JPH10193701A - Printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To represent a character fully while increasing the printing speed by utilizing the font resource of a host and a printer. SOLUTION: A host control section 2 examines the type of font in a host unit side font memory 8 and a printer side font memory 18 and converts the unit page of a document data while sectioning into a print data developable on the host unit side and a print data developable on the printer side with reference to the examination results. The print data developable on the host unit 1 side is then developed with reference to a host unit side font memory 8 while the print data developable on the printer side is transmitted to a printer 13 along with a developed bit map data. A print control section 14 develops the received print data developable by the printer with reference to a printer side font memory 18 and combines a developed bit map data with a bit map data received from the host into a bit map data for a unit page which is then printed out.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing system, and more particularly, to a printing system that effectively utilizes font resources of a host and a printer by using two-way communication.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of printing system aims at sharing font resources in the system in order to effectively use memory resources or font resources.

For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7-164691 discloses a configuration in which a host and a printer share font resources. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a conventional example described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-164691.

[0005] The conventional example of FIG. 5 includes a host machine 63 and a printer 64. In the host machine 63, the font 51 is a group of character data, and is distinguished by character attributes such as a typeface type and a character code. The font developing unit 52 generates a character pattern by referring to the font 51. The printer driver 53 has a function of causing the printer 64 to print characters specified by the application 54,
And a function of receiving data from the printer 64. The character occurrence frequency table 55 is an information table that records the occurrence frequency of character attributes used by the application 54 or the like on the host. In the printer cache registration information 56, the character attributes registered in the character cache 61 on the printer are recorded.

On the other hand, in the printer 64, the receiving section 57
Receives data from the host 63. Transmission section 65
Transmits data to the host 63. Analysis unit 58
Is to analyze the received data to create print data, and execute the command sent from the host 63.
The printing unit 59 converts the print data into a drawing image and writes it into the drawing memory 60.
0 data is printed. In the drawing memory 60, image data as a printing result is formed. Character cache 6
1 includes an area for storing a character pattern sent from the host and an area for registering a character attribute as necessary. The cache management unit 62 converts a character pattern stored in the character cache 61 into a character size, a storage address,
It is managed by management information such as character attributes. Here, the host 63 and the printer 64 are connected by a bidirectional interface such as SCSI.

Next, the operation of this conventional example will be described. First, the printer driver 53 registers a frequently occurring character pattern in the printer before starting printing. This procedure is described below.

On the host side, a printer driver 53
Issues a character cache information request command to the printer 64 before registering the character pattern. This command is received by the analyzing unit 58 through the receiving unit 57 of the printer 64. The analysis unit 58 reads out from the cache management unit 62 character cache information in which the character cache size that can be registered in the character cache 51 and the attributes of the character patterns that have already been registered are described. Then, the character cache information is returned from the transmission unit 65 to the host 63.

[0008] The printer driver 53 compares the character cache information received from the printer 64 with the character occurrence frequency table 55, and specifies the character attribute of the most frequently occurring character pattern among the character patterns not registered on the printer side. I do. The specified character attribute is notified to the font developing unit 52. The font developing unit 52 stores the font 5
The corresponding font data is read from 1 and converted to a bitmap character pattern and passed to the printer driver 53.

The printer driver 53 records the character attribute of the character pattern to be registered on the printer side in the printer cache registration information 56. Then, when the recording in the printer cache registration information 56 is completed, the character pattern data to be registered is transmitted to the printer 64.

On the other hand, on the printer side, the character pattern data acquired from the receiving unit 57 is registered in the character cache 61 by the analyzing unit 58 through the cache managing unit 62. When the registration in the character cache 61 is completed, the analysis unit 58 receives the character cache information from the cache management unit 62 and transmits it from the transmission unit 65 to the host 63.

According to the above procedure, only the character pattern having a high frequency of occurrence is registered in the character cache 61 of the printer 64.

Next, the printing operation will be described.

On the host side, print data is sent from the application 54 to the printer driver 53. The printer driver 53 compares the character attribute of the print character in the print data with the printer cache registration information 56, and determines whether the print character having the character attribute is registered in the character cache 61 of the printer 64.

If it is registered as a result of the determination, the printer 6
Printing is performed using the character pattern data registered in the character cache 11 of No. 4.

On the other hand, if the character pattern to be printed is not registered, the font development unit 52 is requested to generate a character pattern having the character attribute, and the generated bitmap character pattern is used as image data in the printer 64.
And print it as image data.

Another conventional example is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-15 / 1995.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 2521 discloses a configuration in which font resources can be shared among a plurality of printing apparatuses. FIG.
It is a block diagram showing the conventional example of 152521 publication.

In FIG. 6, reference numerals 91 to 93 denote host computers connected to a network.
Is a print server, 95, 97, and 99 are printers connected to a network, and 96, 98, and 100 are font memories built in the printer. Reference numeral 87 denotes a main control unit of the printers 95, 97, 99,
Reference numeral 74 denotes a central processing unit (CP) of the print server 94.
U).

The operation of this conventional example will be described. Each printer has a different paper size and font.
When print data is sent from any of the host computers to the print server 94, the print server 94
Checks the paper size, color, and gradation specified by the print information, and searches and selects a printer candidate having printing material conditions such as the corresponding paper size, color, and gradation from the network.

It is checked whether the font specified by the print information is built in the selected printer.
If the font corresponding to the selected printer is installed, the print data is sent from the print server 94 as it is.

On the other hand, when the font corresponding to the selected printer is not installed, the print server 94
A printer having the corresponding font is searched from the network, the font is uploaded from the printer having the corresponding font, and temporarily stored in the print server 94. Then, the CPU of the print server 94
Reference numeral 74 refers to the uploaded font and expands the print data into bitmap data. The CPU 74 sends the data to the selected printer every time the development of the bitmap data for one page is completed, and causes the printer to execute the printing process.

[0021]

However, the above-mentioned prior art has the following disadvantages.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-164691, no font is provided on the printer side, and character patterns with a high frequency of occurrence are registered in the character cache of the printer from the host and used for printing. The printer sends the image data to the printer as image data, so it is necessary to register the frequently occurring character patterns in the printer before printing. Is closer to the printing speed when the character pattern is stored in the ROM of the printer, "but it was not expected that the printing speed would be faster, and there was a disadvantage that the printing speed was reduced.

Further, since the printer does not have fonts, all the fonts necessary for printing must be prepared on the host side, and if many fonts are not installed on the host side, the character expression becomes monotonous. was there.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7-152521, if the printer selected as the print server does not have the specified font, the print server searches for a printer having the corresponding font, and uploads the font therefrom. Since it is used for printing, the character expression becomes versatile, but there is a disadvantage that the printing speed is also lowered.

[0025]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to improve the disadvantages of the prior art and, in particular, to effectively utilize the font resources of the host and the printer to enrich the character representation and to increase the printing speed. It is an object to provide a printing system.

[0026]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a high-order apparatus for developing and transmitting document data into printable bitmap data, and a bit transmitted from the high-order apparatus. A printing device that prints out characters and the like based on the map data. Among these, a higher-level device includes a higher-level device-side font memory in which predetermined font data is stored, and a higher-level control unit that refers to the font memory and develops and transmits pre-created document data into printable bitmap data. It has. Further, the printing apparatus includes a printing apparatus-side font memory in which font data different from that of the host apparatus is stored, and a print control unit that processes and prints out bitmap data transmitted from the host apparatus. Further, the higher-level control unit examines the font types stored in the upper-level device-side font memory and the printing-device-side font memory, respectively, and can develop a unit page of the document data on the higher-level device while referring to the inspection result. The print data part is divided into a print data part and a print data part that can be developed by the printing device, and is converted. Among these, the print data that can be developed by the higher-level device is expanded while referring to the font memory on the higher-level device. The print data that can be expanded is transmitted to the printing apparatus, and the expanded bitmap data is transmitted to the printing apparatus. On the other hand, the print control unit expands the print data received from the higher-level device, which can be expanded by the printing device, with reference to the font memory on the printing device side, and combines the expanded bitmap data with the bitmap data received from the upper-level device. Then, the output is reconstructed into bitmap data for a unit page and then printed out.

According to the present invention, when printing of document data using various fonts is instructed in the host device, the unit page of the document data can be developed in the host device according to the font type provided in the host device and the printing device. The print data is divided into print data and print data that can be developed by the printing apparatus, and each print data is processed in parallel by the host apparatus and the printing apparatus. Then, the bitmap data developed in each of the host device and the printing device is reconstructed into bitmap data per unit page on the printing device side, and printed out.

[0028] According to the second aspect of the invention, the higher-level control unit includes:
If the unit page of the document data includes non-character data such as an image or a figure, the non-character data is converted into print data separated from the character data, and there is an empty space in the bitmap data temporary holding area of the host device. For example, the print data of the non-character data is developed into bitmap data and transmitted to the printing apparatus. On the other hand, if there is no free space in the temporary holding area, the print data is transmitted to the printing apparatus as it is. On the other hand, when receiving the bitmap data of the non-character data from the higher-level device, the print control unit combines the bitmap data of the character data with the bitmap data of the character data to reconstruct the bitmap data of the unit page, and then prints out. When print data of non-character data is received from a higher-level device, the print data is expanded into bitmap data, combined with bitmap data of character data, reconstructed into bitmap data of a unit page, and then printed out. To do.

According to the present invention, the non-character data included in the document data is converted into print data of non-character data alone and then expanded by the higher-level device if it can be temporarily stored after being expanded by the higher-level device. Otherwise, it is developed on the printing device side. The bitmap data after expansion is combined with the bitmap data of the character data on the printing device side and printed out.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the higher-level control unit includes:
When converting a unit page of the document data into a plurality of print data, information of a drawing order which is effective even after expansion is added to each converted print data. On the other hand, the print control unit adopts a configuration in which, when reconfiguring bitmap data based on a plurality of print data into bitmap data for a unit page, each bitmap data is superimposed based on information on a drawing order. I have.

According to the present invention, the bitmap data of character data and non-character data once separated matches the drawing order (overlaying order) originally expressed as document data based on the drawing order information in the printing apparatus. Is reconfigured and printed out.

With the above, the above-mentioned object is achieved.

[0033]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[1] Description of Configuration

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

Referring to FIG. 1, the first embodiment of the present invention comprises a host 1, a page printer 13, and a bidirectional interface cable 12.

First, the host 1 has a configuration for creating data to be printed by the page printer 13 and transmitting the data to the page printer 13.

In the host 1, the document creating means 4 is a means for creating a document intended to be printed by the page printer 13. The print data creation unit 5 refers to the font information of the host 1 and the page printer 13 and converts the document created by the document creation unit 4 into a “figure / image drawing part”, a “character drawing part: using fonts in the host”, "Character drawing part: Use font in printer"
And converts it into print data that can be printed by the page printer 13. The data buffer 6 temporarily stores the print data created by the print data creation unit 5. The font memory 8 stores all font data contained in the host 1. The in-host font checking means 7 checks all the font names existing in the font memory 8. The expansion unit 9 refers to the font data in the font memory 8 and converts the “character drawing portion: use of font in host” and “figure / image drawing portion” of the print data in the print data buffer 6 into bitmap data. Expand to Block buffer 10
Stores the bitmap data expanded by the expansion means 9 for each block temporarily. The communication unit 11 transmits the font information inquiry from the print data creation unit 5 to the page printer 13, the print data in the print data buffer 6, and the bitmap data in the block buffer 10 to the page printer 13, and sends the font information inquiry. From the page printer 13 is received.
The print control unit 3 controls the entire operation from print data creation by the print data creation unit 5 to transmission of print data and bitmap data by the communication unit 11.

Of these, the print control means 3, the document creation means 4, the print data creation means 5, the in-host font check means 7, the expansion means 9, and the communication means 11 are included in the host control unit 2.

On the other hand, the page printer 13 has a configuration for receiving and printing data created by the host 1.

That is, in the page printer 13, the communication means 16 receives the font information inquiry, the print data, and the bitmap data transmitted from the host 1 and sends a response to the font information inquiry to the host 1
Send to The font memory 18 stores all font data contained in the page printer 13. The in-printer font checking means 17 checks all the font names existing in the font memory 18. The expansion unit 19 expands the print data of “character drawing part: use of font in printer” and “figure / image drawing part” transmitted from the host 1 into bitmap data with reference to the font data in the font memory 18. I do.
The block buffer 20 temporarily stores the bitmap data expanded by the expansion unit 19 for each block. The page buffer 21 stores the bitmap data transmitted from the host 1 and the bitmap data transmitted from the block buffer 20 until one page is collected. The printing means 22 prints the data in the page buffer 21 on paper. The print control unit 15 controls the entire operation from the reception of the font information inquiry by the communication unit 16 to the printing by the printing unit 22.

Of these, the print control unit 15, the communication unit 16, the in-printer font check unit 17, the expansion unit 19, and the print unit 22 are included in the print control unit 14.

In addition, the bidirectional interface cable 12 connects the host 1 and the page printer 13 so that the communication means 11 of the host 1 and the communication means 16 of the page printer 13 can transmit and receive data. It is to be.

[2] Description of Operation

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

When a user creates and prints a document according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the user first creates a document to be printed by the document creating means 4 of the host 1 (step 101 in FIG. 2). When the document creation is completed, a print command for printing the document is issued (step 102). When a print command is issued, the document data created by the document creation unit 4 is sent to the print data creation unit 5 and sent to the page printer 13.
Is converted into print data for printing by.

Here, the print data creating means 5 contacts the font checking means 7 in the host to check all the font names incorporated in the host 1 to create print data (step 103). Since all font data contained in the host 1 is stored in the font memory 8, the in-host font checking means 7 checks the font memory 8 and prints all the font names in the host 1 obtained by the printing data creating means. Return to 5.

The print data creation means 5 sends a font information inquiry to the page printer 13 via the communication means 11. The sent font information inquiry is
The data is received by the communication means 16 and sent to the font checking means 17 in the printer, where the names of all fonts contained in the page printer 13 are checked (step 104).

Since all the font data contained in the page printer 13 is stored in the font memory 18, the font checking means 17 in the printer stores the font data in the font memory 1.
8 is checked, and all the font names in the page printer 13 thus obtained are transmitted to the host 1 via the communication means 16 as answers to the font information inquiry. The response to the transmitted font information inquiry is received by the communication unit 11 and returned to the print data creation unit 5.

The print data creation means 5 is connected to the host 1
It is determined whether the font used in the document is in the host 1 or in the page printer 13 by using the font information of the page printer 13 and the page data. The print data is divided into three parts, "character drawing part: use of font in host" and "character drawing part: use of font in printer" (step 105). This print data is subdivided into blocks each consisting of a series of command strings, and the drawing order is determined for each block according to the positional relationship on the page.

The created print data is sent to the print data buffer 6, where it is temporarily stored. A conceptual diagram of this print data is shown in “Data in Print Data Buffer 6” in FIG.

Referring back to FIGS. 1 and 2, when the creation of the print data is completed, the print data is developed into bitmap data. First, in the print data, "Character drawing part:
Each block of "use of font in host" and "character drawing portion: use of font in printer" is bit-mapped first.

If these blocks belong to "character drawing portion: use font in host" (step 10)
(YES in 6), the block is sent to the developing means 9, where the block is developed into bitmap data with reference to the font data in the font memory 8 (step 107).
In the block buffer 10, each block is temporarily stored in association with the drawing order of the block (step 108).

On the other hand, if the block belongs to "character drawing portion: use font in printer" (step 10).
6), the block is transmitted from the print data buffer 6 to the page printer 13 via the communication unit 11.

The transmitted block is received by the communication means 16 and sent to the developing means 19, where the font memory 1
8 is developed into bitmap data with reference to the font data in the block buffer 8 (step 109).
At 0, each block is temporarily stored in association with the drawing order of the block (step 110).

When the development of all the blocks of “character drawing part: use of font in host” and “character drawing part: use of font in printer” is completed, bit map development of each block of “figure / image drawing part” follows. Done.

The print control means 3 checks the vacancy of the block buffer 10, and if there is a vacancy in the block buffer 10 (YES in step 111), the drawing order of the drawing / image drawing portion starts from the previous block. The data is sent to the developing means 9 in order, is developed into bitmap data there (step 112), and is temporarily stored in the block buffer 10 in association with the drawing order of the block (step 113).

If there is no free space in the block buffer 10 (NO in step 111), the communication means 1 in the "drawing part of figure / image drawing" order from the first block.
1. The data is sent to the expansion means 19 via the communication means 16, where it is expanded into bitmap data (step 114).
The block is temporarily stored in the block buffer 20 in association with the drawing order of the block (step 115).

Hereinafter, until all the blocks of the "drawing / image drawing portion" are developed (that is, step 116 is NO).
), Steps 111, 112, 113 and 11
Repeat steps 4,115.

When the development of all the blocks of the "drawing / image drawing portion" is completed and the development of the print data for one page in the print data buffer 6 is completed (step 116: YE
S), block buffer 10 and block buffer 20
Are sequentially read out in accordance with the drawing order, and are sent from the block buffer 10 via the communication means 11 and the communication means 16 or directly from the block buffer 20 to the page buffer 21, and the bit map data for one page is read out. It is created (step 117), where it is temporarily stored.

A conceptual diagram of the bit map data for one page is shown in “page buffer 21 (page printer 1) in FIG.
3 above).

Returning to FIGS. 1 and 2, when the creation of one page of bitmap data is completed, the printing means 22 prints the data in the page buffer 21 on paper (step 118). In the above description, the print control unit 3 controls all operations related to printing on the host 1 side from the print data creation by the print data creation unit 5 to the transmission of bitmap data in the block buffer 10. The means 15 controls all operations related to printing on the page printer 13 from reception of the font information inquiry by the communication means 16 to printing by the printing means 22.

[0063]

Next, an example of the first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

"Data in the print data buffer 6" in FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of the print data created by the print data creating means 5 (step 105 in FIG. 2).

According to this embodiment, the print data for one page is composed of three blocks of “Figure / Image Drawing Part”, three blocks of “Character Drawing Part: Use Font in Host”, and “Character Drawing Part: Font in Printer”. "Use" is divided into three blocks, that is, nine blocks in total. The drawing order is determined for each block in accordance with the positional relationship on the page. The drawing order of the blocks belonging to the “drawing part for drawing / image” is 1, 4, 7, and “character drawing part: The drawing orders of the blocks belonging to "use font" are 2, 5, and 8, respectively, and the drawing orders of the blocks belonging to "character drawing portion: use font in printer" are 3, 6, and 9, respectively.

At the stage of developing these print data into bitmap, first, "character drawing portion: use font in host", "character drawing portion: use font in printer"
Are expanded.

Of these, it belongs to “character drawing portion: use of font in host” (YES in step 106).
The blocks are sent to the expanding means 9 and are expanded into bitmap data while referring to the font data in the font memory 8 (step 107).
Are temporarily stored in association with each other (step 108).

The three blocks belonging to "character drawing portion: use of fonts in printer" (NO in step 106) are sent to expansion means 19, where they are stored in font memory 18
Are expanded into bitmap data while referring to the font data in the block buffer (step 109).
Is temporarily stored in association with the drawing order 3, 6, 9 of the block for each block (step 1).
10).

Subsequently, three blocks belonging to the "figure / image drawing portion" are developed.

The print control means 3 checks the vacancy of the block buffer 10 and finds that the block buffer 10 has a vacancy (YES in step 111). Is sent to the developing means 9, where it is developed into bitmap data (step 112), and is temporarily stored in the block buffer 10 in association with the drawing order 1 of the block (step 113). ). Similarly, the second block is expanded by the expansion unit 9 and stored in the block buffer 10 in association with the drawing order 4 of the block.

However, since the block buffer 10 is no longer full (NO in step 111), the third block is sent to the expansion means 19, where it is expanded into bitmap data (step 114).
The block buffer 20 temporarily stores the block in the drawing order 7 (step 115).

In FIG. 3, “block buffer 10 (host 1
"Data in the upper part" and "Data in the block buffer 20 (on the page printer 13)" are conceptual diagrams of bitmap data in the respective block buffers.
The drawing order in the block buffer 10 is 2, 5,
Bitmap data of 8, 1, 4 blocks are
The drawing order in the block buffer 20 is 3, 6,
The bitmap data of the blocks 9 and 7 are stored in the developed order.

When the development of all the blocks of the "drawing / image drawing part" is completed and the development of the print data for one page in the print data buffer 6 is completed (step 116: YE
S), block buffer 10 and block buffer 20
Are sequentially read out in accordance with the drawing order and sent to the page buffer 21 to create bitmap data for one page (step 117).

A conceptual diagram of the bit map data for one page is shown in “page buffer 21 (page printer 1) in FIG.
3 above), the drawing order 1
The bitmap data of the block
0 to the page buffer 21, and then the bitmap data of the block in the drawing order 2 is sent from the block buffer 10 to the page buffer 21 so as to be superimposed on the bitmap data and placed in the correct position. Since the data is read and the bitmap data for one page is assembled, even if the print data of the page is divided into blocks and bitmap developed, errors occur in the arrangement of characters, figures, and images on the printed page. The situation can be prevented.

[Second Embodiment] Next, an operation of a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Since the configuration of the second embodiment of the present invention is similar to that of the first embodiment of the present invention, FIG.
Is used.

In the operation of the second embodiment of the present invention,
Document creation (step 201 in FIG. 4), print command (step 202), font check in host (step 20)
3), font check in printer (step 20)
4) Regarding print data creation (step 205),
The operation of the first embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 2 is the same as that of steps 101, 102, 103, 104, and 105, respectively, and a description thereof will be omitted.

Further, in the operation of the second embodiment of the present invention, one of the operations in the page buffer 21 after the development of one page of print data is completed (YES in step 214).
Create bitmap data for page (step 215)
2 and the printing (step 216), respectively, of step 11 of the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention in FIG.
Since these are the same as 7, 118, their description will be omitted.

Here, an operation for expanding print data into bitmap data, which is different from the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention, will be described in detail.

The print data stored in the page buffer 6 is stored in the same manner as in the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention.
It is divided into three parts: "Figure / Image drawing part", "Character drawing part: Use font in host", "Character drawing part: Use font in printer", and each part consists of a series of command strings. Further subdivided into blocks,
In addition, the drawing order is determined for each block according to the positional relationship on the page.

The conceptual diagram of the print data is the same as that shown in “Data in Print Data Buffer 6” in FIG.

Returning to FIGS. 1 and 4, when the creation of the print data is completed, the print data is developed into bitmap data.

First, regarding the first block of the print data, whether it belongs to “character drawing portion: use font in host” or “character drawing portion: use font in printer”, or “draw figure / image The print control unit 3 checks whether the print job belongs to the “part”.

If the block belongs to either “character drawing portion: font for host use” or “character drawing portion: use font in printer” (YES in step 206), the block further proceeds to “character drawing portion”. It is checked whether it belongs to "portion: use font in host" and the block is "character drawing portion: use font in host".
(YES in step 207), the block is sent to the developing means 9 where the font memory 8
Is expanded into bitmap data while referring to the font data in the block buffer 10 (step 210).
Is temporarily stored for each block in association with the drawing order of the block (step 211).

On the other hand, if the block belongs to "character drawing portion: use font in printer" (step 2)
(NO at 07), the block is transmitted from the print data buffer 6 to the page printer 13 via the communication unit 11. The transmitted block is received by the communication means 16 and sent to the developing means 19, where it is developed into bitmap data while referring to the font data in the font memory 18 (step 208). The block is temporarily stored in association with the drawing order (step 209).

If the block belongs to the "drawing part of figure / image" (NO in step 206),
The block is sent to the expansion unit 19 via the communication unit 11 and the communication unit 16, where it is expanded into bitmap data (step 212) and temporarily stored in the block buffer 20 in association with the drawing order of the block. Is performed (step 213).

Thereafter, steps 206, 207, 208, 209, and 209 are executed until all blocks in the print data buffer 6 are expanded (that is, while step 214 is NO).
Steps 210, 211, 212 and 213 are repeated.

Here, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications obvious to those skilled in the art are possible.

[0088]

The present invention is constructed and functions as described above. According to this, the unit page of the document data can be developed by the host device by referring to the fonts of the host device and the fonts of the printing device. Print data and print data that can be expanded by the printing device.Then, the upper device and the printing device use the font data provided in each device to expand the data into bitmap data. Since it is composed and printed out, the font speed provided by the host device and the font data provided by the printing device can be effectively utilized to realize various print outputs, but the printing speed can be increased by the parallel processing of both devices. The speed can be remarkably increased as compared with the case where the expansion processing is executed by one device.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the print data based on the non-character data is expanded by one of the host device and the printing device capable of temporarily storing the print data, As for the rasterization process, the rasterization process can be started quickly while minimizing the waiting time of the process, so that the printing process can be further accelerated.

Further, according to the third aspect of the invention, the bitmap data once separated is reconstructed based on the drawing order information, so that the same print output as the original document data can be reproduced. It is possible to provide an excellent printing system that has never been provided before.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the printing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of data in each buffer of the printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of another embodiment of the printing system of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional example of a conventional printing system.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printing system showing another conventional example of the conventional printing system.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Host (upper device) 2 Upper control unit 3 Print control unit 4 Document creation unit 5 Print data creation unit 6 Print data buffer 7 Font check unit in host 8 Font memory on upper device side 9 Expansion unit 10 Block buffer (bitmap data) 11 Communication means 12 Bidirectional interface cable 13 Page printer 14 Print control unit 15 Print control means 16 Communication means 17 Font check means in printer 18 Font memory 19 Developing means 20 Block buffer 21 Page buffer 22 Printing means

Claims (3)

[Claims] A host device that develops and transmits document data into printable bitmap data; and a printing device that prints out characters and the like based on the bitmap data transmitted from the host device. A high-level device-side font memory in which predetermined font data is stored, and a high-level control unit that develops and transmits document data prepared in advance with reference to the font memory to the printable bitmap data, A printing apparatus, comprising: a printing apparatus-side font memory in which font data different from that of the host apparatus is stored; and a print control unit that processes and prints out bitmap data transmitted from the host apparatus. The higher-level control unit determines the font type stored in the upper-level device-side font memory and the printing-device-side font memory. Each unit is inspected, and by referring to the inspection result, the unit page of the document data is converted into a print data portion that can be developed by the host device and a print data portion that can be developed by the printing device, and converted. The print data expandable by the device is expanded while referring to the font memory on the host device side, and the print data expandable by the printer is transmitted to the printer, and the expanded bitmap data is transmitted to the printer. The print control unit expands print data that can be expanded by the printing device received from the higher-level device while referring to the font-side font memory, and expands the expanded bitmap data with the bitmap data received from the upper-level device. A printing system characterized by combining and reconstructing into bitmap data for a unit page and then printing out. 2. When the unit page of the document data includes non-character data such as an image or a graphic, the higher-level control unit converts the non-character data into print data separated from the character data. If there is free space in the temporary storage area of the bitmap data, the print data of the non-character data is expanded into bitmap data and transmitted to the printing apparatus. If there is no free space in the temporary storage area, the print data is printed as it is. When the print control unit receives the bitmap data of the non-character data from the higher-level device, the print control unit combines the bitmap data with the bitmap data of the character data to reconstruct the bitmap data for the unit page. Print out, and if print data of non-character data is received from the higher-level device, expand the print data into bitmap data. The printing system of claim 1 wherein characterized in that prints after reconstitution into a unit page of the bitmap data by combining the bit map data of the character data. 3. When the unit page of the document data is converted into a plurality of print data, the upper control unit adds information of a drawing order that is effective even after being expanded to each of the converted print data. The unit, when reconfiguring bitmap data based on the plurality of print data into bitmap data for a unit page, superimposes each of the bitmap data based on the drawing order information. 3. The printing system according to 1 or 2.