JPH1110853A - Printer and printing medium used therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To print suitably to each printing medium by deciding a type of the medium and eliminating its erroneous use. SOLUTION: Markers 2 are respectively provided at two positions disposed at opposite angles of a rear surface of a printing medium 1 (a face opposite to a face to be printed). The marker 2 indicates optimum resolution in the case of printing the medium. That is, the optimum resolution is different according to the type of the medium such as plain sheet, OHP sheet or special purpose sheet. And, information for setting an optimum printing mode in response to the type of the medium is added to the medium as the marker 2. At a printer side, the marker 2 is detected, and the optimum printing mode is set. And, the markers 2 are provided on a rear surface of the medium 1 and not provided on its front surface, and hence when the presence or absence of the marker 2 is detected, the rear or front of the medium 1 can be detected.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer and a print medium used for the same, and more particularly to an ink jet printer and a print medium used for the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, non-impact recording type printers have attracted attention in that noise during recording is extremely low and high-speed recording is possible. Among them, the ink jet recording method is an extremely effective recording method in that high-speed recording can be performed and recording can be performed on plain paper without performing a special fixing process. This ink jet recording method is a method in which liquid ink droplets are ejected from a print head and adhere to recording paper to record characters, figures, and the like. At present, various ink jet printers using this ink jet recording method have been proposed and commercialized.

[0003] The ink jet recording system can be further roughly classified into three types: a continuous ejection type, an on-demand type (impulse type) and an electrostatic suction type. Among them, the on-demand type drives a discharge energy generating element such as a piezoelectric element and discharges ink droplets only when necessary, so that useless ink consumption is small. In addition, because of its very simple structure, its spread is expected.

However, as the types of print media have increased and the opportunities for printing color images have increased, various print media dedicated to each printer have been used in order to obtain the highest image quality on each print medium, and a printer driver has to be used. It is necessary to make complicated settings.

Here, a conventional printer is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 1-1.
No. 66547, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-255178,
JP-A-63-191661 and JP-A-1-150
No. 565.

First, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 1-166547 discloses a medium 101 shown in FIG.
A level mark 102 is printed on the end of the medium 101, and the level of the level mark 102 is detected by a sensor. Thus, the type of the medium is determined.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-191661 discloses a printing medium 101 provided with a mark 102 indicating the leading end position of a ruled line 103, the ruled line pitch and the ruled line width, as shown in FIG. Are listed. Then, the mark 102 is detected, and the printing position and the format setting are controlled.

[0008] JP-A-62-255178 and JP-A-1-150565 also disclose printers that perform control using marks 102 provided on a print medium.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In the prior art described in Japanese Patent No. 66547, the type of medium can be detected, but the number is limited to one. Therefore, there is a disadvantage that a plurality of types of media cannot be detected.

Further, in the prior art described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-191661, only the printing position and format setting are controlled, and the type of medium cannot be detected. JP-A-62-255178 and JP-A-1-1-1.
The same applies to the prior art described in Japanese Patent No. 50565.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and has as its object to discriminate the type of print medium to eliminate erroneous use and perform printing suitable for each print medium. And a print medium used for the printer.

[0012]

A printer according to the present invention is a printer for performing printing on a print medium, and medium type information for discriminating the type of the print medium is added to the print medium. A detection unit for detecting the information; and a setting unit for setting a print mode for printing on the print medium in accordance with a detection result of the detection unit.

[0013] The print medium according to the present invention comprises a detecting means for detecting information added to the print medium, and a setting means for setting a print mode for printing on the print medium in accordance with the detection result of the detecting means. And a print medium to be printed by the printer, wherein medium type information for determining the type of the medium is added.

In short, according to the present invention, medium type information is added to a print medium, this information is detected, and a print mode for printing on the print medium is set. With such a configuration, it is possible to determine the type of the print medium and eliminate erroneous use, and to perform printing suitable for each print medium.

[0015]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a print medium used in a printer according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, markers 2 are respectively provided at two positions diagonally opposite to the back surface of the print medium 1 (the surface opposite to the surface to be printed).

Here, the marker 2 indicates an optimum resolution for printing on the print medium. That is, plain paper, OHP (Over Head Project)
r) The optimum resolution differs depending on the type of print medium such as a sheet or special paper, and information for setting an optimum print mode according to the type of print medium is added to the print medium as a marker 2. .

For example, as shown in FIG. 2A, a marker 2 consisting of one bar is added to a certain print medium, and another marker is shown in FIG. 2B. Thus, the marker 2 composed of two bars may be added. The direction of the bar is not limited to FIGS. 2 (A) and 2 (B), and even if a marker 2 having a direction as shown in FIGS. 3 (A) and 3 (B) is added. good.

The marker 2 is not limited to a bar code that is distinguished by the number and width of bars, but may be a black symbol such as ○, □, or Δ. Furthermore, if the size, number, combination, and arrangement of these symbols are different for each type of medium, the type of medium can be determined. Not only markers that can be detected by a change in light reflectance but also markers that can be detected by a change in light transmittance may be used. Furthermore, not only markers that can be detected optically but also markers that can be detected magnetically or mechanically may be used.

Although the markers 2 are provided at the upper right and lower left positions on the back surface of the print medium 1 in FIGS. 1 to 3, the positions may be at the upper left and lower right. By providing the markers 2 at the diagonal positions in this way, the printer can detect any one of the markers. Therefore, the user can set the medium 1 in the printer without worrying about the vertical direction of the medium 1.

Further, since a marker is provided on the back surface of the print medium 1 and not provided on the front surface, the front and back of the print medium 1 can be detected by detecting the presence or absence of the marker.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a print medium 1 is fed in the direction of arrow Y by a feed mechanism (not shown). When the print medium 1 is fed, the marker added to the print medium as described above is detected by the optical sensor 11. Then, an appropriate print mode is set for the medium 1 according to the detection result. In the set print mode, printing is performed on the medium 1 by the head 11. The head 1 is an ink-jet print head.

A more detailed operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Note that the printer of this example can print on plain paper, special paper, and OHP sheets, and the above-described markers are added to the special paper.

In the printer of this embodiment, when the print medium 1 is fed (step 51), first, the presence or absence of a marker is determined by the optical sensor 11 (step 52). If it is determined that there is no marker, the print medium 1 is determined to be plain paper or an OHP sheet. In this case, it is determined whether or not light is further transmitted (steps 52 → 5).
4). If no light is transmitted, it is determined that the paper is plain paper (steps 54 → 56).

Then, the result of this determination is compared with the setting contents of the printer driver (steps 56 → 5).
7). If the user setting in the printer driver is plain paper, the collation results match, so printing is performed in plain paper mode (steps 57 → 58 → 59). On the other hand, if the user setting is not plain paper, the collation results do not match, so that it is determined that the special coated paper or the special gloss paper has been erroneously fed back, and an error message is output without printing. Output (Steps 57 → 58 → 6
0). As a result, after the setting contents are changed or the print medium is exchanged, the paper is fed again (steps 60 → 61).
→ 51).

Next, when it is determined in step 52 that there is a marker, it is determined that the print medium 1 is a dedicated medium. At this time, the type of the medium is determined based on the type of the marker (steps 52 to 53). Also in this case, the determined type is compared with the setting contents of the printer driver (steps 53 → 5).
7).

If the collation results match, printing is performed in a mode suitable for the medium (step 57 →).
58 → 59). On the other hand, if the matching results do not match,
It is determined that a different type of dedicated medium has been erroneously fed, and an error message is output without performing printing (steps 57 → 58 → 60). Thus, after the setting contents are changed or the print medium is exchanged, the paper is fed again (steps 60 → 61 → 51).

In step 54, if light transmission is detected, it is determined that the sheet is an OHP sheet (steps 54 → 55). If the collation result with the setting contents of the printer driver matches, the OHP sheet is used. Printing is performed on the sheet (steps 55 → 57 → 58 → 59).

As described above, since the OHP sheet transmits light through the medium, it can be determined without providing a special marker, and printing can be performed in an appropriate printing mode without being restricted by a printing range. is there. In other words, in the case of an OHP sheet, if a marker similar to other dedicated paper is used, the printed content and the marker may overlap, so that printing on the marker portion cannot be performed. For this reason,
The print range may be narrower than other special papers.
However, as described above, the discrimination based on the transmission of light does not restrict the printing range.

Here, the above-mentioned print mode is switched by changing the settings for the print resolution and the dot diameter. That is, printing is performed in the standard mode fixed according to the type of the print medium or in the mode set by the user with the printer driver.

The relationship between the print medium and the print mode will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in the figure, for plain paper, if the quality is low, the resolution is low and the dot diameter is large. In the case of medium quality, which is the standard mode, the resolution is medium resolution and the dot diameter is large. If the quality is high, the resolution is high and the dot diameter is small.

For the OHP sheet, if the medium mode is the standard mode, the resolution is medium resolution and the dot diameter is large. If the quality is high, the resolution is high and the dot diameter is small.

With respect to special paper such as coated paper and glossy paper, the resolution is medium resolution and the dot diameter is large if the medium quality is the glossy paper standard mode. If the quality is the coated paper standard mode, the resolution is high and the dot diameter is small.

As described above, printing is performed by changing the resolution and the dot diameter in accordance with the standard setting or the mode set by the user. In the standard setting, the resolution and the dot diameter are set so that the optimum print quality is obtained according to the type of the print medium. By doing so, the dot diameter on the printing surface does not increase, and a printing result with less bleeding can be obtained.

The contents of the standard settings can be changed by the user. If the most frequently used mode is set as the standard mode, a desired print mode can be set according to the type of medium. is there.

By the way, the information indicated by the marker added to the print medium is determined as follows. That is, the optimum resolution and dot diameter are measured in advance for each printer. Then, the measurement result is added to the print medium as marker information.

As described above, the resolution information indicating the optimum resolution and the information for discriminating the front and back are added to the print medium used in the printer of the present embodiment, and this is detected to detect the type and the type of the print medium. By determining the front and back sides, it is possible to eliminate the erroneous use of the print medium and to perform printing in a print mode suitable for each print medium. Therefore, there is no printing failure, so that it is economical and excellent image quality can be obtained.

The present invention can take the following aspects in connection with the description of the claims.

(1) The printer according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein in the medium type information, the optimum resolution is indicated by a bar code.

(2) The print medium according to any one of claims 4 to 7, wherein in the medium type information, the optimum resolution is indicated by a bar code.

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention, the resolution information indicating the optimum resolution and the information for discriminating the front and back are added to the print medium, and this is detected to detect the type and the type of the print medium. By discriminating the front and back sides, there is an effect that erroneous use of the print medium can be eliminated and printing can be performed in a print mode suitable for each print medium. Therefore, there is an effect that there is no printing failure, so that it is economical and excellent image quality can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a print medium used in a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a more detailed configuration example of the print medium in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating another example of a more detailed configuration of the print medium in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the printer according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a print medium and a print mode.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a conventional print medium.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing another conventional print medium.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Print medium 2 Marker 10 Head 11 Optical sensor

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A printer for printing on a print medium, wherein the print medium has medium type information for determining the type of the medium itself added thereto, and detection means for detecting the information, Setting means for setting a print mode for printing on the print medium in accordance with a detection result of the detection means. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the medium type information is resolution information indicating an optimum resolution for printing on the medium, and the setting unit sets a resolution to be printed on the print medium according to the detection result. The printer according to claim 1, wherein 3. The medium type information also indicates a printable surface of the medium, and a unit that outputs error information indicating an error when a surface that is not a printable surface is detected by the detection result of the detection unit. 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
Or the printer according to 2. 4. A printer comprising: a detection unit for detecting information added to a print medium; and a setting unit for setting a print mode when printing on the print medium in accordance with a detection result of the detection unit. A print medium on which printing is performed, wherein medium type information for determining the type of the medium is added. 5. The print medium according to claim 4, wherein the surface of the print medium opposite to the print surface has a rectangular shape, and the medium type information is added to two opposing corners of the print medium. . 6. The print medium according to claim 4, wherein the medium type information is resolution information indicating a resolution optimum for printing on the medium. 7. The print medium according to claim 4, wherein the medium type information also indicates a printable surface of the medium.