JP3437482B2 - Print control device and print control 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 print control device and a print control method capable of automatically identifying the type of a print control command system from print data sent from a host computer or other host device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been devised a print control apparatus having a function of automatically identifying a type of print control command system from print data sent from a host computer and activating a print control program corresponding to the command system. . In such an apparatus, a method of activating a command system identification process of print data when a certain time has elapsed from the start of data input or when a certain amount of data is received can be considered.

In this type of print control apparatus, the command system is identified by comparing and referring to the print data and the characteristic information stored in the ROM in advance.

[0004]

However, in the method of activating the print data command system identification processing, the print data identification processing is started after the data input is started when a certain time has elapsed since the data input was started. Since the time until the start is constant, there is a problem that the number of print data to be compared decreases and the recognition rate of the command system decreases.

Further, in the method of starting when a fixed amount of data is received, in the case of a host that is slow in data transfer or a driver that transfers data at intervals of several bytes, it takes time to receive a fixed amount of data. Therefore, there is a problem that the processing start is delayed.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and even when the amount of input print data is less than a predetermined amount, the selecting process of the analyzing means is advanced to perform the printing. An object of the present invention is to provide a print control device and a print control method capable of starting analysis by analysis means adapted to data.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, in a print control apparatus capable of processing print data of a plurality of command systems, input means for inputting print data from a higher-level device, and the plurality of A plurality of analyzing means for analyzing the print data of the command system, a selecting means for selecting an analyzing means for analyzing the print data input by the input means from the plurality of analyzing means, and an input by the input means. First control means for selecting the analysis means by the selection means based on a predetermined amount of print data among the printed data, and even if the print data input by the input means is less than the predetermined amount A determination unit that determines that the selection unit starts selecting the analysis unit based on print data that is less than a predetermined amount, and a determination result of the determination unit. , And having a second control means for causing the selection of the analysis means by said selection means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the judging means responds to a lapse of a predetermined time even if the print data input by the input means is less than a predetermined amount.
It is characterized in that it is determined that the selection of the analysis unit by the selection unit is started based on the print data that is less than the predetermined amount.

In a third aspect of the present invention, the selecting means selects an analyzing means for analyzing the print data based on characteristic information of each command system and print data input by the input means. It is characterized by doing.

A fourth invention according to the present invention is characterized by having panel operating means capable of changing the setting of the value indicating the predetermined time.

A fifth aspect of the present invention is characterized by comprising panel operating means capable of changing the setting of the value indicating the predetermined amount.

A sixth invention according to the present invention is a laser beam printer.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in a print control method in a print control apparatus capable of processing print data of a plurality of command systems, a plurality of analysis means for analyzing print data of the plurality of command systems are provided. A selecting step of selecting an analyzing means for analyzing print data input from the host device, and selecting the analyzing means by the selecting step based on a predetermined amount of print data of the input print data A first control step and a determination step of determining that the selection of the analysis means by the selection step is started based on the print data that does not reach the predetermined amount even if the print data that is input from the host device does not reach the predetermined amount. And a second control step for selecting the analysis means in the selection step based on the determination result of the determination step. According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the determining step, even if the input print data is less than a predetermined amount, the determination is performed based on print data that does not reach a predetermined amount as a predetermined time elapses. It is characterized in that it is judged to start the selection of the analysis means in the selection step. A ninth invention according to the present invention is characterized in that the selecting step selects an analyzing means for analyzing the print data based on the characteristic information of each command system and the input print data. A tenth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the value indicating the predetermined time is set and changed by a panel operation unit whose setting can be changed. An eleventh aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the value indicating the predetermined amount is set and changed by a panel operation unit whose setting can be changed.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the basic arrangement of a printing system to which a printing control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention can be applied.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes a host computer, which outputs print information consisting of print data and control codes to the printer 102. Printer 1
02 is roughly divided into a controller unit 103 and an engine unit 104. The controller unit 103 includes a reception buffer 105, a timer 106, and a data counter 10.
7, a command system automatic identification processing unit 113, a command analysis unit 108, a drawing processing unit 109, a page memory 110, a panel operation unit 115, and a RAM 116.
The engine unit 104 includes an output control unit 111 and a printer engine unit 112.

The reception buffer 105 functions as a storage means for temporarily holding the data received from the host computer 101. Command system automatic identification processing unit 113
Examines a part of the contents of the reception buffer 105, identifies which type of command system the print information sent from the host computer 101 describes, and selects the corresponding control program in the command analysis unit 108. The switching process for The command analysis unit 108 is configured by collecting several pairs of control programs conforming to each print control command system and characteristic information for automatic identification processing.

The command analyzed by the command analysis unit 108 is an intermediate result of analysis of print data, and is converted into an intermediate code in a format that can be easily processed by the drawing processing unit 109. The drawing processing unit 109 expands the page memory 110 according to this intermediate code.

In general, the controller unit 103
Is composed of a computer system using a CPU, a ROM and a RAM. The output control unit 111 converts the content of the page memory 110 into a video signal and transfers the image to the printer engine unit 112. The printer engine unit 112 forms an image on recording paper from the received video signal.

In the printing apparatus 102 having such a configuration, the command system automatic identification processing unit 113 starts by comparing and collating the print data input from the host computer 101 with the characteristic information stored in the ROM. One print control program is selected and started, the print data analysis state associated with the started print control program is determined, and the restart of the process of selecting the print control program is controlled. Even if print data that cannot be received continuously is received, if there is a print control program that can analyze the print data, it is possible to analyze the print data that is being continuously received without an error. Become.

The command system automatic identification processing unit 113 is also provided.
Executes a selection process of selecting one of the print control programs to be activated by comparing and collating the print data with the characteristic information stored in the ROM or the RAM 116. It is possible to analyze the print data.

Further, the controller unit 103 judges whether the desired value set by the host computer 101 or the panel operation unit 115 exceeds the number of received data by the timer 106 or the data counter 107 or the measured value of the measured time. Since the selection process by the command system automatic identification processing unit 113 is started based on the determination result, the print control program is selected at an appropriate timing even when the data transfer speed of the print data source is slow or the data transfer unit is small. It is possible to start processing.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing an example of the printer engine unit 112 shown in FIG. 1, and shows a case of a laser beam printer (hereinafter abbreviated as LBP), for example.

In the figure, 200 is the LBP body,
Print information and the like supplied from an externally connected host computer are input and stored, and a corresponding figure is created according to the information, and an image is formed on a recording paper as a recording medium.

Reference numeral 212 denotes a switch for operation and LE.
It is a panel operation unit in which a D display device and the like are arranged. 20
A printer control unit 1 controls the entire LBP body 200 and analyzes character information supplied from a host computer. The printer control unit 201 mainly converts the data in the bit map memory, which is character and graphic information, into a video signal and outputs it to the laser driver 202.

The laser driver 202 is the semiconductor laser 20.
3 is a circuit for driving the laser beam 3, and the laser beam 2 emitted from the semiconductor laser 203 according to the input video signal.
Switch 04 on / off. This laser beam 204 is oscillated in the left-right direction by the rotary polygon mirror 205 and
6 is exposed by scanning.

As a result, an electrostatic latent image of the output figure is formed on the electrostatic drum 206. This latent image is developed by a developing unit 207 arranged around the electrostatic drum 206, and then transferred to a recording paper. A cut sheet is used as this recording sheet, and the cut sheet recording sheet is stored in a sheet cassette 208 mounted on the LBP main body 200, and is taken into the apparatus by a sheet feeding roller 209 and conveyance rollers 210 and 211, and electrostatically discharged. It is supplied to the drum 206.

Next, an explanation will be given of the whole print control processing means in the present embodiment in the printing apparatus thus constituted with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a printing control procedure in the printing apparatus according to the present invention. In addition, (1) ~
(26) shows each step.

First, in step (1), the processing counter is initialized. In the present embodiment, the processing counter counts how many times the command identification processing is performed. In step (2), the confirmation flag is initialized. The confirmation flag is a flag for determining whether or not the command system has been confirmed in the print control command system automatic identification processing described later.

Next, print data is received from the host computer 101, and the received data is sequentially received in the buffer 1.
It is stored in 05 (3). In step (4), when data of M bytes or more required for command identification is received, the process proceeds to step (8), and when less than M bytes, the process proceeds to step (5).

When the number of data is less than M bytes in step (4), the current system time is set as the specified time in step (5), and the input of data is waited for the set time N seconds (7). If there is data input, the process returns to step (6) to perform the receiving process. If the data is not sent yet, the process times out and continues with the data of less than M bytes, and the process proceeds to step (8).

The minimum number of data M and the data waiting time N
The value of can be changed by operating the menu on the panel operation unit 212.

From step (9) to step (14),
This is a process relating to the print control command system automatic identification process. In step (9), the data is taken out from the reception buffer 105 and passed to the print control command system identification process which will be described in detail later. The process in step (10) will be described later.

At step (11), it is checked which command system has been decided as a result of the processing at step (10). If the command system is confirmed, step (1
The command analysis unit 108 is switched according to the command system confirmed in 2), the confirmation flag is turned on in step (13), and the process counter is incremented in step (14).

If the command system is not determined in step (11), the process returns to step (9) again.
Further, the data is read from the reception buffer and the identification process is continued.

However, this repetition has a limit, and if it cannot be confirmed even if the limit is exceeded, the default command system is decided.

At step (8), the confirmation flag is turned on.
In the case of, since the command analysis unit 108 has been determined, the data is read from the reception buffer 105 and passed to the command analysis unit 108. The step processing from step (15) is the processing of the command analysis unit 108.

The command analysis unit 108 first reads the data from the reception buffer 105 (15) and checks whether the data can be analyzed (16). If the data can be analyzed, it is checked whether the data is a paper discharge command (17). If it is not a paper discharge command, an intermediate code is created according to the command (18) and the page memory 11
Expansion to 0 is performed (19). If it is a paper discharge command, a print command is issued to the printer engine unit 112 and output (20) to (22).

If the data cannot be analyzed in step (16), the processing counter is checked (23), and if the data counter 107 is "1", the reception buffer 10 is checked.
The command read from 5 is returned to the receiving buffer 105 again (24), the confirmation flag is turned off (25), the process returns to step (8), and the command system identification process is performed again.

On the other hand, if the value of the data counter 107 is "2" in step (23), it indicates that the command identification processing has been performed twice. In that case, error processing is performed as an error (26), The process ends.

Next, the command system automatic identification processing will be described in detail.

First, the entry method of the characteristic information of each command system will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the relationship between the first entry table and the characteristic information data table constructed in the RAM 116 shown in FIG.

First, the control program built in at the time of starting the printing apparatus is searched, the feature information in the feature information data table stored in the ROM paired with the control program is referred to, and the start addresses of the feature information are successively searched. In the entry table 400.

Next, the structure of the characteristic information data table will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the data structure of the characteristic information data table shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 5A, the feature information table 500 includes a header section 501 and a command table 502.
It is divided into

The header section 501 has a data size section 501A indicating the size of the entire table, and a command ID section 501 indicating a predetermined number unique to each command system.
B, a command format section 501C indicating a command format.

The command formats are roughly classified into the ASCII code "00h-1F" as shown in (b) and (c) of FIG.
Control code type using "h" and ASCII code "2"
There are a character string type that uses 0h or more and a mixed type of these.

The command table 502 has a control code type and a character string type, and one command data of the control command type stores the command format, the format of the terminator, the number of characters of the command, and the command.

The command format, the number of characters of the command, and the command are stored in one command data of the control command type.

When the characteristic information is input from the host computer 101, the data size, the command ID, the command format, and the contents of the command table, which are the header information of the characteristic information data table 500, are input as the parameters.

Next, the automatic identification processing will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing an example of the print control command system automatic identification processing procedure shown in FIG. Note that (1) to (11) indicate each step.

First, in step (1), the entry number n is initialized. Next, the first command in the command table 502 is referred to (2), and this is compared with the print data (3). As a result, it is checked whether or not they match (4). If they match, the determination counter of the entry n is incremented (11), and the process proceeds to step (7) and thereafter.

On the other hand, if they do not match in step (4), the next command in the command table 502 is referred to (5), and it is checked whether there is next data in the command table (6). If there is the next data, return to step (3).

In step (6), if there is no next data, the entry number n is incremented (7), and it is checked whether all entries have been referenced (8). If all entries are not referenced, the process returns to step (3).

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (8) that all entries have been referenced, the determination counters of the respective entries are compared, the one with the largest value is determined (9), and the determination flag is turned on. (10).

In the above embodiment, the command system characteristic information corresponding to each print control program is only stored in the ROM together with the program, but the characteristic information may be downloaded from the host computer 101 by a predetermined command. It is possible.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the relationship between the second entry table and the characteristic information data table constructed in the RAM 116 shown in FIG. 1. The same parts as those in FIG. 4 are designated by the same reference numerals. There is.

As shown in this figure, when the characteristic information is input (downloaded) from the host computer 101 by a command, the characteristic information is stored in the RAM 116, and the start address of the characteristic program entry is designated by the emulation ID. To store.

The data size, emulation ID, command format, and data of the command table 400 are input as parameters of the characteristic information input command.

Further, in this embodiment, the values of the minimum number M of data for automatic identification and the data waiting time N are set to the panel operation unit 115.
Although the setting is changed by operating the menu, the setting can be changed by a command from the host computer 101 side.

Further, in the present embodiment, the characteristic information is input by the command of each emulator, but it is also possible to input the characteristic information by using the upper command system dedicated to the printer control separately from the command system of the emulator.

Further, in the present embodiment, the emulator is only built-in, but the emulator can be stored in a cartridge or an external hard disk.

According to the above embodiment, the command system can be identified even when the print data of different control commands are continuously sent via the printer buffer or the like.

Further, automatic identification can be performed by inputting the characteristic information suitable for the driver to the driver for generating the print data which cannot be recognized by the characteristic information stored in the ROM.

Further, the command system can be identified corresponding to a host having a low data transfer rate or a driver which transfers data by several bytes at a time interval.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

[0071]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Even if the print data input by the input unit is less than the predetermined amount, it is determined whether to start the selection of the analysis unit by the selection unit based on the print data less than the predetermined amount, and based on the determination result of the determination unit. Since the selecting means selects the analyzing means, even if the data amount of the print data is less than the predetermined amount, the selecting process of the analyzing means is advanced to start the analysis by the analyzing means adapted to the print data. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the delay in the start of processing due to the time required to receive the predetermined amount of data.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a basic configuration of a printing system to which a print control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of the printer engine unit shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a printing control procedure in the printing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a relationship between a first entry table and a characteristic information data table constructed in the RAM shown in FIG.

5 is a diagram showing a data structure of a characteristic information data table shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a print control command system automatic identification processing procedure illustrated in FIG.

7 is a diagram showing a relationship between a second entry table and a characteristic information data table constructed in the RAM shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 host computer 102 printing device 103 controller section 104 engine 105 receive buffer 106 timer 107 data counter 108 Command parser 109 Drawing processing unit 110 page memory 112 Printer engine part 113 Command system automatic identification processing unit

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Claims (11)

(57) [Claims] 1. A print control device capable of processing print data of a plurality of command systems, and input means for inputting print data from a host device, and a plurality of analyzing means for analyzing print data of the plurality of command systems. A selection unit that selects an analysis unit that analyzes the print data input by the input unit from among the plurality of analysis units; and a predetermined amount of print data among the print data input by the input unit. First control means for causing the selecting means to select the analyzing means, and the selecting means based on the print data that does not reach the predetermined amount even if the print data input by the input means does not reach the predetermined amount. When starting the selection of the analysis means by the determination means for determine <br/> cross, based on the determination result of said determination means, selection of the analysis means by said selection means Print control apparatus characterized by having, a second control means to perform. 2. The selection means selects the print data less than a predetermined amount as the predetermined time elapses even when the print data input by the input means is less than a predetermined amount. 2. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein it is determined that the selection of the analysis unit by the unit is started. 3. The selecting means selects an analyzing means for analyzing the print data based on the characteristic information of each command system and the print data input by the input means. The print control device according to 1 or 2. 4. The print control apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising panel operation means capable of setting and changing a value indicating the predetermined time. 5. A panel operating means capable of changing the setting of a value indicating the predetermined amount.
The print control device according to any one of 1. 6. The print control device according to claim 1, wherein the print control device is a laser beam printer. 7. A print control method in a print control device capable of processing print data of a plurality of command systems, wherein a print input from a higher-level device among a plurality of analysis means for analyzing print data of the plurality of command systems is performed. A selecting step of selecting an analyzing means for analyzing the data; a first control step of causing the selecting means to select the analyzing means based on a predetermined amount of print data among the input print data; even if the print data input from the device is less than a predetermined amount, a determination step of determining the starting the selection of an analysis means by said selecting step based on the print data less than a predetermined amount, the determination result of the determining step And a second control step of causing the selection of the analysis unit to be performed by the selection step. 8. The analyzing unit according to the selecting step, in the determining step, based on the print data that does not reach a predetermined amount as the predetermined time elapses even when the input print data does not reach a predetermined amount. 8. The print control method according to claim 7, wherein it is determined that the selection of is started. 9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the selecting step selects an analyzing unit for analyzing the print data based on the characteristic information of each command system and the input print data. Print control method. 10. The print control method according to claim 8, wherein the value indicating the predetermined time is set and changed by a panel operation unit whose setting can be changed. 11. The print control method according to claim 7, wherein the value indicating the predetermined amount is set and changed by a panel operation unit whose setting can be changed.