System and method for document processing

• US 5,353,388 A
• Filed: 10/17/1991
• Issued: 10/04/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/1991
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited, Ricoh Corporation (Ricoh Company Limited)
• Inventors: Motoyama, Tetsuro
• Primary Examiner(s): Shaw, Dale M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHAUHAN, ULKA J
• Application Number:
  US07/778,578
• Time in Patent Office: 1,083 Days
• Field of Search: 395/112, 395/114, 395/117, 395/800, 395/425, 395/157, 395/159, 395/275, 395/775, 364/419.1, 345/119
• US Class Current: 358/1.18
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1206 resulting in increased flexibility in input data format or job format or job type
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1248 by printer language recognition, e.g. PDL, PCL, PDF
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1285 Remote printer device, e.g. being remote from client or server
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1296 Printer job scheduling or printer resource handling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/151 Transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets

Abstract

A document processing system controls the printing of documents represented in page description language form. Documents are represented by a page description language which is structured so that definition and declaratory commands are positioned only at the beginning of each distinct document segment. Each document has prologue sections, which contain definition and declaratory commands, and content portions which contain the specific tokens or commands for defining specific images. The definition and declaratory commands in the prologue sections of the document are arranged in a hierarchical tree so that each definition and declaratory command has a scope corresponding to the portion of the hierarchical tree subtended by that command. A structure processor handles resource declaration and definitions, dictionary generation, context declarations and references to data external to the document. A content processor processes the tokens using the definitions and declarations set up by the structure processor, and an imaging driver module translates the document into commands suitable for any of several types of printers, as well as for communication by telephone line to a remote device. One feature of the document processing system is the ability to query a remote device to determine whether it has the resources required for processing a document transmitted in a high level encoded form. It then either transmits the document in rasterized bit map form if the required resources are not available, or transmits the document in a higher level encoded form if the required resources are available.

Claims

1. A method of printing a document, the steps of the method comprising:

receiving a document represented by a stream of page description language elements which define said document as a hierarchical tree structure, said received document including a hierarchically ordered set of prologue sections containing prologue elements and content sections containing image defining token elements;

wherein said prologue elements in each of said prologue sections are applicable only to those of said content sections subtended by said prologue section in the document'"'"'s hierarchical tree structure;

converting image defining token elements in said content sections of said received document into corresponding imaging instructions for a predefined remotely located printer device;

decoding said prologue elements and storing representations thereof in a computer memory so that stored representations of only those prologue elements applicable to each content section of said document are utilized by said converting step while converting image defining token elements in each of said content sections of said document;

generating a required resource list representing a set of resources which are required for said remotely located printer device to print said received document when said received document to be transmitted to said remotely located printer device is represented by high level page description language commands;

querying said remotely located printer device to determine whether said remotely located printer device has resources corresponding to those represented by said required resource list;

transmitting said imaging instructions to said remotely located printer device using high level page description language commands, after said querying step, when said remotely located printer device responds affirmatively to said querying; and

converting said imaging instructions into an image bit representation and then transmitting said image bit representation to said remotely located printer device, after said querying step, when said remotely located printer device does not respond affirmatively to said querying.

2. A document image printing controller, comprising:

means for receiving a document represented by a stream of page description language elements which define said document as a hierarchical tree structure, said received document including a hierarchically ordered set of prologue sections containing prologue elements and content sections containing image defining token elements;

wherein said prologue elements in each of said prologue sections are applicable only to those of said content sections subtended by said prologue section in the document'"'"'s hierarchical tree structure;

a content processor for processing said content sections of said received document and generating corresponding imaging instructions for a predefined remotely located printing device;

a document structure processor which processes said prologue elements, and stores representations thereof in a computer memory so that stored representations of only those prologue elements applicable to each content section of said document are available to said content processor while processing each said content section of said document; and

an imaging driver processor for formatting and transmitting said imaging instructions to a printer port corresponding to said remotely located printing device;

wherein said imaging driver processor includes a first printer driver for transmitting said imaging instructions to a first printer port using high level page description language commands, and a second printer driver and a rasterizer for converting said imaging instructions into an image bit representation and then transmitting said image bit representation, via a communication port, to said remotely located printing device;

said document image printing controller including means for generating a required resource list representing a set of resources which are required for said remotely located printing device to print said received document when said received document to be transmitted to said remotely located printing device is represented by high level page description language commands;

said second printer driver including;

protocol means for querying said remotely located printing device to determine whether said remotely located printing device has resources corresponding to those represented by said required resource list;

means for transmitting said imaging instructions using high level page description language commands, after said protocol means performs said querying, when said remotely located printing device responds affirmatively to said querying by said protocol means; and

means for transmitting said imaging instructions as an image bit representation, after said protocol means performs said querying, when said remotely located printing device does not respond affirmatively to said querying by said protocol means.

3. A method of transmitting a document, comprising the steps of:

a first determining step for determining resources needed to present a document which is encoded in a page description language;

a second determining step for determining if a remote presentation device contains the resources needed to present the document encoded in the page description language;

transmitting the document which is encoded in the page description language to the remote presentation device, after said second determining step is performed, when the second determining step determines that the remote presentation device does contain the needed resources;

converting the document encoded in the page description language into an image bit representation and transmitting said image bit representation to the remote presentation device, after said second determining step is performed, when the second determining step determines that the remote presentation device does not contain the needed resources.

4. An apparatus for transmitting a document, comprising:

first determining means for determining resources needed to present a document which is encoded in a page description language;

second determining means for determining if a remote presentation device contains the resources needed to present the document encoded in the page description language;

means for transmitting the document which is encoded in the page description language to the remote presentation device, after the determining by the second determining means, when the second determining means determines that the remote presentation device does contain the needed resources;

means for converting the document encoded in the page description language into an image bit representation and for transmitting said image bit representation to the remote presentation device, after the determining by the second determining means, when the second determining means determines that the remote presentation device does not contain the needed resources.