JPH04182822A - Printer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To decrease the storage capacity of the memory for the bit expansion of a printer device by compressing and storing bit-expanded image data, and further expanding and using the data. CONSTITUTION:When a character code from a host computer 1 is foam overlay information, it is checked whether or not this information is already expanded into bits. When not, it is checked whether or not an overlay memory 6 has a free space and when so, specific bit map expansion is carried out according to the data obtained by referring to a character font memory 4. Further, the data are compressed by a compressing circuit 7 and then the data after the compression are stored in the memory 6. Then it is checked whether a form overlay process and page editing are performed by one page or not and the processes are repeated up to one page. Thus, the bit map image data for the form overlaying can be compressed and stored, so bit map images for the form overlaying of plural pages can be stored at a time without varying the memory capacity.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printer device, and particularly to a page printer device that performs form overlay.

[Prior Art] An example of page editing processing in a conventional page printer device will be described with reference to FIG.

First, print information for one page sent from the host computer 41 is stored in the page buffer memory 43 via the interface 42 .

Next, based on a command from the CPU 51, a character code, which is printing information, is read from the page buffer memory 43, stored in the character font memory 44, a certain character font is called, and a bitmap is developed in the text bitmap memory 45.

If a form overlay instruction is included in the print information, patterned characters, symbols, etc. are developed in the form overlay memory 46.

Further, the parallel-to-serial converter 47 reads and inputs the developed dot images from the text bitmap memory 45 and the form overlay bitmap memory 46, calculates the logical OR of the read parallel data, converts it into serial data, and records the data. Send to Department 48. Finally, the recording unit 48 scans the light beam irradiated onto the photoreceptor based on the input image information to form an electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor.

Here, the CPU 51 has a ROM 49 that stores a control program for executing page editing, printing processing, etc., and a RAM 50 that is used as a work area during the execution of various programs. Additionally, the components of the page printer device exchange information with each other via the CPU bus 52.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the conventional example described above, form overlay processing is performed on a page-by-page basis, and one type of form overlay image is stored in one form overlay bitmap memory. When printing a plurality of pages using character and numerical data as a form with each page having a different format, that is, when performing plural types of form overlay processing, there are the following drawbacks.

(1) If the number of bitmap memories for form overlays installed in the device is insufficient compared to the number of form overlays to be processed, the bitmap image must be rewritten every time the form overlay data changes. It takes longer.

(2) If it is desired to perform form overlay processing at the same time, bitmap memories as many as the desired number of form overlays are required, and a large capacity memory must be installed in the device, increasing costs.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printer device that can reduce processing time in form overlay processing and memory capacity for form overlay.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the printer device of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, the printer apparatus performs form overlay on image information and prints it on a recording medium, the printer apparatus comprising: a first storage means for storing the image information; and a first storage means for storing the image information; an expansion means for expanding into map data, a compression means for compressing the bitmap data, a second storage means for storing a plurality of compressed bitmap data, and a plurality of compressed bits from the second storage means. A printer apparatus is provided, comprising an expansion means for sequentially reading and expanding map data, and a composition means for reading image information from the first storage means and combining it with the expanded bitmap data.

[Operation] With the above configuration, the present invention compresses and stores a plurality of bitmap data developed into bitmaps based on predetermined form overlay information, and reads and decompresses the bitmap data when composing it with image data. After
Operates to combine with image data.

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a page printer device that is a typical embodiment of the present invention. In Figure 1,
The page printer device includes an interface 2 that receives print information sent from a host computer 1 (hereinafter referred to as the host), a page buffer memory 3 that stores the print information (hereinafter referred to as the page buffer), and an interface 2 that receives print information sent from the host computer 1 (hereinafter referred to as the page buffer). a character font memory 4 that stores a character font for referencing the font of the character code; a bitmap memory 5 for text data (hereinafter referred to as text memory) that stores patterned characters as dot images; Form overlay bitmap memory 6 (hereinafter referred to as form overlay memory)
, a compression circuit 7 for compressing form overlay data;
A decompression circuit 8 reads and decompresses the compressed form overlay data from the form overlay memory 6, and performs the logical OR of the parallel data read from the text memory 5 and the parallel data read from the form overlay memory 6 through the decompression circuit 8 to generate serial data. A parallel-to-serial converter 9 scans the light beam irradiated onto the photoreceptor based on the input raster data,
It is comprised of a recording section 1o that forms an electrostatic latent image on a photoreceptor, and a CPU 13 that controls the entire page printer apparatus.

Here, the CP tJ 13 has a ROM 11 that stores a control program for controlling page editing, printing processing, etc., and a RAM 12 that is mainly used as a work area during execution of various programs. Further, the CPU bus 14 is used as an information transmission path when each component of the page printer device exchanges information.

Furthermore, it is assumed that printing is performed in the recording unit 10 of this embodiment by a known electrophotographic process, and a description of the electrophotographic process will be omitted.

Next, the compression and expansion processing of form overlay information executed using the page printer having the above configuration will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. In particular, here, it is assumed that host 1 issues a command to the page printer device to print three types of forms (one page of three pages) using the same characters and numbers as text data and in different formats. . That is, it is assumed that the bitmap information developed in the text memory 5 is not cleared until the printout of three pages is completed.

First, print information transmitted from the host 1 is received via the interface 2 and stored in the page buffer 3, and then character code information is read from the page buffer 3 in step S1. Subsequently, in step S2, it is determined whether the character code information is text information.

If the character code information is text information, the process proceeds to step S3, and the character font memory 4
Bitmap expansion is performed based on the data referenced from. Furthermore, in step S4, the bitmap-developed data is written into the text memory 5 as shown at 31 in FIG.

On the other hand, if the read character code information is not information for text, the process proceeds to step s5 and checks whether the character code information is information for form overlay.

Here, as a result of the check, if the character code information is information for form overlay, the process advances to step S6. On the other hand, if the character code information is not information for form overlay, the process proceeds to step S10.

In step S6, it is further checked whether the form overlay information has already been developed into a bitmap.

Here, if it is determined that the page to be overlaid with the form has already been developed, the process proceeds to step S10. On the other hand, if it is determined that the page on which the form is to be overlaid has not yet been developed into a bitmap, the process proceeds to step S7.

In step S7, it is determined whether there is space in the form overlay memory 6. Here, if it is determined that there is no free space in the form overlay memory 6, the process proceeds to step SIO. On the other hand, if it is determined that there is space in the form overlay memory 6, the process proceeds to step S8.

In step S8, bitmap expansion shown at 32 in FIG. 3 is performed based on the data referenced from the character font memory 4, and the image data is further compressed in the compression circuit 7 using the known MH compression method used in facsimile. do. Subsequently, in step S9, the data after the compression process is completed is stored in the form overlay memory 6 as shown at 35 in FIG.

Finally, in step S10, it is determined whether form overlay processing and page editing have been completed for one page. If it is determined that the processing for one page has not yet been completed, the process returns to step S1 and the above-described processing is repeated until the processing for one page is completed. On the other hand, if it is determined that the processing for one page has been completed, the processing ends.

When the consistent processing is completed, execute the process for the next page according to the above-mentioned procedure, and the form overlay data of the next page is expanded into a bitmap as shown in 33 in Figure 3, and compressed as 36 in Figure 3. and stored. Further, the form overlay data of the third page is expanded into a bitmap as shown in 34 in FIG.
7 and stored.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, the bitmap image data for form overlay can be compressed and stored, so that a plurality of pages of bitmap images for form overlay can be stored at one time without changing the memory capacity.

Further, in the above embodiment, a case has been described in which only form overlay data is subjected to compression processing and stored, but it is of course also possible to subject text data to compression processing.

Further, in the above embodiment, only the case where data compression and decompression processing is performed by hardware by applying the MH compression method applied in facsimile machines is explained, but of course, data compression and decompression processing can be performed by software. is also possible.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, bit-expanded image data can be compressed and stored, and further expanded and used, thereby reducing the storage capacity of the bit-expanding memory of the printer device. It has the effect of reducing

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a page printer that is a typical embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the steps for compressing and decompressing form overlay information, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the form overlay memory. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional page printer. In the figure, 1: host computer, 2: interface, 3: page buffer, 4: character font memory, 5: bitmap memory for text, 6: for form overlay. bitmap memory, 7...compression circuit, 8...expansion circuit, 9...parallel-serial converter, 10...recording unit, 11...R
OM, 12...RAM, 13...CPU, 14...
・It is a CPU bus.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A printer device that performs form overlay on image information and prints it on a recording medium, the printer device comprising: a first storage unit that stores the image information; and a first storage unit that stores the image information; a decompression means for decompressing overlay information into bitmap data; a compression means for compressing the bitmap data; a second storage means for storing a plurality of compressed bitmap data; A printer apparatus comprising: a decompressing means for sequentially reading and decompressing compressed bitmap data; and a combining means for reading image information from the first storage means and combining it with the decompressed bitmap data.