JPH08230245A - Printing control device and method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To efficiently perform printing processing at a high speed by reading the record of a sampling data table based on a figure to be drawn and the size thereof and selecting a command shortest in processing time from the record to send the same to a printer as a drawing command. CONSTITUTION: When a printing output command is issued, at first, a data table obtained by totalizing output results obtained by the printing up to now on the basis of respective items of a figure type, a printing size and a printing command is read from a memory device 13 to be developed on a memory 12. Next, for example, if there is a printing request for a circle in a series of figure printing requests, a range to be controlled is classified with the data table on the basis of the size of the circle. Next, the record concerned on the data table corresponding to the classified range is extracted on the memory 12 and, when it is judged that sampling data are already arranged, a drawing command capable of printing the circle at the highest speed by the printer connected to an output device 16 presently is determined to be outputted.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print control apparatus and method, and more particularly to a print control apparatus and method for outputting graphics at a higher speed by utilizing a bidirectional communication function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a high performance printer called page printer that prints in page units
L (page description language) is generally installed so that printing of figures and characters can be easily realized.

In the case of a print system using such a printer, a command-based print request defined by PDL is created by an application or print program (hereinafter, printer driver) on the host side and transferred to the printer. The printer can interpret the request and print graphics and characters. Therefore, since the load on the host side is light, it does not depend much on the performance of the host,
A high-speed, high-quality printing environment was obtained depending on the printer performance.

[0004]

In the printing system as described above, when the printer has high performance, that is, the process of interpreting the print request from the PDL command and developing it into a figure as an image is performed at high speed by the printer. There was an advantage when the hardware and software that could be operated were implemented.

However, due to recent advances in technology and further advancement in performance and cost reduction, the performance of general-purpose hosts is also rapidly improving.

As described above, when the host side performs the processing that has been performed on the printer side until now, the processing speed on the printer side becomes a bottleneck and the print processing can be speeded up to a certain level or more. It had the drawback of disappearing.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional example, and provides a printing control apparatus and method capable of performing high-speed printing processing and further performing processing for speed-up at a data creation source. With the goal.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] and

In order to achieve the above object, the print control method of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, in a print control method for controlling a printer, a reading step of reading a sampling data table including a drawing command and a time required to execute the drawing command for each figure and size, and a sampling data record corresponding to a desired figure and size , A record extraction step of extracting from the sampling data table, a sample number determination step of determining whether the sample data of the extracted sampling data record is data sampled by a predetermined number, and if the number of samples is sufficient, A command determination step of determining an optimum drawing command based on the extracted sampling data record, a command output step of outputting the determined drawing command to the printer, a sampling including the processed drawing command and the time required for it. Output result information with data blocks The provided output result acquisition step of acquiring from the printer, and a table updating step of updating the contents of the sampling data table on the basis of the sampling data block.

The print control apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, a print control device for controlling a printer that performs print processing according to a predetermined command system,
Table storage means for storing a table containing a plurality of types of commands for drawing a predetermined graphic and required time for each, and command determining means for determining the command based on the table when drawing a desired graphic, And an input unit for inputting the command determined by the command determining unit to the printer.

The printing system of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, a printing system including a printing device and a control device for controlling the printing device, wherein the printing device receives a drawing command from the control device, expands an image according to the command, and prints the expanded image. The control device includes means for outputting, the drawing command received, and a response means for responding to the control device the time required for processing the command, and the control device is provided with a drawing command and a processing time for each drawing command. A storage unit for storing a table including a table, a selection unit for selecting a drawing command of the shortest processing time from a drawing command group for drawing a desired figure based on the table, and a drawing command selected by the selecting unit. The printer includes a unit for sending to the printing device, and an updating unit for receiving a response from the response unit from the printing device and updating the table.

[0011]

The present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information processing system to which a graphic printing method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. This information processing system includes a CPU (central processing unit) 11, a memory 12, a storage device 13, a display device 14, an input device 15, an output device 16, and a bus 17.
And, the main part is composed of.

Further, the printer device 18 is connected to the output device 16, and print data is output via the output device 16 by execution of the print program by the CPU 11.

In the present embodiment, the IEEE P12 is provided between the output device 16 and the connected printer device 18.
Connected by bidirectional communication represented by 84,
It is assumed that the same communication function is supported by each.

Further, the PDL mounted on the printer device
In this case, it is premised that the communication function is supported by both sides, and that it has a function (command) capable of responding to a print result acquisition request from the host side using this function.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the graphic printing process in the information processing system of this embodiment includes a sampling data table reading step 21, a requested print size classification step 22, and a requested print size applicable record extraction step 23. An unsampled data determination step 24, a sampling print command determination step 25, a sampling request command output step 26, an optimum print command determination step 27, a print command output step 28, an output result acquisition step 31, and a sampling request determination Step 32, sampling data block extraction step 33, output result record extraction step 34, output result registration step 35, unextracted output result record determination step 36, and sampling data table storage step 37. .

Details of the processing in each step will be described later.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the structure of an example of a sampling data table applied in the graphic processing of the printing system of this embodiment. This table consists of several types of objects (graphic types).
There is a print size area divided in a predetermined range for each object. Then, in the print size area, areas for storing the print time and the number of samples are prepared for several kinds of print commands, respectively. In the example of FIG. 4, data regarding two types of objects, a circle and a rectangle, is shown. According to the sampling data table, a circle drawing command, an ellipse drawing command, and a polygon drawing command can be used to print a circle. 1 to 500 for each instruction
Dots, 501-1000 dots, 1001-1500
Thus, the time required for the drawing process is shown for each size of the drawn graphic. This time is the average value obtained from the number of samples shown immediately thereafter.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the structure of the record 401 in the sampling data table of FIG. In this record, a circle drawing command has been used once in the past to draw a circle of 1501 to 2000 dots, the time required at that time is 320 ms, and an ellipse drawing command has also been used once. At that time, it is shown that it took 480 ms.

The print size of a circle is usually indicated by its radius. For example, in the case of a circle having a radius of 80 mm, the diameter is 160 mm = (160 / 25.4) inches, and the printer 18 is set to 300 dpi. If so, the diameter of the circle to be drawn is obtained as (160 / 25.4) × 300≈1890 dots. In this way, the size of the figure can be converted into the number of dots and associated with the sampling data table.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the structure of output result information applied in the graphic printing method of this embodiment. The output result information is data sent from the printer 18 to the output device 16 after the printing process is completed.

This information obtained from the printer after printing is completed consists of a normal printing status block in which general printing results are stored, and a sampling data block for returning the requested sampling data all together. The sampling data block is composed of a plurality of output result records, and one output result record stores each data of figure type, print command, print size, and print time. For example, the record 601 indicates that when a circle having a size of 1800 dots (radius 76.2 mm) is printed, it is drawn in 320 ms by a circle drawing command.

Next, the operation of graphic printing in the information processing system of the present embodiment thus constructed will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. In the present embodiment, for the sake of simplicity, only the printing of circles will be described among the graphic printing, but the same applies to graphic elements such as rectangles, polygons, and fan shapes. In addition, in each of the following steps, a program necessary for realizing the processing is stored in the storage device 1.
3 and is executed by the central processing unit 11.

When a user or an application issues a print output instruction from the input device 15, the printer driver is read from the storage device 13 into the memory 12 of the information processing system. When the printer driver receives the print instruction, the processes of FIGS. 2 and 3 are called during the print process.

First, in the initialization stage for printing, the sampling data table reading step 21
A data table (hereinafter referred to as a sampling data table) in which the output results obtained by the conventional printing as shown in FIG. 4 are aggregated by each item of the graphic type, the print size, and the print command is managed by the print program from the storage device 13. It is read out on the memory 12. Since no sample is taken in the initial state, it is filled with a predetermined value, for example, 0. If a circle print request is included in the series of graphic print requests, the request print size classification step 22 manages the circle in the sampling data table as shown in FIG. 4 based on the size of the circle requested to be printed. Classify the range. In the present embodiment, the print size is managed in dot units, and this is divided into 500 dots to sample the sampling data. Therefore, classification is performed by determining which of these ranges is applicable.

Next, the required print size classification step 2
Corresponding records on the sampling data table corresponding to the range classified by 2 are extracted on the memory 12 in the required print size applicable record extraction step 23.
The extracted record is subjected to the unsampled data determination step 24 to determine the presence / absence of insufficient sampling in the record as shown in FIG. 5 and its type. In the case of the present embodiment, if there are two sample data for each print command in each record, the sample data is adopted as valid, and therefore the sample data for each print command in the record is It is determined whether the number of cases has reached two. Then, in this determination, if it is determined that the sample data is insufficient in any of the print commands, the sampling print command determination step 25, and if it is determined that all the sampling data are already prepared, the optimum print command is issued. Decision step 2
The process moves to 7. In the example of FIG. 4, the number of samples is 1 for both the circle drawing command and the ellipse drawing command, and 0 for the polygon drawing command.
Will proceed to.

First, when it is determined in the determination that the sampling data is insufficient, the sampling print command determining step 25 determines whether the sample data is insufficient in the sampling command during the determination process. Decide on one. In this embodiment, the order of the instructions in the sampling data record shown in FIG. 5 is used as it is as the priority order. Taking the record 401 as an example, when attempting to print a circle with a size of 1501 to 2000, since the number of circle drawing commands has not reached two, the circle drawing command is first determined as a sampling print command and this command is used. .

Subsequently, in order to obtain the output result of the print object output by the print command from the printer device 18 which is the print destination after the printing is completed, the sampling request command output step 26 is executed prior to the output of the print command.
Thus, the request command is output to the output device 16 using the command defined in the PDL in advance.

Next, when performing circle printing in the same range, since two circle drawing commands have been reached, attention is paid to the subsequent priority, that is, the ellipse drawing command next to the circle drawing command. Then, since the number of samples has not reached 2 yet, this ellipse drawing command is determined as a sampling print command.

On the other hand, when it is determined that the sample data has already been prepared, in the optimum print command determining step 27, the printing device currently connected to the output device 16 is based on the drawing processing time in the sampling data record. Determines the drawing command that can print the circle at the highest speed. In the case of the present embodiment, the print time sampled for each print command is totaled on the record and recorded as the average print time (msec). Therefore, it is optimal to compare this value for each print command. You can decide the exact circle print command. Then, in the print command output step 28, print data is created using the print command determined in the sampling print command determination step 25 or the optimum print command step 27, and output to the output device 16.

When the print output processing on the host side including the processing shown in FIG. 2 is completed, and then the printing on the printer side is completed, the printer device uses the bidirectional communication function to terminate the printing to the host. Notice. A processing procedure in the printer 18 is shown in FIG.

In FIG. 7, when the printer 18 receives a print request (step 71), the image to be printed is expanded (step 72). At this time, if there is an instruction to draw a graphic such as a circle or a rectangle, the instruction, the size of the image to be expanded, the time required for expansion, etc. are held in a predetermined storage area (step 7).
3). When the image required for printout has been developed, it is printed out (step 74). When all the processing of the received print request is completed, the data relating to the drawing command stored in step 73 is put together to create a sampling data block (step 76). If the sampling request command is received prior to the print request, the sampling data block as shown in FIG. 6 is added to the print status block indicating the print processing result (step 78), and the output result information is output to the output device 16. And responds (step 79).

In the host, this output result information is output by the output device 1.
By detecting from 6, the output result acquisition processing shown in FIG. 3 is called.

First, in the output result acquisition step 31, output result information including general end result such as success or failure of output shown in FIG. 6 and sampling data (only when a sampling request is issued) is output via the output device 16. The printer device. In the sampling request determination step 32, it is determined whether or not the acquired output result information includes a sampling data block. A flag indicating the presence or absence of a sampling data block is set in the output result information used in this embodiment, and the determination can be made only by looking at this. If it is determined in this determination that there is a sampling data block, the process proceeds to sampling data block extraction step 33, and if it is determined that there is no sampling data block, all the subsequent processing is skipped.
The output result acquisition process shown in is ended.

When it is determined in the sampling request determination step 32 that the sampling data is in the sampling data block as requested, the sampling data block extraction step 33 extracts the sampling data block from the output result information. In this sampling data block, the output result for each print object requested to be sampled in the print output process of FIG. 2 in the immediately preceding printing is stored. In the present embodiment, the drawing command designated for the print object of each circle and the time (msec) required for the drawing are stored as a set. The time required for drawing is the time from when the printer device receives the print command to when the graphic is developed in the page memory. In the present embodiment, the page printer is targeted, and therefore, after being expanded in the page memory, it is printed out at the same time regardless of the print contents, and therefore the time to the page memory is sufficient.

Next, in the output result record extraction step 34 from the acquired sampling data block,
An output result record is extracted to obtain the output result for one print object.

Subsequently, in the output result registration step 35, the sampling data table stored in the memory 12 is updated by using the acquired output result records for one print object. First, the print object format in the output result record is referenced to confirm that the record is a circle print object. After confirmation, the type and print size of the output (requested) print command and the time required for it are taken out. The acquired time is re-registered after being re-aggregated with the print time registered in the corresponding part in the sampling data table on the memory, that is, the record in which the print command type and the print size of the circle print table match. Then, the number of samples is increased by one. In this embodiment, the average print time is simply calculated in combination with the newly acquired print time.

(Average printing time) = ((previous average printing time)
X (previous sample number) + (acquired printing time)) / ((previous sample number) + 1) In the unextracted print result record determination step 36, whether or not there is an uncollected output result record in the acquired sampling data block. To determine. In this determination, if the management is only to extract the output result records in order from the beginning in the sampling data block, it is sufficient to simply determine the end of the sampling data block. If it is determined by this determination that there is an uncollected (unextracted) output result record, the process returns to the output result record extraction step 34 again, and the process is repeated for a new output result record. If it is determined that there is no output result record that has not been aggregated yet, the process proceeds to the sampling data table saving step 37.

Finally, in the sampling data table storing step 37, the sampling data table on the memory 12 updated by the newly acquired sample data is stored in the storage device 13, and the process is terminated.

As described above, in the information processing system of this embodiment, the printer connected to the information processing apparatus prints out while actually using various print commands, and the output result is sequentially used as the experience value. I will store.

Generally, in a page printer equipped with a PDL, the figure required to be drawn is not limited to one command, and in most cases, a plurality of print commands can print the same figure.

Therefore, there is a difference in printing time depending on which print command is used. Furthermore, the size of the graphic to be printed also affects the printing time. Therefore, even if it takes some load to emulate on the host side in order to realize with another command, the load on the host with high performance does not become a great load, but rather becomes a bottleneck. It is effective to reduce the processing on the printer device side by using a simple print command.

For this reason, sampling is performed using various print commands for each specific figure / size.

By summing up the print time (output cost) for each print command and print size in this database for each print object requested, the next time graphic print is requested Since the print command with the fastest print output for the print object and print size is known, this can be output as the optimum print command.

By doing so, it is possible to optimize the printer driver for each printer device according to the printer device used while actually performing the printing work, without previously optimizing the graphic printing process. .

Further, even if the printer device is replaced and has a different performance, it is possible to perform graphic printing according to the printer device at any time by simply re-sampling.

[0047]

[Modification] In the present embodiment, the maximum number of samples per print command is two, and when this number is reached, sampling for that print command is stopped and other print commands are sampled. When the sample data of two print commands are collected, the sampling process is not performed, but the present invention is not limited to this.

In order to obtain a more appropriate printing cost (time), the number of samples per print command may be increased, or it is possible to always perform sampling without setting an upper limit on the number of samples, at intervals. It is effective to do it regularly or only for a certain period.

Alternatively, in the present embodiment, the accuracy of the sampling data can be obtained by finely setting the sample data in increments of 500 when dividing the data into print sizes and totaling the data. Can be improved.

On the contrary, in order to suppress the size of the sampling data table, it is effective to increase the step value or reduce the number of samples.

In the present embodiment, the output result information is collectively obtained after the printing of all pages is completed. However, if there is no problem in the performance of the printing system, 1
Output result information can be acquired for each page.

In particular, it has a communication device capable of full-duplex communication,
In addition, if the system supports multitasking and multithreading, it is possible to acquire and aggregate the output result information of the previous page (FIG. 3) while performing the output processing of the next page (FIG. 2). It is more effective if the sampling result can be obtained for each page, because it is optimized at any time even during printing.

In the present embodiment, the case has been described in which the printer device is configured as a printing system to which the present invention is applied without changing for a certain period of time. However, by adding a process for sequentially identifying the printer device, Since it becomes possible to manage a plurality of sampling data tables, it is possible to flexibly cope with the case where the output target changes due to replacement of the printer device.

In this case, a printer device information request command output step for outputting a command for requesting model information to the printer, a printer device information acquisition step for acquiring model information from the printer device, and a connection from the acquired model information. The printer device identification step of discriminating the printer device that has been registered may be executed after the replacement. By doing so, it is possible to recognize the drawing commands that can be used and immediately determine the sampling data table to be used.

In addition, it is possible to cope with printing by using a plurality of printers at the same time via a network or a printer switching machine, without sacrificing the accumulated sampling data, so that each sampling data can be handled appropriately. It is valid.

Further, the weight is determined in advance for each drawing command, that is, for each command used when a circle drawing command or an ellipse drawing command is used to draw a circle, in accordance with the print quality of the obtained image. Alternatively, the weight may be registered in the sampling data table. If the weights are determined in advance, step 35 in FIG.
When updating the sampling data table in
Registered data in the sampling data table, for example, a sample data adjusting step for adjusting the processing time based on the weighting for each instruction is added. As a result, it is possible to determine the drawing command in consideration of not only the speed of the drawing process but also the quality of the obtained image. Furthermore, if a procedure for changing the weighting is determined depending on whether the print quality is important or the drawing speed is important, the speed emphasis and the quality emphasis can be switched depending on what kind of image is desired. .

Further, by switching to a mode in which the print output to the paper is not performed prior to the sampling print request and the process is completed until the expansion into the memory inside the printer, the paper and the printing time are not wasted. It is possible to arrange the samples that are prepared.

The present invention may be applied to either 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.

[0059]

As described above, the printing control apparatus and method according to the present invention can optimize the graphic printing process according to the printing apparatus while actually performing the printing work without optimizing the graphic printing process.

Further, even if the printing apparatus is replaced with a different one, the processing speed can be optimized according to the printing apparatus.

As a result, the print control apparatus of the present invention can perform high-speed print processing, and can realize high-speed print processing by the processing at the print data creation source.

[0062]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information processing system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a printing process in the information processing system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a printing process in the information processing system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a sampling data table according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a structure of a sampling data record according to an embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a structure of output result information according to the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a printing process in the printer of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 CPU (Central Processing Unit) 12 Memory 13 Storage Device 14 Display Device 15 Input Device 16 Output Device 17 Bus

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A printing control method for controlling a printer, which comprises a reading step of reading a sampling data table including a drawing command and a time required to execute the drawing for each figure and size, and corresponding to a desired figure and size. A record extraction step of extracting a sampling data record from the sampling data table, a sample number determination step of determining whether the sample data of the extracted sampling data record is data sampled by a predetermined number, and a sample number is sufficient. If so, the command determination step of determining the optimum drawing command based on the extracted sampling data record, the command output step of outputting the determined drawing command to the printer, the processed drawing command and the time required for it. Output with sampled data block containing A print control method comprising: an output result acquisition step of acquiring result information from a printer; and a table update step of updating the contents of the sampling data table based on the sampling data block. 2. A printer information requesting step of requesting model information from a printer, a printer information acquiring step of acquiring model information from the printer, and a printer determining step of determining a connected printer from the acquired model information. The print control method according to claim 1, further comprising: 3. A weighting determining step of determining weighting according to the quality of an image obtained for each of the drawing commands, and a sample data adjusting step of adjusting registered data in a sampling data table based on the determined weighting. The print control method according to claim 1, further comprising: 4. A printing mode switching step is further provided, in which the printer switches to a mode in which, in response to the drawing command, the printer does not print out on paper and ends by developing image data in a memory. The printing control method according to Item 1. 5. The print control method according to claim 1, wherein the result acquisition step acquires output result mark information for each page. 6. The result acquisition step collectively acquires the output result stamp information of all pages.
The print control method described. 7. A print control device for controlling a printer that performs a print process according to a predetermined command system, and a table storage means for storing a table containing a plurality of types of commands for drawing a predetermined graphic and required time for each. When drawing a desired figure, an instruction determining means for determining the instruction based on the table and an input means for inputting the instruction determined by the instruction determining means to the printer are provided. Print control device. 8. The print control apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising an updating unit that reads a drawing command and a processing time included in a response from the printer and updates the table. 9. The table includes, for each type of graphic and its size, a command for drawing a graphic, the number of times the pattern is updated by the updating means, and an average processing time of the command. 8. The print control device according to item 8. 10. A printing system including a printing device and a control device for controlling the printing device, wherein the printing device receives a drawing command from the control device,
And a response unit that responds to the control device with the received drawing command and the time required to process the command, The control device stores a table including a drawing command and a processing time for each drawing command, and selects a drawing command with the shortest processing time from a drawing command group for drawing a desired figure based on the table. Selection means, a means for sending the drawing command selected by the selection means to the printing device, and an updating means for receiving a response from the response device from the printing device and updating the table. And printing system.