JP2000168206A - Imaging apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To detect an abnormal image and to prevent useless printing of a page printer by making a decision that a receiving data is abnormal if an image is present only on the uppermost line on a page under printing and not printing that data. SOLUTION: Data receiving is executed (S1) and a received data is developed in a page buffer while analyzing a command (S2). A decision is then made whether a page feed command or a page length is exceeded or not (S3). Subsequently, a decision is then made whether the writing position is shifted from the uppermost end when page feed is executed (S4). A decision is made that an image is abnormal if a page is fed without shifting the print position from the uppermost end of a page and that page buffer is not printed but scrapped (S5). A decision is made that the image is normal if the print position is shifted from the uppermost end and that page buffer is printed (S6). If a print data is present only at the uppermost end of a page, a decision is made that an image is abnormal and the data is not printed but scrapped.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a job reset function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an image forming apparatus generally performs printing and printing in page units regardless of the number of lines or the number of characters. However, in special cases, for example, Post
In a page description language having a job concept such as Script, if an error occurs in the command analysis processing, the subsequent data may be read and discarded until the end of the job.

In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-328786, in "Output Method and Apparatus and Output System Using the Apparatus", when printing is instructed to stop by an output apparatus, subsequent data from a host apparatus is read and discarded. . Further, it instructs the higher-level device to delete the corresponding job remaining in the spooler.

[0004]

However, in a page description language (PDL) having the concept of a job, such as the above-described Post Script, when an error occurs in a command analysis process, data is read and discarded until the end of the job. And no useless printing is performed. However, in many PDLs in which the end of a job is not clear, printing continues even if an error occurs. When data is transferred to a printer by a PDL different from the PDL set for such a printer, or when data is not correctly transferred due to a communication problem, a large number of garbled abnormal images may be output. This results in useless output.

[0005] Among the data received by the printer, if a command for drawing an image has a particularly large amount of data and is not correctly recognized as an image drawing command and is processed as character data, an enormous string of characters of unknown meaning is output. Is done. If the data included in the image data coincides with the control code, a line feed or page break is executed. After a page break by accidental page break code,
The printing position moves to the upper end of the paper, and the printing of a character string of unknown meaning is performed again. In image data with a lot of parts drawn by images, such pages are printed enormously due to the large number of bytes in the data, and many pages are printed only on the top line of the paper. There are many.

[0006] In normal printing, it is rare that only one line is printed.
Headers are often printed. For this reason, there are very few cases where only one line is printed at the top end.

When the image data is output as characters, the number of copies is often enormous, so that the wasteful printing with garbled characters continues after the page discarded by discriminating as an abnormal image by the function of claim 1. Become.

An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus which detects an abnormal image and prevents useless printing.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention uses a page printer such as a laser printer when a page being created has an image only in the top row only. It is characterized in that the received data is judged as abnormal data and is not printed.

When data is discarded due to the above function, the subsequent data may be discarded up to the break of the job.

Further, when data is discarded by the above function, printing is temporarily stopped, a message is issued to notify the user, and the user can select whether to print or discard the data. Good.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG.
1 to 3 show an embodiment of the image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a basic operation example of the present embodiment. First, the basic operation of the page printer is as follows.

In step S1 of FIG. 1, data is received from a host device such as a host computer into a reception buffer. It is executed in parallel with the subsequent operations, and if there is a free space in the reception buffer, the reception is continued. Retrieves data from the receive buffer and parses the command. Steps S1 to S3 are repeated until the data in the reception buffer becomes empty.

In step S2, the data is expanded in the page buffer in accordance with the designation of the command. The writing position in the virtual page is the specified coordinate position if specified, but if not specified, the writing position is from the top of the page as an initial value (S4, S5).

In steps S4 and S6, the writing position exceeds the page length or until the page break command is received is set as data for one page, and the created page buffer is output to the image forming unit as video data and printed.

(Operation Example 1) An operation example 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. An operation flow for printing or deleting one page of data will be described below.

In step S1, data reception is executed. In step S2, the command is expanded in the page buffer while analyzing the command.

In step S3, it is determined whether a page break command or a page length has been exceeded. In step S4, it is determined whether the writing position at the time of executing the page break has moved from the uppermost end.

In step S5, if the page breaks while the print position is at the top end of the page, it is determined to be an abnormal image and the page buffer is discarded without printing.

In step S6, the page whose print position has moved from the uppermost end is determined to be a normal image, and its page buffer is printed.

By the above operation, a page having print data only in the uppermost line of the page is discarded without being printed as an abnormal image.

According to the above-mentioned operation example 1, an image forming apparatus is constructed in which a page having only one line printed at the uppermost end is determined as an abnormal image and is not output.

(Operation Example 2) An operation example 2 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. If a page with only the top row occurs, flag it; if it's flagged,
The flow of the operation in which data after the job break is discarded and printing is not performed will be described below.

In step S11, the flag is cleared (OFF). In step S12, data reception is performed. In step S13, the command is expanded in the page buffer while analyzing the command.

In step S14, it is determined whether a page break command or a page length has been exceeded. In step S15, it is checked whether a flag is set (ON).

In step S16, when the flag is not set, it is determined whether or not the writing position at the time of executing the page break has moved from the uppermost end.

In step S17, when a page break is made at the uppermost line, it is determined that the image is abnormal and a flag is set.

In step S18, if the flag is not set and a page break is made at a line other than the top line, it is determined that the image is normal and the page buffer is printed.

If the flag is set at step S19, the created page buffer is discarded without printing.

In step S20, it is determined whether the job has been completed. The job break used here should be an appropriate one for the device based on the EOF sent from the network, the presence / absence of received data, measurement of the elapsed time since the break, reception of a specific command, and the like.

The judgment of the job breaks is actually carried out in the developing process of step S13, and is stored in another flag, and the flag is checked in step S20.

When the job is completed, the processing is terminated.
If it is still in the middle of the job, repeat from data reception.

According to the above operation, when an abnormal image occurs only in the topmost line of the page, the data up to the end of the job can be discarded.

(Operation Example 3) Operation example 3 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In this operation example 3, operation example 2
This is an operation when it is possible to select whether to discard a message at the time of occurrence of an abnormal image and subsequent data without printing until a break between jobs. Specifically, step S21
And step S22 are added. This part added to the operation example 2 will be described below.

In step S21, a message is displayed, and if an abnormal image with a page break at the topmost line is detected, a message such as "Data is abnormal. Do you want to cancel printing?", And "Yes" or "No" Is selectable.

In step S22, if "YES" is selected, the subsequent data is canceled without printing by the processing of step S17 and thereafter, and if "NO" is selected, printing is performed by processing of step S18 and thereafter.

By the above operation, the user can arbitrarily discard or print the data after the page determined to be an abnormal image is detected.

[0039]

As is clear from the above description, claim 1
The image forming apparatus according to the invention described above does not print an image for which page break processing is specified in the topmost line as an abnormal image and does not print the image. Therefore, only the topmost line is garbled due to image data not established as a command. It is possible to delete the printed print and save paper and toner waste.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, when a phenomenon that a page break occurs at the uppermost line is detected, the data subsequent to the job break is not printed. All the data up to the end of the job can be discarded even if printing is not performed only on the top line, and waste of paper and toner can be further reduced as compared with the first aspect of the present invention.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, a page having only the uppermost line is not always an abnormal image. When a page with only the top line is detected, the user can select whether to print or discard the subsequent pages. Normal pages can be printed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example 1 of the embodiment of the image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation example 2;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example 3;

[Description of Signs] S1 Data reception S2 Expansion processing S3 Page break? S4 End at top line? S5 Delete page buffer S6 Print

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus for a page printer such as a laser printer, in which, when a page being created has an image only in the top row, the received data is determined to be abnormal data and is not printed. . 2. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when data is discarded by the function of claim 1, subsequent data is discarded up to a break between jobs. 3. When the data is read and discarded by the function of claim 1, the printing is temporarily stopped, the user is notified by issuing a message, and the user selects whether to print or discard the data. An image forming apparatus characterized in that: