Printing apparatus, printing system, and a method for...

Facsimile and static presentation processing – Static presentation processing – Character or font

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C358S001200, C358S001100, C358S001130, C358S001150, C358S001160

Reexamination Certificate

active

06388757

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing system for performing printing on a recording medium by analyzing input character information, and a method for acquiring character resources of the printing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to print characters according to a conventional printing control method for a printing apparatus (printer) or a printing system, when intending to perform printing utilizing a printer font mounted in the printer, it is necessary to prepare various kinds of information relating to characters mounted in the printer within a printing control program (printer driver) provided in a program memory of an external CPU (central processing unit) or a host system for realizing the printing control method, and the printer driver causes the printer to print characters based on the information.
Conventionally, part of the information relating to characters, such as character pitches and the like, can be acquired from a printer only by serial interface communication, such as RS-232C or the like. For example, there is a method of acquiring the pitches of characters by transmitting the code of each character of the currently selected typeface.
In conventional printing apparatuses or printing systems, various kinds of information relating to characters mounted in a printer for printing characters are provided within a printing control program (printer driver) for controlling printing by the printer.
Although part of the information, such as character pitches and the like, can be acquired, information can be acquired only by some limited communication methods, such as serial interface communication conforming to RS-232C, and the like, and the following problems (1)-(3) arise.
(1) Since information relating to all characters mounted in a printer must be prepared within a printing control program (printer driver), if the number and the kind of characters mounted in each printer having the same control processing system differ, information relating to all such characters must be prepared. As a result, the capacity of a memory occupied by the data region for that information for operating the printer driver greatly increases.
(2) When acquiring partial information, such as character pitches of a printer font and the like, from a printer, information for each character can be acquired. However, such information is insufficient for forming a document with a large number of characters by performing processing of controlling a printing form in a printer driver, and is therefore insufficient for printing characters. Furthermore, the processing speed is reduced.
(3) Communication with a host printer when acquiring partial information, such as character pitches of a printer font, and the like, from a printer can be realized only by some limited communication methods, such as serial interface communication conforming to RS-232C, and the like. Accordingly, such information cannot be acquired in a system adopting parallel interface hardware conforming to Centronix or the like, which is generally used in a connection method between a printer and a host system.
In accordance with recent progress in the processing capability of a computer system, it has been requested that an output on a display of a host system coincide with an output by a printer.
For example, it is requested that an image or characters seen by the user on a display of a host system can be output by a printer without being modified, and the user can preview the result of printing on the display (desirably with unit magnification) (so-called WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get).
For that purpose, at least in the case of outputting characters, the same font must be used on the display of the host system and by the printer.
Accordingly, in conventional computer systems, the following methods are used when realizing coincidence between a display output of characters on a display and a result of printing by a printer.
(1) In one method, instead of transmitting character codes to the printer, the host system develops a character typeface (font) or a font for display, which is mounted therein, in the form of a pattern image, and transmits the developed image as a bit-map image. The transmitted bit-map image is then printed.
(2) In another method, the host system develops a font or a font for display, which is mounted therein, in the form of a bit-map image (or pattern data for rasterizing a bit-map image), and transmits the bit-map image to the printer (to be loaded therein). When performing printing, character codes are transmitted to the printer, which prints a bit-map image having the corresponding font.
(3) In still another method, the same font as that mounted in the host system is mounted in advance in the printer, and the same font is output both on the display and by the printer.
In the above-described conventional approaches, however, when it is intended to realize coincidence between a character output on the display and a result of character printing by the printer, the following problems are present.
(1) In the method in which a font is developed in the form of a pattern image in the host system, the pattern image is transmitted to the printer as a bit-map image, and the printer prints the bit-map image, much time is needed from the start of printing until the end of the printing in which paper is discharged because the amount of data transfer between the host system and the printer is great.
(2) In the method in which a font mounted in the host system is developed in advance in the form of a bit-map image, the bit-map image is transmitted to the printer (to be loaded therein), and when printing, character codes are transmitted to the printer, and the loaded bit-map image (or pattern data) is printed, the printer side must have a storage device having a large storage capacity, such as a memory or a hard-disk device, thereby increasing the cost of the printer. Particularly, in order be able to select a font used for printing, bit-map images of a plurality of fonts must be stored, so that the storage device of the printer must have a larger capacity.
(3) In the method in which the same font is mounted in the host system and in the printer, compatibility between the host system and the printer is a problem. For example, a font mounted in the host system is in most cases supplied in the form of software, so that the user can arbitrarily exchange or add a font. On the other hand, the printer must supply a font by storing it in a storage device, such as a ROM (read-only memory) or the like. Accordingly, it is difficult to maintain compatibility of a font between the host system and the printer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described problems.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing apparatus which can supply character-resource information of the printing apparatus, which originally must be stored in a printing control mechanism of an external apparatus, to the external apparatus whenever necessary in response to a request from the external apparatus while reducing the storage capacity of the information at the printing apparatus.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a printing system in which a printing apparatus and an external apparatus can communicate with each other via a predetermined two-way interface, and which can supply character-resource information of the printing apparatus, which originally must be stored in a printing control mechanism of the external apparatus, to the external apparatus whenever necessary by communication between the printing apparatus and the external apparatus in response to a request from the external apparatus while reducing the storage capacity of the information at the printing apparatus.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a printing system in which each printing apparatus and each external apparatus can communicate with each other via a predetermined netw

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