JP2002055790A - Printing system and printing control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing system for allowing a host computer side to generate an image by deciding the banding direction of a band for generating the image based on the carrying direction of a printing medium in a printing device and a printing control method. SOLUTION: In a host computer 100, at the time of generating a bit map image, and transferring the bit map image to a printer 200 for performing printing, a spool part 120 spools plotting information from an application 110, and a spool analyzing part 140 decides the banding direction of a band for generating the bit map image based on spool information 130 and the carrying direction of a printing medium in the printer 200, and a picture information generating part 150 generates the bit map image from the spool information 130 according to the decided banding direction. In this case, the banding direction is decided as a direction opposite to the carrying direction of the printing medium in the printer 200.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a printing system and a printing control method for generating a band bitmap image in a host computer, transferring the image to a printing apparatus, and performing printing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a printing apparatus such as a laser beam printer, when a host computer generates a bitmap image, either a non-banding method or a banding method is employed.

Here, the non-banding system is a system in which an entire page is developed into one bitmap. However, with the increase in resolution and colorization of a printer, the non-banding system has to be realized. The required amount of memory is increasing. Especially in a color printer, etc., the required memory is large, and it is impossible to physically secure the memory, or even if the required memory can be secured, it may cause a decrease in the overall system performance of the host computer. Can be.

[0004] For these reasons, non-banding systems are rarely employed in color printers.

On the other hand, in the banding method, a certain amount of band memory is secured, drawing and transfer are performed to this band memory, and then the band is shifted by a necessary amount in the banding direction and drawn again. This is a method of repeating transfer. Naturally, different parts are drawn multiple times in different bands for one drawing object, so the processing situation is more complicated than the non-banding method, but the size of the acquired band memory is not so large. In addition, the performance of the entire system of the host computer is not extremely lowered.

Normally, in this banding method, the banding direction, that is, the direction in which the band is advanced, is almost always limited to the vertical direction (Y direction) of the original image.

When the printer is a printer compatible with a page description language (PDL) such as a laser beam printer, there is no limitation on the order in which drawing objects are drawn in the same page, and the drawing objects are sequentially developed in a page memory inside the printer. Then, the generated bitmap image is transferred to the printer engine.

However, depending on the memory capacity mounted on the printer, the output color mode, the gradation, etc., there is a case where the page memory in the printer cannot be prepared for one page. But it is necessary to use banding processing. Since the amount of installed memory is limited on the printer side compared to the host computer, printing using banding is more common.

When banding is performed on the host computer side, it is necessary to synchronize with the video signal transferred to the printer engine.
This is done in the opposite direction by 0 °.

[0010]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, when the banding direction on the host side and the banding direction on the printer side intersect perpendicularly, the printer performs rotation processing of the image data received from the host computer. Need arises. In this case, the load on the rotation processing and banding processing of the image data inside the printer is increased, and it is not necessary to perform the processing of lowering the printing gradation and the printing resolution caused by the deterioration of the processing performance and the lack of memory on the printer side. In some cases, it will not work.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and a host computer determines the banding direction of a band for generating an image based on the transport direction of a printing medium in a printing apparatus, and converts the image. An object of the present invention is to provide a print system and a print control method for generating the print data.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a printing system for generating a bitmap image in a host computer, transferring the bitmap image to a printing apparatus, and performing printing. Spooling means for spooling, based on the spooled drawing information and the transport direction of the print medium in the printing apparatus, determining means for determining the banding direction of the band for generating the bitmap image, and Generating means for generating a bitmap image of the spooled drawing information, wherein the determining means determines a banding direction in a direction opposite to a conveying direction of a print medium in the printing apparatus. It is characterized by.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print control method for a printing system for generating a bitmap image in a host computer, transferring the bitmap image to a printing apparatus, and performing printing. A spooling step of spooling information; a determining step of determining a banding direction of a band for generating the bitmap image based on the spooled drawing information and a transport direction of a print medium in the printing apparatus; and a determined banding direction. Generating a bitmap image of the spooled drawing information in accordance with
In the determining step, the banding direction may be determined in a direction opposite to a printing medium transport direction in the printing apparatus.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing the configuration of a printing system according to the present embodiment. As shown, the printing system comprises a host computer shown at 100 and a host computer 20.
0, and the host computer 100 and the printer 200 are connected by a predetermined communication medium.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, the host computer 100 and the printer 200 are directly connected locally, but may be connected via a network such as a LAN.

The host computer 100 includes a CPU (not shown) and a storage device (not shown) such as a magnetic disk or a memory, and operates an operating system (hereinafter, referred to as an “OS”). And

In FIG. 1, applications 110,
The drawing information spool unit 120, the spool analysis unit 140, the image information generation unit 150, the print command generation unit 160, and the screen information control unit 170 are all programs, which are stored in a storage device in the host computer 100 and executed by the CPU. You. The spool information 130 is information stored in a storage device in the host computer 100.

Further, the host computer 100 is provided with a screen display control section 170 which can provide print option information designated by the user to the drawing information spool section 120 and the spool analysis section 140.

On the other hand, the printer 200 includes a printer controller 210 and a printer engine 220. The printer controller 210 includes a print information control unit 2
11, a page memory 212, an output control unit 213, and the like. The printer engine 220 includes a recording medium transport mechanism (not shown), a semiconductor laser unit, a photosensitive drum, a developing unit, a fixing unit, a drum cloning unit, a separation unit, and the like. Then, printing is performed by a known electrophotographic process.

Next, in the printing system according to the present embodiment, the application 1 of the host computer 100
An operation of generating print information from the drawing information created in step S10, sending the print information to the printer 200, and printing will be described.

First, when the application 110 in the host computer 100 sends drawing information to the drawing information spool unit 120 via the drawing interface of the OS in accordance with a user's instruction, the drawing information spool unit 120 transmits the drawing information to the subsequent image information. The information is converted into information (drawing spool data) in a format that can be understood by the generation unit 150 and stored in a storage device in the host computer 100. The drawing information spool unit 120 also stores information (band spool data) for the spool analysis unit 140 to control the image information generation unit 150 in a storage device in the host computer 100.

After that, when the drawing information spool unit 120 finishes storing the drawing spool data and the band spool data as the spool information 130 in the storage device, the spool analyzing unit 140 is activated and the stored spool information 13 is stored.
The band list is generated with reference to the drawing spool data and the band spool data of 0.

The above-mentioned band list is information used when the image information generating section 150 generates a band bitmap, and information to be used as a pointer to drawing spool data necessary for drawing and reproducing for each band. Are list information sequentially arranged.

Next, the spool analysis unit 140 refers to the above-mentioned spool information 130, and considers the print medium (paper) size and print direction, the print options specified by the user, the paper transport direction in the target printer, and the like, and The continuous direction (banding direction) of the image data generated by the computer 100 is determined to be the direction that matches the banding direction of the printer 200. Then, a band list is generated in the determined banding direction.

Next, the image information generation unit 150 accesses each drawing object information of the drawing spool data according to the band list from the spool analysis unit 140, and prepares separately by the drawing development means provided inside the image information generation unit 150. Rendering is performed on the selected band memory to generate image information. Here, the image information generation unit 150
When the image information for the band is generated, the image information is passed to the print command generation unit 160, and the image information for one band is batch-divided or divided into a print information format that can be interpreted by the printer 200. While transferring to the printer 200.

On the other hand, on the printer 200 side, the printer controller 210
Print information sent from the interface (I /
F). Then, the print information control unit 211
After the image data of the print information is stored in the page memory 212, the image data is transmitted to the printer engine 220 as a video signal via the output control unit 213. The print control command is sent to the printer engine 220 via the output control unit 213.
Send to

Here, a method of determining the banding direction by the spool analyzing unit 140 will be described.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a printing direction in the printer. In the figure, the x direction in the figure is the main scanning direction, and the y direction is the sub scanning direction.

Normally, a printer such as a laser beam printer corresponds to two printing directions when printing print media of the same paper size.

As shown in FIG. 2, one is called “portrait”, in which the longitudinal direction of the paper is the vertical direction,
This is a direction in which printing is performed with the short side direction being the horizontal direction, and the other is a direction called "landscape" in which the long side direction is the horizontal direction and the short side direction is the vertical direction.

In order to correspond to these two printing directions on the printer 200 side, paper is fed in each of the portrait and landscape directions, and a video signal is sequentially generated from the upper end of the original image and printed. Due to the limitations of the printer engine 220, the printing in the landscape direction may be performed by changing the original image to 270 ° or 90 °.
In some cases, the video signal is rotated to generate a video signal sequentially from the right end or the left end of the original image.

In other words, these depend on the maximum paper size supported by the target printer engine. For example, in a printer engine supporting only the A4 paper size, printing of the A4 landscape requires the original image to be 270 ° or 90 °. This is achieved by rotating it.

FIG. 3 shows a printer engine which always feeds a specific sheet in the longitudinal direction of the sheet.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a paper transport direction during landscape printing rotated by 70 °. Note that the x and y directions in the drawing indicate the directions of the original image.

In addition to the above-mentioned physical factors such as the printer engine, a case where the output paper is set on the host computer to a value other than that specified by the application is also assumed. For example, an N-UP function is one example.

The N-UP function is a function of reducing a plurality of pages on the same surface of the same sheet and arranging the pages so that they do not overlap each other.

For convenience of explanation, a sheet on which printing is physically performed is called a physical page, and each page arranged in the physical page is called a logical page.

For example, as shown in FIG. 4A, in the case of a combination of a printer and a paper for printing by rotating a paper when printing a landscape physical page,
Even if two logical pages are designated as portraits,
If the physical page is printed in the landscape direction, a larger drawing area can be given to two logical pages.

In such a case, since the physical page is generally printed in the landscape, each logical page is portrait, but the physical page is printed in the landscape, and the printing direction of the logical page and the physical page Will not match the print direction.

That is, if the host computer sets the banding direction (the direction in which the bands are continuous) of each logical page as the vertical direction (the short side direction of the physical page) in the figure, the printer side will be limited by the paper transport direction. In order to take the banding direction in the horizontal direction in the drawing (the long side direction of the physical page), a process of rotating the band generated on the host computer side in the printer occurs, and there is a concern that the processing speed is reduced. That is, in this example, the spool analysis unit 140 should determine that each logical page adopts a banding direction in which a band is continuous in a horizontal direction (a direction opposite to the sheet conveying direction) with respect to the drawing.

(B) shown in FIG.
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a case where three out of one logical page are designated as portrait and the remaining one logical page is designated for printing in a landscape direction. In this case, as in the previous case, if the physical page is portrait, a wider drawing area can be secured for the entire four logical pages, and the printing direction of the second logical page shown in FIG. It will be different from the printing direction. That is, in this example,
The spool analysis unit 140 should adopt a banding direction in which the bands are continuous in the vertical direction (in the direction opposite to the sheet conveying method) for all the logical pages.

As described above, the print direction specified by the application does not always match the print direction of the physical page depending on the print option specified by the user, and the output paper specified by the application on the host computer side is not always the same. In other cases, instead of simply generating a band that is continuous in the vertical direction (Y direction) with respect to the printing direction of the original image specified by the application, the logical direction is determined based on the paper transport direction of the physical page. You need to determine the banding direction of the page.

Of course, the present invention does not depend on the size of the physical paper at the time of N-UP designation and the algorithm for determining the printing direction. The present invention is effective for a case where the printing direction is different from the direction in which the sheet is actually conveyed in the printer.

Looking at these phenomena from the operation on the printer 200 side at the time of printing, the page bit map developed in the page memory 212 in the printer 200 has a direction in which the paper transport direction of the printer engine 220 is considered. Will be expanded to.

A RAM mounted on the printer 200
Depending on the capacity and the like, there is a case where an area for storing the page bitmap for one page cannot be secured in the page memory 212. In such a case, the band bitmap is generated by banding inside the printer 200. Becomes In reality, banding inside the printer 200 can be said to be a general process.

In such a situation, when the order of the band image data sent from the host computer 100 becomes perpendicular to the paper transport direction of the printer 200, the print information control unit 211 converts the band image data sent from the host computer. It must be rotated so as to line up in the paper transport direction and stored in the page memory 212.

In particular, in the case of a printer with a small amount of RAM, the rotation of the image data described above involves a considerable load in addition to the overhead due to banding, and as a result, extra printing time is required.

In consideration of such a situation, in the present embodiment, the host computer considers the print options specified by the user, the print paper size and direction specified by the application, and the paper transport direction in the target printer. To generate a band image that is continuous in the same direction as the banding direction on the printer side on the host computer side, thereby reducing the load of the band image rotation work on the printer side and the amount of RAM installed in the printer. This enables high-speed printing without increasing the number of prints.

Here, the processing for determining the banding direction in the host computer 100 will be described.
In this embodiment, the banding direction is determined by the spool analysis unit 140 of the host computer 100.

First, when a print instruction is issued by the application 110, the drawing information spool unit 120 receives, from the application 110, printing control information such as a paper size and a printing direction in addition to drawing object information. Next, the drawing information spool unit 120 stores these pieces of information as spool information 130, and divides the entire page into a uniform grid so as to correspond to any direction of the banding direction of the page. Using the grid, information on the position and size of the drawing object is collected for each drawing call.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the concept of arranging a virtual grid. As shown in FIG. 5, a virtual grid is arranged on the entire page, and a drawing area (Drawrect) is placed on each virtual grid.
Holds information. Then, the drawing area information of the virtual grid for the circumscribed rectangle of the drawing object is updated for each drawing command.

Of course, if the drawing information spool unit 120 cannot directly obtain the circumscribed rectangle information of the corresponding drawing object from the drawing interface of the OS, it calculates the circumscribed rectangle independently and registers it in the drawing area (Drawrect).

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing the operation of the drawing information spool unit 120. The spool information is divided into drawing spool data for storing drawing information and control information passed from the OS, and band spool data for storing virtual grid information. The drawing spool data is obtained from the drawing interface of the OS in units of elements. Each time it is received, it is stored sequentially.

Here, in order to efficiently perform the subsequent banding operation, the circumscribed rectangle information of the drawing object is always added to the element which causes a specific drawing in the drawing spool data.

Further, the band spool data is written to the disk after generating virtual grid information for one page and triggered by the end of the page.

As described above, spool information 1 for one page
When the printer 30 is generated, the spool analyzer 140 is activated, and receives print option information from the screen information controller 170. Depending on the print options specified by the user, the print direction of the paper may not be determined at the end of one page. Therefore, if the paper size and print direction cannot be determined until the information of the subsequent page is obtained,
Further, it waits until spool information of pages sufficient to start processing of the physical page has been spooled.

Next, when the spooling of pages sufficient to determine the printing paper and printing direction of the physical page is completed, the spool analysis unit 140 sends the print option information passed from the screen information control unit 170 and all the corresponding pages. The paper size and the printing direction of the physical page are determined from the print control information such as the paper size and the printing direction.

The determination of the paper size and the printing direction of the physical page is in accordance with the specification operation of the printing system to which the present invention is applied, and is not limited to the present invention.

When the printing operation is performed in the paper size and printing direction of the physical page determined in this way, it is determined how the paper is conveyed by the target printer. For example, when it is determined that the paper size and the print direction of the physical page are A4 landscape,
For printers that do not support horizontal paper feeding, vertical paper feeding is used.

The banding direction of each logical page is determined so that the banding directions of all logical pages included in the physical page are perpendicular to the paper transport direction determined as described above. I do.

More specifically, a banding direction in which bands are continuous in the vertical direction with respect to the original image is called "horizontal banding", and a banding direction in which bands are continuous in the horizontal direction is called "vertical banding". In the case of FIG. 4A, all pages are processed by “vertical banding”, so that the banding direction in the physical page becomes “horizontal banding” with respect to the paper transport direction.
The 270 ° rotation processing on the printer side can be easily performed.

Similarly, in the case of (B) shown in FIG. 4, all pages are set to “horizontal banding”, so that the banding direction of the entire physical page is unified to the “horizontal banding” direction.

Next, when the banding direction is determined in this way, the process proceeds to a step of generating a band list and image information of each page.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the idea of generating a band list. This band list is also generated by the spool analysis unit 140, and sorts the band spool data (virtual grid information) of the corresponding page in the previously determined banding direction.

Note that the arranged bands are called virtual bands. Also, prior to the band layout decision,
If the drawing memory has not been acquired, it is necessary to acquire the drawing memory and grasp the size of the drawing memory.

Next, adjacent virtual bands in which drawing is continuous are connected to each other, or the actual virtual band is limited to the size of the drawing memory in consideration of the enlargement ratio, reduction ratio, or expansion capability of the expansion unit. Decide the band (decide the band layout).

In addition, if the number of bands is reduced as much as possible by excluding a portion where drawing does not occur from the band area, the drawing information can be generated at high speed.

The allocation of these bands is not limited to the scope of the present invention, and it is only necessary to perform the optimum band allocation for each system.

In accordance with the band layout determined in this way, the drawing spool data is checked in order from the first element, and if the drawing element is an element that specifically draws, the drawing spool data is checked from the circumscribed rectangle information. Information to be a pointer to this drawing element is registered in the band list of all bands. In addition, the order of the drawing environment control elements and the like that do not specifically cause drawing is important, so it is necessary to register them in all bands (band list generation).

Thereafter, when all the drawing spool data of the corresponding page is registered in the band list, the band list is generated. As a result, the spool analysis unit 140 stores the generated band list in the image information generation unit 1.
The image information generation unit 150 sequentially accesses the elements of the drawing spool data from the top band in accordance with the band list, and generates image information on the drawing memory by using a developing unit inside the image information generation unit 150. To go.

When the generation of the image information for one band is completed, the image information is passed to the print command generating unit 160, where necessary, color conversion and gradation processing are performed, and the print command of the target printer can be understood. Transferred to the printer in form.

By the way, the expanded band may include many portions without drawing. When such white data is transferred to the printer, it cannot be determined whether the data is white data or data that needs to be drawn inside the printer, so that a large amount of wasteful processing may occur. In particular, when a rotation process is necessary in the printer, the rotation process on the white data is completely useless.

From these facts, by referring to the previously collected band spool data, extracting an effective area in the image information and minimizing the transmission of white data, the amount of transfer data can be reduced, and The rotation processing in the printer is reduced, and the speed can be further increased.

The above processing is repeated for all bands, all logical pages, all physical pages, and the processing on the host side is completed. On the other hand, on the printer side, the printing process is completed by performing the above-described normal printing process.

Here, the above-described processing on the host side will be briefly described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 8 and the output example shown in FIG.

First, a logical page is spooled as spool information 130 for one page by the drawing information spool unit 120 (S 101). Thereafter, the spool analysis unit 140 is activated, and necessary information is sent from the screen information control unit 170 and the like. Until the spool information is acquired and spool information for one physical page is spooled (No in S102), the spooling process in step S101 is continued. When the spooling of logical pages of pages sufficient to determine the printing direction of one physical page is completed (Yes in S102), the paper printing direction (portrait / landscape) and paper size of the physical page are determined ( S103).

Next, the paper transport direction (vertical / horizontal) in the printer to be output is determined from the paper print direction and paper size determined in step S103 (S10).
4). Then, the determined printing direction (portrait / landscape) and the determined paper transport direction (vertical / horizontal)
, The banding direction of each logical page is determined as in steps S105 to S111.

In the output example shown in FIG. 9, (A) shown in FIG.
Portrait-vertical feed corresponds to step S107,
The (D) landscape-horizontal paper feeding corresponds to step S111, and a horizontal band that is long in the horizontal direction with respect to the original image and continuous in the vertical direction is applied to all logical pages included in the corresponding physical page. I do.

Further, the landscape (B) shown in FIG.
The vertical paper feeding corresponds to step S108, and the (C) portrait-horizontal paper feeding corresponds to step S110, and a vertical band that is long in the vertical direction and continuous in the horizontal direction with respect to the original image is assigned to the corresponding physical page. Apply to all logical pages included.

Next, based on the banding direction determined in steps S105 to S111, band list generation processing (S112) for each logical page is performed, and bitmap development processing for each band and transfer processing to the printer (S113) ) Is repeated for all bands in the corresponding logical page (S114). Further, when there is a logical page to be processed (No in S115),
The processing from the band list generation processing (S112) is repeated for these logical pages.

On the other hand, the outline of the processing on the printer side will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 10 and the registration in the object list shown in FIG.

The print information control unit 211 in the printer controller 210 receives a command as print information from the host computer 100 (S201). If the received command is a print start command (Yes in S202), after performing an appropriate initialization process, the process transits to a print command reception waiting state (S203). If the received command is not a print start command (No in S202), the status returns to the status of command reception (S201) again.

On the other hand, a print command reception waiting state (S2
03), when the command is received, the received command is analyzed, and when the command is a command relating to paper setting (S2).
04 (Yes in S20), the band size is determined in consideration of the paper size, the transport direction in the printer, etc. (S20)
8). If the command is a drawing command (Y in S205)
es) The individual drawing commands are registered in the object list similar to the band list generated by the spool analysis unit 140 in the host computer 100 (S209). At the time of registration, each drawing command is generally converted into an internal data format used inside the printer.

When the received command is a paper ejection command (Yes in S206), the drawing registered in the object list is sequentially developed in the page memory (band memory) 212. Then, the developed bitmap is transferred by the output control unit 213 to the printer engine 220 as a video signal. These processes are performed for all bands, and printing of one page is completed. Of course,
After outputting one page, the object list is cleared to an empty state.

After receiving the above-described print command and performing corresponding processing, if the received command is a print end command (Yes in S207), appropriate end processing is performed, and the first status, which is the command reception, is received. It returns to the state of (S201).

Next, an example of the object list registration processing (S209) will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining registration in the object list. In FIG. 11, the “paper transport direction” is the direction in which the printer physically sends out paper. Band01, Band02, Band03, Band04, Band0 in the order in which long bands are developed in the direction perpendicular to this transport direction
It is assumed that Band06 has been determined.

Further, the blocks of the image data generated in the present embodiment are Block 11, Block 12,..., Bloc
Suppose k was 45. In this example, the blocks that have a drawing area in Band01 are Block 11, Block 12, Block 21
And these blocks are registered in a portion corresponding to Band01 in the object list. Similarly, for Band02, Block 12, Block 13, Block 14, Block 21, Bl
ock22 and Block 23 are registered, and Block 1 for Band03
4, Block 15 is registered, Block31, Bl for Band04
ock41 and Block42 are registered, and Block3 for Band05
2, Block 33, Block 43, Block 44 are registered, Band06
, Only Block 45 is registered in the object list.

Naturally, a block extending over a plurality of bands is connected to an object list corresponding to each of the blocks.

Also, in the processing for expanding to the band and transferring to the engine (S210), each block connected to the object list is an image block that does not need to be rotated, and can be easily expanded to the band memory. , Can be performed at high speed.

As described above, by forming an image block that has been subjected to rotation processing in advance so that rotation processing does not occur in the printer 200 on the host computer 100 side, rotation processing in the printer 200 does not occur. Needless to say, the band direction processed on the host computer 100 side matches the band direction in the printer 200, the image blocks over a plurality of bands are reduced, and the processing efficiency in the printer 200 can be improved. .

In the printer 200, the time required for the development of each band is predicted, and if there is a band that cannot be output in synchronization with the printer engine, the band is developed before the development of the first band. Then, the expanded band bitmap is compressed, and when the processing of the corresponding band is performed, processing of transferring the band bitmap (pre-band processing) is performed.

This pre-band processing is one of the causes of lowering the use efficiency of the memory in the printer 200. When the number of bands to be subjected to the pre-band processing increases, the resolution decreases (degrade).
Processing becomes necessary. However, according to the present embodiment, since the rotation process on the printer 200 side is unnecessary, the pre-band process is less likely to occur.

In the present embodiment, the drawing position and the size are collected in a grid by the drawing information spool unit 120, but the information actually used in the band determination processing is either vertical or horizontal. Information.

Therefore, in order to omit these useless processes,
The drawing information spool unit 120 receives the print option information specified by the user from the screen information control unit 170, or obtains the paper size specified by the application 110 from the print option information specified by the user passed through the drawing I / F of the OS. In addition, when it is understood that the printing direction is directly applied to the physical page, and when printing is performed in the corresponding paper size and printing direction, if the paper transport direction in the printer can be specified, information in the form of a matrix such as grid spool data can be used. If the drawing information is collected from the virtual band on the band from the beginning, the processing can be performed simply and at high speed.

The original image is stored on the printer side at 27
In the case of “vertical banding” by printing in the landscape direction by rotating the image by 0 °, it is better to transfer the band data from the right end of the original image than to transfer the band data from the leftmost band of the original image. And the data processing order on the printer side coincide with each other, and processing can be performed at a slightly higher speed. Therefore, the image information generation unit 150 is called in order from the band located at the right end to generate and transfer the band data. May be better.

Further, the host computer and the printer are connected via a bidirectional interface, and have means for providing the paper size and orientation supported by the printer to the host computer. If there is a means for performing the above, it is possible to deal with various types of models by directly inquiring the printer in the step of determining how the paper is conveyed by the printer targeted by the spool analysis unit 140.

For example, “A4” fed in the A4 vertical direction
If there is no paper in the cassette but there is paper in the “A4R” cassette that feeds paper in the A4 horizontal direction, the print designation of the application is A4 paper,
The present invention is also effective for dynamically changing information such as the use of paper.

According to the embodiment described above, the host computer considers the print options specified by the user, the print paper size and direction specified by the application, and the paper transport direction in the target printer. By generating a continuous band image in the paper transport direction on the computer side, the load of band image rotation work on the printer side is reduced, and high-speed printing is possible without increasing the RAM capacity installed in the printer. Become.

The present invention can be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), and can be applied to a single device (for example, a copying machine, a facsimile). Device).

An object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium storing software program codes for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or an apparatus, and to provide a computer (CPU or MP) of the system or apparatus.
It goes without saying that U) can also be achieved by reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium implements the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy (registered trademark) disk,
Hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-
A ROM, a CD-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, and the like can be used.

The functions of the above-described embodiments are implemented when the computer executes the readout program codes, and the OS (Operating System) running on the computer is executed based on the instructions of the program codes. ) May perform some or all of the actual processing, and the processing may realize the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written in the memory provided in the function expansion board inserted into the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instruction of the program code, It goes without saying that the CPU included in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

[0106]

As described above, according to the present invention,
On the host computer side, the banding direction of the band for generating the image is determined based on the transport direction of the print medium in the printing apparatus, and the image is generated by reducing the processing on the printer side. High-speed printing is possible without increasing the capacity.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a printing direction in a printer.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a sheet conveyance direction in a model that feeds paper in a long side direction of the sheet.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a page layout at the time of an N-UP function.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an arrangement concept of a virtual grid.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an operation of a drawing information spool unit 120.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a concept of generating a band list.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing processing on the host computer side.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of an output determined by a sheet conveying direction and a printing direction.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating processing on the printer side.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for describing registration in an object list.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 100 Host computer 110 Application 120 Drawing information spool unit 130 Spool information 140 Spool analysis unit 150 Image information generation unit 160 Print command generation unit 170 Screen information control unit 200 Printer 210 Printer controller 211 Print information control unit 212 Page memory 213 Output control unit 220 Printer engine

Claims (19)

[Claims] In a printing system for generating a bitmap image in a host computer, transferring the bitmap image to a printing device, and performing printing, spooling means for spooling drawing information from a printing application, the spooled drawing information and the printing device Determining means for determining the banding direction of the band for generating the bitmap image based on the transport direction of the print medium in step (a), and generating the bitmap image of the spooled drawing information according to the determined banding direction. A printing unit, wherein the determining unit determines a banding direction in a direction opposite to a conveying direction of a print medium in the printing apparatus. 2. A method according to claim 1, wherein when printing is performed by arranging a plurality of pages on one page of the print medium, the plurality of pages are arranged based on a size and a direction of the print medium, and a banding direction of the arranged plurality of pages. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein is determined in a direction opposite to a conveying direction of the print medium. 3. A printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a screen information control unit for acquiring a print option of the user, wherein, when a print instruction is received from the print application, the print direction of the print medium instructed by the print is changed by the print option of the user. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when it can be determined from the information as it is that the printing direction of the printing medium is the same, the spooling means reduces the processing on the host computer side by limiting information to be collected. Printing system. 4. A printing apparatus comprising: means for acquiring information on the size and transport direction of the printing medium from the printing apparatus; and acquiring information on the size and transport direction of the printing medium from the printing apparatus to obtain the same size. Even with the printing medium, even for a printing apparatus having a mechanism capable of transporting in a plurality of directions, the actual transport direction of the printing medium can be known, and the printing medium transport direction in the printing apparatus can be determined. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the banding direction is determined in a reverse direction. 5. When it is determined that the printing medium is rotated by 270 ° with respect to the original image and output, a banding process is performed from a band located at the upper right end of the original image, and the printing apparatus performs The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the data is transferred to the printing system. 6. Using the information such as the size and the drawing position of the drawing object collected by the spooling unit, extract a portion where drawing is not required to be transferred to the printing device, and print the actual drawing area. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the processing on the printing apparatus side is reduced by sending the printing apparatus to the apparatus. 7. A printing control method of a printing system for generating a bitmap image in a host computer, transferring the bitmap image to a printing device, and performing printing, comprising: a spooling step of spooling drawing information from a printing application; A determining step of determining a banding direction of a band for generating the bitmap image based on drawing information and a conveying direction of a print medium in the printing apparatus; and determining the banding direction of the spooled drawing information according to the determined banding direction. A generation step of generating a bitmap image, wherein the determination step determines a banding direction in a direction opposite to a conveying direction of a print medium in the printing apparatus. . 8. When printing by arranging a plurality of pages on one page of the print medium, the plurality of pages are arranged based on a size and a direction of the print medium, and a banding direction of the arranged plurality of pages. The printing control method of a printing system according to claim 7, wherein? Is determined in a direction opposite to a conveying direction of the printing medium. 9. A screen information control step for acquiring a print option of the user, wherein when a print instruction is received from the print application, the print direction of the print medium instructed by the print is changed by the print option of the user. 8. If it can be determined from the information as it is that the printing direction is the printing direction of the print medium, the spooling step reduces the information to be collected, thereby reducing the processing on the host computer side. Printing control method for a printing system. 10. The method according to claim 10, further comprising the step of obtaining information on the size and the transport direction of the print medium from the printing apparatus, and obtaining the information on the size and the transport direction of the print medium from the print apparatus to obtain the same size. Even with the printing medium, even for a printing apparatus having a mechanism capable of transporting in a plurality of directions, the actual transport direction of the printing medium can be known, and the printing medium transport direction in the printing apparatus can be determined. 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the banding direction is determined in a reverse direction. 11. When it is determined that the print medium is output after being rotated by 270 ° with respect to the original image, banding processing is performed from a band located at the upper right end of the original image, and the printing apparatus The print control method for a printing system according to claim 7, wherein the print control is transmitted to the print system. 12. Utilizing information such as a size and a drawing position of a drawing object collected in the spooling step, a portion where drawing is not required to be transferred to the printing apparatus is extracted, and an actual drawing area is printed. The print control method of a printing system according to claim 7, wherein a process on the printing device side is reduced by sending the process to the printing device. 13. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program code of a print control method in a printing system for generating a bitmap image in a host computer, transferring the bitmap image to a printing apparatus, and performing printing. A code of a spooling step of spooling the drawing information, and a code of a determining step of determining a banding direction of a band for generating the bitmap image based on the spooled drawing information and a conveying direction of a print medium in the printing apparatus. Generating a bitmap image of the spooled drawing information according to the determined banding direction. The code of the determination step indicates the banding direction of the print medium transported by the printing apparatus. Characteristically determined in the opposite direction to the direction Storage medium. 14. A spooling step of spooling drawing information from a printing application, and determining a banding direction of a band for generating the bitmap image based on the spooled drawing information and a conveying direction of a print medium in a printing device. A determining step; and a generating step of generating a bitmap image of the spooled drawing information according to the determined banding direction, wherein the determining step matches the banding direction with the banding direction in the printing apparatus. A computer-readable program, characterized in that: 15. The program according to claim 14, wherein said printing apparatus performs development to a band memory and output to an engine in response to a paper ejection command. 16. A spooling means for spooling drawing information from a printing application, and determining a banding direction of a band for generating the bitmap image based on the spooled drawing information and a conveying direction of a print medium in a printing device. Determining means; and generating means for generating a bitmap image of the spooled drawing information according to the determined banding direction, wherein the determining means matches the banding direction with the banding direction in the printing apparatus. The printing system. 17. The printing system according to claim 16, wherein said printing apparatus performs development to a band memory and output to an engine in response to a paper ejection command. 18. A spooling step of spooling drawing information from a printing application, and determining a banding direction of a band for generating the bitmap image based on the spooled drawing information and a conveying direction of a print medium in a printing device. A determining step; and a generating step of generating a bitmap image of the spooled drawing information according to the determined banding direction, wherein the determining step matches the banding direction with the banding direction in the printing apparatus. A print control method characterized in that: 19. The print control method according to claim 18, wherein said printing apparatus performs development to a band memory and output to an engine in response to a paper discharge command.