A method and device for processing printing data

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method and apparatus for processing print data, relating to the field of printing technology, to solve the problem of low printing productivity caused by using a single print management software to process print data in the prior art. The method includes: obtaining metadata to be printed; determining a plurality of target print management software for performing data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed; using the plurality of target print management software to perform data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed to obtain a plurality of print data to be printed; the data preprocessing includes one or more of raster processing, color processing, format conversion, resolution, and compatibility processing; sending the plurality of print data to be printed to a printing device for data printing respectively according to a plurality of preset data transmission channels; based on this, multiple print management software can be used to process the metadata to be printed respectively and send the print data to be printed to the printing device in parallel, thereby improving the printing productivity.

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, the demand for printing products by people is increasing. The existing printing technology means can no longer meet the increasing user needs, which prompts manufacturers to improve printing efficiency and printing output.

[0003] Currently, in terms of improving printing output, manufacturers adopt a technical solution of increasing the number of nozzles of the printing device to increase the scanning height of the carriage of the printing device each time, so as to improve printing output. Although this technical solution has an obvious effect in realizing the improvement of printing output, with the increase in the number of nozzles of the printing device, the printing data sent by the printing management software to the nozzles will also increase, and the calculation amount and transmission amount of these printing data will both increase, resulting in the speed of the printing management software generating printing data being lower than the speed of the printing device consuming printing data. Therefore, each manufacturer needs to modify the printing management software irregularly to continuously improve the data processing speed and select a larger data transmission method. Although modifying the program regularly can speed up the data processing speed, for the commonly used USB3.0 data transmission cable, the data transmission amount per second has reached a bottleneck and cannot meet the transmission of a larger amount of data. Therefore, the technical solution of modifying the application program 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 of improving printing output.

[0004] In view of this, there is an urgent need for a more advanced data processing method to solve the problem of low printing productivity 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 use 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 printing productivity, and solving the problem of low printing productivity caused by using a single printing management software to process printing data in the prior art.

[0006] To achieve the above purpose, the present invention provides the following technical solutions:

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

[0008] Obtain the metadata to be printed;

[0009] Determine multiple target printing management software for performing data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed;

[0010] Preprocess the to-be-printed metadata using multiple target printing management software to obtain multiple to-be-printed data; the data preprocessing includes one or more of raster processing, color processing, format conversion, resolution, and compatibility processing;

[0011] Send the multiple to-be-printed data to a printing device for data printing respectively according to a preset multiple data transmission channels.

[0012] Preferably, determining multiple target printing management software for data processing of the to-be-printed metadata may include:

[0013] Based on the to-be-printed metadata, use a preset data distribution rule to determine multiple target printing management software for data processing of the to-be-printed data.

[0014] Preferably, the determining multiple target printing management software for data processing of the to-be-printed metadata based on the to-be-printed metadata using a preset data distribution rule includes:

[0015] Based on the number of print heads connected to the printing management software, determine the maximum printing capacity of the printing management software; the maximum printing capacity represents the maximum amount of data ejected by the print head per second;

[0016] Based on the maximum printing capacity of the printing management software, determine multiple target printing management software for data processing of the to-be-printed data.

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

[0018] Use the formula:

[0019]

[0020] Determine the maximum printing capacity of the printing management software; where DC is the maximum printing capacity of the printing management software, NC is the number of nozzle holes of the print head, G is the printing gray level, HC is the number of print heads, and EI is the number of inkjet times per second for one nozzle hole when the print head is ignited.

[0021] Preferably, the determining multiple target printing management software for data processing of the to-be-printed metadata based on the to-be-printed metadata using a preset data distribution rule may include:

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

[0023] According to the preset printing type allocation rule, determine multiple target printing management software for processing the data to be printed; the preset printing type allocation rule includes at least a rule that one printing management software processes data of one printing type.

[0024] Preferably, the step of determining multiple 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 may include:

[0025] Based on N printing management software configured in the printing system, evenly divide the metadata to be printed by data volume to obtain N pieces of metadata with equal data volumes.

[0026] Use the N printing management software to process the N pieces of metadata with equal data volumes respectively; the N printing management software represents multiple target printing management software for processing the metadata to be printed.

[0027] Preferably, among the multiple target printing management software, there may be 1 main target printing management software and N - 1 slave target printing management software; N represents the number of the multiple target printing management software.

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

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

[0030] Start the main target printing management software and the N - 1 slave target printing management software.

[0031] Establish communication connections between the N - 1 slave target printing management software and the TCP server of the main target printing management software.

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

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

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

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

[0036] Taking the main target print management software as the server, connecting N - 1 slave target print management software to the TCP server of the main target print management software; there is no communication connection between N - 1 slave target print management software.

[0037] The preset multiple data transmission channels include:

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

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

[0040] Sending multiple pieces of data to be printed to multiple main boards in the printing device; the multiple main boards are used for data synchronization of multiple pieces of data to be printed.

[0041] Sending the multiple pieces of data to be printed after data synchronization to multiple head boards; the multiple head boards respectively represent the head boards correspondingly connected to the multiple main boards.

[0042] When multiple head boards all receive the data to be printed, start the printing carriage to perform data scanning and print multiple pieces of data to be printed.

[0043] In a second aspect, the present invention provides a processing device for print data, 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 multiple target print management software for performing data pre - processing on the metadata to be printed.

[0046] A preprocessing module, which is used to perform data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed by using a plurality of the 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] A sending module, which is used to send the plurality of data to be printed to a printing device for data printing respectively according to a plurality of preset data transmission channels.

[0048] Compared with the prior art, a method for processing printing data provided by the present invention includes: obtaining metadata to be printed; further determining a plurality of target printing management software for performing data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed; performing 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; sending the plurality of data to be printed to a printing device for data printing respectively according to a plurality of preset data transmission channels; based on this, the present invention combines a plurality of 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; moreover, 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 sending the data to be printed 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 the printing productivity. 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 schematic embodiments of the present invention and their descriptions are used to explain the present invention and do not constitute an improper limitation to the present invention. In the drawings:

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

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

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

[0053] Figure 4 is a schematic printing data stream structure diagram of a method for processing printing data provided by the present invention using three printing management software;

[0054] Figure 5 Schematic diagram of the color layout structure of a print head set by three print management software for a print data processing method provided by the present invention;

[0055] Figure 6 Schematic diagram of each PM data allocation job file set by three print management software for a print data processing method provided by the present invention;

[0056] Figure 7 Schematic diagram of the data synchronization process set by three print management software for a print data processing method provided by the present invention;

[0057] Figure 8 Schematic diagram of the structure of a print data processing apparatus provided by the present invention. Detailed implementation manners

[0058] For the convenience of clearly describing the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, in the embodiments of the present invention, terms such as "first" and "second" are used to distinguish identical or similar items with basically 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 chronological order. Those skilled in the art can understand that terms such as "first" and "second" do not limit the quantity and execution order, and "first", "second", etc. do not necessarily mean different.

[0059] It should be noted that in the present invention, words such as "exemplary" or "for example" are used to represent examples, illustrations or explanations. Any embodiment or design solution described as "exemplary" or "for example" in the present invention should not be construed as being more preferred or having more advantages than other embodiments or design solutions. Rather, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "for example" is intended to present relevant concepts in a specific manner.

[0060] In the present invention, "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects and indicates that three relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B may represent: A exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone, where A and B may be singular or plural. The character " / " generally represents an "or" relationship between the previous associated objects. "At least one (item)" or similar expressions thereof refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of single item (item) or plural items (items). For example, at least one (item) of a, b or c may represent: 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 and c may be single or multiple.

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

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

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

[0064] Please refer to Figure 1 , Figure 1 which is a schematic diagram of the main process of a method for processing printing data provided by the present invention. The execution subject is a server or a terminal device equipped with the technical solution disclosed in the embodiment of the present invention, such as a print service platform or a printer, etc.

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

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

[0067] Step 120: Determine multiple target print management software for preprocessing the metadata to be printed.

[0068] In steps 110 to 120, through the user's printing operation, the printing system obtains the metadata to be printed. In order to improve the printing efficiency and the printing production capacity, based on the obtained metadata to be printed, the printing system determines multiple target print management software for preprocessing the metadata to be printed according to a preset data distribution rule, so as to process the obtained metadata to be printed by using the multiple target print management software.

[0069] Step 130: Use multiple target print management software to perform data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed, obtaining multiple 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 a preset multiple data transmission channels, send the multiple data to be printed to a printing device for data printing respectively.

[0071] In Steps 130 to 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 directly printed by the printing device; finally, using the data transmission channels between multiple control boards (main board and slave boards) on the printing device and each target print management software, send the data processed by each target print management software to each control board of the printing device, realizing the printing of the data to be printed; improving the printing productivity.

[0072] It should be noted that in order to meet the continuously increasing printing requirements, the number of nozzles must be continuously increased. In the prior art, a single PM (Printer Manager print management software) always has a situation where the data processing speed cannot keep up with the printing speed. However, in the present invention, the combination of multiple PMs will not have this problem because the data is processed separately; and the technical solution of the present invention has flexible configuration, and it can be determined how many PMs are combined for processing according to the number of nozzles, and which part of the data each PM processes can also be flexibly configured. In addition, in the prior art, the data transmission of a single PM is limited by the maximum transmission volume through a single USB cable. The present invention separates the data transmission, and the method of transmitting through multiple USB cables can also well solve the transmission bottleneck problem.

[0073] Based on this, a method for processing printing data provided by the present invention obtains metadata to be printed, performs data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed by using multiple target print management software to obtain multiple data to be printed, and finally based on the data transmission channels between multiple target print management software and each main board of the printing device, distributes and sends the multiple data to be printed to the printing device for data printing; compared with the prior art, the present invention adopts the combination technology of multiple PMs to achieve a faster data processing speed and a higher printing output.

[0074] Further, among the multiple target print management software, there is 1 main target print management software and N - 1 slave target print management software; N represents the number of the multiple target print management software.

[0075] Preferably, before obtaining the metadata to be printed in step 110, it may include: determining whether the printing functions of the main 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 slave target printing management software are available may include: starting the main target printing management software and N - 1 slave target printing management software; establishing a communication connection between the N - 1 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 to the N - 1 slave target printing management software; the data synchronization includes at least synchronizing position coordinates and printer parameters; when the printing functions of all N - 1 slave target printing management software are in an available state, it means that the printing functions of the main target printing management software and N - 1 slave target printing management software are available.

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

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

[0079] As an example, please refer to Figures 2 to 3 , Figure 2 which is a schematic diagram of the communication structure of a method for processing printing data provided by the present invention; Figure 3 which is a schematic diagram of the data interaction process between multiple printing management software of a method for processing printing data provided by the present invention.

[0080] In Figure 2In this case, 1 main PM and N slave PMs can be set in the printing system. The number of slave PMs can be configured according to the actual printing output requirements; multiple slave PMs can communicate with the main PM through TCP communication respectively, and there is no communication between multiple slave PMs. The main PM and slave PMs all run on a host computer and communicate using the loopback address of the local machine (for example: 127.0.0.1) and the set port number; that is, the main PM acts as the server, and other slave PMs act as clients to connect to the main PM and communicate using a fixed communication format.

[0081] Specifically, each PM has an independent program directory. The PM program directories are preset, and the number of PM program directories is set according to the number of PMs; after the main PM is started, the TCP server of the main PM is started, and then the main PM program sequentially calls other slave PMs to start. Among them, the role of the main PM is to be responsible for human-computer interaction, motion control, status synchronization, and also responsible for part of the data processing; while the role of the slave PM is to be responsible for work status synchronization and part of the data processing.

[0082] There is an independent data transmission channel between each PM and the printing device. That is, the main PM can communicate with the main board in the printing device through USB communication to form a data transmission channel between the main PM and the main board in the printing device, so as to realize data interaction between the main PM and the main board, such as the main PM sending printing data to the main board, and the main board reporting the printing status; similarly, the slave PM can communicate with the slave board in the printing device through USB communication to form a data transmission channel between the slave PM and the slave board in the printing device, so as to realize data interaction between the slave PM and the slave board, such as the slave PM sending printing data to the slave board, and the slave board reporting the printing status.

[0083] Furthermore, in the printing device, the main board and multiple slave boards are connected by IO communication to enable the main board and the slave boards to write signals to each other for data communication.

[0084] Furthermore, the main board and multiple slave boards are each connected to their respective head boards, and each head board is connected to a carriage 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 by it is "main PM to main board, main board to head board, head board to carriage"; finally, scanning printing is performed using the carriage equipped with multiple nozzles.

[0085] In practical applications, the software configuration of the slave PM can be the same as or different from that of the main PM. There needs to be status synchronization and parameter synchronization between each PM; for example: printing starts only when all main boards are in the ready state, and before printing, the main PM sends the printing parameters to other slave PMs.

[0086] It should be noted that in the specification of the present invention, PM represents the print management software, the main board represents the board in the printing device that controls the printing process, the head board represents the board in the printing device that controls the inkjet of the print head, and the carriage represents the device in the printing device where the print head is installed, which can move left and right to achieve scanning inkjet printing.

[0087] Further, Figure 3 It represents the schematic diagram of the data interaction process between multiple print management softwares. Similarly, it can also be understood as the communication timing process of multiple PMs from power-on to the completion of a printing process.

[0088] In Figure 3 it, the method of the data interaction process may include:

[0089] Step 310: The main PM starts the TCP server, and the main PM sequentially calls the startup of the other N slave PMs.

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

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

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

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

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

[0095] Step 360: The user performs a printing operation, sends the printing parameters to each target PM, and starts printing. Among them, the target PM includes 1 main PM and multiple target slave PMs.

[0096] Step 370: The target PM processes the received print metadata respectively and sends the processed print data to the connected main board for the printing process.

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

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

[0099] In steps 360 to 390, after the user starts the printing operation, the system transfers the data to the printing device by combining multiple PMs for data processing and data transmission to achieve the scanned printing of the data to be printed. Among them, each PM communicates with each other during the data processing and data transmission, and the communication data includes at least the status of the board, the data processing process, and the data transmission process, etc.; and after the data printing is completed, the printing status also needs to be reported. After the data of the main PM and multiple slave PMs are all printed, it is confirmed that a printing task is completed.

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

[0101] Specifically, the determining of multiple target printing management software for data processing of the metadata to be printed based on the metadata to be printed and using a preset data distribution rule may determine multiple target printing management software for data processing of the metadata to be printed at least in the following three ways.

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

[0103] Based on the maximum printing capacity of the printing management software, determine multiple target printing management software for data processing of the data to be printed.

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

[0105] Using the formula:

[0106]

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

[0108] It should be noted that 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), it can be calculated based on the number of nozzles physically connected to the printing management software, the printing parameters set for the printed picture, and the number of ink jets per nozzle during a single ignition. Among them, the total number of nozzles is the sum of the number of nozzles on each print head, and the total injection data volume during a single ignition is the total number of nozzles multiplied by the number of ink jets per nozzle during a single ignition of a single nozzle; the printing parameters mainly consider the printing gray level, usually taking 2; that is, through the above method, the numerator in formula (1) can be obtained, and thus the total data volume that can be ejected per second can be obtained, with the unit of bit; divide the total data volume by 8 to get the total data volume in bytes, then divide by 1024 to get the total data volume in kilobytes, and then divide by 1024 to get the total data volume in megabytes; based on this, through formula (1), the maximum printing capacity of each printing management software per unit time in seconds can be calculated, and its data unit is M (megabytes).

[0109] As an example, please refer to Figure 4 , Figure 4 which is a schematic diagram of the printing data flow structure using three printing management software for the printing data processing method provided by the present invention. It should be noted that Figure 4 taking three printing management software as an example for illustration, the specific number of its multiple printing management software should not constitute a specific limitation to the technical solution of the present invention.

[0110] In Figure 4 , three printing management software are used for data preprocessing of the metadata to be printed, and 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), the slave PM1 to the slave board (ID: 2) to the head board (ID: 2) to 16 nozzles (ID: 17-32), and the slave 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 establishes an association with the main board according to the configured main board ID, the PM establishes an association with the head board according to the configured head board ID, and processes the printing data corresponding to the nozzles on the head board.

[0111] It should be noted that the number of nozzles connected to the head board 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 board is used as an example for introducing the solution.

[0112] In Figure 4Among them, since the nozzle data of the three platen are all 16, the maximum spraying data volume of the three platen is the same. That is, the maximum printing capacity of the printing management software connected to the platen 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 respectively.

[0113] Taking the Ricoh G6 nozzle as an example, the printing carriage is configured with 30 nozzles. When a single Ricoh G6 nozzle fires, the number of ignition times EI per second for each nozzle hole is 40,000 times, and 2 bits of data are read per ignition. Therefore, the data spraying volume DC per second of 30 G6 nozzles can be calculated according to formula (1): approximately 380M.

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

[0115] Among them, usually 1 nozzle has 1280 nozzle holes, and the gray scale G is usually 2 levels. Therefore, NC is 1280, G is 2, HC is 30, and EI is 40,000.

[0116] The data spraying volume per second of 30 Ricoh G6 nozzles is already close to the actual transmission speed of a single USB3.0 data cable per second. Then, if a printer with more than 30 nozzles is to be configured, using a single PM in the prior art to process the data to be printed can no longer meet the requirements for data processing and data transmission when the production volume is increased. However, by using the data processing method provided by the present invention, multiple PM systems can be configured for joint processing, and the problems of low data processing efficiency and low transmission efficiency will not occur when the printing production volume is increased and the number of printing nozzles configured is large.

[0117] Therefore, corresponding printing management software can be configured based on the number of printing nozzles and the printing capacity to preprocess the metadata to be printed. The number of printing nozzles corresponding to each printing management software can be set according to user requirements, and they 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, determine multiple target printing management software for data processing of the data to be printed; the preset printing type allocation rule includes at least a rule that one printing management software processes data of one printing type.

[0120] In practical applications, there are various types of printing data, and the displayed result is the information printed on the surface of the object to be printed. Usually, there are many different element types in the printing result. For example, on a piece of board, there are element types such as company name, company logo, phone number, address, and background color. Therefore, when determining the multiple target printing management software for data processing of the to-be-printed metadata, we can determine the multiple target printing management software for data processing of the to-be-printed data according to the printing type of the printing metadata. That is, one target printing management software can be used to process 1 to 2 printing types, and the remaining printing types can be preprocessed by other target printing management software. Thus, data classification processing can be achieved, avoiding the problem that the data is messy and causes the processing program to be switched back and forth, affecting the data processing efficiency. For example, a target printing management software that only processes digital data is more efficient than a target printing management software that needs to process digital data and color data at the same time. Because processing digital data and color data at the same time involves the switching of background programs and the program code is also longer, the processing efficiency is lower than that of the single-type data processing method.

[0121] Furthermore, in the case of a large amount of to-be-printed data and a relatively single printing type, further subdivision can be carried out. Taking the printing type as color as an example, and there are 6 colors, we can distribute these 6 colors to 3 target printing management software respectively for data processing, and use 3 headboards to control the printing nozzles connected thereto for inkjet printing.

[0122] First, the color printed by each nozzle can be set through layout, and the nozzle is correspondingly inserted into the Yth socket of the Xth headboard. After these are configured, the relationship between the color and the nozzle, and the relationship between the nozzle and the headboard can be determined. The headboard is identified by the ID of the headboard, and the nozzle is identified by the ID of the nozzle.

[0123] Furthermore, the relationship between the headboard and the main board, and the relationship between the main board and the main PM can also be determined, and both can be identified through the ID. Thus, multiple PMs can read the data they need from the job file, convert it into the printing data format, and send it to the main board.

[0124] Specifically, please refer to Figures 5 to 6 , Figure 5 which is a schematic diagram of the color layout structure of the printing nozzles set by three printing management software for a printing data processing method provided by the present invention; Figure 6 which is a schematic diagram of the job file for each PM data allocation set by three printing management software for a printing data processing method provided by the present invention.

[0125] In Figure 5There are 3 header boards, namely the 1st header board, the 2nd header board, and the 3rd header board. There are a total of 48 nozzles, with nozzle IDs ranging from 1 to 48. Each header board is correspondingly configured with 16 nozzles, and every 16 nozzles are respectively used to complete the printing of two-color data. That is, the connection can be made in the following way:

[0126] Use nozzles 1 to 16 to print colors Y and M, then insert nozzles 1 to 16 into sockets 1 to 16 of the 1st header board; use nozzles 17 to 32 to print colors C and K, then insert nozzles 17 - 32 into sockets 17 to 32 of the 2nd header board; use nozzles 33 to 48 to print colors O and G, then insert nozzles 33 to 48 into sockets 33 to 48 of the 3rd header board.

[0127] Furthermore, since multiple target print management software are set according to the colors of the print metadata, when the user performs a printing operation, the multiple target print management software only need to read the respective color data to be processed from the job file, and do not need to read other color data.

[0128] In Figure 6 the data part in the job file is composed of data blocks. Each data block can include all color data. The PM sequentially reads the data of each data block; the main PM reads the data corresponding to colors Y and M, the slave PM1 reads the data corresponding to colors C and K, and the slave PM2 reads the data corresponding to colors O and G; thus realizing the combined printing of multiple PMs and improving the printing efficiency.

[0129] It should be noted that the 1Band data refers to the printing data required for the carriage to scan all nozzles once, that is, the data volume corresponding to the ejection of all print nozzles per second.

[0130] Method 3: Based on N print management software configured in the printing system, evenly divide the to-be-printed metadata by data volume to obtain N metadata with equal data volumes.

[0131] Use N print management software to respectively process the N metadata with equal data volumes; the N print management software represent multiple target print management software used to process the to-be-printed metadata.

[0132] In Method 3, in order to improve the convenience of data distribution, combine the number of main boards of the printing device, and maximize the production capacity, the target print management software corresponding to the number of main boards can be directly configured according to the number of main boards of the printing device; for example, for 4 target print management software, the to-be-printed metadata can be equally divided into 4 equal parts, and after being respectively sent to the 4 target print management software for data processing, the processed print data is scanned and printed; the specific data transmission method and the connection method between modules are the same as those in Method 1 and Method 2, and will not be elaborated here.

[0133] In step 140, preferably, sending the multiple pieces of data to be printed to a printing device for data printing according to a plurality of preset data transmission channels may include: sending the multiple pieces of data to be printed to multiple main boards in the printing device respectively; the multiple main boards are used for synchronizing the multiple pieces of data to be printed; sending the multiple pieces of data to be printed after data synchronization to multiple head boards; the multiple head boards respectively represent head boards correspondingly connected to the multiple main boards; after the multiple head boards all receive the data to be printed, start a printing carriage to perform data scanning and print the multiple pieces of data to be printed.

[0134] As an example, please refer to Figure 7 , Figure 7 which is a schematic diagram of a data synchronization process set by using three printing management softwares for a method for processing printing data provided by the present invention.

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

[0136] In Figure 7 , the position where the dashed box is located represents the synchronization process in three main boards of the printer. Three PMs respectively process 1 / 3 of the printing data and send the processed printing data to the main board and two slave boards connected thereto according to the data transmission channels. When the main board and the two slave boards receive the printing data signal, perform a printing operation and perform data synchronization by sending an IO signal from the main board to each slave board and reading the IO signal of each slave board; finally, send the synchronized printing data to each head board. When the current 1band data is all collected, that is, when the printing data of all head boards is collected, the carriage scans once and performs a printing task.

[0137] Specifically, the synchronization process of the main board is as follows:

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

[0139] Step 711: Write 1 to the IO signal.

[0140] Step 712: Read the IO signals written by slave board 1 in step 721 and the IO signals written by slave board 2 in step 731. If both are 1, then execute step 713; if they are not both 1, continue to read the IO signals and judge the values of the IO signals.

[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, judge whether the read IO signal is 1, and print whether the data reception is completed; if so, execute step 721, if not, continue to judge.

[0144] Step 721: Write 1 to the IO signal.

[0145] Step 722: Read the IO signal written by the main board in step 413. If the IO signal is 0, then 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, judge whether the read IO signal is 1, and print whether the data reception is completed; if so, execute step 731, if not, continue to judge.

[0149] Step 731: Write 1 to the IO signal.

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

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

[0152] Based on this, the synchronization of printing data between the main board and the slave boards through the IO signal is realized, ensuring that all main boards have received the data of the current Band before each scan and 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 processing device for printing data. Please refer to Figure 8 , Figure 8 which is a schematic structural diagram of a processing device for printing data provided by the present invention.

[0154] In Figure 8 the device may include:

[0155] An acquisition module 810, configured to acquire metadata to be printed.

[0156] A determination module 820, configured to determine a plurality of target print management software for performing data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed.

[0157] A preprocessing module 830, configured to perform data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed by using the plurality of target print management software, so as 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.

[0158] A sending module 840, configured to respectively send the plurality of data to be printed to a printing device for data printing according to a plurality of preset data transmission channels.

[0159] A processing device for print data according to the present invention obtains metadata to be printed through an obtaining module, and determines a plurality of target print management software for performing data preprocessing on the metadata to be printed by using a determination module. Based on the preprocessing module, the metadata to be printed is subjected to data preprocessing by using the plurality of target print 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; finally, the sending module respectively sends the plurality of data to be printed to a printing device for data printing according to a plurality of preset data transmission channels, thereby realizing the combined processing of the metadata to be printed by using a plurality of print management software and respectively transmitting the data to be printed to the printing device for data printing. Compared with the system with a single print management software in the prior art, the print data of more nozzles can be processed faster, the print output is greatly increased, and the print output is improved.

[0160] Although the present invention has been described in conjunction with various embodiments herein, however, in the process of implementing the claimed invention, those skilled in the art can understand and realize other variations of the disclosed embodiments by viewing the drawings, the disclosure content, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other components or steps, and "a" or "one" does not exclude a plurality. A single processor or other unit may implement several functions recited in the claims. Certain measures are recited in mutually 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 connection with specific features and embodiments thereof, it will be apparent that various modifications and combinations can be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are merely exemplary illustrations of the invention as defined by the appended claims and are considered to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations or equivalents within the scope of the invention. Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalent technologies, the present invention is also intended to include these changes and modifications.

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; The determining of the plurality of target printing management software for processing the metadata to be printed comprises: based on the metadata to be printed, using a preset data allocation rule to determine the plurality of target printing management software for processing the metadata to be printed; based on the metadata to be printed, using a preset data allocation rule to determine the plurality of target printing management software for processing the metadata to be printed, comprises: based on the number of print heads connected to the printing management software, determining the maximum printing capacity of the printing management software; the maximum printing capacity represents the maximum amount of data ejected by the head per second; based on the maximum printing capacity of the printing management software, determining the plurality of target printing management software for processing the data to be printed; Using a plurality of the target printing management software to pre-process the metadata to be printed, to obtain a plurality of data to be printed; the data pre-processing includes one or more of raster processing, color processing, format conversion, resolution and compatibility processing; the plurality of data to be printed are data that can be directly printed by a printing device; 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 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.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The step 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, further 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.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The step 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, further 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.

5. 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.

6. The method according to claim 5, 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.

7. 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.

8. 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; The determining of the plurality of target printing management software for processing the metadata to be printed comprises: based on the metadata to be printed, using a preset data allocation rule to determine the plurality of target printing management software for processing the metadata to be printed; based on the metadata to be printed, using a preset data allocation rule to determine the plurality of target printing management software for processing the metadata to be printed, comprises: based on the number of print heads connected to the printing management software, determining the maximum printing capacity of the printing management software; the maximum printing capacity represents the maximum amount of data ejected by the head per second; based on the maximum printing capacity of the printing management software, determining the plurality of target printing management software for processing the data to be printed; 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; the plurality of data to be printed are data that can be directly printed by the printing device; 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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