Facsimile and static presentation processing – Static presentation processing – Memory
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-17
2004-08-17
Lamb, Twyler (Department: 2622)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Static presentation processing
Memory
C358S001150, C358S001170
Reexamination Certificate
active
06778292
ABSTRACT:
This application claims priority from Japanese Patent Applications Reference No.11-232692, filed Aug. 19, 1999 and No.11-232693, filed Aug. 19, 1999, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printer host for expanding a bundle of drawing commands of one page stored as a spool file, into image data for each of the bands, and a storage medium storing an operation program therefor.
PRIOR ART
In general, as shown in
FIGS. 1
,
2
and
11
, a bundle of drawing commands of one page is stored as a spool file
39
in a hard disk unit
26
of a printer host. At the time of printing, the spool file
39
stored in the hard disk unit
26
is directly and temporarily stored in a RAM
22
of the printer host. In order to expand the drawing command, as image data, in a band memory
55
, the printer host prepares a band-corresponded drawing command full list
53
c
to show the correspondence of each of the drawing commands to the band or bands. The full list
53
c
shows memory addresses of the drawing commands corresponding to the respective bands. Next, reference is made to the memory addresses in the full list
35
c
, drawing commands corresponding to the respective bands are called from the spool file stored in a spool file memory
54
c
in RAM
22
and are expanded as image data on the band memory
55
. The image data expanded on the band memory
55
are subjected to the RGB-CMYK color-changing processing and to the half-tone processing, converted into a command that can be interpreted by the printer, and are then sent to the printer.
Concretely described here is a case where an image shown in
FIG. 9
is to be printed.
It is presumed here that the image is drawn on the regions of coordinates (0, 0) to (577, 992) and is processed being divided into five bands, i.e., 0-th band to fourth band. On the regions of coordinates (0, 0) to (577, 992) are drawn a triangle represented by a drawing command A, a square represented by a drawing command B, a circle represented by a drawing command C and an image represented by a drawing command D.
As shown in
FIG. 10
, in the spool file are stored data related to the drawing commands A, B, C and D of one page. For example, the drawing command A includes an operation code stating “draw a triangle”, and three vertex coordinates of the triangle. The drawing command D includes an operation code for starting the imaging, diagonal point coordinates of a rectangular region of image, and image data.
When forming a band-corresponded drawing command list, it is learned to which band the image belongs from the coordinate data of image possessed by the respective drawing commands. As for the drawing command A representing a triangle, for example, it is learned that it belongs to the 0-th band and to the first band from the data of vertex coordinates of the triangle. Referring to
FIG. 11
, a band-corresponded drawing command full list
53
c
is formed in which the drawing command A is related to the 0-th band, the drawing command A and the drawing command C are related to the first band, the drawing command B and the drawing command C are related to the second band, the drawing command B is related to the third band, and the drawing command B and the drawing command D are related to the fourth band. As described above, however, the band-corresponded drawing command full list
53
c
is not the one in which the bands and the drawing commands are directly related to each other, but is the one in which the bands are related to the addresses in the RAM
22
storing the respective drawing commands.
According to the prior art, however, the spool file stored in the hard disk unit is directly stored in a memory; i.e., the memory must have a large storage capacity. In particular, very large storage capacity is necessary when a large number of drawing commands are included in the data of one page or when the drawing command includes image data.
According to the prior art, further, the drawing commands to be expanded in the bands are all related to all of the band columns in the band-corresponded drawing command list. Therefore, in the full list
53
c
shown in, for example,
FIG. 11
, the drawing command B is related to three bands, i.e., related to the second band, to the third band and to the fourth band. Thus, a large number of drawing commands (in practice, addresses of drawing commands) are picked up on the list, and the memory must have a large storage capacity. In particular, when the band width is narrow and there exist a large number of bands of one page in total, then, a single drawing command is related to many bands, and the number of the drawing commands picked up on the list becomes very large.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention was accomplished in view of the above problems inherent in the prior art. And the object of the present invention is to provide a printer host capable of decreasing the quantity of data stored in the memory and a storage medium storing an operation program for the printer host.
To accomplish the object, the first printer host which comprises an auxiliary storage unit and a main storage unit, and expands a bundle of drawing commands of one page stored, as a spool file, in the auxiliary storage unit, into image data for each of bands of a predetermined band width, further comprises;
list-forming means for forming a band-corresponded drawing command list showing the correspondence of each of the drawing commands to the band or bands, by making reference to the spool file stored in the auxiliary storage unit;
a drawing command storage region which is a portion of the main storage unit and stores the drawing command of one band;
an image data expanding region which is another portion of the main storage unit and in which the image data of one band is expanded;
drawing command storage control means which successively reads out the drawing commands corresponding to the respective bands from the spool file stored in the auxiliary storage unit according to the band-corresponded drawing command list, and stores the drawing command of one band that is read out in the drawing command storage region; and
image data expanding means which converts the drawing command of one band stored in the drawing command storage region into image data and expands the image data in the image data expanding region.
To accomplish the object, the second printer host according to the first printer host, comprises:
access judging means which judges whether a drawing command among the plural drawing commands is the one that is once stored in the drawing command storage region or is the one that has not yet been stored in the drawing command storage region but has been stored in the auxiliary storage unit; wherein
when it is judged by the access judging means that the drawing command is the one that has not yet been stored in the drawing command storage region but has been stored in the auxiliary storage unit, the drawing command storage control means makes reference to the band-corresponded drawing command list and accesses to the auxiliary storage unit.
To accomplish the object, provided is the third printer host according to any one of the first printer host or the second printer host, wherein the list-forming means forms a drawing command difference list as the band-corresponded drawing command list, in which the start of drawing command representing the image is related to a band corresponding to the start position of the image at a moment when the plural drawing commands are expanded into images, and the end of the drawing command representing the image is related to a band corresponding to the end position of the image when each of the plural drawing commands is expanded into images.
To accomplish the object, provided is the fourth printer host according to the third printer host, wherein the list-forming means forms a one-band drawing command list as a portion of the band-corresponded drawing command list by referring to the drawing command differ
Lamb Twyler
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
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