JP2012086457A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer capable of allowing a user to grasp a printing last page which is made to be a last page in already printed pages of a print job by a cancel command when printing is canceled.SOLUTION: The printer 100 detects a cancel command of a print job during printing. When the printer detects the cancel command, information (page number, an image of the page or the like) capable of allowing a user to recognize a page which is made to be a last page in printed pages of a print job of the canceling target is outputted. As a method of outputting the information, for example, displaying it on a display section of an operation panel 40 or printing it on a paper sheet can be given.

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus having a function of canceling a print job that is being printed.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, printing apparatuses that detect a print cancel command while printing a print job are known. When the printing apparatus detects a cancel command, printing of the print job is canceled in the middle of execution.

  As a document describing a print job cancellation technique, for example, Patent Document 1 is known. In Patent Document 1, when cancellation is instructed during printing of a print job, there is unprinted paper (retained paper) that has been picked in the apparatus. Discloses a technique for printing a subsequent job.

JP 2005-319638 A

  However, the conventional printing apparatus described above has the following problems. In other words, the user who gives an instruction to cancel the job does not know which page the cancellation was accepted on. For this reason, it is impossible to specify whether or not all the printed pages have been collected. For example, even if the second half of a print job that has been canceled is taken away by a user of a subsequent job, it is difficult to grasp that fact.

  The present invention has been made to solve the problems of the conventional printing apparatus described above. That is, an object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus that can grasp the last printed page of a print job that has been printed by a cancel command when printing is canceled.

  In order to solve this problem, a printing apparatus is configured to detect a cancel command for a print job that is being printed, and to detect whether the print job has been printed by the cancel command in conjunction with the detection of the cancel command. Output means for outputting information that allows the user to recognize the final printed page that has become the final page.

  The printing apparatus of the present invention detects a print job cancel command during printing. Then, in conjunction with the detection of the cancel command, information for allowing the user to recognize the page that has become the last printed page (print last page) of the print job to be canceled is output. Examples of information that can recognize the last printed page include a page number, a page image, or a mark or character string indicating the last printed page. As a method for outputting information, for example, display on a display unit or printing on paper is applicable.

  That is, in the printing apparatus of the present invention, when a print job that is being printed is canceled, information that can recognize the last printed page is output in conjunction with the cancellation. As a result, the user can grasp to which page printing has been completed for the print job to be canceled.

  Further, the output unit of the printing apparatus of the present invention may output information when there is a subsequent job that is a print job subsequent to the print job to be canceled. Outputting information involves, for example, display screen switching and toner consumption. For this reason, it is not preferable to frequently output information. On the other hand, when there is no subsequent job, there is no printed material that is immediately ejected on the final print page of the print job that has been canceled, and the second half of the print job has been taken away by someone else It is hard to happen that you can't figure out. Also, it is easy to distinguish the last printed page. Therefore, it is preferable to output the information of the last printed page on the condition that there is a subsequent job in order to efficiently improve the convenience for the user.

  Further, the output means may output information when the subsequent job uses the same paper discharge destination as the print job to be canceled. If the subsequent job uses a different paper discharge destination, the printed material of the print job that is the cancel target and the printed material of the subsequent job are not mixed. Therefore, even when there is a subsequent job, if the discharge destination is different, it is preferable not to output the information on the last printed page in order to improve the convenience for the user more efficiently.

  In addition, the cancel command detected by the detection means includes a self device cancel command from an operation panel provided in the self device, and another device cancel command from an information processing device connected via a communication line, The output means may output information in the case of another device cancel command. In the case of another apparatus cancel command, it is difficult for the user to confirm the operation of the printing apparatus after cancellation, and a third party is likely to intervene. On the other hand, such a problem is unlikely to occur in the case of the own apparatus cancel command. For this reason, in the case of another apparatus cancel command, it is preferable to output the information of the last printed page in order to improve the convenience for the user more efficiently.

  Further, the output means of the printing apparatus of the present invention may output the image image of the last printed page to a display section provided in the apparatus itself or a display section of an information processing apparatus connected via a communication line. By outputting the image, the user can easily recognize the final printed page.

  Further, the output means of the printing apparatus of the present invention may output information on paper. By printing the information directly on the paper, the user can easily recognize the final printed page.

  The output means may output information on a sheet on which a final print page is printed. According to this configuration, output can be performed without using a new sheet, so that resources are not wasted. Further, the output means may be configured to output information to the staying paper when there is a paper staying in the paper transport path of the own apparatus. According to this configuration, the staying paper can be effectively used.

  The output means may output information to the edge of the paper. When the printed material is a bundle of paper, if the information is printed on the edge of the paper, the information is easy to find. Further, the output means may perform color printing, and when the previously printed page is monochrome printing, the information may be output on paper by switching to color printing. If there is a color print in a monochrome print, it is easy to find the print.

  Further, the output unit of the printing apparatus of the present invention may not output information if the last print page is the last page of the print job. If the last print page is the last page of the print job, all pages of the print job to be canceled are printed. For this reason, the need for reporting information is low. Therefore, when the last print page is the last page of the print job, the convenience of the user can be improved more efficiently by not outputting the information of the last print page.

  According to the present invention, when printing is canceled, a printing apparatus is realized that can grasp the final printed page that has become the final printed page of a print job by a cancel command.

1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a printing system according to an embodiment. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a printer included in the printing system. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example (part 1) of using a sheet when canceling. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example (part 1) of notifying a sheet when canceling is performed. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example (part 2) of using a sheet when canceling. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example (part 2) of notifying a sheet when canceling is performed. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the cancellation alerting | reporting process by a printer. It is a figure which shows the structure of the database which memorize | stores the information of an alerting | reporting destination. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the alerting | reporting image output by a printer.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of a printing apparatus according to the invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this embodiment, the present invention is applied to a printer that cancels a print job that is being executed by inputting a cancel command.

[Overall configuration of printing system]
As shown in FIG. 1, the printing system according to this embodiment includes a printer 100 having a printing function and a PC (personal computer) 200 that outputs print data to the printer 100. In the printing system, the printer 100 and the PC 200 are connected via a network 300 such as Ethernet (registered trademark). Note that any number of printers and PCs constituting the printing system may be connected. Further, other information processing apparatuses and image processing apparatuses may be connected to the printing system.

  The printer 100 includes a CPU 31 (an example of detection means and output means), a ROM 32, a RAM 33, an NVRAM (Non Volatile RAM) 34, an ASIC 35, and a network interface 37 (an example of output means and detection means). A control unit 30 is provided. In addition, the control unit 30 is electrically connected to the image forming unit 10 that forms an image on a sheet and an operation panel 40 (an example of an output unit and a detection unit) that displays an operation status and receives an input operation by a user. Has been.

  The ROM 32 stores firmware, which is a control program for controlling the printer 100, various settings, initial values, and the like. The RAM 33 is used as a work area from which various control programs are read or as a storage area for temporarily storing image data.

  The CPU 31 controls each component of the printer 100 via the ASIC 35 while storing the processing result in the RAM 33 or NVRAM 34 according to the control program read from the ROM 32 and signals sent from various sensors.

  The network interface 37 is an interface that enables communication with an external device. In this embodiment, data is transmitted to and received from the PC 200 or the like via the network interface 37.

  The PC 200 may be a general PC provided with a CPU, ROM, RAM, HDD, an operation unit including a keyboard and a mouse, a display unit including a liquid crystal display, and a network interface. In the PC 200, a printer driver for the printer 100 is incorporated in the HDD, and a print job is transmitted to the printer 100.

  Further, when a cancel is input during transmission of a print job, the PC 200 stops transmission of the print job and transmits a print cancel instruction to the printer 100. If cancel is input after the print job is transmitted, a print cancel command is transmitted to the printer 100 together with the print job identification information.

[Printer configuration]
Next, the internal configuration of the printer 100 will be described with reference to FIG. The printer 100 includes a paper feed cassette 91 that stores paper before printing, an image forming unit 10 that prints on paper, and paper discharge trays 92 and 93 that are paper discharge destinations of paper printed by the image forming unit 10. It has. The image forming unit 10 only needs to be able to form a color image to be printed, and may be an electrophotographic system or an inkjet system. That is, the printer 100 may be a page printer or a serial printer. Further, it may be a color printer or a monochrome printer.

  In the printer 100, paper stored in the paper feed cassette 91 located at the bottom passes through the paper feed roller 71, the registration roller 72, and the image forming unit 10, and passes through the paper discharge roller 73 to the paper discharge tray 92. A substantially S-shaped conveyance path 11 (a chain line in FIG. 2) is provided. Further, the printer 100 branches from the transport path 11 at a position downstream of the image forming unit 10 in the paper transport direction of the transport path 11 and upstream of the paper discharge roller 73. A conveyance path 12 (two-dot chain line in FIG. 2) led to the paper discharge tray 93 is provided.

  When the printer 100 detects the print command, the printer 100 picks the paper from the paper feed cassette 91 and carries it into the transport path 11. Then, the picked paper is conveyed to the image forming unit 10 and an image to be printed is printed on the paper. The printed sheet is discharged to a discharge tray 92 or a discharge tray 93.

  In addition, when printing a print job to be printed on a plurality of sheets, or when a plurality of print jobs are registered in the job queue, the printer 100 carries the first sheet into the transport path 11 and then the sheet. Starts to transport the second sheet before the sheet is discharged to the discharge tray 92 or the discharge tray 93. That is, the printer 100 continues the printing operation while transporting a plurality of sheets to the transport paths 11 and 12.

[Overview of print cancellation]
Next, cancellation of a print job during execution of printing by the printer 100 will be described. In the printer 100 of this embodiment, a print job can be canceled by a remote operation from the PC 200 or an input operation to the operation panel 40. Further, after canceling the print job, the printer 100 outputs an image notifying execution of the cancellation (hereinafter referred to as “notification image”).

  Specifically, for example, assume that job A on page 8 and job B on page 2 are registered in the job queue in the order of job A and job B, and job A is being printed. In this situation, if a cancel command is input during the printing of the fourth page of job A, the printing of job A is stopped after the printing of the fourth page is completed as shown in FIG. Then, the notification image is printed on a sheet subsequent to the sheet on which the fourth page, which is the last printed page, is printed. Thereafter, printing of job B, which is a print job subsequent to job A, is started.

  As a notification image, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, an image of a specific pattern or a sentence for recognizing cancellation is applicable. When printing a sentence, it is preferable to print the number of the last page that has been printed (the last page of printing) and the cancellation time. By printing the notification image, the user can grasp the job separation. For example, even if only a specific symbol is printed as the notification image, the user can recognize that the paper immediately before the paper on which the symbol is printed is the last printed page by checking the symbol.

  Further, if the printer 100 is configured to print a notification image on a sheet in the middle of printing, the printer 100 may print on the sheet in the middle of printing. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, when a cancel command is detected when an image on the fourth page is being printed, the notification image may be printed in the middle of printing the image on the fourth page. In this case, as shown in FIG. 6, the image of the page being printed and the notification image are printed on one sheet of paper.

[Print Cancel Operation]
Next, a procedure for realizing the above-described print cancellation will be described. In the following description, a cancel operation when a cancel command by remote operation from the PC 200 is input will be described.

[Cancellation notification process]
First, cancel notification processing (an example of output means and detection means) executed by the CPU 31 of the printer 100 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The cancel notification process is executed when a cancel command from the PC 200 is detected.

  First, it is determined whether there is a print job (subsequent job) subsequent to the print job to be canceled (S101). When there is no subsequent job, that is, when no print job other than the print job to be canceled is registered in the job queue, the print job is canceled and the print output stops. The situation where it is difficult to grasp is difficult to occur. Therefore, if there is no subsequent job (S101: NO), the cancel notification process is terminated without outputting a notification image.

  If there is a subsequent job (S101: YES), it is determined whether or not the subsequent job uses the same paper discharge tray as the print job to be canceled (S102). If the print job to be canceled and the succeeding job use different output trays, the print job is canceled and the print output to the output tray used by the print job to be canceled stops. It is unlikely that a situation in which the second half of the print job has been taken away cannot be grasped. Further, the user can easily grasp the last printed page without outputting the notification image. Therefore, even when subsequent jobs do not use the same paper discharge tray (S102: NO), the cancel notification process is terminated without outputting a notification image.

  If the subsequent job uses the same paper discharge tray (S102: YES), it is determined whether or not the printing is canceled during printing (S103). Specifically, it is determined whether or not the page that has become the last print page is the last page of the print job. After printing of the last page of the print job is started, it is only necessary to output all the printed matter related to the print job, so there is little need to notify that printing is in progress. Therefore, if it is not canceling during printing (S103: NO), a message notifying the fact that cancellation has been input is output (S111). After S111, the cancel notification process is terminated.

  As shown in FIG. 8, the printer 100 has a database 131 that stores the user and the mail address of the user in association with each other. Therefore, in S111, the user is identified from the user information attached to the print job, and a message is sent to the user by e-mail. In addition, the output destination of the message of S111 corresponds to the operation panel 40 of the printer 100, for example.

  On the other hand, in the case of cancellation during printing (S103: YES), notification image output processing for outputting a notification image is executed (S104). After S104, the cancel notification process is terminated.

  Here, the detailed procedure of the notification image output process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, it is determined whether or not a sheet in the middle of printing (intermediate sheet) can be used (S121). For example, in the case of a serial printer, a notification image can be printed if there is a margin in the middle of printing (see FIG. 6). For this reason, if the intermediate sheet is usable (S121: YES), the intermediate sheet is determined as a sheet for outputting a notification image (S122).

  On the other hand, if the paper on the way is not usable (S121: NO), is it picked from the paper feed cassette 91, exists in the transport path 11, and is there still paper before printing (hereinafter referred to as "residual paper")? It is determined whether or not (S131). That is, it is determined whether or not there is a sheet left in the transport path 11 by the cancel command. If there is a staying paper (S131: YES), the staying paper closest to the image forming unit 10 among the staying paper is determined as a paper for outputting a notification image (S132).

  After determining the sheet on which the notification image is output in S122 or S132, the print setting is changed as appropriate (S123). In S123, the print setting is changed so that the user can easily find the notification image. For example, borderless printing is set. As a result, printing is performed up to the end of the paper, and it can be expected that the paper on which the notification image is printed can be easily found from the printed material bundled on the paper discharge tray. If the printer 100 is a color printer, the color setting is changed. For example, if the print job to be canceled is monochrome, it is changed to color. In this case, a color printed matter exists in the monochrome printed matter, and it can be expected to easily find a sheet on which the notification image is printed.

  After S123, a notification image is printed on the paper determined in S122 or S132 (S124). After S124, the notification image output process is terminated. After printing the notification image, printing of the subsequent job is started.

  On the other hand, if there is no staying paper (S131: NO), the user is identified from the user information attached to the print job, and the mail address of the identified user is acquired by referring to the database 131 shown in FIG. S141). Further, the page number that is the last printed page is specified (S142). Then, image image data (hereinafter referred to as “notification data”, for example, a JPEG image) of the last printed page is acquired (S143). Then, the notification data is attached to the e-mail, and the e-mail is transmitted to the e-mail address acquired in S141 (S144). After S144, the notification image output process is terminated.

  That is, after inputting the cancel command, the user can receive one of the paper on which the notification image is printed and the notification data. Specifically, a notification image is printed if a sheet in the middle of printing or a staying sheet is available. On the other hand, when it is necessary to pick a new sheet for the output of the notification image, the notification data is transmitted to the PC 200 that issued the cancel instruction. Thereby, the user can grasp on which page the cancellation is accepted.

  In this embodiment, when there is no staying paper (S131: NO), the notification data is transmitted by e-mail. However, a new paper is picked and a notification image is printed on the paper. Also good. In this embodiment, one of the paper on which the notification image is printed and the notification data is output, but both may be output. For example, the notification image may be always printed in conjunction with the detection of the cancel command, and the notification data may be transmitted after the notification image is printed.

  In this embodiment, the cancel operation is performed when a cancel command is input by remote operation from the PC 200, but can be applied even when a cancel command by manual input from the operation panel 40 of the printer 100 is input. It is. In this configuration, if there is no stagnant paper in S131, for example, a message for recognizing the last printed page may be displayed on the display unit of the operation panel 40, or a new paper is picked and a notification image is displayed on the paper. You may print.

  As described in detail above, in the printer 100 according to the present embodiment, when a print job being printed is cancelled, information (for example, a notification image or notification data) that can recognize the final print page is linked to the cancellation, Output to paper or print job sender. As a result, the user can grasp to which page printing has been completed for the print job to be canceled.

  Note that this embodiment is merely an example, and does not limit the present invention. Therefore, the present invention can naturally be improved and modified in various ways without departing from the gist thereof. For example, the printer is not limited as long as it has a printing function, and can be applied even to a multifunction machine or a copying machine.

  Further, in the embodiment, when there is no subsequent job, information for grasping the final print page such as printing of a notification image is not output, but the information is output regardless of the presence of the subsequent job. Also good. In the embodiment, when the subsequent job uses a different paper discharge tray, the above information is not output, but the information may be output regardless of the paper discharge tray used in the subsequent job. .

  In the embodiment, the notification data, which is the image data of the last printed page, is attached to the mail and can be displayed on the PC 200. However, the notification data is displayed on the display unit of the operation panel 40 of the printer 100. May be.

10 Image forming unit 40 Operation panel 100 Printer 200 PC

Claims (11)

Detection means for detecting a cancel instruction for a print job being executed;
In conjunction with the detection of the cancel command, output means for outputting information that allows the user to recognize the last printed page that has become the last printed page of the print job by the cancel command;
A printing apparatus comprising: The printing apparatus according to claim 1,
The printing apparatus is characterized in that the output means outputs the information when there is a subsequent job that is a print job subsequent to the print job to be canceled. The printing apparatus according to claim 2,
The output device outputs the information when a subsequent job uses the same paper discharge destination as that of the print job to be canceled. In the printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The cancel command detected by the detection means includes a self device cancel command from an operation panel provided in the self device, and another device cancel command from an information processing device connected via a communication line,
The printing apparatus, wherein the output means outputs the information in the case of the other apparatus cancel command. In the printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
The printing apparatus is characterized in that the output means outputs an image image of the last printed page to a display section provided in the apparatus itself or a display section of an information processing apparatus connected via a communication line. In the printing apparatus as described in any one of Claims 1-5,
The printing apparatus, wherein the output means outputs the information on a sheet. The printing apparatus according to claim 6,
The printing apparatus is characterized in that the output means outputs the information to a sheet on which a final printing page is printed. The printing apparatus according to claim 6,
The output device outputs the information to the staying paper when there is paper staying in the paper transport path of the own apparatus. The printing apparatus according to any one of claims 6 to 8,
The printing apparatus, wherein the output means outputs the information to an end portion of a sheet. The printing apparatus according to any one of claims 6 to 9,
The printing apparatus is characterized in that color printing is possible, and when the previously printed page is monochrome printing, the printing unit switches to color printing and outputs the information on paper. The printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10,
The printing device is characterized in that the output means does not output the information if the last printed page is the last page of the print job.

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