Facsimile and static presentation processing – Static presentation processing – Character or font
Reexamination Certificate
1998-02-24
2001-11-13
Coles, Edward (Department: 2724)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Static presentation processing
Character or font
C358S001100, C358S001130, C358S001150, C358S001160, C358S404000, C382S185000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06317217
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system including a printing apparatus that operates by receiving print information from a host computer and a printing control method and, more particularly, to a printing system including a printing apparatus having a printer control function called a printer description language, printer control commands, and the like, and software programs called a printer driver or a print spooler or print processor prepared for that printing apparatus on the host computer side, and a printing control method.
2. Related Art
As recent printing apparatuses, printers that can finely print and record data used in multimedia processing in the fields of CAD (computer aided design), CG (computer graphics), DTP (desktop publishing) in design and business fields, and the like are commercially available.
Such printers include a PDL printer which draws (rasterizes)an image from intermediate language codes, generated by interpreting PDL (page description language) codes received from a host computer, at high speed using hardware or software, and an image printer which receives image data which is rasterized by a host computer and has a data format that the printer can print, since some printer functions are removed to attain a cost reduction.
The PDL printer receives information in a page as PDL codes, generates intermediate language codes, and draws an image after codes for one page have been received.
Characters are drawn by using font data stored in an internal ROM of the printer or using image data which is obtained by mapping font data and received from a host computer. Recently, in order to obtain the same print result as that displayed on a display, the image data received from the host computer is often used.
However, when all the characters are transferred as image data from the host to the printer, the load of a mapping process in the host and the transfer data volume increases. Further, large memory capacity is required in the printer for storing the received image data.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing system and printing control method, which can minimize the mapping time of characters at a host computer and the transfer data amount from the host computer by mapping the received character code of each character as a character image even using an image dedicated printer with a simple arrangement close to the above-mentioned image printer, and can reduce and efficiently use the memory capacity of a printing apparatus.
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises the following arrangement.
That is, there is provided a printing system built by connecting an information processing apparatus for generating print data including character data, and a printing apparatus,
the information processing apparatus comprising:
character extraction means for extracting character data from print data for one print job;
first storage searchably storing a registration number and a character image of the character data extracted by the character extraction means, and a page where the character data appears;
character set generation means for generating character set data, which includes a registration number and character image of a character, and has a predetermined length, on the basis of the character data stored in the first storage in accordance with a page to be printed; and
transmission means for generating a character draw command including a registration number of a character in units of pages to be printed, and transmitting the character draw command, character set data, and a delete command used for deleting character set data to the printing apparatus, and
the printing apparatus comprising:
second storage storing the received character draw command, character set data, and delete command;
management means for managing data write and delete in and from the second storage in units of areas each having the predetermined length; and
output means for forming an image in units of pages on the basis of the character draw command, character set data, and delete command stored in the second.
There is also provided a printing control apparatus for generating print data including character data, and making a printing apparatus print an image, comprising:
character extraction means for extracting character data from print data for one print job;
storage searchably storing a registration number and a character image of the character data extracted by the character extraction means, and a page where the character data appears;
character set generation means for generating character set data, which includes a registration number and character image of a character, and has a predetermined length, on the basis of the character data stored in the storage in accordance with a page to be printed; and
transmission means for generating a character draw command including a registration number of a character in units of pages to be printed, and transmitting the character draw command, character set data, and a delete command used for deleting character set data to the printing apparatus.
There is also provided a printing apparatus for receiving a character draw command, character set data, and a delete command for the character set data, and printing an image, comprising:
storage storing the received character draw command, character set data, and delete command;
management means for managing data write and delete in and from the storage in units of areas each having the predetermined length; and
output means for forming an image in units of pages on the basis of the character draw command, character set data, and delete command stored in the storage.
There is also provided a printing control method for generating print data including character data, and making a printing apparatus print an image, comprising:
the character extraction step of extracting character data from print data for one print job;
the storage step of searchably storing, in a memory, a registration number and a character image of the character data extracted in the character extraction step, and a page where the character data appears;
the character set generation step of generating character set data, which includes a registration number and character image of a character, and has a predetermined length, on the basis of the character data stored in the memory in accordance with a page to be printed; and
the transmission step of generating a character draw command including a registration number of a character in units of pages to be printed, and transmitting the character draw command, character set data, and a delete command used for deleting character set data to the printing apparatus.
There is also provided a printing method for receiving a character draw command, character set data, and a delete command for the character set data from an information processing apparatus, and printing an image, comprising:
the storage step of storing, in a memory, the received character draw command, character set data, and delete command;
the management step of managing data write and delete in and from the memory in units of areas each having the predetermined length; and
the output step of forming an image in units of pages on the basis of the character draw command, character set data, and delete command stored in the memory.
There is also provided a computer readable storage medium for storing a program for generating print data including character data, and making a printing apparatus print an image, the program making a computer serve as:
character extraction means for extracting character data from print data for one print job;
storage searchably storing a registration number and a character image of the character data extracted by the character extraction means, and a page where the character data appears;
character set generation means for generating character set data, which includes a registration number and character image of a character, and has a predetermined length, on th
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Coles Edward
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Lamb Twyler
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