JP2018118457A - Image formation apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide means of displaying the progress even in expansion of printing data.SOLUTION: An image formation apparatus which includes a printing unit printing image data generated on the basis of printing data on a continuous medium includes: an expansion unit which performs processing of expanding the printing data to the image data; a display unit which displays the progress of the processing; and a control unit which controls the printing unit, the expansion unit and the display unit. The control unit displays on the display unit the expansion page number obtained by expanding the printing data to the image data by the expansion unit during processing of the expansion unit.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that displays progress of processing.

  In a conventional image forming apparatus, when printing is performed based on print data, all the print data is analyzed and developed into image data, and then the progress of processing is displayed (for example, refer to Patent Document 1). .

JP 2002-234237 A

However, the conventional technique has a problem that the progress status cannot be displayed during the development of the print data.
An object of the present invention is to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to display a progress status even while print data is being developed.

  Therefore, the present invention provides an image forming apparatus having a printing unit that prints image data generated based on print data on a continuous medium, a developing unit that performs processing for developing the print data into the image data, A display unit that displays a progress status; and a control unit that controls the printing unit, the developing unit, and the display unit, and the control unit is configured to print the printing unit during the processing of the developing unit. The number of expanded pages in which data is expanded into the image data is displayed on the display unit.

  According to the present invention thus configured, it is possible to display the progress status even while the print data is being developed.

1 is a block diagram showing a control configuration of a print control unit in the first embodiment. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image forming system in a first embodiment. Flowchart showing the flow of print data processing in the first embodiment Flowchart showing the flow of page development processing in the first embodiment The flowchart which shows the flow of the printing process in a 1st Example. Explanatory drawing of the page number display in 1st Example Explanatory drawing of the printing progress display in the first embodiment The block diagram which shows the control structure of the printing control part in 2nd Example. Flowchart showing the flow of print data processing in the second embodiment Flowchart showing the flow of printing processing in the second embodiment Explanatory drawing of page number display in 2nd Example Explanatory drawing of the printing progress display in the second embodiment

  Embodiments of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image forming system in the first embodiment.
In FIG. 2, an image forming system 100 includes a printing apparatus 10 and an information processing apparatus 30 that are communicably connected via a network 50 serving as a communication line.
The information processing apparatus 30 performs image processing on input data and outputs print data, and is, for example, a host computer.

  A printing apparatus 10 serving as an image forming apparatus inputs print data output from the information processing apparatus 30, and images are printed on continuous print paper (hereinafter referred to as “paper”) as a continuous medium based on the input print data. For example, a printer or the like. The printing apparatus 10 includes a cutting mechanism such as a cutter that cuts a sheet at a predetermined length or more in the sheet conveyance direction.

  The information processing device 30 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 31, an OS (Operating System) 32, an input device 33, a display device 34, an internal storage device 35, and a communication unit 36. The CPU 31, OS 32, input device 33, display device 34, internal storage device 35, and communication unit 36 are connected to each other via an internal bus 30a.

The CPU 31 is a control unit, and controls the overall operation of the information processing apparatus 30 based on a control program (software) stored in the OS 32 and the internal storage device 35.
The OS 32 is basic software for controlling the operation of the entire information processing apparatus 30.

The input device 33 is input means such as a touch panel and operation keys for inputting various information from the outside.
The display device 34 is output means such as a display for displaying various information such as print contents and print settings.

The internal storage device 35 is a storage unit such as a memory, and stores a printer driver 351, a control program, and various control information.
The printer driver 351 is software that generates print data to be transmitted to the printing apparatus 10 based on input data. The printer driver 351 has a function of generating a logical page in which a plurality of pages are concatenated, and a value (page concatenation number) representing information indicating the number of pages concatenated inside the print data or inside each logical page. Is included.

  Here, a logical page is a page obtained by concatenating a plurality of physical pages of print data. The reason for generating the logical page is as follows.

  In other words, in the printing apparatus 10 having a paper cutting function, the length of the paper after cutting needs to be equal to or longer than the paper length (minimum paper length) necessary for conveyance by the medium conveyance unit, and is less than the minimum paper length. When printing on paper, a plurality of physical pages of print data are concatenated to generate a logical page that is longer than the minimum paper length.

  Here, the minimum sheet length is, for example, the maximum distance between the conveyance rollers in the medium conveyance direction of the conveyance path of the medium conveyance unit. Therefore, the logical page has a length equal to or longer than the maximum interval in the paper (medium) conveyance direction of the conveyance roller for conveying the paper.

  In this way, the print data generated by the printer driver 351 is composed of physical pages divided for each page and logical pages that are concatenated with physical pages so as to have a length that can be printed by the printing unit 15 of the printing apparatus 10. For each logical page, the number of concatenated physical pages is included as the page concatenation number.

The communication unit 36 transmits and receives various information such as print data and communication control information to and from the printing apparatus 10 via the network 50.
The printing apparatus 10 includes a communication unit 11, a CPU 12, a storage unit 13, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 14, a printing unit 15, a medium transport unit 16, and a display unit 17. The communication unit 11, the CPU 12, the storage unit 13, the ROM 14, the printing unit 15, the medium transport unit 16, and the display unit 17 are connected to each other via the internal bus 10a.

The communication unit 11 transmits and receives various information such as print data and communication control information to and from the information processing apparatus 30 via the network 50.
The CPU 12 as a control unit is a control unit and controls the operation of the entire printing apparatus 10 based on a control program stored in the ROM 14.
The storage unit 13 is a storage unit such as a RAM (Random Access Memory), and temporarily stores print data and the like.

The ROM 14 is a non-volatile storage unit, and in this embodiment, stores a print control unit 20 that analyzes print data and controls a print operation. Details of the print control unit 20 will be described later.
The printing unit 15 executes a printing operation based on the control of the printing control unit 20. The printing unit 15 performs a printing operation of printing the image data generated by the printing control unit 20 on a continuous medium based on the print data stored in the storage unit 13.

The medium conveying unit 16 conveys the sheet with the conveying roller while detecting the position of the sheet with a sensor or the like at the time of printing in accordance with an instruction from the printing unit 15. The sheet conveyed by the medium conveying unit 16 is conveyed on a medium conveying path in which a plurality of conveying rollers and a plurality of sensors are arranged in the sheet conveying direction.
Further, the medium transport unit 16 includes a cutting mechanism for cutting the paper, and can cut the paper for each logical page described above. The paper is not necessarily cut for each logical page, but the paper may be cut in a state where a plurality of logical pages are connected.

  The display unit 17 is an output unit such as a display that displays the state of the printing apparatus 10 and the progress of processing in accordance with an instruction from the print control unit 20.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control configuration of a print control unit in the first embodiment.

  In FIG. 1, the print control unit 20 as a control unit includes a page development unit 21, a print execution unit 22, a page number calculation unit 23, and a page connection number calculation unit 24. The print control unit 20 controls the page development unit 21, the print execution unit 22, the page number calculation unit 23, and the page connection number calculation unit 24 to develop the print data into image data and print the image data on paper. Process.

  In addition, the storage unit 13 processes the number of processed pages EP131 as a first variable for storing the number of processed pages (number of developed pages) of print data, and the print page as a second variable for storing the number of printed pages of print data. The number PP132 is stored.

The page development unit 21 serving as a development unit develops the print data received by the communication unit 11 into image data having a data format that can be printed by the printing unit 15.
The print execution unit 22 as a print unit notifies the print unit 15 of the image data expanded by the page expansion unit 21 and instructs execution of printing.

The page number calculation unit 23 calculates the number of print data processing (development) pages from the processing page number EP 131 stored in the storage unit 13, and the print page number of the print data from the print page number PP 132 stored in the storage unit 13. The number is calculated.
The page connection number calculation unit 24 acquires the connection number in the logical page from the image data expanded by the page expansion unit 21 and adds the page number to the processing page number EP131 or the print page number PP132.

  The print control unit 20 configured in this way displays on the display unit 17 the number of developed pages obtained by developing the print data received by the page developing unit 21 into the image data during the processing of the page developing unit 21. .

  The operation of the above configuration will be described.

  First, print data processing performed by the printing apparatus of the image forming system will be described with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 according to the step represented by S in the flowchart showing the flow of print data processing in the first embodiment of FIG. .

  S101: Upon receiving print data from the printer driver 351 of the information processing apparatus 30, the printing apparatus 10 of the image forming system 100 stores the print data in the storage unit 13 and then prints it by the page development unit 21 of the print control unit 20. Perform page expansion processing to expand all pages of data.

S102: When the page expansion unit 21 performs the page expansion process, the printing apparatus 10 performs the print process on the expanded image data by the print execution unit 22 of the print control unit 20.
Next, a page development process performed by the printing apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 in accordance with a step represented by S in the flowchart showing the flow of the page development process in the first embodiment of FIG. This page development process is a process performed by the printing apparatus 10 in S101 of FIG.

  S111: The page development unit 21 of the print control unit 20 initializes by substituting “0” into the processing page number EP131 which is a variable stored in the storage unit 13.

  S112: The page development unit 21 displays the number of pages stored in the processed page number EP131 on the display unit 17 as the number of pages being processed. As described above, the page development unit 21 displays the page number stored in the processing page number EP 131 on the display unit 17 as the progress of the development process. Note that the processing of S112 to S117 is repeated until all pages can be expanded.

  At this time, the page development unit 21 displays a progress status display screen 51 on the display unit 17 as shown in FIG. The progress status display screen 51 is composed of a word “processing in progress” in the first row from the top and a word “page n” representing the number of pages being processed in the third row. n is the number of pages obtained by adding “1” to the number of pages stored in the processed page number EP131. For example, when the number of pages stored in the processed page number EP 131 is “3”, the word “page 4” is displayed in the third row of the progress display screen 51.

  S113: The page expansion unit 21 expands one physical page or logical page of the print data stored in the storage unit 13 into image data, and stores the expanded image data in the storage unit 13. When the page connection number of logical pages is added to the print data (that is, when one logical page is expanded), the page expansion unit 21 adds the logical page to the image data stored in the storage unit 13. The number of page linkages is added.

  S114: When the developed image data is stored in the storage unit 13, the page development unit 21 determines whether or not the page is a logical page in which the page connection number is added to the print data, and is added (logical page). If it is determined, the process proceeds to S115, and if it is determined that it is not added (not a logical page), the process proceeds to S116.

  S115: When the page development unit 21 determines that the page connection number is added to the print data, the page number calculation unit 23 obtains the page connection number of the logical page from the print data, and the process stored in the storage unit 13 The page number is added to EP 131, and the process proceeds to S117.

  As described above, the print control unit 20 updates the number of developed pages in units of page connection number every time the page developing unit 21 develops a logical page. More specifically, the print control unit 20 updates the processing page number EP131 by adding the page connection number to the processing page number EP131 that stores the expansion page number of the physical page that has already been expanded by the page expansion unit 21.

  S116: On the other hand, when the page expansion unit 21 determines that the page connection number is not added to the print data (when one physical page is expanded), the page number calculation unit 23 stores the processing stored in the storage unit 13. “1” is added to the number of pages EP131, and the process proceeds to S117.

  S117: The page development unit 21 determines whether or not the development of all pages of the print data stored in the storage unit 13 has been completed. If it is determined that the development of all pages has not been completed, the process returns to S112. The processes of S112 to S116 are repeated. On the other hand, when the page development unit 21 determines that the development of all pages of the print data has been completed, the print control unit 20 ends this processing.

  As described above, in this embodiment, the page development unit 21 of the print control unit 20 processes the number of pages stored in the processing page number EP 131 during the development process of developing the print data stored in the storage unit 13 into image data. By displaying on the display unit 17 as the number of pages in the middle, it is possible to notify the user of the progress of the process before printing starts.

  Next, a printing process performed by the printing apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 according to a step represented by S in the flowchart showing the flow of the printing process in the first embodiment of FIG. This printing process is a process performed by the printing apparatus 10 in S102 of FIG.

  S <b> 121: The print execution unit 22 of the print control unit 20 initializes by assigning “0” to the print page number PP <b> 132 which is a variable stored in the storage unit 13.

  S122: The print execution unit 22 displays the page number stored in the print page number PP132 on the display unit 17 as the number of pages being printed. As described above, the print execution unit 22 displays the page number stored in the print page number PP132 on the display unit 17 as the progress status of the print process. Note that the processing of S122 to S127 is repeated until all pages can be printed.

  At this time, the print execution unit 22 displays a progress status display screen 52 on the display unit 17 as shown in FIG. The progress status display screen 52 is composed of a word “printing” in the first row from the top and a word “page n / m” representing the number of pages being printed in the third row. N in the numerator is the number of pages obtained by adding “1” to the number of pages stored in the number of printed pages PP132, and m in the denominator is the total number of pages. For example, when the number of pages stored in the print page number PP132 is “0” and the number of pages stored in the processed page number EP131 is “10”, the third page of the progress display screen 51 displays “page 1 / 10 "is displayed.

  As described above, the print control unit 20 displays the number of print pages obtained by adding the page connection number on the display unit 17 together with the number of developed pages in which the page development unit 21 develops print data into image data.

  In this embodiment, since the print execution unit 22 performs print processing after the expansion processing by the page expansion unit 21 is completed, the print control unit 20 displays the number of expanded pages after the expansion processing is completed. To display.

  S123: The print execution unit 22 takes out the image data of one physical page or logical page stored in the storage unit 13, notifies the printing unit 15 to print the image data.

  S124: When printing one page of image data, the print execution unit 22 determines whether or not the page is a logical page to which the page connection number is added. If it is determined that the page is added (logical page), the process is performed. If the process proceeds to S125 and it is determined that the page is not added (not a logical page), the process proceeds to S126.

  S125: When the print execution unit 22 determines that the page connection number is added to the print data, the page number calculation unit 23 obtains the page connection number of the logical page from the print data, and the print stored in the storage unit 13 The page number is added to PP132, and the process proceeds to S127.

  In this way, each time the print execution unit 22 prints a logical page, the print control unit 20 updates the number of print pages of physical pages that have already been printed by the print execution unit 22 in units of page connections. More specifically, the print control unit 20 updates the print page number PP132 by adding the page connection number to the print page number PP132 that stores the print page number of the physical pages already printed by the print execution unit 22.

  S126: On the other hand, if the print execution unit 22 determines that the page connection number is not added to the print data, the page number calculation unit 23 adds “1” to the print page number PP132 stored in the storage unit 13, The process proceeds to S127.

  S127: The print execution unit 22 determines whether or not printing of all pages of the print data stored in the storage unit 13 is completed. If it is determined that printing of all pages is not completed, the process returns to S122. The processes of S122 to S126 are repeated. On the other hand, when the print execution unit 22 determines that printing of all pages of the print data has been completed, the print control unit 20 ends this processing.

  As described above, in this embodiment, the page connection number calculation unit 24 of the print control unit 20 adds the page connection number of the logical page to the page number stored in the print page number PP132, and the print execution unit 22 is printing. By displaying on the display unit 17 as the number of pages, the number of pages being printed can be displayed in accordance with the number of physical pages even when printing using logical pages, and the progress of the printing process can be accurately determined. The user can be notified.

  Further, even when printing is performed in units of copies, the number of printed pages can be notified to the user from the first copy.

  Next, the printing status display when the printer driver 351 of the information processing apparatus 30 shown in FIG. 2 generates a logical page will be described based on the explanatory diagram of the printing progress status display in the first embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 7A is an explanatory diagram of print data, in which logical page 1 is composed of three physical pages, logical page 2 is composed of three physical pages, and logical page 3 is composed of four physical pages. Is shown.
FIG. 7B is an explanatory diagram of the print progress display when the print data 60 shown in FIG. 7A is printed. The print progress displayed on the display unit 17 of the printing apparatus 10 shown in FIG. Show.

  When the printing apparatus 10 expands the logical page 1 of the print data 60, when the printing progress display screen 61 composed of the words “processing in progress page 1” and the logical page 2 is expanded, the page When the print progress status display screen 62 composed of the words “processing in progress page 4” with the page connection number “3” added to the number, and further expanding the logical page 3, the page connection number “ A print progress display screen 63 composed of the words “processing in progress page 7” added with “3” is displayed on the display unit 17.

  When the printing apparatus 10 is printing the logical page 1 of the print data 60, the printing progress display screen 64 composed of the words “printing page 1/10” and the logical page 2 are printed. When the print progress display screen 65 composed of the words “printing page 4/10” in which the page connection number “3” is added to the number of pages, and the logical page 3 is printed. Then, the display unit 17 displays a print progress display screen 66 composed of the words “printing page 7/10” in which the page connection number “3” is added to the number of pages. The denominator “10” is the total number of pages.

  When printing of the print data 60 is completed, a standby screen 67 composed of the words “can be printed” is displayed on the display unit 17 to notify that the next printing can be performed.

  As described above, in the first embodiment, the page development unit of the print control unit displays the number of pages being processed on the display unit during the development process of developing print data into image data. Thus, it is possible to notify the user of the progress of the process before printing starts.

  In addition, the print execution unit of the print control unit adds the number of logical pages connected to the number of printed pages and displays it on the display unit as the number of pages being printed. The number of pages can be displayed in accordance with the number of physical pages, and the user can be notified of the progress of the printing process accurately.

  Further, even when printing is performed in units of copies, an effect is obtained that the number of printed pages can be notified to the user from the first copy.

  In the configuration of the second embodiment, a development completion detection unit is added to the print control unit of the printing apparatus in the first embodiment, and a developing EF is added to the storage unit.

  The configuration of the second embodiment will be described based on the block diagram showing the control configuration of the print control unit in the second embodiment of FIG. Note that parts similar to those of the first embodiment described above are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted.

In FIG. 8, the print control unit 20 includes a page development unit 21, a print execution unit 22, a page number calculation unit 23, a page connection number calculation unit 24, and a development completion detection unit 25.
In addition to the processed page number EP131 and the printed page number PP132, the storage unit 13 stores a developing EF 133 that is information indicating whether or not the page developing unit 21 is executing a print data developing process.

  The expansion completion detection unit 25 detects presence or absence of image data expanded in units of pages by the print data expansion processing of the page expansion unit 21, that is, expanded pages.

  The operation of the above configuration will be described.

  First, print data processing performed by the printing apparatus of the image forming system will be described with reference to FIG. 2 and FIG. 8 according to the step represented by S in the flowchart showing the flow of print data processing in the second embodiment of FIG. .

  S201: Upon receiving print data from the printer driver 351 of the information processing apparatus 30, the printing apparatus 10 of the image forming system 100 stores the print data in the storage unit 13, and then stores the value “true” in the developing EF 133 of the storage unit 13. Is substituted.

  S <b> 202: When the value “true” is assigned to the developing EF 133, the printing apparatus 10 performs page expansion processing for expanding all pages of the print data by the page expansion unit 21 of the print control unit 20.

  S <b> 203: When the page expansion unit 21 completes the page expansion process, the printing apparatus 10 assigns the value “false” to the expansion EF 133 in the storage unit 13.

S204: The printing apparatus 10 performs print processing on the image data developed by the page development unit 21 of the print control unit 20 by the print execution unit 22 of the print control unit 20 in parallel with the processing of S201 to S203.
The printing apparatus 10 ends this process when completing all the processes of S201 to S204.

  As described above, in this embodiment, when the printing apparatus 10 receives print data from the printer driver 351 of the information processing apparatus 30, the printing apparatus 10 performs page expansion processing and printing processing in parallel.

  The page expansion process in S202 is the same as the page expansion process in the first embodiment shown in FIG.

  Next, a printing process performed by the printing apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. 2 and FIG. 8 according to a step represented by S in the flowchart showing the flow of the printing process in the second embodiment of FIG. This printing process is a process performed by the printing apparatus 10 in S204 of FIG.

  S241: The print execution unit 22 of the print control unit 20 assigns “0” to the print page number PP132, which is a variable stored in the storage unit 13, and initializes it.

  S242: The expansion completion detection unit 25 of the print control unit 20 determines whether or not image data expanded in units of pages is generated by the print data expansion process of the page expansion unit 21, that is, whether or not there is a developed page. If it is determined that there is an expanded page, the process proceeds to step S243, and if it is determined that there is no expanded page, monitoring of generation of the expanded page is continued.

  S243: The print execution unit 22 of the print control unit 20 determines whether or not the value “false” is assigned to the developing EF 133 of the storage unit 13, and the value “false” is assigned (expansion processing completed). If it is determined that the value “false” is not assigned (during development processing), the process proceeds to S245.

S244: The print execution unit 22 that has determined that the expansion process has been completed displays the number of pages stored in the print page number PP132 on the display unit 17 as the number of pages being printed, and the process proceeds to S246.
At this time, as shown in FIG. 6B, the print execution unit 22 displays the progress status display screen 52 on the display unit 17 as in the first embodiment.

  S245: On the other hand, the print execution unit 22 that has determined that the expansion process is in progress uses the number of pages stored in the print page number PP132 as the number of pages being printed, and further indicates that the expanded page number changes to the right of the page number. The word “(adding)” is added and displayed on the display unit 17, and the process proceeds to S246.

  At this time, the print execution unit 22 displays a progress display screen 53 on the display unit 17 as shown in FIG. The progress status display screen 53 is composed of the words “printing” in the first row from the top and the words “page n / m (adding)” indicating the number of pages being printed in the third row. Is. The numerator n is the number of pages obtained by adding “1” to the number of pages stored in the number of printed pages PP132, and the denominator m is the number of pages stored in the processed page number EP131. For example, when the number of pages stored in the number of printed pages PP132 is “0” and the number of pages stored in the processed page number EP131 is “6”, “page 1 / 6 (adding) "is displayed.

Thus, in the present embodiment, during the expansion process by the page expansion unit 21, the progress status display screen is displayed on the display unit 17 so that the number of denominator processing (development) pages increases.
Further, the print control unit 20 displays the number of print pages obtained by adding the page connection number on the display unit 17 together with the number of developed pages in which the page development unit 21 develops the print data into image data.

  Furthermore, when the expansion process by the page expansion unit 21 and the print process by the print execution unit 22 are performed in parallel, the print control unit 20 increases the number of expansion pages according to the progress of the expansion process, and the display unit 17 To display.

  S246 to S249: The processing is the same as S123 to S126 in FIG.

S250: The print execution unit 22 determines whether or not printing of all pages of the print data stored in the storage unit 13 is complete. If it is determined that printing of all pages is not complete, the process returns to S242. The processing of S242 to S249 is repeated. On the other hand, when the print execution unit 22 determines that printing of all pages of the print data has been completed, the print control unit 20 ends this processing.
Next, the printing status display when the printer driver 351 of the information processing apparatus 30 shown in FIG. 2 generates a logical page will be described based on the explanatory diagram of the printing progress status display in the second embodiment of FIG.

  FIG. 12A is an explanatory diagram of print data, in which the logical page 1 includes three physical pages, the logical page 2 includes three physical pages, and the logical page 3 includes four physical pages. Is shown.

  FIG. 12B is an explanatory diagram of the print progress display when the print data 70 shown in FIG. 12A is printed. The print progress displayed on the display unit 17 of the printing apparatus 10 shown in FIG. Show.

  When the printing apparatus 10 expands the logical page 1 of the print data 70, when the printing progress display screen 71 composed of the words “processing page 1” and the logical page 2 is expanded, the page A printing progress display screen 72 composed of the words “processing in progress page 4”, in which the page connection number “3” is added to the number, is displayed on the display unit 17.

  In this embodiment, it is assumed that printing is started when the logical page 3 is expanded, and when the logical page 3 is being expanded and the printing apparatus 10 is printing the logical page 1 of the print data 60. , A printing progress display screen 73 composed of the words “printing page 1/6 (adding)” is displayed on the display unit 17.

  Here, the word “adding” indicates that the number of pages in the denominator (total number of pages) is added (increased) because the logical page is being developed.

  Subsequently, when the printing apparatus 10 is developing the logical page 3 of the print data 70 and is printing the logical page 2, the “printing page” is obtained by adding the page connection number “3” to the page number. A print progress display screen 74 configured with the words “4/6 (adding)” is displayed on the display unit 17.

Further, when the expansion process of the logical page 3 of the print data 70 is completed by the printing apparatus 10, the total number of pages is “10”, and the print progress status display composed of the words “Printing Page 4/10” is displayed. A screen 75 is displayed on the display unit 17.
On the print progress display screen 75, the expansion process of the logical page 3 is completed, and the total number of pages in the denominator is fixed, so that the word “adding” is not displayed.

  Subsequently, when the printing apparatus 10 is printing logical page 3 of the print data 70, it is composed of the words “printing page 7/10” in which the page connection number “3” is added to the number of pages. A printing progress display screen 76 is displayed on the display unit 17.

  When printing of the print data 70 is completed, a standby screen 77 composed of the words “can be printed” is displayed on the display unit 17 to notify that the next printing can be performed.

  As described above, in this embodiment, when the print execution unit 22 of the print control unit 20 executes the printing of the image data during the development process of the print data 70, that is, without waiting for the completion of the development process of all the print data. Even when printing, the number of denominator pages (total number of pages) is changed according to the progress of the unfolding process, and the increase in the number of denominator pages is displayed. The progress status of the printing process can be accurately notified to the user.

  In the first and second embodiments, the printing apparatus displays only the number of pages being expanded during the print data expansion process, but the total number of pages is displayed from the printer driver of the information processing apparatus. The number of pieces of information may be received, and the total number of pages and the number of pages being developed may be displayed on the same print progress display screen.

  In this case, the remaining number of pages may be displayed by subtracting the number of pages being developed from the total number of pages, or the remaining processing time required for the developing process may be displayed.

  As described above, in the second embodiment, in addition to the effects of the first embodiment, the number of pages in the denominator (total The number of pages is changed according to the progress of the expansion process, and the increase in the number of pages in the denominator is displayed, so that the user can be informed of the progress of the print process. The effect of being able to be obtained.

  In the first and second embodiments, the image forming apparatus is described as a printing apparatus such as a printer. However, the image forming apparatus is not limited thereto, and may be a multifunction peripheral (MFP) or the like.

  The continuous medium described in the first embodiment and the second embodiment is also applicable to labels (stickers) affixed on a continuous mount in addition to those that form images on continuous printing paper. The example described as the page unit in the first and second embodiments described above may be handled as a label (seal) unit instead of a page.

10 Printing device 11, 36 Communication unit 12, 31 CPU
13 Memory 14 ROM
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 15 Print part 16 Medium conveyance part 17 Display part 20 Print control part 21 Page expansion part 22 Print execution part 23 Page number calculation part 24 Page connection number calculation part 30 Information processing apparatus 32 OS
33 Input device 34 Display device 35 Internal storage device 351 Printer driver 100 Image forming system

Claims (10)

In an image forming apparatus having a printing unit that prints image data generated based on print data on a continuous medium,
A developing unit that performs a process of developing the print data into the image data;
A display for displaying the progress of processing;
A control unit for controlling the printing unit, the developing unit, and the display unit;
Have
The control unit displays on the display unit the number of expanded pages in which the expansion unit expands the print data into the image data during the processing of the expansion unit. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1.
The print data is composed of physical pages divided for each page, and logical pages that connect the physical pages so as to have a printable length in the printing unit, and the logical pages that are connected for each logical page. Including the number of physical pages as the number of page connections
The control unit updates the development page number in units of the page connection number every time the development unit develops the logical page. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2.
The control unit updates the number of expanded pages by adding the page connection number to the number of expanded pages of the physical page that has already been expanded by the expansion unit, and displays the display unit as a progress status of processing performed by the expansion unit An image forming apparatus characterized by displaying on the screen. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2 or 3,
The control unit updates the number of printed pages of the physical pages already printed by the printing unit in units of the page connection number each time the logical page is printed by the printing unit, and displays the number of printed pages. An image forming apparatus that displays the image on a screen. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4.
The control unit updates the print page number by adding the page connection number to the print page number of the physical page that has already been printed by the print unit, and the display unit displays a progress status of processing performed by the print unit. An image forming apparatus characterized by displaying on the screen. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5.
The control unit displays the number of printed pages obtained by adding the page connection number together with the number of expanded pages in which the expansion unit expands the print data into the image data on the display unit. . The image forming apparatus according to claim 6.
When performing the printing process by the printing unit after the developing process by the developing unit is completed,
The image forming apparatus, wherein the control unit displays the number of expanded pages after the expansion processing is completed on the display unit. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6.
When performing the expansion process by the expansion unit and the print process by the printing unit in parallel,
The image forming apparatus, wherein the control unit increases the number of developed pages in accordance with a progress status of the development process. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8.
The control unit displays on the display unit that the number of expanded pages changes during the expansion process by the expansion unit. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 2 to 9,
2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the logical page has a length equal to or longer than a maximum interval in a medium conveyance direction of a conveyance roller that conveys a continuous medium.

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