CN114879921A

CN114879921A - Printing method and device, printer, electronic device and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN114879921A
Application number: CN202210822145.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 冯君
Original assignee: Beijing Gaode Pinchuang Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Gaode Pinchuang Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-07-13
Filing date: 2022-07-13
Publication date: 2022-08-09

Abstract

The disclosure relates to the technical field of printer driver software development, and provides a printing method and device, a printer, electronic equipment and a storage medium, wherein the method comprises the following steps: sending a pre-printing request to a printer; controlling the printer to start running and enter a printing state in advance according to the pre-printing request; sending a print job to the printer to cause the printer to immediately print an output. According to the method and the device, the pre-printing request is sent to the printer, the printer is controlled to start to operate and enter the printing state in advance according to the pre-printing request, so that the printer can immediately start to print and output after receiving the printing task, the actual printing time is greatly shortened on the premise that the hardware cost is not increased, and the printing efficiency is improved.

Description

Printing method and device, printer, electronic device and storage medium

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of printer driver software development technologies, and in particular, to a printing method and apparatus, a printer, an electronic device, and a storage medium.

Background

The whole process of printing the document by using the printer, namely, the process from the beginning of issuing the printed document by a mobile phone or a computer to the last paper output by the printer is a complex and precise process. The number of Pages Printed Per Minute (PPM) by a printer is one of the important performance and performance criteria for a printer.

In order to increase the printing rate, each manufacturer has been optimized from a software level and a hardware level, respectively. For example, image rendering libraries with faster processing speeds are used, shorter paper paths are designed, higher performance fusing and developing devices are used, and so on. Every time a PPM is increased, huge manpower and hardware cost are required to be invested. However, PPM for printers is difficult to optimize again due to cost constraints.

At present, when a laser printer is used for printing, after a print job is issued to the laser printer, even if the data volume of the print job is small and the printer has received more than one page of print content, the printer usually does not immediately start printing and outputting paper, but needs to complete the printing preparation work such as rotating an internal motor and starting a cooling fan, and when a heating roller module reaches a working temperature, the printer starts to move the paper for printing. Although the printer may not be as long as it is completing the print preparation job, this still extends the time the user waits for the print job to complete.

Furthermore, for most printing scenarios, such as printing jobs laid out by a teacher or printing pictures, the document to be printed often has only a few pages of content. For a 30PPM printer, if 5 pages of content are to be printed, it theoretically takes only 10 seconds for the printing to warm up, but when the printer is in a sleep standby state, the actual printing time may take half a minute, and if the weather is cold, the actual printing time may be longer.

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure is directed to at least one of the problems in the prior art, and provides a printing method and apparatus, a printer, an electronic device, and a storage medium.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a printing method applied to a printer, the method including:

sending a pre-printing request to a printer;

controlling the printer to start running and enter a printing state in advance according to the pre-printing request;

sending a print job to the printer to cause the printer to immediately print an output.

Optionally, the sending a pre-print request to the printer includes:

and when a printing window is called out or a printer application program is opened on the terminal, sending the pre-printing request to the printer.

Optionally, the sending a pre-print request to the printer includes:

and when the printing parameters are set on the terminal through an application program, sending the pre-printing request to the printer.

Optionally, the sending a pre-print request to the printer includes:

and when the data to be printed is received, sending the pre-printing request to the printer.

Optionally, the controlling the printer to start operating and enter the printing state in advance according to the pre-printing request includes:

and controlling the printer to start printing preparation work according to the pre-printing request, entering the printing state, and maintaining the printing state with preset duration.

Optionally, the printer comprises a laser printer or an inkjet printer;

when the printer is the laser printer, the printing preparation work comprises at least one of raising the temperature of a heating roller, rotating an internal motor and starting heat dissipation;

when the printer is the ink jet printer, the printing preparation work comprises at least one of ink heating, ink cut orifice detection, automatic ink pressing and nozzle self-cleaning.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a printing apparatus applied to a printer, the apparatus including:

the first sending module is used for sending a pre-printing request to the printer;

the control module is used for controlling the printer to start to operate and enter a printing state in advance according to the pre-printing request;

and the second sending module is used for sending the printing task to the printer so that the printer immediately prints and outputs.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, a printer is provided, which comprises the printing apparatus as set forth above.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic device including:

at least one processor; and (c) a second step of,

a memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the memory stores instructions executable by the at least one processor to enable the at least one processor to perform the printing method as set forth above.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, in which a computer program is stored, and the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the printing method described above.

Compared with the prior art, the method and the device have the advantages that the pre-printing request is sent to the printer, the printer is controlled to start to operate and enter the printing state in advance according to the pre-printing request, the printer can immediately start to print and output after receiving the printing task, actual printing time is greatly shortened on the premise that hardware cost is not increased, and printing efficiency is improved.

Drawings

One or more embodiments are illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings, which correspond to the figures in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements and which are not to scale unless otherwise specified.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a printing method according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a printing method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a printing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

To make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure more apparent, the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that in various embodiments of the disclosure, numerous technical details are set forth in order to provide a better understanding of the disclosure. However, the technical solution claimed in the present disclosure can be implemented without these technical details and various changes and modifications based on the following embodiments. The following embodiments are divided for convenience of description, and no limitation should be made to specific implementations of the present disclosure, and the embodiments may be mutually incorporated and referred to without contradiction.

One embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a printing method, a flow of which is shown in fig. 1, including:

step 101, a pre-print request is sent to a printer.

Specifically, the printer may be a laser printer or an inkjet printer. Here, the pre-print request is a signal for instructing the printer to start a print preparation job. For example, when the printer is a laser printer, the preprint request may be a signal for notifying the laser printer to start printing preparation such as raising the temperature of a heating roller, rotating an internal motor, and starting heat dissipation. For another example, when the printer is an inkjet printer, the preprint request may be a signal for notifying the inkjet printer to start print preparation such as ink heating, ink-break nozzle hole detection, automatic ink pressing, head self-cleaning, and the like.

And 102, controlling the printer to start running to enter a printing state in advance according to the preprinting request.

Specifically, the print state here refers to a state in which the printer can immediately print out upon receiving a print job. The step can control the printer to start to operate and enter a printing state in advance after the printer receives the pre-printing request, so that the printer can immediately perform printing output after receiving a printing task, and the waiting time of a user is reduced.

Illustratively, step 102 may include:

and controlling the printer to start printing preparation work according to the pre-printing request, entering a printing state, and maintaining the printing state with preset duration.

Specifically, the preset time period may be 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, etc., and may be set by one skilled in the art according to actual needs.

Step 103, sending a print job to the printer to enable the printer to immediately print out.

Illustratively, sending a pre-print request to the printer, step 101, may include:

when a printing window is called out or a printer application program is opened on the terminal, a pre-printing request is sent to the printer.

Specifically, the terminal includes, but is not limited to, a mobile terminal and a computer terminal such as a mobile phone, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, and the like.

When a print window is called up or a printer application is opened on the terminal, it indicates that the user may need to print the document. At the moment, the printer can start to operate according to the pre-printing request to enter a printing state in advance by sending the pre-printing request to the printer, and once a printing task is received, the printing output can be immediately carried out, so that the actual printing time is further shortened, and the printing efficiency is improved.

Note that this step is applied to a scenario in which a terminal is connected to a single printer as a default printer. In this scenario, since the default printer is connected to the terminal, when the pre-print request is sent to the printer, the pre-print request is directly sent to the default printer, so that the default printer starts to operate to enter the printing state in advance after receiving the pre-print request, and once a print job is received, the printer can immediately print and output.

Illustratively, the sending a pre-print request to the printer, step 101, may further include:

when the printing parameters are set on the terminal through the application program, a pre-printing request is sent to the printer.

Specifically, the terminal may be connected to multiple printers through a network, so that when the target printer to be used is determined on the terminal through an application program, a pre-printing request is sent to the target printer, the target printer starts to operate after receiving the pre-printing request to enter a printing state in advance, and once a printing task is received, the target printer can immediately print and output, so that the actual printing time is further shortened, and the printing efficiency is improved.

It should be noted that, the setting of the printing parameters includes, but is not limited to, selecting a printer, loading a document to be printed, setting the number of copies to be printed, and the like.

when the reception of data to be printed is started, a pre-print request is sent to the printer.

Specifically, since documents to be printed issued by a user through an application program of a terminal generally need to be cached and rendered before being printed and then can be printed and output, and for complex documents, the caching and rendering time is usually longer, in this step, when the data to be printed issued by the user is received, a pre-printing request can be sent to a printer, so that the printer starts to operate to enter a printing state in advance after receiving the pre-printing request, and once the data to be printed which is cached and rendered is received, the data can be immediately printed and output, thereby further shortening the actual printing time and improving the printing efficiency.

Another embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a printing apparatus, as shown in fig. 3, including:

a first sending module 301, configured to send a pre-print request to a printer;

the control module 302 is used for controlling the printer to start to operate and enter a printing state in advance according to the pre-printing request;

a second sending module 303, configured to send the print job to the printer, so that the printer immediately prints and outputs.

For a specific implementation method of the printing apparatus provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure, reference may be made to the printing method provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure, and details are not described here.

Compared with the prior art, the pre-printing request is sent to the printer by the first sending module, the control module is used for controlling the printer to start running and enter the printing state in advance according to the pre-printing request, the printer can immediately start printing output after receiving the printing task, actual printing time is greatly shortened on the premise that hardware cost is not increased, and printing efficiency is improved.

In order to make the above embodiments better understood by those skilled in the art, a specific example is described below.

As shown in fig. 2, for a laser printer, the existing printing process generally includes: a user calls a print window or opens a printer application through an application in an Operating System (OS) of a mobile phone or a Personal Computer (PC), selects a printer to be used in the called print window or printer application, sets print parameters, and confirms the selected printer and print parameters to instruct the printer to start printing. After receiving a document to be printed and printing parameters issued by a user, a printer driver firstly caches and renders the document to be printed, and after caching and rendering are completed, data are sent to a printer, and the printer starts to print and output according to the received data.

As shown in fig. 2, 3 modes are set on the basis of the prior art, namely mode 1, mode 2 and mode 3.

Mode 1, applicable to single device user of family: a printing monitoring service module is added in an operating system of a mobile phone or a PC, and the printing monitoring service module is used for sending a pre-printing request to a printer when a printing window is called out or a printer application program is opened on the mobile phone or the PC. Specifically, a communication interface may be provided in the print monitoring service module, the communication interface is used to send a pre-print request to the printer, and the printer is controlled to start printing preparation operations such as raising the temperature of the heating roller, rotating the internal motor, and starting heat dissipation after receiving the pre-print request, enter a printing state, and maintain the printing state for a preset duration, for example, 5 minutes. Once the user issues the printing task within the preset time length, the printer can immediately start printing and outputting.

Mode 2, applicable to corporate multi-device users: the method comprises the steps that a front-end module (UI) is arranged in a driver of the printer, the front-end module is used for sending a pre-printing request to the printer when printing parameters are set on a mobile phone or a PC through an application program, and controlling the printer to start printing preparation work such as heating roller temperature increase, internal motor rotation, heat dissipation starting and the like after the pre-printing request is received, enter a printing state and maintain the printing state for a preset time length such as 5 minutes. Once the user issues the printing task within the preset time length, the printer can immediately start printing and outputting.

Mode 3, applicable to full scene: when a printer driver starts to receive a document to be printed issued by a user, a communication thread is started, a pre-printing request is sent to the printer, the printer is controlled to start printing preparation work such as heating roller temperature increase, internal motor rotation, heat dissipation starting and the like after receiving the pre-printing request, the printing state is entered, and the printing state with the preset duration of 5 minutes is maintained, so that the printer can synchronously perform the printing preparation work while the document to be printed is cached, rendered and sent by the printer driver, namely, the time for the printer driver to cache, render and send the document to be printed is overlapped with the time for the printer to perform the printing preparation work, thereby optimizing the printing speed, further shortening the actual printing time and improving the printing efficiency.

It should be noted that the above 3 modes may exist simultaneously. When the printer is in the mode 1, if the printer does not receive the print task within the preset time length and exits the printing state, the printer can start to operate again after receiving the pre-printing request of the mode 2 or the mode 3, enter and maintain the printing state of the new preset time length in advance, and immediately start to print and output when the printer receives the print task within the new preset time length. Or, when in the mode 2, if the printer does not receive the print job within the preset time length and exits from the printing state, the printer may start to operate again after receiving the pre-print request of the mode 3, enter and maintain the printing state of the new preset time length in advance, so as to immediately start printing and outputting when receiving the print job within the new preset time length.

The 3 modes greatly shorten the actual printing time and improve the printing efficiency on the premise of not increasing the hardware cost.

Another embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a printer including the printing apparatus according to the above embodiment of the present disclosure.

Another embodiment of the present disclosure relates to an electronic device, as shown in fig. 4, including:

at least one processor 401; and the number of the first and second groups,

a memory 402 communicatively coupled to the at least one processor 401; wherein, the first and the second end of the pipe are connected with each other,

the memory 402 stores instructions executable by the at least one processor 401 to cause the at least one processor 401 to perform the printing method described in the above embodiments.

Where the memory and processor are connected by a bus, the bus may comprise any number of interconnected buses and bridges, the buses connecting together one or more of the various circuits of the processor and the memory. The bus may also connect various other circuits such as peripherals, voltage regulators, power management circuits, and the like, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further herein. A bus interface provides an interface between the bus and the transceiver. The transceiver may be one element or a plurality of elements, such as a plurality of receivers and transmitters, providing a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. The data processed by the processor is transmitted over a wireless medium via an antenna, which further receives the data and transmits the data to the processor.

The processor is responsible for managing the bus and general processing and may also provide various functions including timing, peripheral interfaces, voltage regulation, power management, and other control functions. And the memory may be used to store data used by the processor in performing operations.

Another embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the printing method described in the above embodiment.

That is, as can be understood by those skilled in the art, all or part of the steps in the method according to the foregoing embodiments may be implemented by a program instructing related hardware, where the program is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to enable a device (which may be a single chip, a chip, or the like) or a processor (processor) to execute all or part of the steps in the method according to each embodiment of the present disclosure. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the foregoing embodiments are specific embodiments for practicing the present disclosure, and that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure in practice.

Claims

1. A printing method applied to a printer, the method comprising:

sending a pre-printing request to a printer;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein sending a pre-print request to a printer comprises:

3. The method of claim 1, wherein sending a pre-print request to a printer comprises:

4. The method of claim 1, wherein sending a pre-print request to a printer comprises:

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein said controlling the printer to start running into a printing state ahead of time in accordance with the pre-print request comprises:

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the printer comprises a laser printer or an inkjet printer;

7. A printing apparatus for use with a printer, the apparatus comprising:

8. A printer, characterized in that it comprises a printing device according to claim 7.

9. An electronic device, comprising:

at least one processor; and the number of the first and second groups,

the memory stores instructions executable by the at least one processor to enable the at least one processor to perform the printing method of any of claims 1 to 6.

10. A computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program, wherein the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the printing method of any one of claims 1 to 6.