JP2000322210A - Printer control method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (with correction) [PROBLEMS] To enable efficient printing of a plurality of copies from a host to a printer. In S1, an electronic collating start command is transmitted from a host 12 to a printer 14, the electronic collating control mode is entered, and an "XX page output request command" is transmitted. In S2, if the display list is not stored in the printer 14, the printer 12
The print control command is received from the side, and in S2, the display list creation unit 142 creates a display list. In S2, if the display list creation time is longer than the engine speed, the display list is stored in the large-capacity storage unit 144, and in S2, a print page command is transmitted, and the drawing / print control unit 146 starts drawing / printing processing. For the second and subsequent copies, the display list in the large capacity storage unit 144 is read out and printed out.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer control method, and more particularly, to a method of printing a plurality of copies of the same image between a host and a printer connected via a line capable of bidirectional communication. The present invention relates to a printer control method for controlling.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a plurality of copies of a document consisting of a plurality of pages are required, for example, the first copy is printed out by a printer, and the second copy and thereafter are used as a copy original by using a copying machine. In general, a method of copying the remaining required number of copies has been used.

However, recent printers, such as a digital copier (registered trademark), a laser printer, and an ink jet printer, have increased their printing speed, and can print out at a speed comparable to a copying machine. Is coming. For this reason, at present, a method of printing and outputting a necessary number of copies directly from a printer is becoming widespread.

Therefore, as a conventional print control method, for example, a host (such as a personal computer)
The document data is stored (hereinafter, also referred to as spool) on the printer side via a printer driver, and a print control command for the requested number of copies is transmitted to the printer to print out a plurality of copies, or the printer prints out. There has been a method in which a control command or data converted for printing is spooled, and after the second copy, print output is performed using the spooled data without receiving a print control command from the host.

[0005]

However, in such a conventional print control method, as described above, when a print control command is transmitted from the host to the printer, the printer converts the image data into dot data. A data format (hereinafter, also referred to as a display list) required to convert the data into a file is created, and is drawn in a bitmap memory or the like according to the display list.
Printout was being output from the printing unit. Although the drawing time from the display list can follow the printing speed of the printer, it takes time to create the data format, so that there is a problem that printing output of a plurality of copies cannot be performed efficiently.

Further, as described above, the document data to be printed and output in a plurality of copies are provided on the printer side over all pages.
If the spool is to be spooled in a large-capacity storage unit such as D, the time required for spooling is separately required, and the completion of the output of the first part is delayed accordingly. There was a problem that it could not be performed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and has as its object to provide a print control method for controlling a host to output a plurality of copies to a printer efficiently. I have.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a host having a printer driver and a storage unit is connected via a line capable of bidirectional communication to convert a print control command into dot data. A printer control method for controlling a printer having a display list creating unit and a storage unit for creating a data format to print out a plurality of copies of the same image, wherein the printer driver converts the print image into a print control command. Converting and storing the data in a host-side storage unit, the printer generating a data format in the display list generating unit based on a print control command sent from the host, It takes longer to create the data format than it takes to perform In this case, the step of storing the created data format in the printer-side storage unit, and in the case of printing out the second and subsequent copies by the printer, reading out the data format stored in the printer-side storage unit and printing it out. And performing a control to perform the control.

According to this, if the data format creation time is longer than the time required for the printer to print and output one sheet, the transmission of a print control command from the host to the printer one by one causes inefficiency. The created data format is stored in the storage unit on the printer side, and for the second and subsequent copies, the data format stored in the storage unit is read out and controlled so that it is printed out. can do.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the printer control method according to the first aspect, in the step of storing a data format in the printer-side storage unit, the data format is created when the storage unit is full. Requesting that the data format be stored in the host-side storage unit, transmitting the data format from the printer to the host-side storage unit and storing the data format, and printing and outputting the second and subsequent copies by the printer. Reading the data format stored in the host-side storage unit, transmitting the data format to the printer, and controlling the printer to print out the data format.

According to this, when the storage unit on the printer side is full and the data format cannot be stored, the data format is transmitted to the host side and stored in the storage unit on the host side. After that, control is performed so that the data format stored in the storage unit on the host side is read, transmitted to the printer, and printed out, so that even if the storage unit on the printer side is full, multiple copies are efficiently printed out In addition to this, it is not necessary to increase the storage capacity of the printer more than necessary, so that the cost can be reduced. Here, it is assumed that there is a storage unit on the printer side. However, if the above control is performed, even if there is no storage unit on the printer side, a plurality of copies can be efficiently printed out in response to this. There are advantages.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the printer control method according to the first or second aspect, when the host-side storage unit and the printer-side storage unit are full, a data format of a subsequent page is provided. Is stopped so that the electronic collating process between the host and the printer is continued.

According to this, when both the printer-side storage unit and the host-side storage unit are full, the storage of the data format (display list) is stopped, but the electronic collating process is continued. There is no need for a reprint request due to the suspension of the electronic collating process, and a sorting operation by divided output such as a plurality of copies from page 1 to page 100 and a plurality of copies from page 100 to page 200.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer system according to the present embodiment. A printer system 10 shown in FIG. 1 is configured by connecting a host 12 such as a personal computer and a printer 14 via a line 16 capable of bidirectional communication.

The host 12 has an APL 122 for requesting a plurality of copies, a printer driver 124 for converting an APL image into a print control command when a plurality of copies are requested from the APL 122, and a conversion by the printer driver 124. A large-capacity storage unit 126 such as a hard disk (HD) that spools a print control command so that it can be read in page units is provided.

The printer 14 includes a display list creation unit 142 for creating a data format (hereinafter, referred to as a display list) required to convert a print control command transmitted from the host 12 into dot data. A large-capacity storage unit 144 for storing the display list and other data created by the list creation unit 142;
A drawing / print control unit 146 that draws on the bitmap memory in accordance with the display list created at 42 and controls printing on the printing unit 148, and a printing unit 148 that prints out an image by the drawing / print control unit 146. It has.

Next, the control operation of the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart of electronic collating control performed between the host and the printer according to the present embodiment.
An example of electronic collating control for collating programs, data, and the like between the host and the printer via the printer driver 124 on the host side is shown. S1 to S6 in FIG.
The electronic collating control procedure is divided into large blocks, and the procedure is further indicated by a circled number (丸) in each block.

In step S1 of FIG. 2, when the host 12 requests the printer 14 to output a plurality of copies, an electronic collation start command, which can be identified as a print control command, is transmitted to the printer 14 so that an electronic collating start command is transmitted. Collating is started, and an electronic collating control mode is entered. Then, an “XX page output request command” that can be identified as a print control command for each page is transmitted from the APL 122 of the host 12 to the printer 14 via the printer driver 124.

Next, at S2, if the display list is not stored in the printer 14 in response to the XX page output request, the print control command of the output request page is read from the spooled file and sent to the printer 14. Requests host 12 to transmit. In response, the host 12 sequentially sends a print control command to the print 14.

Next, in S2, the print control command is sent to the display list creation unit 142 on the print 14 side.
, A display list is created. Next, in S2, the display list creation time at this time is compared with the time required for the printing unit 148 to print one sheet (hereinafter referred to as engine speed), and the display list creation time is longer. Saves the created display list in the large-capacity storage unit 144 of the printer 14.

Next, at S2, the print page (P
(RINT PAGE) command is transmitted from the host 12 to the printer 14 and is received.
The drawing print process is started by 6 and the print list of the second copy and thereafter is read out from the display list stored in the large-capacity storage unit 144, so that a plurality of copies can be printed out efficiently.

Next, in S3, the host 12 issues an XX page output request to the printer 14. For example, the large-capacity storage unit 144 of the printer 14 is in a full state or the display list has no storage unit. Is not stored, the host 12 is requested to store the display list.

At this time, the mass storage unit 12 of the host 12
If there is a free area in 6, the display list is saved. However, when the large-capacity storage unit 126 of the host 12 cannot store the display list in a full state as in S3, the host 12 notifies the printer 14 of the storage unit fullness. Upon receiving the full notification, the printer 14 clears the information stored in the display list of the current page.

In step S3, the display list is transmitted from the printer 14 to the host 12, and a page end (PAGE END) is transmitted to complete the display list storage control. However, the electronic collating control is continued.

Next, in S4, the host 12 issues an XX page output request to the printer 14, and the printer 1
When the display list is stored in the large-capacity storage unit 144 on the fourth side, the printer 14 instructs the host 12 to shift to the processing of the next page without transmitting the print control command of the page from the host 12. And send the page cache.

In step S4, the drawing / print control unit 146 starts drawing / printing processing while reading out the stored display list from the large-capacity storage unit 144 of the printer 14, thereby printing out a plurality of copies. Can be.

Next, in S5, in response to an XX page output request from the host 12 to the printer 14, the host 1
When the display list is stored in the large-capacity storage unit 126 on the second side, the printer 14 requests the host 12 to transmit the display list to the printer 14. When receiving the display list transmission request, the host 12 transmits the display list stored in the large-capacity storage unit 126 of the host 12 to the printer 14, and does not transmit the print control command.

Next, in S5, when the printer 14 receives the display list, the drawing / printing control unit 146 starts drawing / printing processing based on the received display list, and a plurality of copies can be printed out. The host 12 transmits the display list to the printer 14 and transmits a page end (PAGE END) to complete the control.

Finally, in S6, the host 12 notifies the printer 14 of the end of the electronic collating, thereby clearing the electronic collating control mode.

As described above, according to this embodiment, when the host requests the printer to print out a plurality of copies of the same document, the display list creation time is shorter than the printer engine speed. When the print process is shorter, the print processing is performed while sequentially transmitting the print control commands from the host to the printer, so that the printout can be efficiently performed. However, when the display list creation time is longer than the printer engine speed, the created display list is stored in the large-capacity storage unit on the printer side, and when printing the second and subsequent copies, this is read out and printed out. Thereby, a plurality of copies can be printed efficiently.

When the display list cannot be saved because the large-capacity storage unit of the printer is full, a request is made to save the display list in the large-capacity storage unit of the host and the display list is saved. By reading the display list from here and transmitting it to the printer and performing the printing process, it is possible to efficiently print a plurality of copies. As a result, it is not necessary to increase the capacity of the storage unit on the printer side more than necessary, and the cost of the storage unit can be reduced.

Further, if the display list cannot be saved because the large-capacity storage units on both the printer side and the host side are full, the display list saving control is stopped, but the electronic collating control is continuously performed. Therefore, it is not necessary to perform a reprint request or a process of sorting the processing pages.

[0033]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, when the data format creation time is longer than the printer engine speed, the created data format is stored in the storage unit of the printer. Since the second and subsequent copies are controlled so that the data format stored in the storage unit is read out and printed out, the printout of a plurality of copies can be efficiently performed.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, if the data format cannot be stored because the storage unit on the printer side is full, the data format is transmitted to the host side and stored in the storage unit on the host side. For the subsequent copies, the data format stored in the storage unit on the host side is read, sent to the printer, and printed out, so that even if the storage unit on the printer side is full, the printout of multiple copies can be performed efficiently. This can be performed well and the cost can be reduced because the storage capacity of the printer does not need to be increased more than necessary.

According to the third aspect of the invention, when both the printer-side storage unit and the host-side storage unit are full, the control of saving the data format (display list) is stopped, but the electronic collating process is continued. This eliminates the need for a reprint request or sorting work by divided output.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an electronic collating control performed between a host and a printer according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 printer system 12 host 122 APL 124 printer driver 126 large-capacity storage unit 14 printer 142 display list creation unit 144 large-capacity storage unit 146 drawing / print control unit 148 printing unit 16 lines

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A display list creation unit and a storage unit, which are connected to a host having a printer driver and a storage unit via a line capable of bidirectional communication, and create a data format for converting a print control command into dot data. A printer control method for controlling a printer having a plurality of copies of the same image to be printed and output, wherein the printer driver converts the print image into a print control command and saves the print image in a host-side storage unit, A step in which the printer creates a data format in the display list creating section based on a print control command sent from the host; and a time required to create the data format rather than a time required for the printer to print one sheet. If it takes longer, the created data format Storing in the printer-side storage unit, and when printing the second and subsequent copies by the printer, controlling to read and output the data format stored in the printer-side storage unit, And a printer control method. 2. In the step of storing a data format in the printer-side storage unit, if the storage unit is full, a request is made to store the created data format in the host-side storage unit. Transmitting and storing a data format in the host-side storage unit; and when printing out the second copy and thereafter by the printer, reading out the data format stored in the host-side storage unit and transmitting the data format to the printer. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of: controlling to output the print data. 3. When the host-side storage unit and the printer-side storage unit are full, the subsequent storage of the data format of the page is stopped, and the electronic collating process between the host and the printer is continued. 3. The printer control method according to claim 1, wherein the control is performed in the following manner.