KR100565792B1 - How to save font data of printer - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a method of storing font data, which enables to determine whether or not to trust previously stored font data by a simple procedure. According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of storing font data, the method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving font data from a connected computer, determining whether font data previously stored in the memory exists, and (b) and (b) previously storing the font data in the memory. If it is determined that there is no font data, (c) storing a first information message for notifying the start of the font data received in the memory, (d) storing the received font data in the memory, and (d) And (e) storing a second information message for notifying the end of the stored font data by the step. As a result, the printer can search for the existence of the first information message and the second information message stored in the memory, and determine whether or not the previously stored font data is trusted by a simple procedure.

Font Data, Computer, Printer, Flash Memory

Description

Font data recording method for print

1 is a block diagram schematically showing a printer according to a general technique;

2 is a diagram illustrating a structure of font data stored in a flash memory of the printer of FIG. 1;

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of storing font data according to the present invention; and

4 is a diagram illustrating a structure of font data stored in a flash memory of a printer by the method of FIG. 3.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

10 computer 11: application storage

13: Printer driver storage unit 15: Font storage unit

17: interface unit 19: control unit

20: printer 21: interface unit

23: control unit 25: memory

25a: flash memory 25b: DRAM

27: printing unit

The present invention relates to a method of storing font data of a printer, and more particularly, it is possible to use various types of font data with a small amount of memory by downloading a font required by a user from a host such as a computer and downloading it to a printer. It relates to a method of storing font data of a printer.

In general, a representative printer of an image forming apparatus is a device that receives and prints document or image data created by an application program in a computer. The printer receives document or image data from a computer and performs a print job according to a program preset in firmware. The printer is generally operated in conjunction with a computer, for which the printer driver must be installed.

In this case, the printer driver is not a simple bitmap data, but a language that can be interpreted by the printer, that is, a printer-specific language, PCL (Print Control Language), in order to improve the printing speed of printing a document or image data created by an application program in the computer. ). That is, when a user selects a print command to print a document created by an application program on the computer to the printer, the printer driver installed in the computer may designate a printer-specific language (hereinafter, 'PCL'), which is a language that the printer can interpret. And then send it to the printer. The printer interprets the PCL received from the computer, and converts the image data to be actually printed into bit map data, detects the font according to the font information in the memory, and converts the bitmap data into colored dyes such as ink or toner. To print on paper. At this time, the printer memory should store a program capable of interpreting the PCL received from the computer and font data corresponding to the interpreted information. That is, font data corresponding to font information that can be designated by a computer should be stored in a memory of a printer, and a large amount of memory is used to specify font data.

Therefore, a problem arises that the price increases because the memory capacity is greatly increased to store all font data corresponding to the font information that can be specified by the computer, and when the PCL is not used to reduce the memory capacity, printing occurs. The problem of slowing down occurs.

In order to improve such a problem, the font data required by the user in the printer driver program of the computer is downloaded from the computer to the printer and stored in the printer before printing the document created by the application program of the computer. This printer can minimize the memory capacity of the printer.

1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a printer according to a general technique. Referring to the drawings, the printer 20 includes an interface unit 21, a printer memory 25, a printing unit 27, and a control unit 23. Here, the printer memory 25 includes a flash memory 25a and a DRAM (Dynamic RAM) 25b. In addition, the printer 20 is connected to the computer 10 via the interface unit 21. In this case, the computer 10 includes an application program storage unit 11, a printer driver storage unit 13, a font storage unit 15, an interface unit 17, and a control unit 19.

An application program refers to a program that allows a user to create various documents, and the application program storage unit 11 stores such an application program. The printer driver is a program for converting a document created by an application program into PCL, which is data that the printer 20 can interpret, and is stored in the printer driver storage unit 13.

The font storage unit 15 stores various font data used by the application program. The interface unit 17 is a port connected to the interface unit 21 of the printer 20, and transmits the font data used by the PCL and the application program converted by the printer driver program to the printer 20. When the download function for downloading the font data stored in the font storage unit 15 to the printer 20 is set by the printer driver, the control unit 19 of the computer 10 is set by the application program together with the data converted into PCL. The used font data is controlled to be transmitted to the printer 20 through the interface unit 17.

The interface unit 21 of the printer 20 receives font data transmitted from the computer 10 together with document data created by an application program and converted into PCL. When the font data is received, the controller 23 of the printer 20 notifies that the font data has been received in the printer memory 25 and controls to store the font data transmitted from the computer 10 in the printer memory 25. do. In addition, the controller of the printer 20 converts the PCL data transmitted from the computer 10 into bitmap data, which is image data for performing a print job.

The printer memory 25 includes a flash memory 25a in which font data received from the computer 10 is stored, and a DRAM (DRAM) used as a buffer required for data processing of the printer 20. ) 25b. Here, the font data may be stored in a predetermined area allocated for the font among the entire areas of the flash memory 25a, and separately provided with an electrically erasable and programmable ROM (EEPROM). It may be stored in Epyrom.

The printing unit 27 prints the bitmap data converted by the control unit 23 according to the font data stored in the flash memory 25a.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a structure of font data stored in a flash memory of the printer of FIG. 1. Referring to the figure, when font data is received from the computer 10, the flash memory 25a stores an information message for notifying the existence of the font data based on the notification of the control unit 23. In this case, the size of the information message stored in the flash memory 25a is preferably implemented to about 4 bits so as not to occupy much of the storage space of the flash memory 25a.

When the information message is stored in the flash memory 25a, the controller 23 stores the font data transmitted from the computer 10 in the flash memory 25a. Thus, when the printing unit 27 performs a print job, it is possible to easily grasp the existence of the font data by the information message stored in the flash memory 25a, and to perform the print job according to the stored font data. .

However, since the printer stores the information message stored in the flash memory only at the beginning of the storage of the font data, the information message is stored and downloaded by the system malfunction or the external environment while the extended font data is downloaded. Is disturbed, there is a problem that the stored font data becomes unreliable.

In addition, since the font data stored in the flash memory overlaps the existing font data and stores the error data, error data may exist at the end of the stored font data.

The present invention was devised to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a font data storage method capable of storing reliable font data even when a download is disturbed by a malfunction of the system or an external environment.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of storing font data, the method comprising: (a) receiving font data from a connected computer, (b) determining whether font data previously stored in a memory exists, and (c) If it is determined in step (b) that there is no pre-stored font data in the memory, storing a first information message for notifying the start of the font data received in the memory; (d) the received font data Storing the second information message for notifying the end of the font data stored by the step (d).

The step (b) may include: (f) searching for the existence of the first information message previously stored in the memory, and (g) searching for the presence of the second information message previously stored in the memory. And determining that there is no font data previously stored in the memory when at least one of the first information message and the second information message is not found by the steps (f) and (g). It is preferable.

In addition, in the step (a), when both the first information message and the second information message are retrieved by the steps (e) and (f), it is determined that the font data previously stored in the memory exists. It is desirable to.

Preferably, the font data storing method includes: (h) determining the received font data as extension data for the pre-stored font data, and (i) determining the extension data determined by the step (h). And storing the font information following the previously stored font data, and (j) re-storing the second information message at the end of the extension data stored by the step (i).

As a result, the font data storing method can store reliable font data even if the download is disturbed by a malfunction of the system or an external environment.

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

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of storing font data according to the present invention. Since the structure of the printer according to the present invention is the same as that of the conventional printer 20, the illustration is omitted, and the font data storage method according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

Referring to the figure, the printer 20 is connected to the interface unit 17 of the computer 10 via the interface unit 21. When a document created through an application program stored in the application program storage unit 11 of the computer 10 is transmitted to the printer 20, the control unit 19 of the computer 10 converts the PCL and the application program converted by the printer driver. The font data used by the above is transmitted to the interface unit 21 of the printer 20 together.

The controller 23 of the printer 20 receives PCL and font data transmitted from the computer 10 through the interface unit 21 (S301). With regard to the received font data, the controller 23 determines whether there is font data previously stored in the flash memory 25a (S303). In this case, the controller 23 searches whether the first information message and the second information message pre-stored in the flash memory 25a exist, and when it is determined that both the first information message and the second information message exist, the flash unit 25 detects the flash. It is preferable to set so as to determine that font data exists in the memory 25a (S305, S307). Here, the first information message is a message for notifying the start of font data previously stored in the flash memory 25a, and the second information message is a message for notifying the end of font data previously stored in the flash memory 25a. In order to reduce the storage capacity occupied by (25a), it is preferable to set the size to about 4 bits each.

When both the first information message and the second information message are retrieved from the flash memory 25a, the controller 23 determines that the font data pre-stored in the flash memory 25a exists, and further stores the received font data in advance. It is determined as extended data for the font data (S309).

If it is determined that the received font data is extension data for the pre-stored font data, the controller 23 stores the determined extension data in the flash memory 25a after the pre-stored font data (S311). In this case, the controller 23 preferably overlaps the extended data with the second information message pre-stored in the flash memory 25a. When storage of the extended data in the flash memory 25a is completed, the controller 23 re-saves the second information message at the end of the extended data stored in the flash memory 25a (S313).

If it is determined that the first information message or the second information message does not exist in the flash memory 25a with respect to the font data received from the computer 10, the controller 23 controls the first information message in the flash memory 25a. Save (S315). That is, if it is determined that the first information message does not exist in the flash memory 25a, the controller 23 does not need to determine whether the second information message exists, and there is font data previously stored in the flash memory 25a. If it is determined that the first information message exists in the flash memory 25a but the second information message does not exist, it is determined that the pre-stored font data does not exist.

When the first information message is stored in the flash memory 25a, the controller 23 stores the received font data in the flash memory 25a after the first information message (S317). When the storage of the font data in the flash memory 25a is completed, the controller 23 stores the second information message at the end of the stored font data (S319). 4 shows the structure of the first information message, the second information message, and the font data which have been stored by the above method.

Thus, the printer can determine whether to trust the font data stored in the flash memory by searching only for the presence or absence of the first information message and the second information message even if the download is disturbed by the system malfunction or external environment.

According to the present invention, not only the various types of font data can be stored in the memory of limited capacity, but also the font data pre-stored in the flash memory can be determined by a simple procedure. .

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described above, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, and the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments of the present invention without departing from the spirit of the present invention as claimed in the claims. Anyone skilled in the art can make various modifications, as well as such modifications are within the scope of the claims.

Claims (4)

(a) receiving font data from a connected computer; (b) determining whether font data previously stored in the memory exists; (c) storing the first information message for notifying the start of the font data received in the memory when it is determined in step (b) that there is no font data previously stored in the memory; (d) storing the received font data in the memory; And (e) storing a second information message for notifying the end of the font data stored in the step (d). According to claim 1, wherein step (b), (f) searching for the existence of the first information message previously stored in the memory; And (g) searching whether the second information message pre-stored in the memory exists; In the case where at least one of the first information message and the second information message is not found by the steps (f) and (g), it is determined that there is no font data previously stored in the memory. To save the font data of the printer. The method of claim 2, In the step (a), when both the first information message and the second information message are retrieved by the steps (e) and (f), it is determined that the font data previously stored in the memory exists. Characterized in that the font data storage method of the printer. The method of claim 3, wherein (h) determining the received font data as extension data for the pre-stored font data; (i) storing the extension data determined by the step (g) after the pre-stored font data; And (j) restoring the second information message at the end of the extended data stored in the step (h).

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