JP2545770B2 - Electronic printer - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic printer, and in particular, it has a plurality of sizes of paper and automatically selects a size of paper suitable for a target document. To obtain an electronic printer.

[Prior art]

Conventionally, there has not been an electronic printer having the above-mentioned function. Therefore, in a printer that uses cut sheets as paper, the size of the paper is naturally limited, and in response to various document requests, there is no choice but to substitute the limited specific size for printing. . Therefore, in the conventional printer, when the original document does not correspond to the limited paper size, it is necessary to change the layout of the document or divide the document. Of course, when such a change or division is made, the print mode is lacking in originality.

As described above, the conventional electronic printer lacks flexibility and has been inconvenient for practical use.

[Object of the Invention]

It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic printer which can always maintain good originality of various documents when printing them.

[Structure of Invention]

The present invention relates to an electronic printer that prints a document based on document information, a plurality of paper trays, a feed unit that feeds the papers of the plurality of paper trays, and a sensor that detects the states of the plurality of paper trays. A receiving unit that receives a print request for a document, document information to be printed, and size information indicating a paper size corresponding to the document from the network, and a storage paper having a paper size that matches the size information of the document to be printed is a paper sheet. When the paper tray for which the paper feed is requested is not present, the paper tray for which the paper feed is requested is switched to another paper tray that has the storage paper of the paper size that matches the size information of the document to be printed. Provide and print Characterized by printing a document on a sheet of a size appropriate to the size information corresponding to the document to be.

At this time, two paper trays may be provided, and the feed control means may alternately switch the two paper trays for each paper tray to feed the paper.

Further, the present invention is an electronic printer that prints a document based on document information, a plurality of paper trays, a feed unit that feeds the papers of the plurality of paper trays, and a sensor that detects the states of the plurality of paper trays. A print request for the document, document information to be printed, and receiving means for receiving size information indicating a paper size corresponding to the document from the network, and storage means for storing the received print request, document information and size information. If the storage paper of the paper size that matches the size information of the document to be printed is not in the paper tray that should prompt the paper feed, the paper tray that should prompt the paper feed is set to the size information of the document to be printed. Matching paper A feed control means for switching to another paper tray containing the storage paper for the size and a recovery processing means for registering the print request as a queue and prioritizing another print request when there is no paper tray for which a feed is requested When the document is printed on a sheet having a size corresponding to the document to be printed and there is no tray storing the sheet having the size corresponding to the document to be printed, another print request is prioritized. To do.

At this time, two paper trays may be provided, and the feed control means may alternately switch the two paper trays for each paper tray to feed the paper.

〔The invention's effect〕

Thus, according to the electronic printer of the present invention, it is possible to satisfactorily print out a document of any type or any format without losing its originality. Also,
The size information, such as the selection of paper for this print,
This is automatically performed based on the set paper feed mode and sensor output, and the operability of the printer is dramatically improved.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of an electronic printer according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

1 and 2 show a schematic configuration of the electronic printer.

That is, this electronic printer is roughly divided into a printer unit 10 for printing, a control unit 20 for transmitting print data and various control signals for printing to the printer unit 10, and an operation mode designation signal input by an operator's operation. A keyboard 30 for transmitting various data including the above to the control unit 20, a display 4 for appropriately visually displaying the operation mode, intervention requirements for the operator, and other requirements.
0, and a receiver 50 that receives various data transmitted via the network cable NW and transfers the data to the control unit 20.

Here, the data transmitted via the network cable NW is a print request to the printer,
And document information, and as this additional information, number information indicating the number of printed sheets of the document and size information indicating the size of the document, that is, the paper size corresponding to the document, which are controlled by the receiver 50 after being received. After being temporarily stored in a magnetic disk 21 (see FIG. 2) which is an external storage device of the unit 20, various characters and figures included in the above document information are easily handled as image data to be sent to the printer unit 10. It is converted and fetched in the real memory 22 in the control unit 20 together with its associated information (number information and size information).

Further, in the embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the printer unit 10 has an upper tray 11 (for example, A4 size and B4 size).
Size paper) and lower tray 12
Two paper trays (for example, A4 size, B4 size and B5 size can be stored respectively) are provided, and from the keyboard 30, the from top mode (hereinafter abbreviated as FT mode) is provided. ... A mode in which, when the upper tray 11 and the lower tray 12 store sheets of the same size, only the sheets stored in the upper tray 11 are fed.

From bottom mode (hereinafter abbreviated as FB mode) ... When the upper tray 11 and the lower tray 12 store the same size paper, only the paper stored in the lower tray 12 is fed. mode.

From top or bottom mode (abbreviated as TB mode hereafter) ... above upper tray 11 and lower tray
When 12 and the same size of paper are stored, initially only the paper stored in the lower tray 12 is fed, and the paper stored in the upper tray 11 is fed after the lower tray 12 is full. The mode to feed. Upper tray 11
After the paper is exhausted, the sheet is again fed to the lower tray 12.

As Appropriate Mode (abbreviated as AA mode below): When the upper tray 11 and the lower tray 12 store different sizes of paper, the size of the paper requested by the size information Only feed mode.

The above four feed modes can be freely set by the operator. The sizes of the stored sheets and the presence / absence of the stored sheets in the upper tray 11 and the lower tray 12 are detected by the sensors 13 and 14 shown in FIG. 2, respectively, and the detection results are obtained by the CPU 23 in the control unit 20. Will be introduced sequentially. In the CPU 23, referring to the detection results of these sensors 13 and 14,
A command according to the feed mode designated through the keyboard 30 and the size information fetched in the real memory 22 is sent to the feed mechanism 15 of the printer unit 10 or
Sending to 16 causes only the corresponding paper to be fed to the printing mechanism 17 of the printer unit 10, and when the corresponding paper runs out or the paper of the corresponding size is not set. Is
The display 40 operates to inform the operator of this fact.

The operation of the CPU 23 will be described in more detail below with reference to FIG.

Now, assuming that the document information and its accompanying information (number of sheets information and size information) are fetched into the real memory 22 and further the FT mode, FB mode, TB mode, and AA mode are designated by the operator, the same CPU 23 Each of these designated modes operates as follows.

In FT mode The size of the paper stored in the upper tray 11 is compared with the size indicated by the size information fetched in the real memory 22, and if they match, a feed command is sent to the feed mechanism 15 to send the upper tray. Prompt to feed the paper stored in 11. If they do not match, as a recovery operation, as shown in FIG. 3B, it is confirmed whether or not there is paper stored in the tray, and if there is no paper, a display is displayed to request the operator to supply paper. If the size of the paper is not the corresponding size even if there is paper, display the same to request the operator to convert to the tray that stores the paper of the corresponding size. This is performed through the display 40. When the required size of paper is set by the intervention of the operator, a feed command is sent to the feed mechanism to prompt the feeding of the paper as described above.

In the FB mode The size of the paper stored in the lower tray 12 is compared with the size indicated by the size information fetched in the real memory 22, and if they match, a feed command is sent to the feed mechanism 16 to send the lower tray. Prompt to feed the paper stored in 12. The operation in the case where they do not match is the same as the operation in the above-mentioned “FT mode”, and therefore will be omitted.

In the case of TB mode The size of the paper stored in the tray selected last last among the upper tray 11 and the lower tray 12 is compared with the size indicated by the size information fetched in the real memory 22, and they match. In this case, a feed command is sent to the feed mechanism corresponding to this tray to prompt the feeding of the paper. If they do not match, a similar attempt is made to the tray on the opposite side, and if they match, a feed command is sent to the feed mechanism corresponding to the tray on the matched side to prompt the feeding of the paper. If it still does not match, the above-described recovery operation shown in FIG. 3B is performed.

In the case of AA mode The size of the paper stored in the upper tray 11 and the size of the paper stored in the lower tray 12 are compared with the size indicated by the size information fetched in the real memory 22. In this case, a feed command is sent to the feed mechanism corresponding to the matched tray to prompt the feeding of the stored paper. If none of them match, the recovery operation shown in FIG. 3B is similarly performed.

As described above, the printing mechanism 17 (see FIG. 2) of the printer unit 10 is always fed with the paper of the proper size according to the size information, and the document is good without losing its originality. Will be printed out. The operation related to this printout is already known in this type of electronic printer, and the description thereof will be omitted.

By the way, in the above-mentioned embodiment, for convenience, it is explained that there are two paper trays that can be loaded at the same time.
This number is arbitrary and can be freely set according to the actual condition of the device. The higher the number, the more the operability is improved especially in the AA mode.

Further, the network is further developed from the above embodiment.
It is also possible to register the print requests received from the NW as a queue (column) and give priority to other print requests while waiting for operator intervention. By doing so, the throughput is also significantly improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a printer configuration to which an electronic printer control system according to the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a block diagram thereof, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the CPU shown in FIG. . 10 …… Printer section, 11,12 …… Paper tray, 13,14 …… Sensor, 15,16 …… Feed mechanism, 17 …… Printing mechanism, 20…
… Control unit, 21 …… Magnetic disk, 22 …… Real memory,
23 …… CPU, 30 …… Keyboard, 40 …… Display, 5
0 …… Receiver

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. An electronic printer for printing a document based on document information, comprising: a plurality of paper trays; feeding means for feeding the papers of the plurality of paper trays; and a sensor for detecting a state of the plurality of paper trays. , A print request for the document, document information to be printed, and receiving means for receiving size information indicating the paper size corresponding to the document from the network, and storage paper of a paper size that matches the size information of the document to be printed. When the paper tray for which the paper feed should be prompted is not present, the paper tray for which the paper feed is requested is switched to another paper tray which has the storage paper of the paper size that matches the size information of the document to be printed. Equipped with a pudding An electronic printer that prints a document on a paper size that matches the size information corresponding to the target document. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising two paper trays, wherein the feed control means alternately switches the two paper trays in paper tray units to feed the paper. Electronic printer. 3. An electronic printer for printing a document based on document information, comprising: a plurality of paper trays; feeding means for feeding the papers of the plurality of paper trays; and a sensor for detecting a state of the plurality of paper trays. A print request for the document, document information to be printed, and receiving means for receiving size information indicating a paper size corresponding to the document from a network; and storage means for storing the received print request, document information and size information. , If the storage paper of the paper size that matches the size information of the document to be printed is not in the paper tray that should prompt the paper feed, match the paper tray that prompts the paper feed to the size information of the document to be printed. Paper support Feed control means for switching to another paper tray containing the storage paper for paper, and a recovery processing means for registering the print request as a queue and prioritizing another print request when there is no paper tray for which feeding is requested. However, when the document is printed on a sheet having a size corresponding to the document to be printed, and there is no tray storing the sheet having the size corresponding to the document to be printed, another print request is prioritized. And an electronic printer. 4. The apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising two paper trays, wherein the feed control means alternately switches between the two paper trays for each paper tray to feed the paper. Electronic printer.