JP2009220476A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer capable of automatically beginning a new line in printing according to a specific character, a paper size and a layout or the like. <P>SOLUTION: The printer is intended for performing a printing process according to printing data supplied from host equipments such as a personal computer (PC). The printer includes: an input means for inputting the printing data including specific character string information and paper size information or the like; a page breaking means for performing a page breaking process by analyzing the printing data and detecting the specific character string information or the like; and a printing means for performing a plotting process according to analytical results of the printing data and a printing process including the specific character string information on recording media wherein the page breaking process is performed by the page breaking means. Thereby, the printer is configured so as to automatically perform the page breaking process to give a printout. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that automatically performs a line feed according to a specific character string, paper size, layout, or the like.

  In general, when printing is performed using commercially available software, there is a case where it is desired to sort printed matter output by one printing process in arbitrary page units. However, the current situation is that they cannot be sorted as expected. For example, if you have multiple chapters in one print document and you want to print the first page of each chapter on the front side of the paper during double-sided printing, the beginning of each chapter does not necessarily match the odd page (front side of the paper). A blank page is provided at the end of the chapter, or the first page of each chapter is made to coincide with the front side of the paper by editing and correcting the document.

  In addition, when printing a plurality of copies, since control is usually not performed for each copy, all pages for a plurality of copies are output as one continuous document. In double-sided printing, the first page of the second copy is output. Is printed on the back side of the last page of the first copy. This is the same in the case of performing composite printing in which a plurality of pages are reduced and printed on one sheet of paper, and the result of printing the last of the first copy and the first of the second copy on the same paper. .

  Patent Document 1 is a document processing apparatus that automatically selects and prints document data of a page including a corrected portion, and includes management data for each page after correction and management data for each page before correction. Based on the above, a document processing apparatus is proposed that searches a page including a corrected portion of the corrected document data and selectively prints only the document data of the page including the searched corrected portion.

Patent Document 2 proposes a print control method in which a print command for a plurality of pages is stored in a command buffer, and each page is rendered and printed by a plurality of processors according to the print command.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 06-243133 JP 2003-67156 A

  However, in the case of the above-mentioned patent document 1, all pages are managed one by one, and only the pages that have been corrected are controlled to be printed, not for a document having a plurality of chapters in one printed document. . In the case of Patent Document 2, detection of page breaks for each page and page break control are performed, and not for a document having a plurality of chapters in one printed document.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, according to the first invention, the input means for inputting print data including specific character string information, the print data are analyzed, and a page break process is performed based on the detection of the specific character string information. Page break processing means; and print processing means for performing drawing processing based on the analysis result of the print data, and performing print processing including the specific character string information on the recording medium page-broken by the page break processing means. This can be achieved by providing a printing device having.

  According to the second invention, the page break processing means can be achieved by providing a printing apparatus that does not print the specific character string information.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information acquisition unit for acquiring information on a size of a recording medium or an arrangement direction of the recording medium, and information acquired by the information acquisition unit while analyzing the print data. The page break processing means for performing the page break processing based on the print data, the drawing process based on the analysis result of the print data, and the print processing of the drawing data on the recording medium paginated by the page break processing means. This can be achieved by providing a printing apparatus having print processing means.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the information acquisition means for acquiring layout pattern information and the print data of the layout pattern are analyzed, and based on the layout pattern information acquired by the information acquisition means, Page break processing means for performing page break processing; Print processing means for performing drawing processing based on the analysis result of the print data; and for performing printing processing of the drawing data on a recording medium that has undergone page break by the page break processing means; This can be achieved by providing a printing apparatus having

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the above-described problem can be achieved by providing a printing apparatus in which the information acquired by the page break processing means is information added by an information processing apparatus connected via a network. .

  According to the present invention, a page break process can be automatically performed on a single document according to a specific character string, the size and orientation of a recording medium, and a layout pattern. Page processing can be performed, and printing work efficiency can be improved.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the configuration of a host device to which the printing apparatus of this embodiment is connected, and shows the configuration of a personal computer (PC) as the host device. In the figure, a personal computer (PC) includes a CPU 1, a ROM 2, a RAM 3, a hard disk (HDD) 4, a display control unit 5, an input control unit 6, a USB communication control unit 7, printing connected to the CPU 1 via a bus. An output control unit 8 and a LAN communication control unit 9 are included.

The hard disk (HDD) 4 stores a printing device driver 12 and an application 13.
The CPU 1 performs a printing process according to a program stored in the ROM 2 and uses the RAM 3 as a work area. In addition, a key operation signal is input from the keyboard 11 to the input control unit 6, and the key operation signal is supplied to the CPU 1 and the like. Further, display data is input from the CPU 1 to the display controller 5, and the display controller 5 performs display on the display 10 in accordance with the display data.

  The USB communication control unit 7 communicates with peripheral devices such as an external hard disk using a USB connector, and the LAN communication control unit 9 communicates with a printing apparatus or a composite device (to be described later) via a LAN (local area network). Communicate with the machine.

  The printing device driver 12 has a print data conversion program corresponding to the above-described printing device or multifunction device, and the application 13 is a program used when creating document data or the like. Further, the printing apparatus driver 12 adds a specific character string instructing a line feed to the print data. For example, specific character strings such as <Chapter 1>, <Chapter 2>,... Described later are added to the print data.

  On the other hand, FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a printing apparatus. In this example, a printing apparatus will be described as an example of a multifunction peripheral (multifunctional printing apparatus / multifunction printer) having a facsimile function and a scanner function. In FIG. 1, the multi-function device 15 includes a scanner unit 16, an MFP control unit 17, and a printer unit 18. The scanner unit 16 includes a reading mechanism unit 16 a, which reads a document image placed on a document table by driving the reading mechanism unit 16 a and transmits document data to the MFP control unit 17.

  The MFP control unit 17 includes an MFP main unit 20, a reading mechanism control unit 21, a display operation control unit 22, a FAX communication control unit 23, a LAN communication control unit 24, a Centro / USB communication control unit 25, a storage device control unit 26, and The storage unit (HDD) 27 is configured.

  The reading mechanism control unit 21 performs mechanism control of the reading mechanism unit 16 a provided in the scanner unit 16, and transfers document data read by the scanner unit 16 to the MFP control unit 17.

  Display operation control unit 22 outputs an operation signal based on an operation of a key or the like provided on display operation unit 28 to MFP main unit 20. In addition, display data output from the MFP main unit 20 is displayed on the display operation control unit 22. Further, the storage device control unit 26 performs data writing to the storage device unit (HDD) 27 and controls reading of data stored in the storage device unit (HDD) 27.

  The LAN communication control unit 24 is an interface for connecting the MFP 15 used in this example to the LAN, and the FAX communication control unit 23 supplies facsimile data to the MFP main unit 20.

  On the other hand, the printer unit 18 includes a PPR control unit 30 and a printing mechanism unit 31. The printer unit 18 performs a printing process based on the control process of the PPR control unit 18, and the printing result is output to a paper discharge unit (not shown). The printing mechanism unit 31 includes a process mechanism (not shown) and a paper feeding mechanism, performs printing processing based on the control of the PPR control unit 30, and outputs the printing result to a paper discharge unit (not shown).

  In the above configuration, print data output from the personal computer (PC) is input to the multi-function device 15 (MFP main unit 20) via the LAN communication control unit 24, and command analysis of the print data is performed.

  Here, the above-mentioned specific character string is added to the print data, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing for adding the specific character string to the print data. That is, a determination character string (specific character string) is input to the first page of each document unit for a plurality of documents included in the print data. For example, a character string such as <Chapter 1>, <Chapter 2>,... Is input (step (hereinafter referred to as S) 1) and transmitted to the multi-function device 15 (S2).

  The multi-function device 15 performs command analysis processing on the print data supplied to the MFP main unit 20 as described above. FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining this processing. It is determined whether or not a specific character string (determination character) exists in the print data (step (hereinafter referred to as ST) 1), and when the determination character does not exist (ST1). NO), the normal printing process is continued, but when the determination character exists (ST1 is YES), if the previous page exists, the page break process is performed, and the page where the determination character exists is set to an arbitrary page. The first page of the unit is set (ST2). Specifically, the page before the page where the determination character exists is discharged, and the page where the determination character exists is set as the first page of a new chapter.

Thereafter, designated printing processing such as double-sided printing and multi-page composite printing is executed (ST3). FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the above processing result, and shows an example of two-page composite printing.
With this configuration, when printing one document having a plurality of chapters, it is possible to automatically obtain a printed output in which each page is changed. Further, when performing multi-copies printing, page break processing can be automatically performed for each copy even if double-sided printing or multi-page composite printing is performed.

In the description of the above embodiment, the character strings of <Chapter 1>, <Chapter 2>,... Are used as the specific character strings, but for example, <Service A>, <Service B>,. Other character strings may be used as the specific character string.
(Embodiment 2)

Next, Embodiment 2 of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the embodiment of this example. This example is basically the same as that of the first embodiment described above, but has a configuration in which a specific character string is not printed on the first page that has been paginated. Accordingly, the printing apparatus (see FIG. 1) and the personal computer (see FIG. 2) used in the first embodiment are used in this example as they are. This will be specifically described below.

  As described above, a specific character string is added to the print data output from the personal computer (PC), and when the command analysis is performed by the MFP main unit 20, the specific character string (determination character) exists in the print data. Therefore (step (hereinafter referred to as STP) 1), as described above, if there is a previous page, a page break process is performed, and the page where the determination character exists is set as the first page in an arbitrary page unit ( STP2). Specifically, the page before the page where the determination character exists is discharged, and the page where the determination character exists is set as the first page of a new chapter.

  Further, in this example, a specific character string is deleted. For example, if the specific character string is <person A>, <person B>,..., The person in charge is erased and the printing process is performed. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating the processing result.

  With this configuration, for example, when the assessment determination record shown in FIG. 7 is printed, the person in charge can be kept secret. In the flowchart shown in FIG. 6, when the determination character is not included (STP1 is NO), normal printing processing is performed, and set printing processing such as double-sided printing or multi-page composite printing is executed (STP3). .

Also in this embodiment, the specific character string is not limited to <charge A>, <charge B>,..., And another specific character string may be used as the determination character string. Further, the target document is not limited to the assessment judgment record.
(Embodiment 3)

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the embodiment of this example. Unlike the first and second embodiments described above, this example has a configuration in which a page break is performed based on the paper size and the vertical and horizontal information of the document data. Note that the printing apparatus (see FIG. 1) and the personal computer (see FIG. 2) used in the first and second embodiments are used in this example as they are. This will be specifically described below.

  As described above, print data output from a personal computer (PC) is supplied to the multi-function device 15, and command analysis is performed in the MFP main unit 20. At this time, the MFP main unit 20 analyzes the command for each page of the supplied print data to determine whether it is the first page of the document, or whether the paper size and the vertical and horizontal directions of the document data are different from the previous page ( Step (hereinafter referred to as W) 1).

  Here, when the paper size and the vertical and horizontal directions of the document data are not different from the previous page (W1 is NO), the normal printing process is continued. On the other hand, when the paper size or the vertical / horizontal direction of the document data is different from the previous page (W1 is YES), if the previous page exists, the page break process is performed, and this page is set as the first page in arbitrary page units. (W2). When it is determined that the page is the first page of the document, the page is only set as the first page.

Thereafter, designated printing processing such as double-sided printing and multi-page composite printing is executed (W3). FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the above processing result, and shows an example of two-page composite printing.
For example, in the example shown in the figure, the vertical and horizontal directions of the document data are different from the previous page, so the page is changed from (a) to (b) and the paper size is different from the previous page. To (c).

With this configuration, when printing a single document, it is possible to automatically obtain a page-out printed output for each chapter. In addition, when performing multi-copies printing, page breaks can be automatically made in units of copies even if double-sided printing or multi-page composite printing is performed.
In the description of the above embodiment, the page break is automatically performed according to the paper size and the vertical and horizontal directions of the document data. However, the page break may be configured based on other information.
(Embodiment 4)

Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating the embodiment of this example. This example is basically the same as that of the third embodiment described above, but the page break determination is performed based on whether or not there is a change in the document layout pattern instead of the paper size and the vertical and horizontal information of the document data. It is. This will be specifically described below.

  As described above, print data output from a personal computer (PC) is supplied to the multi-function device 15, and command analysis is performed by the MFP main unit 20. At this time, the MFP main unit 20 checks the layout pattern of each page of the supplied print data, and determines whether the layout pattern is the same as the first page (step (hereinafter referred to as U) 1).

  Here, when the layout pattern does not change from the first page (U1 is NO), the normal printing process is continued. On the other hand, when the layout pattern is different from the first page (U1 is YES), if there is a previous page, a page break process is performed to make this page the first page in arbitrary page units (U2).

Thereafter, designated printing processing such as double-sided printing and multi-page composite printing is executed (W3). FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the processing result, and shows an example of two-page composite printing.
For example, the layout pattern of the example in the figure is different from that of the first page, the layout pattern of the title A in FIG. 10A is the layout pattern of the title B, and the layout pattern of the title B in FIG. The layout pattern of title B is shown in FIG. Accordingly, a layout pattern different from the layout pattern (title A) of the first page is detected, and a page break process is automatically performed.
Also with this configuration, when printing one document, it is possible to obtain a print output with page breaks automatically.

It is a figure explaining the internal structure of the personal computer used in this embodiment. It is a figure explaining the internal structure of the printing apparatus used in this embodiment. It is a flowchart explaining the process which adds a specific character string to print data. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a processing operation of the first embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a printing result of the first embodiment. 10 is a flowchart for explaining a processing operation of the second embodiment. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a printing result of a second embodiment. 10 is a flowchart for explaining a processing operation of the third embodiment. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a printing result according to a third embodiment. 10 is a flowchart for explaining a processing operation of the fourth embodiment. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a printing result of a fourth embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

1 ... CPU
2 ... ROM
3 ... RAM
4 ... Hard disk (HDD)
5 ... Display control unit 6 ... Input control unit 7 ... USB communication control unit 8 ... Print output control unit 9 ... LAN communication control unit 10 ... Display 11 ... Keyboard 12 ... Print Device driver 13 · · · Application 15 · · Printing device (multifunction machine)
16 ..Scanner unit 17 ..MFP control unit 18 ..Printer unit 20 ..MFP main unit 21 ..Reading mechanism control unit 22 ..Display operation control unit 23 ..FAX communication control unit 24 ..LAN communication control unit 25..Centro / USB communication control unit 26.Storage device control unit 27.Storage device unit (HDD)
30 .. PPR control part 31 .. Printing mechanism part

Claims (5)

Input means for inputting print data including specific character string information;
Page break processing means for analyzing the print data and performing page break processing based on detection of the specific character string information;
A print processing unit that performs a drawing process based on the analysis result of the print data, and performs a print process including the specific character string information on the recording medium that has undergone a page break by the page break processing unit;
A printing apparatus comprising:   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print processing unit does not print the specific character string information. Information acquisition means for acquiring information on the size of the recording medium or the arrangement direction of the recording medium;
A page break processing means for analyzing the print data and performing a page break process based on the information acquired by the information acquisition means;
Print processing means for performing drawing processing based on the analysis result of the print data, and performing print processing of the drawing data on a recording medium that has undergone page breaks by the page break processing means;
A printing apparatus comprising: Information acquisition means for acquiring layout pattern information;
A page break processing means for analyzing the print data of the layout pattern and performing page break processing based on the layout pattern information acquired by the information acquisition means;
Print processing means for performing drawing processing based on the analysis result of the print data, and performing print processing of the drawing data on a recording medium that has undergone page breaks by the page break processing means;
A printing apparatus comprising:   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, 2, 3, or 4, wherein the information acquired by the page break processing means is information added by an information processing apparatus connected via a network.

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