Printing data processing method and device

Abstract

The invention discloses a printing data processing method and device, relates to the technical field of printing, and aims to solve the problem of low printing capacity caused by adopting single printing management software to process printing data in the prior art. The method comprises the steps of obtaining metadata to be printed; multiple pieces of target printing management software used for conducting data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed are determined; the multiple pieces of target printing management software are used for conducting data preprocessing on the to-be-printed metadata, and multiple pieces of to-be-printed data are obtained; the data preprocessing comprises one or more of grating processing, color processing, format conversion, resolution and compatibility processing; according to a plurality of preset data transmission channels, the multiple pieces of data to be printed are sent to printing equipment for data printing; on the basis, the to-be-printed metadata can be respectively processed by utilizing multiple pieces of printing management software, and the to-be-printed data is sent to the printing equipment, so that the printing capacity is improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of printing technology, and in particular to a method and device for processing printing data. Background Art

[0002] With the rapid development of the printing industry, people's demand for printing products is increasing. Existing printing technology can no longer meet the increasing user needs, prompting manufacturers to improve printing efficiency and printing output.

[0003] At present, in terms of improving printing output, manufacturers adopt the technical solution of increasing the number of printing device nozzles to increase the scanning height of each printing device carriage to improve printing output. Although this technical solution has a more obvious effect in improving printing output; however, as the number of printing device nozzles increases, the printing data sent to the nozzles by the printing management software will also increase, and the calculation amount and transmission amount of these printing data will increase, resulting in the speed at which the printing management software generates printing data is lower than the speed at which the printing device consumes printing data. Therefore, each manufacturer needs to modify the printing management software from time to time to continuously improve the data processing speed and select a larger data transmission method; although regular modification of the program can speed up the data processing speed, the commonly used USB3.0 data transmission line has reached a bottleneck in terms of data transmission per second and cannot meet the transmission of a larger amount of data; therefore, the technical solution of modifying the application of the printing management software in the prior art to improve the data processing speed to adapt to a larger number of printing nozzles can no longer meet the requirements for increasing printing output.

[0004] In view of this, a more advanced data processing method is urgently needed to solve the problem of low printing capacity caused by using a single printing management software to process printing data in the prior art. Summary of the invention

[0005] The purpose of the present invention is to disclose a method and device for processing printing data, which can utilize multiple printing management software to process the metadata to be printed respectively, and send the data to be printed to the printing device in parallel, thereby improving the printing capacity; and solves the problem of low printing capacity caused by using a single printing management software to process printing data in the prior art.

[0006] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides the following technical solutions:

[0007] In a first aspect, the present invention provides a method for processing print data, which may include:

[0008] Get metadata to be printed;

[0009] Determining a plurality of target printing management software for performing data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed;

[0010] Using a plurality of the target printing management software to perform data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed, to obtain a plurality of data to be printed; the data preprocessing includes one or more of raster processing, color processing, format conversion, resolution and compatibility processing;

[0011] According to the preset multiple data transmission channels, the multiple data to be printed are respectively sent to the printing device for data printing.

[0012] Preferably, the determining of a plurality of target printing management software for performing data processing on the metadata to be printed may include:

[0013] Based on the metadata to be printed, a preset data allocation rule is adopted to determine a plurality of target printing management software for processing the data to be printed.

[0014] Preferably, the step of determining the plurality of target printing management software for processing the metadata to be printed by using a preset data allocation rule based on the metadata to be printed includes:

[0015] Determine the maximum printing capacity of the printing management software based on the number of printing heads connected to the printing management software; the maximum printing capacity represents the maximum amount of data ejected per second by the printing heads;

[0016] Based on the maximum printing capability of the printing management software, a plurality of target printing management software for processing the to-be-printed data are determined.

[0017] Preferably, determining the maximum printing capacity of the print management software based on the number of print heads connected to the print management software may include:

[0018] Using the formula:

[0019]

[0020] Determine the maximum printing capacity of the print management software; wherein DC is the maximum printing capacity of the print management software, NC is the number of nozzles of the print head, G is the printing grayscale, HC is the number of nozzles, and EI is the number of ink jets per second per nozzle when the print head is ignited.

[0021] Preferably, the step of determining the plurality of target printing management software for performing data processing on the metadata to be printed by using a preset data allocation rule based on the metadata to be printed may include:

[0022] Based on the metadata to be printed, determining a printing type of the metadata to be printed; the printing type includes any one or more of numbers, patterns, colors and texts;

[0023] According to the preset printing type allocation rule, a plurality of the target printing management software for processing the data to be printed are determined; the preset printing type allocation rule at least includes a rule for a printing management software to process data of one printing type.

[0024] Preferably, the step of determining the plurality of target printing management software for performing data processing on the metadata to be printed by using a preset data allocation rule based on the metadata to be printed may include:

[0025] Based on N printing management software configured in the printing system, the metadata to be printed is equally divided in data volume to obtain N metadata with equal data volume;

[0026] N pieces of printing management software are used to process N metadata with equal data volume respectively; the N pieces of printing management software represent a plurality of target printing management software used to process the metadata to be printed.

[0027] Preferably, the plurality of target printing management software may include 1 master target printing management software and N-1 slave target printing management software; N represents the number of the plurality of target printing management software.

[0028] Preferably, the obtaining of the metadata to be printed may include: determining whether the printing functions of the main target printing management software and N-1 of the slave target printing management software are available.

[0029] Preferably, determining whether the printing functions of the master target printing management software and the N-1 slave target printing management software are available may include:

[0030] Starting the master target printing management software and N-1 slave target printing management software;

[0031] Establishing N-1 communication connections between the slave target print management software and the TCP server of the master target print management software;

[0032] Using the master target printing management software to perform data synchronization with N-1 slave target printing management software; the data synchronization at least includes synchronizing position coordinates and synchronizing printer parameters;

[0033] When N-1 of the slave target print management software are all in the print function available state, it means that the print functions of the master target print management software and the N-1 of the slave target print management software are available.

[0034] Preferably, the starting of the main target printing management software and N-1 of the sub-target printing management software may include: starting the main target printing management software; and using the main target printing management software to start N-1 of the sub-target printing management software.

[0035] Preferably, the establishing of N-1 communication connections between the slave target print management software and the TCP server of the master target print management software may include:

[0036] Using the master target print management software as the server, N-1 slave target print management software are connected to the TCP server of the master target print management software; wherein there is no communication connection between the N-1 slave target print management software;

[0037] The preset multiple data transmission channels include:

[0038] A master data transmission channel established based on the master target printing management software and the main board in the printing device, and a slave data transmission channel established based on N-1 slave target printing management software and N-1 slave boards in the printing device; the data transmission channels correspond one-to-one to the target printing management software.

[0039] Preferably, the step of sending the plurality of data to be printed to the printing device for data printing respectively according to the plurality of preset data transmission channels may include:

[0040] Sending the plurality of data to be printed to a plurality of main boards in the printing device respectively; the plurality of main boards are used to synchronize the plurality of data to be printed;

[0041] Sending the plurality of to-be-printed data after data synchronization to a plurality of head boards; the plurality of head boards refer to the head boards respectively connected to the plurality of main boards;

[0042] When the plurality of head plates receive the data to be printed, the printing carriage is started to scan the data and print the plurality of data to be printed.

[0043] In a second aspect, the present invention provides a printing data processing device, which may include:

[0044] An acquisition module, the acquisition module is used to acquire metadata to be printed;

[0045] A determination module, the determination module is used to determine a plurality of target printing management software for performing data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed;

[0046] A preprocessing module, the preprocessing module is used to perform data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed using the plurality of target printing management software to obtain a plurality of data to be printed; the data preprocessing includes one or more of raster processing, color processing, format conversion, resolution and compatibility processing;

[0047] The sending module is used to send the plurality of data to be printed to the printing device for data printing according to the preset plurality of data transmission channels.

[0048] Compared with the prior art, the present invention provides a method for processing printing data, which obtains metadata to be printed; further determines multiple target printing management software for preprocessing the metadata to be printed; uses multiple target printing management software to preprocess the metadata to be printed to obtain multiple data to be printed; the data preprocessing includes one or more of raster processing, color processing, format conversion, resolution and compatibility processing; according to multiple preset data transmission channels, the multiple data to be printed are respectively sent to the printing device for data printing; based on this, the present invention adopts combining multiple printing management software to jointly process the metadata to be printed, and determines how many printing software to combine according to the metadata to be printed, which is convenient and flexible to operate; and because the metadata to be printed is split, each printing management software only processes part of the metadata and transmits part of the printing data, so the processing speed is faster; when the data to be printed is sent to the printing device in parallel according to their respective data transmission channels, the transmission speed is faster, which can effectively match the consumption of printing data and improve printing capacity. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0049] The drawings described herein are used to provide a further understanding of the present invention and constitute a part of the present invention. The exemplary embodiments of the present invention and their descriptions are used to explain the present invention and do not constitute an improper limitation of the present invention. In the drawings:

[0050] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the main flow of a method for processing print data provided by the present invention;

[0051] Figure 2 A communication structure diagram of a method for processing print data provided by the present invention;

[0052] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of a data interaction flow between multiple printing management software in a printing data processing method provided by the present invention;

[0053] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of a print data flow structure using three print management softwares in a print data processing method provided by the present invention;

[0054] Figure 5 A schematic diagram of the color layout structure of a print head set by three print management softwares in a print data processing method provided by the present invention;

[0055] Figure 6 A schematic diagram of a job file for distributing PM data using three print management software settings in a print data processing method provided by the present invention;

[0056] Figure 7 A schematic diagram of a data synchronization process using three printing management software settings in a printing data processing method provided by the present invention;

[0057] Figure 8 A schematic diagram of the structure of a printing data processing device provided by the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0058] In order to facilitate the clear description of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, in the embodiments of the present invention, the words "first", "second" and the like are used to distinguish the same items or similar items with substantially the same functions and effects. For example, the first threshold and the second threshold are only used to distinguish different thresholds, and do not limit their order of precedence. Those skilled in the art can understand that the words "first", "second" and the like do not limit the quantity and execution order, and the words "first", "second" and the like do not necessarily limit them to be different.

[0059] It should be noted that, in the present invention, words such as "exemplary" or "for example" are used to indicate examples, illustrations or descriptions. Any embodiment or design described as "exemplary" or "for example" in the present invention should not be interpreted as being more preferred or more advantageous than other embodiments or designs. Specifically, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "for example" is intended to present related concepts in a specific way.

[0060] In the present invention, "at least one" means one or more, and "plurality" means two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates that the associated objects in the previous time are in an "or" relationship. "At least one of the following items" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single items or plural items. For example, at least one of a, b or c can mean: a, b, c, the combination of a and b, the combination of a and c, the combination of b and c, or the combination of a, b and c, where a, b, c can be single or multiple.

[0061] In the prior art, a printing management software is matched with a set of printing devices. When a printing task is received, only one printing management software is used to process all metadata to be printed, and the processed data is transmitted to the main board of the printing device through a data line. The main board of the printing device controls the print head to complete the printing task. When the printing demand increases, in order to increase the printing output of the printing device, the production capacity is usually increased by increasing the number of print heads, which requires increasing the data processing capacity of the printing management software and the data transmission capacity between the main board; because of the increase in data volume, in order to improve data processing efficiency, the data processing program corresponding to the printing management software needs to be modified regularly, which increases the workload of developers; and when the data volume is large, the transmission rate of the data line cannot meet the actual transmission rate requirements; resulting in the inability to improve the printing capacity and meet the actual application needs.

[0062] In view of this, the present invention provides a method and device for processing printing data, which combines multiple printing management software to work together. Compared with the prior art, the present invention does not need to modify the printing management software regularly, and each printing management software only processes part of the data and transmits part of the data; the processing speed is faster, the transmission speed is faster, and the consumption of printing data required in the process of improving printing capacity can be met; it solves the problem of low printing capacity caused by using a single printing management software to process printing data in the prior art.

[0063] Next, the technical solution of the present invention is described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings:

[0064] See also Figure 1 , Figure 1 The main flow diagram of a method for processing print data provided by the present invention is shown in FIG. The execution subject is a server or terminal device equipped with the technical solution disclosed in the embodiment of the present invention, such as a print service platform or a printer.

[0065] exist Figure 1 In, the method may include:

[0066] Step 110: Obtain metadata to be printed.

[0067] Step 120: Determine a plurality of target printing management software for performing data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed.

[0068] In step 110 to step 120, the printing system obtains metadata to be printed through the user's printing operation; in order to improve printing efficiency and printing capacity, the printing system determines multiple target printing management software for pre-processing the metadata to be printed based on the obtained metadata to be printed and in accordance with preset data allocation rules; thereby, the obtained metadata to be printed can be processed using multiple target printing management software.

[0069] Step 130: Utilize a plurality of the target printing management software to perform data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed to obtain a plurality of data to be printed; the data preprocessing includes one or more of raster processing, color processing, format conversion, resolution and compatibility processing.

[0070] Step 140: According to the preset multiple data transmission channels, the multiple data to be printed are sent to the printing device for data printing.

[0071] In step 130 to step 140, based on the multiple target print management software determined in step 120, data preprocessing is performed on the data to be printed, which may include raster processing, color processing, format conversion, resolution or compatibility processing, etc., so as to obtain multiple data to be printed that can be used for direct printing by the printing device; finally, using the data transmission channel between the multiple control boards (main board and slave board) on the printing device and the various target print management software, the data processed by the various target print management software is sent to the various control boards of the printing device, so as to realize the printing of the data to be printed, thereby improving the printing capacity.

[0072] It should be noted that in order to meet the ever-increasing printing needs, the number of nozzles must be continuously increased. The single PM (PrinterManager printing management software) in the prior art will always have a situation where the data processing speed cannot keep up with the printing speed. However, the multiple PMs in the present invention will not have this problem because the data is processed separately. In addition, the technical solution of the present invention is flexible in configuration, and it can be determined according to the number of nozzles that several PMs will jointly process the data, and the part of the data processed by each PM can also be flexibly configured. In addition, the single PM data transmission in the prior art is limited by the maximum transmission amount when transmitted through a USB line. The present invention transmits the data separately, and the method of transmitting through multiple USB lines can also solve the transmission bottleneck problem well.

[0073] Based on this, the present invention provides a method for processing printing data, which obtains the metadata to be printed, uses multiple target printing management software to preprocess the metadata to be printed to obtain multiple data to be printed, and finally, based on the data transmission channel between the multiple target printing management software and each mainboard of the printing device, distributes the multiple data to be printed and sends them to the printing device for data printing; compared with the prior art, the present invention adopts multiple PM joint technologies to achieve faster data processing speed and higher printing output.

[0074] Furthermore, the plurality of target printing management software includes 1 main target printing management software and N-1 sub-target printing management software; N represents the number of the plurality of target printing management software.

[0075] Preferably, before obtaining the metadata to be printed in step 110 , the following may be included: determining whether the printing functions of the master target printing management software and N-1 slave target printing management software are available.

[0076] Determining whether the printing functions of the main target printing management software and N-1 of the slave target printing management software are available may include: starting the main target printing management software and the N-1 of the slave target printing management software; establishing a communication connection between the N-1 of the slave target printing management software and the TCP server of the main target printing management software; using the main target printing management software to synchronize data with the N-1 of the slave target printing management software; the data synchronization at least includes synchronizing position coordinates and synchronizing printer parameters; when the N-1 of the slave target printing management software are all in the printing function available state, it means that the printing functions of the main target printing management software and the N-1 of the slave target printing management software are available.

[0077] Specifically, starting the main target printing management software and N-1 of the sub-target printing management software may include: starting the main target printing management software; and using the main target printing management software to start N-1 of the sub-target printing management software.

[0078] Establishing a communication connection between N-1 of the slave target printing management software and the TCP server of the master target printing management software may include: using the master target printing management software as the server, connecting the N-1 of the slave target printing management software to the TCP server of the master target printing management software; wherein there is no communication connection between the N-1 of the slave target printing management software. Among them, the preset multiple data transmission channels may include: a main data transmission channel established based on the master target printing management software and the main board in the printing device, and a slave data transmission channel established based on the N-1 of the slave target printing management software and the N-1 slave boards in the printing device; the data transmission channels correspond one to one with the target printing management software.

[0079] As an example, see Figures 2 to 3 , Figure 2 A communication structure diagram of a method for processing print data provided by the present invention; Figure 3 A schematic diagram of a data interaction flow between multiple printing management software in a printing data processing method provided by the present invention.

[0080] exist Figure 2In the printing system, 1 master PM and N slave PMs can be set, where the number of slave PMs can be configured according to the actual printing output requirements; multiple slave PMs can be connected to the master PM using TCP communication, and multiple slave PMs do not communicate with each other. The master PM and the slave PMs are both running on a host computer, using the local loopback address (for example: 127.0.0.1) and the set port number for communication; that is, the master PM acts as the server, and other slave PMs are connected to the master PM as clients, and use a fixed communication format for communication.

[0081] Specifically, each PM has an independent program directory, which is preset. There are several PM program directories for each PM. After the master PM is started, the TCP server of the master PM is started, and then the master PM program sequentially calls other slave PMs to start. Among them, the role of the master PM is responsible for human-machine interaction, motion control, state synchronization, and also for some data processing; the role of the slave PM is responsible for work state synchronization and some data processing.

[0082] There is an independent data transmission channel between each PM and the printing device, that is, the master PM can be established to communicate with the main board in the printing device by means of USB communication, forming a data transmission channel between the master PM and the main board in the printing device, thereby realizing data interaction between the master PM and the main board, such as the master PM sends printing data to the main board, and the main board reports the printing status; similarly, the slave PM can be established to communicate with the slave board in the printing device by means of USB communication, forming a data transmission channel between the slave PM and the slave board in the printing device, thereby realizing data interaction between the slave PM and the slave board, such as the slave PM sends printing data to the slave board, and the slave board reports the printing status.

[0083] Furthermore, in the printing device, the main board and the plurality of slave boards are connected by IO communication, so that the main board and the slave boards can write signals to each other and perform data communication.

[0084] Furthermore, the main board and multiple slave boards are connected to their own head boards, and each head board is connected to a trolley equipped with multiple nozzles, establishing a data processing and transmission printing link. Taking the main PM as an example, the data processing and transmission printing link established is "main PM to main board, main board to head board, head board to trolley"; finally, scanning and printing are performed using a trolley equipped with multiple nozzles.

[0085] In actual applications, the software configuration of the slave PM can be the same as or different from that of the master PM. Status synchronization and parameter synchronization are required between each PM. For example, printing will only start when all main boards are ready. Before printing, the master PM sends the printing parameters to other slave PMs.

[0086] It should be noted that PM in the specification of the present invention represents print management software, the main board represents the board that controls the printing process in the printing device, the head board represents the board that controls the inkjet of the nozzle in the printing device, and the carriage represents the device in the printing device with the nozzle installed, which can realize scanning inkjet printing by moving left and right.

[0087] further, Figure 3 It shows a schematic diagram of the data interaction process between multiple print management software. Similarly, it can also be understood as the communication timing process of multiple PMs from powering on to completing a printing process.

[0088] exist Figure 3 In the data interaction process, the methods may include:

[0089] Step 310: The master PM starts the TCP server, and the master PM sequentially calls other N slave PMs to start.

[0090] Step 320: After starting, each slave PM connects to the TCP server of the master PM and reports the board status.

[0091] Step 330: Synchronize position coordinates and printer parameters to each slave PM.

[0092] Step 340: Report the board change status to the master PM in real time.

[0093] Step 350: Determine whether the N slave PMs are in the "ready" state. If all the N slave PMs are in the "ready" state, execute step 360; if not all the N slave PMs are in the "ready" state, execute step 330.

[0094] In step 310 to step 350, in the human-computer interaction interface, the user clicks on the icon of the print management software. The print management software will first start the master PM, then call multiple slave PMs through the master PM, and synchronize data to determine the status of each board and whether each print management software can work normally. If multiple slave PMs are in ready state, it means that the print software has been successfully started and can be used to carry out the next step of data processing; if multiple slave PMs are not in ready state for a long time, it means that the print software has failed to start.

[0095] Step 360: The user performs a printing operation, sends printing parameters to each target PM, and starts printing. The target PM includes one master PM and multiple target slave PMs.

[0096] Step 370: The target PM processes the received printing metadata and sends the processed printing data to the connected mainboard to perform the printing process.

[0097] Step 380: After each target slave PM completes printing, it reports the printing completion status to the master PM.

[0098] Step 390: The main PM completes printing and receives the printing completion status of all target slave PMs, and this printing job is completed.

[0099] In step 360 to step 390, after the user starts the printing operation, the system uses a method of jointly processing and transmitting data from multiple PMs to the printing device to realize scanning and printing of the data to be printed. Among them, each PM communicates with each other during the process of data processing and data transmission, and the communication data at least includes the status of the board, the data processing process and the data transmission process, etc.; and after the data is printed, the printing status also needs to be reported. After the data of the master PM and multiple slave PMs are printed, it is confirmed that a printing task is completed.

[0100] In step 120, preferably, the determining of a plurality of target printing management software for performing data processing on the metadata to be printed may include: based on the metadata to be printed, adopting a preset data allocation rule to determine a plurality of target printing management software for performing data processing on the data to be printed.

[0101] Specifically, based on the metadata to be printed, a preset data allocation rule is adopted to determine the multiple target printing management software for processing the metadata to be printed. The multiple target printing management software for processing the metadata to be printed can be determined in at least the following three ways.

[0102] Method 1: The maximum printing capacity of the printing management software can be determined based on the number of printing heads connected to the printing management software; the maximum printing capacity means the maximum amount of data ejected by the printing head per second;

[0103] Based on the maximum printing capability of the printing management software, a plurality of target printing management software for processing the to-be-printed data are determined.

[0104] Specifically, determining the maximum printing capacity of the printing management software based on the number of printing heads connected to the printing management software includes:

[0105] Using the formula:

[0106]

[0107] Determine the maximum printing capacity of the print management software; wherein DC is the maximum printing capacity of the print management software, NC is the number of nozzles of the print head, G is the printing grayscale, HC is the number of nozzles, and EI is the number of ink jets per second per nozzle when the print head is ignited.

[0108] It should be noted that how to determine the maximum printing capacity of the printing management software, that is, to determine the maximum printing capacity of the printing management software per unit time (per second), can be calculated based on the number of nozzles physically connected to the printing management software, the printing parameters set for the printing image, and the number of times each nozzle ejects ink during a single ignition. Among them, the total number of nozzles is the sum of the number of nozzles on each nozzle, and the total amount of ejected data during a single ignition is the total number of nozzles multiplied by the number of times a single nozzle ejects ink during a single ignition; the printing parameters focus on the printing grayscale, which is usually taken as 2; that is, the numerator in formula (1) can be obtained by the above method, that is, the total amount of data that can be ejected per second can be obtained, in units of bits; the total amount of data is divided by 8 to obtain the total amount of data in bytes, and then divided by 1024 to obtain the total amount of data in kilobytes, and then divided by 1024 to obtain the total amount of data in megabytes; based on this, the maximum printing capacity of each printing management software when the unit time is seconds can be calculated by formula (1), and its data unit is M (megabyte).

[0109] As an example, see Figure 4 , Figure 4 A schematic diagram of the print data flow structure of a print data processing method provided by the present invention using three print management software. It should be noted that: Figure 4 In order to use three printing management software as an example for illustration, the specific number of the multiple printing management software should not constitute a specific limitation on the technical solution of the present invention.

[0110] exist Figure 4 In the present invention, three printing management software are used to pre-process the metadata to be printed, as well as three printing data transmission channels, namely, the main PM to the main board (ID: 1) to the head board (ID: 1) to 16 nozzles (ID: 1-16), from PM1 to the slave board (ID: 2) to the head board (ID: 2) to 16 nozzles (ID: 17-32), and from PM2 to the slave board (ID: 3) to the head board (ID: 3) to 16 nozzles (ID: 33-48); based on the above connection relationship, the PM is associated with the main board according to the configured main board ID, the PM is associated with the configured head board ID and the head board, and the printing data corresponding to the nozzle on the head board is processed.

[0111] It should be noted that the number of nozzles connected to the head plate can be the same or different, and the user can set it according to actual needs; in this embodiment, the same number of nozzles connected to the head plate is used as an example to introduce the solution.

[0112] exist Figure 4In the above figure, since the nozzle data of the three head plates are all 16, the maximum ejection data volume of the three head plates is the same, that is, the maximum printing capacity of the printing management software connected to the head plates can be calculated according to formula (1); thus, the obtained metadata to be printed can be split and sent to the target printing management software for data preprocessing and printing.

[0113] Taking the Ricoh G6 nozzle as an example, the print carriage is equipped with 30 nozzles. When a single Ricoh G6 nozzle is ignited, the nozzle hole ignites 40,000 times per second, and 2 bits of data are read per ignition. Therefore, the data injection volume DC of 30 G6 nozzles per second can be calculated according to formula (1): about 380M.

[0114] That is: 1280*2*30*40k / (8*1024*1024)≈380M.

[0115] Among them, usually one print head has 1280 nozzles, and the grayscale G is usually 2 levels; therefore, NC is 1280, G is 2, HC is 30, and EI is 40000.

[0116] The data ejection volume of 30 Ricoh G6 nozzles per second is close to the actual transmission speed of a USB3.0 data line per second. Therefore, if a printer with more than 30 nozzles is to be configured, the single PM in the prior art to process the data to be printed cannot meet the needs of data processing and data transmission when the output is increased. By adopting the data processing method provided by the present invention, multiple PM systems can be configured for joint processing, which will not cause the problem of low data processing efficiency and low transmission efficiency when a large number of print nozzles are configured to increase the printing output.

[0117] Therefore, based on the number of print heads and printing capacity, corresponding print management software can be configured to pre-process the printing metadata; the number of print heads corresponding to each print management software can be set according to user needs, and can be the same or different.

[0118] Method 2: Based on the metadata to be printed, determine the printing type of the metadata to be printed; the printing type includes any one or more of numbers, patterns, colors and texts.

[0119] According to the preset printing type allocation rule, a plurality of the target printing management software for processing the data to be printed are determined; the preset printing type allocation rule at least includes a rule for a printing management software to process data of one printing type.

[0120] In practical applications, there are many types of printing data, and the displayed result is the information printed on the surface of the printed object. Usually, the printing result will have many different element types. For example, a plate is printed with element types such as company name, company logo, telephone number, address and background color; therefore, when determining the multiple target printing management software for data processing of the metadata to be printed, we can determine the multiple target printing management software for data processing of the data to be printed according to the printing type of the printing metadata; that is, one target printing management software can be used to process 1 to 2 types of printing, and the remaining types of printing can be processed and pre-processed by other target printing management software; thereby realizing data classification processing, avoiding the problem of switching processing programs back and forth due to data clutter, which affects data processing efficiency. For example: a target printing management software only processes digital data, which is more efficient than a target printing management software that needs to process digital data and color data at the same time; because it needs to process digital data and color data at the same time, it will involve the switching of background programs, and the program code is also longer, so the processing efficiency is lower than the processing efficiency of the single-type data processing method.

[0121] Furthermore, when there is a large amount of data to be printed and the printing type is relatively single, it can be further subdivided. Taking the printing type as color as an example, and there are 6 colors, we can assign these 6 colors to 3 target printing management software respectively, perform data processing, and use 3 head panels to control the print heads connected to them for inkjet printing.

[0122] First, you can set the color of each printhead through the layout, and plug the printhead into the Yth socket of the Xth head board. After these configurations are completed, you can determine the relationship between color and printhead, and the relationship between printhead and head board. The head board is identified by the head board ID, and the printhead is identified by the printhead ID.

[0123] Furthermore, the relationship between the head board and the main board, as well as the main board and the main PM, can also be determined, all of which can be identified through ID; thus, multiple PMs can read the data they need from the job file, convert it into a print data format, and send it to the main board.

[0124] For details, please refer to Figure 5 to Figure 6 , Figure 5 A schematic diagram of the color layout structure of a print head set by three print management softwares in a print data processing method provided by the present invention; Figure 6 A schematic diagram of a job file for allocating PM data set by three printing management softwares in a printing data processing method provided by the present invention.

[0125] exist Figure 5There are 3 head boards, head boards 1, 2 and 3, with a total of 48 nozzles, nozzle IDs from 1 to 48, each head board is configured with 16 nozzles, and each 16 nozzles complete the printing of two color data. That is, it can be connected in the following way:

[0126] When using nozzles 1 to 16 to print colors Y and M, plug nozzles 1 to 16 into sockets 1 to 16 on head board No. 1; when using nozzles 17 to 32 to print colors C and K, plug nozzles 17-32 into sockets 17 to 32 on head board No. 2; when using nozzles 33 to 48 to print colors O and G, plug nozzles 33 to 48 into sockets 33 to 48 on head board No. 3.

[0127] Furthermore, since the multiple-target printing management software is set according to the color of the printing metadata, when the user performs a printing operation, the multiple-target printing management software only needs to read each color data that needs to be processed from the job file, and does not need to read data of other colors.

[0128] exist Figure 6 In the job file, the data part is composed of data blocks, each data block can include all color data, and PM reads the data of each data block in turn; the main PM is used to read the data corresponding to colors Y and M, the data corresponding to colors C and K are read from PM1, and the data corresponding to colors O and G are read from PM2; thereby realizing the joint printing of multiple PMs and improving printing efficiency.

[0129] It should be noted that 1Band data refers to the printing data required by the carriage to scan all the nozzles each time, that is, the amount of data corresponding to the spraying of all the print nozzles per second.

[0130] Method three: based on N printing management software configured in the printing system, the metadata to be printed is equally divided in data volume to obtain N metadata with equal data volume.

[0131] N pieces of printing management software are used to process N metadata with equal data volume respectively; the N pieces of printing management software represent a plurality of target printing management software used to process the metadata to be printed.

[0132] In method three, in order to improve the convenience of data distribution, combine the number of mainboards of the printing device and maximize the production capacity, the target printing management software corresponding to the number of mainboards of the printing device can be directly configured; such as 4 target printing management software, the metadata to be printed can be divided into 4 equal parts, and sent to 4 target printing management software for data processing, and then the processed print data can be scanned and printed; the specific data transmission method and the connection method between modules are the same as those in method one and method two, and will not be repeated here.

[0133] In step 140, preferably, sending the multiple data to be printed to the printing device for data printing respectively according to the preset multiple data transmission channels may include: sending the multiple data to be printed to the multiple main boards in the printing device respectively; the multiple main boards are used to synchronize the multiple data to be printed; sending the multiple data to be printed after data synchronization to the multiple head boards; the multiple head boards represent the head boards respectively connected to the multiple main boards; when the multiple head boards have received the data to be printed, starting the printing carriage to scan the data and print the multiple data to be printed.

[0134] As an example, see Figure 7 , Figure 7 A schematic diagram of a data synchronization process using three printing management software settings in a printing data processing method provided by the present invention.

[0135] In order to ensure the synchronization of data printing and improve the effectiveness of multi-PM joint printing, the present invention sets a data synchronization method at the mainboard. Figure 7 The example shown is a data synchronization process using three PMs for joint printing; it should be noted that the specific number of PMs should not constitute a specific limitation on the technical solution of the present invention. In actual applications, technicians can configure 3, 6, 8 or other larger numbers of PMs according to the user's actual printing needs.

[0136] exist Figure 7 In the figure, the dotted box indicates the synchronization process in the three main boards of the printer. The three PMs process 1 / 3 of the printing data respectively, and send the processed printing data to the main board and two slave boards connected to them according to the data transmission channel. When the main board and the two slave boards receive the printing data, the printing operation is executed, and the data is synchronized by sending IO signals to each slave board and reading the IO signals of each slave board through the main board; finally, the synchronized printing data is sent to each head board. After the current 1band data is collected, that is, the printing data of all head boards are collected, the carriage scans once and executes the printing task.

[0137] Specifically, the synchronization process of the mainboard is:

[0138] Step 710: Read the IO signal written in step 723 from board 1 and the IO signal written in step 733 from board 2. When the read IO signals are both 0, execute step 711; if not all 0, continue to read the IO signal and determine the value of the IO signal.

[0139] Step 711: IO signal write 1.

[0140] Step 712: Read the IO signal written in step 721 from board 1 and the IO signal written in step 731 from board 2. If both are 1, execute step 713; if not both are 1, continue to read the IO signal and determine the value of the IO signal.

[0141] Step 713: Write 0 to the IO signal.

[0142] The synchronization process of slave board 1 is as follows:

[0143] Step 720: Read the IO signal written by the main board in step 711, determine whether the read IO signal is 1, and whether the print data reception is completed; if yes, execute step 721, if not, continue to determine.

[0144] Step 721: IO signal write 1.

[0145] Step 722: Read the IO signal written by the mainboard in step 413. If the IO signal is 0, execute step 723.

[0146] Step 723: Write 0 to the IO signal.

[0147] The synchronization process of slave board 2 is as follows:

[0148] Step 730: Read the IO signal written by the main board in step 711, and determine whether the read IO signal is 1 and whether the print data reception is completed; if yes, execute step 731, if not, continue to determine.

[0149] Step 731: IO signal write 1.

[0150] Step 732: Read the IO signal written by the mainboard in step 713. If the IO signal is 0, execute step 733.

[0151] Step 733: Write 0 to the IO signal.

[0152] Based on this, the main board and the slave board can print data synchronously through IO signals to ensure that all main boards have collected the data of the current band before each scan, thus ensuring the correctness of the printed data.

[0153] In a second aspect, based on the same technical concept as the first aspect, the present invention provides a printing data processing device. Figure 8 , Figure 8 A schematic diagram of the structure of a printing data processing device provided by the present invention.

[0154] exist Figure 8 In the embodiment, the device may include:

[0155] The acquisition module 810 is used to acquire metadata to be printed.

[0156] The determination module 820 is used to determine a plurality of target printing management software for performing data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed.

[0157] The preprocessing module 830 is used to perform data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed using multiple target printing management software to obtain multiple data to be printed; the data preprocessing includes one or more of raster processing, color processing, format conversion, resolution and compatibility processing.

[0158] The sending module 840 is used to send the plurality of to-be-printed data to the printing device for data printing according to the preset plurality of data transmission channels.

[0159] The present invention proposes a printing data processing device, which obtains metadata to be printed through an acquisition module, and uses a determination module to determine multiple target printing management software for preprocessing the metadata to be printed, and uses the multiple target printing management software based on the preprocessing module to preprocess the metadata to be printed to obtain multiple data to be printed; the data preprocessing includes one or more of raster processing, color processing, format conversion, resolution and compatibility processing; finally, the sending module is used to send the multiple data to be printed to the printing device for data printing according to the preset multiple data transmission channels; it realizes the joint processing of the metadata to be printed by multiple printing management software, and the transmission of the data to be printed to the printing device for data printing; compared with the system of single printing management software in the prior art, it can process the printing data of more nozzles faster, greatly improve the printing output, and improve the printing output.

[0160] Although the present invention is described herein in conjunction with various embodiments, in the process of implementing the claimed invention, those skilled in the art may understand and implement other variations of the disclosed embodiments by viewing the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other components or steps, and "one" or "an" does not exclude multiple situations. A single processor or other unit may implement several functions listed in the claims. Certain measures are recorded in different dependent claims, but this does not mean that these measures cannot be combined to produce good results.

[0161] Although the present invention has been described in conjunction with specific features and embodiments thereof, it is apparent that various modifications and combinations may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, this specification and the accompanying drawings are merely exemplary illustrations of the present invention as defined by the appended claims and are deemed to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations or equivalents within the scope of the present invention. Obviously, those skilled in the art may make various modifications and variations to the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, the present invention is intended to include such modifications and variations if they fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A method for processing printing data, characterized in that: include: Get metadata to be printed; Determining a plurality of target printing management software for performing data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed; Using a plurality of the target printing management software to perform data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed, to obtain a plurality of data to be printed; The data preprocessing includes one or more of raster processing, color processing, format conversion, resolution and compatibility processing; According to the preset multiple data transmission channels, the multiple data to be printed are respectively sent to the printing device for data printing.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The determining of a plurality of target printing management software for performing data processing on the metadata to be printed includes: Based on the metadata to be printed, a preset data allocation rule is adopted to determine a plurality of target printing management software for processing the data to be printed.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The method of determining, based on the metadata to be printed, a plurality of target printing management software for performing data processing on the metadata to be printed by using a preset data allocation rule comprises: Determine the maximum printing capacity of the printing management software based on the number of printing heads connected to the printing management software; the maximum printing capacity represents the maximum amount of data ejected per second by the printing heads; Based on the maximum printing capability of the printing management software, a plurality of target printing management software for processing the to-be-printed data are determined.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that The determining the maximum printing capacity of the printing management software based on the number of printing heads connected to the printing management software includes: Using the formula: Determine the maximum printing capacity of the print management software; wherein DC is the maximum printing capacity of the print management software, NC is the number of nozzles of the print head, G is the printing grayscale, HC is the number of nozzles, and EI is the number of ink jets per second per nozzle when the print head is ignited.

5. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The method of determining, based on the metadata to be printed, a plurality of target printing management software for performing data processing on the metadata to be printed by using a preset data allocation rule comprises: Based on the metadata to be printed, determining a printing type of the metadata to be printed; the printing type includes any one or more of numbers, patterns, colors and texts; According to the preset printing type allocation rule, a plurality of the target printing management software for processing the data to be printed are determined; the preset printing type allocation rule at least includes a rule for a printing management software to process data of one printing type.

6. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The method of determining, based on the metadata to be printed, a plurality of target printing management software for performing data processing on the metadata to be printed by using a preset data allocation rule comprises: Based on N printing management software configured in the printing system, the metadata to be printed is equally divided in data volume to obtain N metadata with equal data volume; N pieces of printing management software are used to process N metadata with equal data volume respectively; the N pieces of printing management software represent a plurality of target printing management software used to process the metadata to be printed.

7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The plurality of target printing management software include 1 main target printing management software and N-1 sub-target printing management software; N represents the number of the plurality of target print management software; The obtaining of metadata to be printed includes: determining whether the printing functions of the main target printing management software and N-1 of the slave target printing management software are available; Determining whether the printing functions of the master target printing management software and the N-1 slave target printing management software are available includes: Starting the master target printing management software and N-1 slave target printing management software; Establishing N-1 communication connections between the slave target print management software and the TCP server of the master target print management software; Using the master target printing management software to perform data synchronization with N-1 slave target printing management software; the data synchronization at least includes synchronizing position coordinates and synchronizing printer parameters; When N-1 of the slave target print management software are all in the print function available state, it means that the print functions of the master target print management software and the N-1 of the slave target print management software are available.

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that The starting of the main target printing management software and N-1 of the sub-target printing management software includes: Starting the main target printing management software; Using the master target printing management software to start N-1 slave target printing management software; The establishing of N-1 communication connections between the slave target print management software and the TCP server of the master target print management software includes: Using the master target print management software as the server, N-1 slave target print management software are connected to the TCP server of the master target print management software; wherein there is no communication connection between the N-1 slave target print management software; The preset multiple data transmission channels include: A master data transmission channel established based on the master target printing management software and the main board in the printing device, and a slave data transmission channel established based on N-1 slave target printing management software and N-1 slave boards in the printing device; the data transmission channels correspond one-to-one to the target printing management software.

9. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The method of sending the plurality of data to be printed to the printing device for data printing according to the plurality of preset data transmission channels includes: Sending the plurality of data to be printed to a plurality of main boards in the printing device respectively; the plurality of main boards are used to synchronize the plurality of data to be printed; Sending the plurality of to-be-printed data after data synchronization to a plurality of head boards; the plurality of head boards refer to the head boards respectively connected to the plurality of main boards; When the plurality of head plates receive the data to be printed, the printing carriage is started to scan the data and print the plurality of data to be printed.

10. A printing data processing device, characterized in that: include: An acquisition module, the acquisition module is used to acquire metadata to be printed; A determination module, the determination module is used to determine a plurality of target printing management software for performing data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed; A preprocessing module, the preprocessing module is used to perform data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed by using the plurality of target printing management software to obtain a plurality of data to be printed; The data preprocessing includes one or more of raster processing, color processing, format conversion, resolution and compatibility processing; The sending module is used to send the plurality of data to be printed to the printing device for data printing according to the preset plurality of data transmission channels.

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