JPH01265779A - Recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To save the expansion memory by providing only a memory for one printing and revising sequentially its address according to the print part so as to decode a page description language for each print. CONSTITUTION:The recorder consists of a reader 1, a control board 2, a recorder 3 and a host computer 4. Then a storage device storing picture information able to print by one print operation is provided to decode a page description language for each print and part of the picture information is expanded to the storage device sequentially corresponding to the printed part. Thus, the recorder using the memory for picture expansion of a less capacity, and outputting a sentence or a graph by the description language is obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a recording device capable of outputting sentences and figures in a page description language.

[Prior Art] In recent years, page description languages have begun to be used as a means of information communication between computers and printers when sentences and figures created on a computer or the like are output using a printer. For example, when outputting text, the page description language communicates to the printer the type of font, the size of the output, the position on the paper to be output, etc. in a predetermined format. Then, the printer control unit interprets this information, converts it into a format that can be output on paper (for example, when outputting to a laser beam printer, it develops it in the form of output pixels on the page memory), and controls the printer based on that information. be.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] However, when outputting to a racer beam printer, etc., it is necessary to develop image signals (pixels) in the memory for [pages], which requires a large memory. There is fortune telling.

[Objective] In view of the above points, an object of the present invention is to provide a recording device that can output sentences and figures in a descriptive language using a small amount of memory for image development.

[Example] FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the present invention and will be explained.

The printer of the present invention is an inksheet type printer,
There are 256 ink sheets arranged vertically,
256 pixels are printed at the same time.

Furthermore, the maximum width is the shorter AI size (594 mm).

Therefore, the present invention sequentially develops one page's worth of image information instructed by a page description command from a host computer, and
Cut out strips of 56 pixels each and print them sequentially on paper.

However, the actual memory for pixel information development (bitmap memory) only has enough space for 256 pixels (59'4 mm), and for example, when printing A1 size as shown in Figure 1, the actual development memory size is A1 (100), or A1 size printing is performed by sequentially developing on the memory 200 the printing width of the printing inkjet head 37 onto the paper 300.

Next, FIG. 2 shows the apparatus of this embodiment, which will be explained below.

Reference numeral 1 denotes an original reading unit (hereinafter referred to as a scanner) which reads an original on a platen glass 17 using a CCD 16 and transfers the electrical signal to a printer 3 or a post computer 4. The control board 2 controls communication with the host computer 4 and operations of the scanner 1 and printer 3. 1-1 is a document holding plate.

The host computer 4 is a computer capable of creating and editing characters and figures on a screen, describes the created images in a page description language (PDL), and transfers them to the control board 2.

The printer 3 is an inksheet type printer, and is controlled by the controller 1-roll board 2, and prints cassettes 1 to 20.
Or roll paper 29 to roller 24゜25.26,27,2
8, 30 and manual feed roller 32 to feed the paper. Then, printing is performed by the print head 37 at the print position 39. 3
5 is an ink tank. 256 print heads 37 are integrated and can print 256 pixels simultaneously in the vertical direction, and print by riding on a carriage 34 and moving toward the back on a rail 36. 33 is a paper sensor, and 23 is a paper discharge tray.

Next, a configuration diagram of the control board 2 is shown in FIG.

The control board 2 includes a microcomputer (CPU)
) 301, according to the program stored in the ROM 305 (for example, the flowchart 1- shown in FIG. 4).
It operates using RAM 302.

Further, information is communicated with the host 1 to computer 4 through a host interface circuit 304. Hoss 1
- The page description language communicated by the computer 4 is PD
It is stored in the L memory RAM for a lifetime, and the CP[J
301 decodes and develops it as pixel information on the image RAM 311 via the address conversion circuit 308. The address conversion circuit 308 is a circuit that controls which position on one page the image RAM 311 corresponds to since the size of the image RAM 311 is 256 pixels (94 mm in this embodiment), and is controlled by the CPLI 30. be done.

The I10 control circuit 307 is a human output control circuit that controls the operations of the scanner 1 and the printer 3, and is controlled by the CPU 301.

Note that the image signal read by the scanner 1 is sent to the printer 3.
When outputting to a computer, the information is directly transmitted to the print head, and when being sent to a postcomputer, it is directly transmitted without going through the CPU 301. Further, pixel information on the image RAM 311 is also directly transmitted to the print head 37 of the printer 3.

The font ROM 312 stores various character fonts, and when instructed by PD, CPLI is used as needed.
301 is read and expanded. In this embodiment, an outline font represented by outline information is used.

Figure 4 shows the CPU 30 when printing one page based on the content instructed by the host computer in PDL.
The operation of 1 is shown in a flowchart and will be explained below.

When an instruction written in PD is received from the computer from the host 1 (STP401), it is stored in the PDL memory 303 (STP402). If there is a print instruction (STP403), the printer starts feeding paper from roll paper or a cassette according to the paper size instructed by the mailbox (STP404).

Then, the address counter of RAM J2 is turned on (STP405).

Then, an address is set in the address conversion circuit 308 based on the contents of the response counter (STP40).
6). Next, the PDL writer opens one page of pixel information (Ii) based on the contents of the RAM 303 for 9 (STP407).
). At this time, real memory is allocated to the area to be printed, and the required amount of pixel information or image RAM is allocated to the area to be printed.
31142 remains. Then, by controlling the timing, the printer prints for 1-1 scans of the printing spatula (S,
TP408). Then, it is determined whether printing for one page has been completed, and if printing is completed, the paper is ejected (STP410).
finish.

If one page has not been printed yet, feed the paper by the width of the printing spatula (5TP411), increment the address counter by 1 (STP412), and return to the control of the address conversion circuit to print one page. Printing is performed sequentially.

[Other Examples] In this example, the number of printed parts is
The present invention has been described as an effective means for one method, and the present invention is a yellow method such as an electrophotographic method.

Even for a color printer that prints magenta, cyan, and black sequentially, the difference in PDL development for each color requires memory for all colors. .

In addition, in systems that have a storage device such as a magnetic disk that stores images read from a scanner, all purge image data that has been expanded into PDL is stored in the storage device for a lifetime, and then the necessary portions are sequentially transferred to the image RAM. In this case, it is possible to increase the speed of development into image data, and since the storage device is not used except during print I-out, the storage device can be used effectively.

Also, if you add a memory compression/expansion circuit, you can save even more memory.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, a single-color printer with one row of heads has been described, but when full-color printing is performed using four printing spatulas 1- in parallel, a synchronized memory is required to compensate for the distance between the heads. In that case, a configuration in which the synchronous memory and the image memory are integrated is also possible.

In addition, in this embodiment, the CPU performs PDL expansion, but if a dedicated processor, a floating point arithmetic processor, an IC for high-speed data transfer, and an IC for high-speed memory control (ant, or, shift, etc.) are used, the PDL is expanded. It is also possible to increase the speed by expanding .

[Effects of the invention] As explained in Section 2, by deciphering the meaning of sentences and figures that could not be published in page description languages due to uninvention, and developing them as image information,
A recording device (printer) that obtains a recorded image, which has only enough memory for one printing operation, whose address can be changed sequentially according to the printed part, and which decodes the page description language each time it is printed. As a result, it has become possible to provide a recording device for a page description language that is inexpensive and has a simple configuration that saves development memory.

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the present invention; Figure 2 is an internal configuration diagram of the device implementing the present invention; Figure 3 is an internal configuration diagram of the control board; Figure 4 is the operation of the CPU on the control board. Flowchart diagram.

1 is a reading device, 2 is the control board, 3 is a recording device; 4 is POS]・Computer.

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Claims (1)

[Claims] A recording device that can decode sentences and figures written in a page description language, develop them into image information, and output them as image information for one page, which can print images in one printing operation. A recording device comprising a storage device capable of storing information, decoding the page description language for each printing operation, and sequentially developing a part of the image information in the storage device corresponding to the printed portion. .