JP3176239B2 - Printing apparatus and printing method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method for performing drawing using banding processing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art High resolution and multi-level image technology have been developed.
The memory required to develop image information such as characters and graphics into a bitmap image has increased, and the processing time required for expansion has increased.

Therefore, in order to develop image information with a small amount of memory and speed up processing, a page is divided into a plurality of areas, and a bitmap image developed from image information for one area is transferred to an engine. A method of generating a bitmap image of the next area using the printing time is used. This technique is generally called banding processing.

[0004]

An example of the banding process in the prior art will be described below.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing four areas when a drawn image area for one page is divided into four parts (hereinafter, each divided area is referred to as a band).

[0006] Using 7-1, 7-2 and 7-3 of FIG.
The banding process will be described.

First, the first band in FIG.
-1 band memory A. Fig. 7
The bit band image of the first band developed in the band memory A is transferred to the engine and printed, and the second band is developed in the band memory B at the same time. When the band memory A has been transferred to the engine and the development to the band memory B has been completed, the process proceeds to 7-3 in FIG. 7 and the second band bitmap image developed to the band memory B is transferred to the engine. At the same time as printing, the third band is developed in the band memory A. By repeating such processing, the development, transfer, and printing of all bands for one page are finally performed simultaneously.

As described above, the sum of the memory sizes of the band memories A and B required for the banding process is smaller than the memory size of the bit map memory necessary for expanding the drawing image information for one page. ,
Transfer processing is possible.

Further, since the development, transfer and printing are performed in parallel, the time required for the banding process is faster than the transfer and printing after the development of one page is completed.

The reason why the speed is increased will be described with reference to FIG.

Considering that the time T for transferring the band memory to the engine is constant because the size of each band memory is the same, the time required for the banding process is t1 + 4 × T (the first band is stored in the band memory A). Time to deploy t1,
This is the sum of four times the time T for transferring the band memory to the engine.

On the other hand, the time required to transfer and print after one page has been completely developed is t1 + t2 + t3 + t4 + 4 × T.

That is, the banding processing is faster than the time (t2 + t3 + t4) for performing parallel processing of expansion and transfer.

By the way, the engine side mechanically performs processing at a constant speed, and if stopped halfway, the transfer of the band memory to the engine is not possible because the print image is disturbed or the boundary between the print images is not well connected. Once started, there is a structure that should not be delayed until all the memory for one page has been transferred. Therefore, in the banding process, it is necessary to satisfy the condition that the times t1, t2, t3,..., Tn for developing each band in the band memory are equal to or less than the time T for transferring the band memory. If this condition cannot be satisfied, there is a problem that a normal print image cannot be obtained (here, overrun).

By the way, the optimum number of bands is different between the number of bands for performing the processing at the highest speed and the number of bands of the band memory for performing the processing with the smallest bitmap memory size. There has been a problem that printing processing can only be performed with a fixed number of bands.

Also, there are various demands by users such as a user who wants to print with less memory and a user who has sufficient memory and wants to process as fast as possible. was there.

Further, there is a problem that the user cannot set the number of bands and cannot obtain the settable number of bands.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to make print data transferred from a host to have an optimum number of bands in order to perform higher-speed processing or print processing with less memory. And changing the number of bands in real time for each page and printing.

In view of the above problems, the object of the present invention is to allow a user to select whether to perform printing at higher speed or to perform printing with less memory. Is to allow the user to specify the printing with the number of bands according to.

[0020] The object of the present invention is to provide
By transmitting the number of bands that can be set to the printer to the host, it is possible to instruct the printer to perform print processing with the number of bands desired by the user.

[0021]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a printing apparatus according to the present invention is a printing apparatus that performs drawing by using banding processing and prints, and can be set by a host to include a desired paper size. Means for receiving an instruction for requesting information on the number of bands, and calculating the number of bands that can be set on one page based on the paper size included in the request received by the receiving means. Transmitting means for transmitting information including the number of bands to the host, and storing a drawing result based on a print mode selected by the host in response to transmitting the information including the number of bands that can be set by the transmitting means. A band number determining means for determining the number of bands of the memory to be written; a band number instructing means for instructing to perform drawing with the band number determined by the band number determining means; Performs rendering by the number of bands that are indicated by the number of bands indicating means comprises a printing means for printing the drawing result.

In order to solve the above problem, a printing method according to the present invention is a printing method for a printing apparatus that performs drawing by using banding processing and prints the image. A receiving step of receiving a command for requesting information; and calculating a number of bands that can be set for one page based on the paper size included in the received request, and obtaining information including the calculated number of bands that can be set. A transmission step of transmitting to the host, and a band for determining the number of bands of a memory for storing drawing results based on a print mode selected by the host in response to transmitting the information including the settable number of bands. A number determining step, a band number instructing step for instructing to perform drawing with the band number determined in the band number determining step, and a finger number in the band number instructing step. Performs drawing in the number of bands that have been,
And a printing step of printing the drawing result.

[0023]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.
1 will be described.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. This is an example of the laser beam printer shown in FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1000 denotes a laser beam printer (hereinafter, referred to as LBP), a printer controller 1001 (hereinafter, referred to as a controller), an engine 1100, a panel device 1003, and a disk device 1004.
Consists of

Further, it is connected to an external host 1200, and is configured to receive print data and the like from the host 1200 and execute print processing.

In the controller 1001, the CPU 1
Reference numeral 106 controls each unit based on various control programs stored in the PROM 1107 (for example, control programs shown in flowcharts of FIGS. 4, 8, and 11).

The PROM 1107 stores the CP when interpreting input data such as print data and converting it into image data.
A print data analysis program referred to by U1106 is also stored.

A RAM 1108 has two band memories for storing image data, an object body (described later) which is an element constituting the image, object information (described later) which is additional information such as coordinates of the object body, and various print environment settings. Values, the number of reference bands at the time of execution, which are referred to when banding processing is actually performed, and the like are secured.

The RAM 1108 has a CPU 1106
Also used as a work area.

A host interface 1005 (hereinafter referred to as an interface) is an I / F for communicating with the host 1200 such as print data and commands.
An engine I / F 1103 is an I / F that communicates with the engine 1100. In accordance with an instruction from the CPU 1106, the expanded image data is directly obtained from the band memory in the RAM 1108, and converted into a video signal to convert the data into a video signal.
Serves to transfer to 00.

The input buffer 1109 is a buffer for temporarily storing input data such as print data transmitted from the host computer.

The engine 1100 has an engine I / F 11
This is an apparatus that actually prints image data on a recording medium in accordance with a video signal transferred from the recording medium 03.

The panel device 1012 includes a panel I / F 11
There are provided various buttons for operating the printer via the printer 04, a liquid crystal panel for displaying a status message character string such as a printer error, a print environment setting value character string, and the like.

The disk device 1004 has a disk I / F
An external storage device that is connected to the controller 1001 via the storage unit 1105 and stores various data;
It is a hard disk device, a magneto-optical disk device, a floppy disk device, or the like, and is also used for storing image data obtained from expanded data.

The LBP 1000 receives power from a power supply (not shown).

Here, with reference to FIG. 5, the object information, the object body and the division thereof in this embodiment will be described.

The input print data (for example, a character code
The CPU 1106 interprets a printer language such as a page description language composed of codes and control codes and converts the interpreted image data into image data (bitmap data).
06 interprets the print data "Draw a circle"
As shown on the left side of the arrow in FIG. 5, first, "circle" is determined as one object, and the object body (o in the figure) indicating the shape and size of the circle and the coordinates for drawing the circle are specified. And object information (coordinates of.), Which are additional information, are stored in the RAM 1108 as image data.

Thereafter, when the object is divided into a plurality of bands, if the object spans two bands, as shown on the right side of the arrow in FIG. 5, object information for specifying coordinates by the upper band, the lower band Object information for specifying coordinates in the RAM 11
08 must be stored.

Also, in the case of straddling three or more bands, object information is required in the same manner as the number of bands straddling.

Next, using 2-1 and 2-2 of FIG.
The sizes of the band memory, the object information storage area, and the object body storage area acquired by the AM 1108 will be described.

In the RAM 1108, the required storage area size differs depending on the number of bands per page. When the number of bands is small, the band memory size is large. However, since the number of objects over a plurality of bands is generally small, the size of the object information storage area is small.

Conversely, when the number of bands is large, the band memory is small, and generally the number of objects over a plurality of bands is large, so that the size of the object information storage area is large.

FIG. 2A shows an example of the area of the related part in the RAM 1108 when the number of bands is small, and FIG. 2B shows an example of the area of the related part of the RAM 1108 when the number of bands is large. is there.

FIG. 3 shows an LBP 10 applied to this embodiment.
It is sectional drawing which shows the mechanical internal structure of No. 00.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 1000 denotes an LBP;
Print data and control commands supplied from an externally connected host (1200 in FIG. 1) are input and stored, and a corresponding print image or the like is created in accordance with the information, and an image is recorded on a recording medium. Form.

Reference numeral 1012 denotes a switch for operation and an LED
A display device, a panel device provided with a liquid crystal panel for displaying a character string, and the like, and a controller 1001 for controlling the entire LBP 1000 and analyzing print data and the like supplied from the host.

The controller 1001 mainly converts print image data into a video signal of a corresponding image and outputs the video signal to the laser driver 1002. Laser driver 1002
Is a circuit for driving the semiconductor laser 1003,
The laser light 1004 emitted from the semiconductor laser 1003 is switched on and off according to the input video signal. The laser 1004 is swung right and left by a rotary polygon mirror 1005 to scan on an electrostatic drum 1006.

As a result, an electrostatic latent image of a drawn image is formed on the electrostatic drum 1006. This latent image is developed by a developing unit 1007 around the electrostatic drum 1006 and then transferred to a recording sheet. A cut sheet is used as the recording paper, and the cut sheet recording paper is stored in a paper cassette 1008 mounted on the LBP 1000,
09 and the conveyance rollers 1010 and 1011, are taken into the apparatus and supplied to the electrostatic drum 1006.

Thus, an image is printed on the recording medium.

Next, the process of printing one page in the banding process will be described with reference to the flowcharts 8-1 and 8-2 in FIGS.

First, description will be made with reference to FIG.

The input buffer 1109 stores print data received from the host computer. First, in step S1, the CPU 1106 executes the program R
According to the program described in the OM 1107, the image processing and generation unit performs one-by-one processing of figures, characters, image data, etc.
Image information (object body, object information) for each of them is generated and stored in the object body storage area and the object information storage area of the RAM 1108. When generation of all objects in one page is completed, the process proceeds to step S2.

In step S2, a "band determination mode" of the printing environment is obtained.

Then, proceeding to step S3, it is checked whether or not the "band determination mode" obtained in step S2 is a high-speed printing mode, and the control is determined based on the result.

That is, when it is determined that the "band determination mode" is not the high-speed printing mode, the process proceeds to step S4, and it is determined whether the "band determination mode" is the memory-saving printing mode.

Here, the control is determined according to the result. That is, if it is determined that the mode is not the memory saving print mode, the process proceeds to step S5, and the “number of bands” of the print environment is set.
And stores the value as the number of reference bands at the time of execution in the RAM 1108.

Then, proceeding to step S6, as shown in FIG. 5 above, each object is examined, and an object extending over a band corresponding to the number of reference bands at the time of execution is divided. At this time, since the object information is required for each band that spans a plurality of bands, the object information is stored in the RAM 11.
08 is additionally stored.

When the CPU 1106 completes the division processing for all the objects requiring division, step S7
Proceed to

Here, in the manner of the banding process described with reference to FIG.
At the same time as expanding the object body stored in the memory 108 into one of the two band memories while referring to the object information and the like, the bitmap already expanded in the other band memory is converted into a video signal. While transferring to the engine 1100.

As described above with reference to FIG. 3, when the video signal is transferred to the engine, the engine prints an image on a recording medium according to the video signal.

Here, the processing in the case where it is determined in step S3 that the "band determination mode" is the high-speed printing mode will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in 8-1 of FIG.

The fact that the band determination mode is the high-speed printing mode means that the user has requested that the printing speed be given the highest priority.

Proceeding to step S20, the number of bands that minimizes the time required for printing is determined in consideration of the time required for development in the band memory and the time required for transferring the band memory to the engine.

For example, referring to FIG. 9, since the engine transfer cannot be stopped halfway as described above, tn <T / N (where N is the number of bands, n is 1, 2,..., N) , And t1 + N × T (where t1 is the time required to develop the first band in the band memory and T is the time required to transfer one band memory to the engine). Number of bands N
Ask for.

Then, the process proceeds to step S21, and the number of bands obtained in step S20 is stored in the number of reference bands at execution time in the RAM 1108.

Then, the process proceeds to step S6, and the processing as described above is continued.

The processing in the case where it is determined in step S4 that the "band determination mode" is the memory-saving printing mode will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 8 at 8-2.

The reason that the band determination mode is the memory-saving printing mode is that the user can set the printing speed rather than the printing speed.
This means that a request is made to give priority to printing with a small memory.

Proceeding to step S30, the number of bands that minimizes the used memory is determined in consideration of the number of bands and the memory for object information that increases due to object division.

FIG. 10 is a graph showing the relationship between the number of bands and the amount of memory used. The amount of band memory (memory size for band memory) decreases as the number of bands increases, while the amount of object information memory (memory size for object information) increases as the number of bands increases. In consideration of the sum of these, the number of bands that uses the least memory for the page is determined.

Then, the process proceeds to step S31, and the number of bands obtained in step S30 is stored in the number of reference bands at execution time in the RAM 1108.

Then, the process proceeds to step S6, and the processing as described above is continued.

The process of printing one page in the banding process has been described. This is repeated when printing two or more pages.

Next, the process of returning information on the number of bands that can be set to the host will be described with reference to FIG.

When the host needs to obtain information on the number of bands that can be set for the connected printing apparatus, the host sends the desired paper size (A4, B4, etc.) to the printing apparatus.
Issue an instruction requesting information on the number of bands that can be set.

When receiving a request for information on the number of bands that can be set, CPU 1106 performs processing according to the program stored in PROM 1107.

The CPU 1106 first proceeds to step S40
Then, the onboard memory is obtained.

Then, the process proceeds to step S41 to obtain an engine transfer speed. Then, proceed to step S42,
The host obtains a desired paper size, and proceeds to step S43, where steps S40, S41, and S40 are executed.
The number of bands that can be set is calculated based on the mounted memory, transfer speed, and paper size obtained in.

Then, the process proceeds to step S44, in which the host is notified of the number of bands that can be set calculated in step S43.
Send to host.

In the above-described embodiment, the example in which the LBP is used as the printing apparatus has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, another printer such as an LED printer or another printing device such as a copying machine can be used.

In the above-described embodiment, the example in which the number of bands is determined for each page has been described. However, even within the same page, the optimum number of bands is directly calculated to determine the number of bands for each band. It may be printed.

In the above-described embodiment, the list of the number of bands is transmitted to the host computer for transmission. However, the list is displayed on the panel of the printer and transmitted to the user. I do not care.

In the above-described embodiment, the list of the number of bands is transmitted to the host computer, and the user specifies the optimum number of bands using the application on the host side. Alternatively, the optimum number of bands may be automatically determined internally from designation of high-speed processing or memory saving processing.

The present invention may be applied to a system constituted by a plurality of devices, or may be applied to an apparatus constituted by a single device.

The present invention can of course be applied to a case where the present invention is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

The present invention can of course be applied to a case where the present invention is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

In the above-described embodiment, an example has been described in which only the number of bands is transmitted to the host when requested by the host. However, information is transmitted to the host every time one page is printed. No problem.

In the above-described embodiment, not only the number of bands but also information to be added thereto may be transmitted. For example, the number of objects, the position of the objects, the size of the objects, the printing environment, the ratio between character data and graphic data, the ratio of the painted portions, and the like may also be effective as host judgment materials.

As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the number of bands that cannot be changed until now is
The number of bands can be changed according to the purpose, such as performing high-speed processing or printing processing with less memory, and printing can be performed with the optimum number of bands for print data transferred from the host.

By transmitting information such as the number of bands that can be set to the host side, the user can select whether to perform printing by high-speed processing or to perform printing with less memory. Can be specified by the user.

[0092]

As described above, according to the present invention, a command for requesting settable band number information including a desired paper size is received from the host, and based on the paper size included in the request, the command is received. Calculate the number of bands that can be set,
The information including the calculated settable band number is transmitted to the host, and based on the print mode selected on the host side in response to transmitting the information including the settable band number, the drawing result is displayed. By determining the number of bands of the memory to be stored, performing drawing with the determined number of bands, and printing the drawing result, the host determines whether to perform printing at higher speed or to perform printing with less memory. This has an excellent effect that the user can select the side and print with the number of bands according to the purpose.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a RAM area used according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration of a printing apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a banding processing procedure according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an object body, object information, and division thereof.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating division of a print area of one page into a plurality of bands.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining execution of parallel development and transfer using two band memories.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for determining an optimum number of bands.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining the relationship between data expansion and data transfer;

FIG. 10 is a graph illustrating an example of the relationship between the number of bands and the amount of memory used;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a mechanism for returning band information to a host.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1000 LBP 1001 Printer controller 1012 Panel device 1100 Engine 1101 Disk device 1102 Host I / F 1103 Engine I / F 1104 Panel I / F 1105 Disk I / F 1106 CPU 1107 PROM 1108 RAM 1109 Input buffer 1200 Host computer

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-6-1011 (JP, A) JP-A-6-305203 (JP, A) JP-A-7-314801 (JP, A) JP-A-7-107 1767 (JP, A) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B41J 5/30 G06F 3/12

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A printing device for performing drawing by using banding processing and printing, comprising: a receiving unit for receiving a command for requesting settable band number information including a desired paper size from a host; The number of bands that can be set on one page is calculated based on the paper size included in the request,
A transmitting unit for transmitting the information including the calculated settable number of bands to the host; and a print mode selected by the host in response to transmitting the information including the settable number of bands by the transmitting unit. Band number determining means for determining the number of bands of the memory for storing the drawing result based on the number of bands; band number indicating means for instructing to perform drawing with the band number determined by the band number determining means; A printing device for performing drawing with the number of bands specified by (1) and printing the drawing result. 2. The band number determining means determines the number of bands so that the printing processing speed is increased when the high-speed printing mode is selected on the host side, and when the memory-saving printing mode is selected on the host side. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the number of bands is determined so that a memory to be used is small. 3. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the number of bands determining unit obtains the number of bands specified in a printing environment and determines the number of bands at the time of printing when the printing mode is not selected. 3. The printing device according to 1 or 2. 4. A printing method for a printing apparatus for performing drawing by using banding processing and printing, comprising: a receiving step of receiving a command requesting settable band number information including a desired paper size from a host; 1 based on the paper size included in the request
A transmission step of calculating the number of bands that can be set on the page and transmitting information including the calculated number of bands that can be calculated to the host; A band number determining step of determining a band number of a memory for storing a drawing result based on a print mode selected by the side; and a band number instruction for instructing to perform drawing with the band number determined in the band number determining step. And a printing step of performing drawing with the number of bands specified in the band number specifying step and printing the drawing result. 5. The number-of-bands determining step determines the number of bands so that the print processing speed is increased when the high-speed print mode is selected on the host side, and determines the number of bands when the memory-saving print mode is selected on the host side. 9. The printing method according to claim 8, wherein the number of bands is determined so as to use a smaller memory. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein in the step of determining the number of bands, when a print mode is not selected, the number of bands specified in a printing environment is obtained, and the number of bands is determined when printing is performed. The printing device according to 4 or 5.