JP2000272207A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To stop wasteful print outputs at limited number of sheets by providing a flag for controlling whether printing is stopped or not when number of print sheets exceeds a limited number by counting the number of the printed sheets for recording picture information on media to be printed, and holding the limited number of the printed sheets. SOLUTION: Host computers A, B and C, 401, 402 and 403 form print data and send the data to printers 404, 405. The printers 404, 405 have different manufacturers, products, and different understanding printing languages. The languages of the printers 404, 405 are A, B. When the printer A404 receives and analyzes print data of the language B, many 'miscoding characters' are printed. Then, number-of-sheets limiting function off-command is sent to a head of the print data, and in the case of receiving the data of correct print language, print outputs are executed without limit of number of sheets or in the different case, print outputs are stopped at the limited number.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus for recording image information by causing a printing medium such as a laser beam printer, an ink jet printer, a copying machine, a plotter or the like to act on a printing medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of printing apparatus does not have a function for analyzing print data sent from a connected host computer and for limiting the number of prints when printing on paper. That is, it was possible to print the entire number of sheets set in the printing apparatus.

It has also become common for so-called digital multifunction peripherals to share a single printing device among a plurality of host computers and send print data from each host computer due to network technology.

[0004] This type of printing apparatus generally has a different printing language depending on the manufacturer or product.
That is, the print data sent from the host computer is sent to a printing device that understands the print language of the print data to obtain a desired print output.

[0005]

However, the above-mentioned conventional example has the following problems. In other words, print data in an incorrect print language is sent to the printing apparatus, and there is a possibility that a large amount of useless printing is performed. In addition, a printing apparatus that receives print data in a print language of a different manufacturer erroneously analyzes the command of the print data and repeats printing of “garbled characters” or meaningless graphics, and one print output is originally required. In some cases, wasteful print output may occur over dozens of sheets, which may result in waste of cost, time, resources, and the like.

In particular, when a plurality of host computers and printing apparatuses of a plurality of different manufacturers are connected via a network, the above accident may frequently occur due to an operation error of the host computer.

[0007] The present invention has been made in view of the above-described aspects, and limits the number of printouts of one print data to a printing apparatus. The function of limiting the number of sheets can be turned on / off by a flag, and the flag can be turned off by sending a special command to the printing apparatus prior to sending the print data. Alternatively, in print languages of different manufacturers, since the special command described above does not exist, the number-of-sheets limiting function remains ON, so that useless print output is limited even if print data is sent by mistake. The purpose of the present invention is to provide various means capable of stopping at a number of sheets.

[0008]

Accordingly, the present invention is to achieve the above object by providing a printing apparatus described in any of the following items (1) to (3).

(1) A printing apparatus comprising means for counting the number of prints for recording image information on a printing medium.

(2) The printing apparatus according to the above (1), further comprising means for holding the limited number of prints.

(3) The printing apparatus according to (2), further comprising a flag for controlling whether to stop printing when the number of prints exceeds the print limit holding value.

[0012]

According to the configuration of the present invention described above, the printing apparatus
Even if print data in a print language of a different manufacturer is received by mistake, the useless print output on which “garbled characters” or meaningless graphics are printed can be reduced to a limited number of prints.

In the case of correct print data,
With the configuration in which the function of the number of prints is turned off, even if the target print exceeds the limit of the number of prints, the printout can be performed without limitation.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail based on an embodiment with reference to the drawings.

[0015]

FIG. 1 shows a detailed block diagram of the embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 300 denotes a host computer, 200 denotes a connection cable, and 100 denotes a printing device (printer).

The printing apparatus (printer) 100 includes the following blocks and is connected to the internal bus 101. Reference numeral 102 denotes a control unit that includes a CPU and each memory (ROM / RAM) and controls the whole. 103 denotes a number counter that counts the number of print data prints. 104 denotes a limit number of print data prints. A number-of-prints limit register 105 turns on / off a function for limiting the number of prints.
This is a number-of-sheets limiting function flag that holds OFF.

Reference numeral 106 denotes an input unit for inputting data from the host computer 300; 107, a command analysis unit for analyzing print data sent from the host;
An operation panel 109 for the user to operate the printing apparatus;
Is a RAM for storing image data, and 110 is a printer engine for forming a permanent visible image on recording paper or the like.

It is assumed that the value held in the number limit register 104 is set to a predetermined value by the control unit 102 when the power is turned on.

FIG. 2 is an example showing a network in which a plurality of host computers 300 and printing apparatuses 100 are connected.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 400 denotes a network cable for connecting host computers and printing apparatuses to each other. The form of the network is not particularly limited.

Reference numerals 401, 402, and 403 denote host computers A, B, and C, respectively, for creating print data and sending the print data to a printing apparatus. 40
Reference numerals 4 and 405 denote printing devices (printers) A and B, respectively. However, the manufacturers and products are generally different between 404 and 405, and the printing languages understood by the respective printing apparatuses are different. That is, each print data created by each host computer is different for each printing device.

In this embodiment, the printing language understood by the printing device A 404 is the printing language A, and the printing language understood by the printing device B 405 is the printing language B.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a print language analysis result. In the figure, the printing apparatus A404 will be described as an example: When the printing apparatus A404 receives and analyzes the print data of the printing language A from the host computer A401, a desired printing result can be obtained (normal printing).

When the printing apparatus A 404 receives and analyzes the print data of the printing language B from the host computer A 404, a large number of “garbled characters” and unclear figures are printed (abnormal printing).

That is, since the command of print data and the format of the command data are different between the print language A and the print language B, the command analyzer of the printing apparatus generates a data analysis error.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a format diagram of the number limit function off command according to the present embodiment: The number limit function off command is composed of a command code, and is composed of a 1-byte command code. However, the command code value and the number of bytes are not particularly limited, and may be anything as long as the command analysis unit can analyze the command as a number limit function off command.

This command turns off the print number limiting function of the printing apparatus by sending it to the beginning of the print data. If the printing device and the printing language sent by the host computer match, this command is analyzed by the command analysis unit 107 (FIG. 1), and the printing of the print data body is not limited, and the print output is not limited. It is possible to obtain.

When a different printing language is received by the printing apparatus, since the head of the print data is not this command, the print number limiting function remains ON, so that printing is performed up to the limited number of prints. In this case, since the printing languages are different, "garbled characters" and figures with unknown meanings are printed.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing operation sequence according to the present embodiment: First, the number-of-sheets limiting function flag is initialized to ON, the print data received from the host computer 300 is analyzed, and the number-of-sheets limiting function is turned off at the beginning. In the case of a command, the number limit function flag is turned off.
Thereafter, if the number-of-sheets restriction function flag is turned on / off, if the number is off, the remaining print data is printed without the number of sheets being limited, and a desired print result is obtained. On the other hand, if the number-of-sheets restriction function flag is on, the print data is sequentially analyzed, printing is performed one sheet at a time, and print output is stopped up to the limited number of sheets (printing of “character garbled” meaning unknown, etc.).

With this processing, when print data in a correct print language is received, printout can be performed without limitation on the number of prints, and when print data in a different print language is used, printouts up to the limit are stopped. Can be
It is possible to minimize useless printing.

In FIG. 5, first, the state of the number-of-sheets limiting function flag is initialized to ON in step S10, and
Proceed to 11. In step S11, the host computer 3
The print data is received from 00, and the process proceeds to step S12.

Next, in step S12, step S11
If the head of the received print data is the number limit function off command, the process proceeds to step S13. On the other hand, if it is not the number limit function off command, the process proceeds to step S14.

In step S13, the state of the number-of-sheets limiting function flag is set to off, and the flow advances to step S14. In step S14, if the state of the number-of-sheets limiting function flag is ON, the process proceeds to step S16. On the other hand, if the state of the number-of-sheets limiting function flag is off, the process proceeds to step S15. In step S15, the remaining part of the print data received in step S11 is subjected to command analysis, printed out by the printer engine 110 (FIG. 1), and the process ends.

In step S16, the value of the number counter is reset to 0, and the flow advances to step S17. Next, in step S17, the print data for the next one page is analyzed, and the print output is performed by the printer engine 110, and the process proceeds to step S18. In step S18, the value of the number-of-sheets counter is incremented by 1, and the process proceeds to step S19. In step S19, if all the print data received in step S11 has been printed, the process ends.

If the print data still remains, the process proceeds to step S20. In step S20, if the value of the number counter exceeds the value of the number limit register,
Proceed to step S21.

If not, the process returns to step S17. In step S21, the fact that the print number limit has been exceeded is displayed on the operation panel, and the process proceeds to step S22. In step S22, the received print data is discarded, and the process ends.

(Other Embodiments) In the above-described embodiment, the limited number of prints is configured such that the control unit sets a predetermined value. The same object can be achieved even in a configuration in which can be changed.

[0039]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Even if the printing apparatus receives print data of a printing language of a different manufacturer by mistake, the useless output of "garbled characters" or a meaningless figure printed can be suppressed to a limited number of prints. The effect that there is is obtained.

If the print data is correct,
Since the function of limiting the number of prints is turned off, there is an effect that even if the target print exceeds the limit of the number of prints, the printout can be performed without limitation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a detailed configuration block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an example of a network diagram in which a plurality of host computers and printing apparatuses are connected.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a print language analysis result.

FIG. 4 is an example of a format diagram of a number limit function off command according to the embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation sequence according to the embodiment;

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 printing device (printer) 101 internal bus 102 control unit 103 number counter 104 number limit register 105 number limit function flag 106 input unit 107 command analysis unit 108 operation panel 109 image memory 110 printer engine 200 connection cable 300 host computer 400 network cable 401 / 402/403 Host computer A / B /
C 404/405 Printer A / B

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A printing apparatus comprising means for counting the number of prints for recording image information on a printing medium. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a unit that holds the limited number of prints. 3. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a flag for controlling whether to stop printing when the number of prints exceeds the print limit holding value.