JPH06179270A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To dispense with development processing on and after the next time and to increase the speed of printing processing by arranging the readable and writable non-volatile memory connected to a microprocessor on a printer. CONSTITUTION:A printer is loaded down with font data as a printing control code from a host device 1 and the font data is sent to a printing control code input part 2. A microprocessor 3 transfers the font data applied to the printer to a receiving buffer 4 as the printing control code to store the same in the buffer 4 and analyzes the font data. The printing control code judged to be the font data as the result of the analysis due to the microprocessor 3 is transferred to a hard disk 7 to be stored therein. Since the hard disk 7 is a readable and writable non-volatile memory, rewriting can be easily performed. Even when a power supply is cut off, memory content is preserved and it is unnecessary to again perform down-load from the host device 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer having font data such as a character generator.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional printer having font data such as a character generator writes the font data in an electronic device such as a mask ROM and mounts it in a controller.

[0003]

As described above, the conventional printer has a mask ROM in which font data is written.
Etc. are mounted in the controller, the font data is limited, the mask ROM etc. becomes large in capacity to support various kinds of font data, the controller cost rises, and the masking is performed every time drawing processing is performed. Since it is necessary to access a ROM or the like, it has a drawback that it takes a long processing time.

[0004]

A printer according to the present invention stores a print control code input section for controlling an interface with a host device of a higher order, and a print control code input from the host apparatus to the print control code input section. Receiving buffer, a microprocessor for analyzing the print control code stored in the receiving buffer, an image memory for holding one page of print data developed by the microprocessor, and the printing held in the image memory In a printer including a print operation unit that prints data,
A non-volatile readable / writable memory connected to the microprocessor is provided.

[0005]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a host device 1 such as a personal computer
Is connected to the print control code input unit 2, which is a higher-level interface in the printer. The print control code input from the host device 1 to the print control code input unit 2 is sequentially stored in the reception buffer 4 by the microprocessor 3.

The print control code stored in the reception buffer 4 is analyzed by the microprocessor 3 and expanded in the image memory 5 as print data for one page. The print data expanded in the image memory 5 is printed by the print operation unit. It is sent to 6 and printed.

A hard disk (HDD) 7 connected to the microprocessor 3 receives when the print control code in the reception buffer 4 analyzed by the microprocessor 3 is a download of font data such as a character generator (CG). It is a dedicated readable / writable non-volatile memory for storing the font data stored in the buffer 4.

The font data downloaded from the host device 1 is prepared on a floppy disk (FD) or the like.

The font data is downloaded from the host device 1 to the printer as a print control code,
It is sent to the print control code input unit 2. The microprocessor 3 transfers the font data downloaded as a print control code from the host device 1 to the printer from the print control code input unit 2 to the reception buffer 4 and stores the font data therein, and analyzes the font data. The print control code determined to be font data as a result of analysis by the microprocessor 3 is moved to and stored in the hard disk (HDD) 7.

As a result, the processing of the microprocessor 3 relating to the print request from the host device 1 to the printer is not limited to the limited font data written in the electronic device such as the mask ROM as in the conventional case, but the host device 1 to the printer. On the other hand, it is possible to obtain arbitrary font data downloaded as the print control code from the HDD 7 and use it in the print data for one page developed in the image memory 5.

The type and amount of font data downloaded as a print control code from the host device 1 to the printer can be arbitrarily selected within the capacity of the HDD 7. Further, since the HDD 7 is a readable and writable non-volatile memory, rewriting can be easily performed, and
Since the stored contents are saved even when the power is turned off, there is no need to download it again from the host device 1. Therefore, it is possible to handle a large variety of large-capacity font data as compared with the conventional one using an electronic device such as a mask ROM.

When the font data downloaded as the print control code from the host device 1 is an outline font, the microprocessor 3 responds to a print request from the host device 1 to the printer, and the microprocessor 3 develops the font data expanded from the outline font into a bitmap font. By storing it in the HDD 7 or a part of the image memory 5, the process of expanding the outline font into the bitmap font becomes unnecessary from the next time.

Further, in the processing of the microprocessor 3, the font data read from the HDD 7 and expanded into the bit map font can be stored in a part of the image memory 5 as a primary cache memory. In the drawing processing after the next time, the expanded font data can be obtained from the primary cache memory of the image memory 5 without performing the expansion processing of the bitmap font again.

In this case, when the primary cache memory overflows, the HDD 7 is used as the secondary cache memory.
Write to. This allows the bitmap font data stored in the primary cache memory to be stored in the secondary cache memory without discarding it. Similarly, it is possible to transfer the expanded font data from the secondary cache memory to the primary cache memory. Is possible.

Further, since the HDD 7 is a readable / writable non-volatile memory, the bitmap font data stored in the primary cache memory is transferred to the secondary cache memory before the power is turned off, so that it is stored up to that point. It is possible to use the bitmap font data at the next startup. At that time, by moving the font data of the HDD 7 of the secondary cache memory to the image memory 5 of the primary cache memory, further speedup can be achieved. It will be possible.

[0018]

As described above, the printer of the present invention has a large number of font data downloaded from the host device as a print control code and stored in a readable / writable non-volatile memory. There is an effect that it is possible to handle arbitrary large-capacity font data of various types. Further, by storing the font data once expanded into the bitmap font in the non-volatile memory, there is no need for the expansion processing from the next time onward, so that there is an effect that the printing processing can be speeded up.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Host device 2 Print control code input unit 3 Microprocessor 4 Receive buffer 5 Image memory 6 Printing operation unit 7 Hard disk (HDD)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A print control code input unit for controlling an interface with a host device, a reception buffer for storing a print control code input from the host device to the print control code input unit, and a storage for the reception buffer. A microprocessor for analyzing the print control code, an image memory for holding one page of print data developed by the microprocessor, and a print operation unit for printing the print data held in the image memory. A printer comprising a readable and writable non-volatile memory connected to the microprocessor.