible to print using the pattern already developed on the printer when you want to emphasize printing speed, for example, and to print with a new font pattern when you want to print faithfully. A document processing device with a unique nature can be formed.

[Explanation of Another Embodiment (FIGS. 6 to 8)] FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a printer according to another embodiment, and portions common to the first embodiment are indicated by the same symbols. , And the description thereof will be omitted.

In FIG. 6, an operation unit 132 performs an interpolation operation of a predetermined curve such as a spline curve or a Bezier curve from scalable font vector information according to an instruction of the control unit 110a, and calculates a bit image through various algorithms. As will be described later, various calculations are performed when calculating a realizable resolution from the currently held memory capacity. A scalable font memory 133 stores character image data corresponding to character codes in advance as vector information. Reference numeral 134 denotes a resolution control unit, which controls the rotation of a polygon mirror, controls paper feed (sub-scanning speed), controls the laser spot diameter, and further controls the developing bias voltage when the printer is a laser beam printer, for example. Then, the resolution of the image to be recorded is controlled to be variable.

Next, the operation of the printer of the second embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When the printer is turned on, proceed to step S31,
A check of each memory, an initialization of the interface unit 111, and the like are performed, and each unit is initialized by a user default value stored in the nonvolatile memory. Next, proceeding to step S32, a capacity that can be used as the bit map memory 113 in the entire memory area is determined. Then, the resolution is calculated in step S33 based on the capacity of the bit map memory 113 and the printing range.

Now, for example, assume that the capacity of the bitmap memory 113 is 1012 Kbytes, and the printing range is the range shown in FIG.
200 mm, Y = 290 mm). At this time, More resolution is required. In the example above, Is obtained.

When the resolution is determined by this, the process proceeds to step S34,
The resolution control unit 134 of the engine 117a is notified that the resolution is 300 dpi. Thus, the rotation speed of the polygon mirror, the conveyance speed of the recording paper, the diameter of the laser spot, and the like are determined. In step S35, the print data is received as code information through the interface unit 11, and in step S36, using the scalable font 117, for example,
The calculation is performed by the calculation unit 132 so as to obtain a resolution of 00 dpi, developed into a bit image, and stored in the bit map memory 116. When the bit map development for one page is completed in this way, the process proceeds to step S37, where the printer engine 117a is activated to print one page.

At the time t shown in FIG. 7, since the physical distance between the beam detector (BD) and the printing area on the paper is constant, the resolution is determined and then the rotation speed of the polygon mirror is determined. For example, it can be obtained by a predetermined calculation.
The controller 110a must send the bit image data to the printer engine 117a in accordance with the time t. For this purpose, it is conceivable to hold a plurality of bit image transmission synchronization clocks, select an appropriate clock from among them, or use a programmable counter or the like.

Although not shown in FIG. 7, the number of BD signals from the synchronization signal in the vertical direction to the print range can be obtained in a similar manner.
Bit image data will be output to 7a.

The setting of the resolution is not limited to the maximum resolution that can be realized by the printer. For example, the resolution may be specified by the user or may be configured to be specified by the main device 100.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the output device of the bitmap data is a printer has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a display device such as a CRT or a communication device such as a facsimile connected via a communication line is used. May be used.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, even when the printing apparatus does not have desired font information, the user determines that printing is not necessarily performed with the same font information. Then, since printing can be performed using the font information existing in the printing apparatus, the time required for the printing process can be shortened.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a document processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a connection configuration of a general document processing apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a control sequence of a printer. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the processing of the main unit of the document processing apparatus of the embodiment, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing of the printer of the document processing apparatus of the embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a printer of the document processing apparatus according to the embodiment, FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a printing range, and FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing processing of the printer of another embodiment. In the figure, 100 ... main body device, 101 ... control unit, 102 ...
… Work area, 103… Application software, 104
... Driver, 105, buffer, 106, interface section, 110, 110a, control section, 111, interface section, 112, buffer, 113, font memory, 114
… Cash memory, 115… Operation panel, 116… Bit map memory, 117,117a… Engine, 121… CP
U, 122… ROM, 123… RAM, 132… Calculator, 133…
A scalable font memory 134 is a resolution control unit.

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A recognizing means for recognizing font information existing in a printing apparatus, based on the font information recognized by the recognizing means.
Determining means for determining whether or not font information to be printed exists in the printing apparatus; if the determining means determines that the font information does not exist, the user instructs to print with font information existing in the printing apparatus. Determining means for determining whether or not the user has been instructed by the determining means; and means for instructing printing with font information present in the printing device; and no instruction from the user by the determining means Transmitting the font information to be printed to the printing apparatus when it is determined that the font information is to be printed. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for displaying information on a font present in said printing apparatus when said information is not present by said determining means. 3. A recognition step of recognizing font information existing in a printing apparatus, and based on the font information recognized in the recognition step.
A determining step of determining whether or not the font information to be printed exists in the printing apparatus; and, if determining in the determining step that the font information does not exist, whether the user has instructed to print with the font information existing in the printing apparatus. A determination step of determining whether or not the user has been instructed by the determination step; and instructing printing with font information present in the printing apparatus; and the determination step does not instruct the user. Transmitting the font information to be printed to the printing device when it is determined that the font information is to be printed. 4. The information processing method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of displaying information of a font present in said printing device when it is determined in said determining step that no font exists.