JP2001301284A - Imaging apparatus and medium recording its program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an imaging apparatus in which useless print due to an error can be minimized when an error occurs during print operation. SOLUTION: Upon occurrence of an error during print operation, a controller 2 detects the error and makes a decision whether the error is caused by a sheet discharge code or a similar code or not, whether the data at the occurring position of error is image data or not, and whether the input data is confined within a designated image area or not. If there is no negative answer, a formed page is erased and the operation advances to printing of next page. Since printing of a page where an error has occurred is stopped and a sheet is not discharged, useless printing is eliminated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that prints out pages, and a recording medium that stores a program for the image forming apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a printer device, when there is a command error which is a syntax error of a command sequence or a data error which is an error of a data format, a predetermined command is not notified to a user. Since printing is performed on paper in accordance with the sequence and printing is performed in a state where an error occurs, a portion where an error has occurred is printed with an error. As a result, that portion may be wasted printing.

In order to solve this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 7-32670 has newly provided an error checking means, an error information selecting means, an error displaying means, and the like. If there is an error in the data, the printing of the print data is stopped. The above problem has been solved by printing the error information or displaying the error information on the operation panel.

[0004]

However, when printing is performed using the above-described technique, if an error occurs, all the print jobs are canceled, so that data having a large number of pages or If an error occurs when printing a large amount of image drawing data or the like and an error occurs, all pages must be printed again.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and when an error occurs, only the page including the location where the error occurred is canceled to minimize the influence when the error occurs. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus that can be stored in a computer and a recording medium that records the program.

[0006]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus configured to form an image for each page and discharge the sheet, and to detect occurrence of an error. And data erasing means for erasing the created image data, wherein when the error detecting means detects the occurrence of the error, the data erasing means erases the image data.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in an image forming apparatus that forms an image for each page and discharges the sheet, an error detecting unit that detects occurrence of an error, and an image in which the image forming apparatus forms an image in color. A color printer determining unit that determines whether the image forming apparatus is an image forming apparatus; and an image forming color changing unit that changes the image forming apparatus to form an image in a single color. Is detected, and when the image forming apparatus determines that the image forming apparatus is an image forming apparatus that forms an image in color by the color printer determining unit, the color at the time of forming the image is changed by the image forming color changing unit. And

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the present invention, there is further provided pixel thinning means for thinning out all the pixels formed in a certain color, and the occurrence of an error is detected by the error detecting means, and When the printer determining unit determines that the image forming apparatus is not an image forming apparatus that forms an image in color, pixels are thinned by the pixel thinning unit when forming an image.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in an image forming apparatus for forming and discharging an image for each page, an error detecting means for detecting occurrence of an error, and a discharge destination changing means for changing a discharge destination When the error detection unit detects that an error has occurred, the discharge destination to which the page on which the image of the error occurred is output is changed by the discharge destination change unit. Is output.

The invention according to a fifth aspect is characterized in that, in the invention according to the fourth aspect, there is further provided a paper discharge destination restoring means for returning the paper discharge destination changed by the paper discharge destination changing means.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium on which a program for forming an image for each page and causing a discharged image forming apparatus to execute processing is recorded, wherein an error for detecting occurrence of an error is detected. A detection process and a data erasure process for erasing the created image data are executed, and when an error is detected by the error detection process, the data erasure process is executed.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium on which a program for forming an image for each page and causing an image forming apparatus for discharging a sheet to execute a process is recorded. Detection processing, color printer determination processing for determining whether the image forming apparatus is an image forming apparatus that forms an image in color, and image forming color change for changing the image forming apparatus to form an image in a single color If the error detection process detects that an error has occurred and the color printer determination process determines that the image forming device is an image forming device that forms an image in color, the image forming color changing process is performed. Is executed.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the color printer according to the seventh aspect of the present invention, a pixel thinning process for thinning out all the pixels formed in a certain color is further executed, and the occurrence of an error is detected by the error detecting process. When it is determined by the determination process that the image forming apparatus is not an image forming apparatus that forms a color image, a pixel thinning process is executed when an image is formed.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium on which a program for forming an image for each page and causing an image forming apparatus for discharging a sheet to execute a process is recorded, wherein an error for detecting occurrence of an error is recorded. A detection process and a discharge destination change process for changing a discharge destination are executed, and when an error is detected by the error detection process, the discharge destination change process is executed.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the ninth aspect, a discharge destination restoring process for restoring the discharge destination changed by the discharge destination changing process is further executed. .

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention and a recording medium on which the program is recorded will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 to 7 show:
1 shows a laser printer applied as an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 1 shows a configuration diagram of a laser printer according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, a host machine 3 is connected to the printer 1. The printer 1 includes a controller 2, an operation panel 4, a hard disk 15, a main power 16, and a printer engine 13.

The controller 2 is a general term for a control mechanism for converting print data transmitted from the host machine 3 into video data and outputting the video data to the printer engine 13 in accordance with the set control mode and the control code transmitted from the host machine 3. Point to.

The controller 2 includes a host I / F 5, a program ROM 6, a font ROM 7, a panel I / F 8,
CPU 9, RAM 10, NV-RAM 11, Engine I
/ F12 and a disk I / F14.

The host I / F 5 receives a control signal or data transmitted from the external device to the printer 1,
An interface for transmitting a status signal from the printer 1 to an external device. The CPU 9 performs data processing according to the program contents stored in the ROM 6.

The RAM 10 is used as a work area of the CPU 9, a buffer for receiving data from the host machine 3, or an image development area after processing. NV-RAM
Reference numeral 11 denotes a nonvolatile memory that can hold data regardless of whether the power is on or off. The font ROM 7 is a memory for holding several types of fonts used for printing.

The engine I / F 12 is an interface that transmits a control signal from the controller 2 to the engine 13 and receives a status signal transmitted from the engine 13 to the controller 2.

The engine 13 forms an electrostatic image on a photosensitive member (not shown) based on a video signal and control information transmitted from the controller 2 and feeds a transfer sheet from a sheet feeding unit (not shown) to form an image. The operation panel 4 is a switch unit that can change the status display, mode, and printing conditions of the printer.

When a page is completed with the print data transmitted from the host machine 3 via the above-described module based on the control information, a printer start command is issued to the printer engine 13 and printing is started.

The operation of erasing a page in the printer 1 when an error occurs during printing will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Printer 1
If the print data is input to the page (step S1), and if no error occurs (step S2 / No), it is determined whether or not printing of the data on the page is completed (step S1).
7) If the processing is completed (step S7 / Yes), the processing is completed, and if not completed (step S7 / No), the processing proceeds to the next page.

If an error has occurred in step S2 (step S2 / Yes), the error is not caused by a code as in the case of paper ejection (step S3 / N).
o), it is determined whether or not printing of data on the page is completed (step S7).

If the above-mentioned error is caused by the same code as the paper discharge (step S3 / Yes), it is determined whether or not the input data is image data (step S4). (Step S
4 / No), it is determined whether or not printing is completed on the page (step S7).

If the input data is image data (step S4 / Yes), it is determined whether or not the data is drawn in the designated image area (step S5). As a criterion for the determination in step S5, the width and the height are used as the criterion for the determination. If it is determined in step S5 that the image is not drawn in the designated image area (step S5 / No), it is determined whether or not printing is completed on the page (step S7).

In step S5, if the image is drawn in the designated image area (step S5 / Yes)
s), the created page is deleted (step S6),
In step S7, it is determined whether or not printing is completed for the page.

FIG. 3 shows an example in which when image data is input and an error occurs during processing on the second page of the image data, the second page on which the error has occurred is not discharged.

As described above, when an error occurs when print data of a plurality of pages is input, if only that page is not discharged, if a large number of pages of data are printed, all pages are reprinted. This eliminates the need to do so. In addition, since there is no wasteful ejection due to a mistake in the ejection command, printing paper can be saved.

The operation of reducing the amount of toner used when an error occurs during printing in the printer 1 as compared with printing when no error occurs will be described below with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. I do.

When print data is input to the printer 1 (step S11), if no error occurs (step S12 / No), it is determined whether or not printing of data on the page is completed (step S19). If it is finished (step S19 / Yes), the process is finished, and if it is not finished (step S19 / No), the process moves to the next page.

If an error has occurred (step S12)
/ Yes), if the error is not due to the code as in the paper ejection (step S13 / No), it is determined whether or not data printing is completed on the page (step S1).
9).

If the above-mentioned error is caused by the same code as the paper discharge (step S13 / Yes), it is determined whether or not the input data is image data (step S14). (Step S14 / No), it is determined whether or not printing is completed on the page (Step S19).

If it is image data (step S14)
/ Yes), it is determined whether or not the data is drawn in the designated image area (step S15). As a criterion for the determination in step S15, the width and the height are used as the criterion for the determination. In step S15, if the image is not drawn in the designated image area (step S15).
15 / No), it is determined whether or not printing is completed on the page (step S19).

In step S15, if the image is drawn in the designated image area (step S15 / Yes)
s) It is determined whether the printer 1 is a color printer (step S16). If the printer is a color printer (step S16 / Yes), the printing is changed to single color printing (step S17), and the black portion of the print image is thinned out (step S18). If it is not a color printer (step S16 / No), black portions of the print image are similarly thinned out (step S18). When the black portion is thinned out, it is determined whether or not printing is completed on the page (step S1).
9).

In FIG. 5, when image data is input to FIG. 3, and an error occurs during processing on the second page, only the second page on which the error occurred is printed in a single color and discharged. An example of being papered is shown.

By operating as described above,
If an error occurs when multiple pages of print data are entered, the printing of the page on which the error occurred is changed to a single color print if it was printed on a color printer,
If the image is printed in black, the thinning process is applied to the black area, which saves toner and makes it clear from the paper that was printed without error. Discovery is easier.

In the following, based on the flowchart shown in FIG. 6, when an error occurs during printing in the printer 1, the discharge destination of the page where the error has occurred is set to the page printed without error. The operation of discharging paper to a paper discharge destination different from the page from which paper is discharged will be described.

When print data is input to the printer 1 (step S21), if no error occurs (step S22 / No), it is determined whether or not printing of data on the page is completed (step S28). If it is finished (step S28 / Yes), the process is finished, and if not (step S28 / No), the process moves to the next page.

If an error has occurred (step S22)
/ Yes), if the error is not caused by the code as in the paper ejection (step S23 / No), it is determined whether the printing of the data on the page is completed (step S2).
8).

If the above-mentioned error is caused by the same code as the paper ejection (step S23 / Yes), it is determined whether or not the input data is image data (step S24). (Step S24 / No), it is determined whether or not printing is completed on the page (Step S28).

If it is image data (step S24)
/ Yes), it is determined whether or not the data is drawn in the designated image area (step S25). As a criterion for the determination in step S25, the width and the height are used as the criterion for the determination. In step S25, if the image is not drawn in the designated image area (step S25).
25 / No), it is determined whether or not printing is completed on the page (step S28).

If it is determined in step S25 that the image is drawn in the designated image area (step S25 / Yes)
s) Then, the created page is discharged by changing the paper discharge destination (step S26), and it is determined whether or not printing on the page is completed (step S19). The changed discharge destination is returned to the original (step S27), and the process proceeds to the next page.

In FIG. 7, when image data is input to FIG. 3, and an error occurs during processing on the second page, only the second page on which the error occurred is discharged to another tray. An example is shown.

By operating as described above, if an error occurs when print data for a plurality of pages is input, the discharge destination of the page is changed, so that the user can determine on which page the error has occurred. Will be able to know quickly.

[0048]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, if an error occurs when print data of a plurality of pages is input, only that page will not be discharged, so that a large number of pages of data will be output. Is printed,
This eliminates the need for reprinting all pages, thereby eliminating the hassle. In addition, since there is no wasteful ejection due to a mistake in the ejection command, printing paper can be saved.

According to the present invention, when an error occurs when print data of a plurality of pages is input, the printing of the page on which the error occurred is changed to printing in a single color if the printing is performed by a color printer. If the image is printed in black, the thinning process is applied to the black area, which saves toner and at the same time clarifies the difference from the printed paper without error, and the page where the error occurred Discovery becomes easier.

By operating as described above,
If an error occurs when print data of a plurality of pages is input, the discharge destination of the page is changed, so that the user can quickly know which page has the error.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a laser printer applied as one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a process of canceling sheet ejection when an error occurs according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows an example of paper ejection during the operation shown in the flowchart of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a process for reducing the amount of toner used when an error occurs according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a result printed during the operation illustrated in the flowchart of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a process of changing a paper discharge destination when an error occurs according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a result of discharging a sheet in the operation of the flowchart illustrated in FIG. 6;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printer 2 Controller 3 Host machine 4 Operation panel 5 Host I / F 6 Program ROM 7 Font ROM 8 Panel I / F 9 CPU 10 RAM 11 NV-RAM 12 Engine I / F 13 Printer engine 14 Disk I / F 15 Hard disk

Claims (10)

[Claims] An image forming apparatus that forms an image for each page and discharges the image, comprising: an error detecting unit that detects an occurrence of an error; and a data erasing unit that erases created image data. An image forming apparatus characterized in that when an error is detected by an error detecting means, the image data is deleted by the data erasing means. 2. An image forming apparatus for forming and discharging an image for each page, and detecting whether an error has occurred in the image forming apparatus, and determining whether the image forming apparatus is a color image forming apparatus. A color printer determining unit that determines whether or not an error has occurred, and an image forming color changing unit that changes the image forming apparatus to form an image in a single color. The error detecting unit detects that an error has occurred. When the color printer determining unit determines that the image forming apparatus is an image forming apparatus that forms an image in color, the image forming color changing unit changes the color used when forming the image. Image forming apparatus. 3. A pixel thinning means for thinning out all pixels formed in a certain color, wherein occurrence of an error is detected by the error detecting means,
If the color printer determining unit determines that the image forming apparatus is not an image forming apparatus that forms an image in color, pixels are thinned by the pixel thinning unit when forming an image. 3. The image forming apparatus according to 2. 4. An image forming apparatus for forming and discharging an image for each page, comprising: an error detecting unit for detecting occurrence of an error; and a discharge destination changing unit for changing a discharge destination. If the error detection unit detects that an error has occurred, the discharge destination to which the page on which the image of the location where the error has occurred is output is changed and output by the discharge destination change unit. An image forming apparatus comprising: 5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a discharge destination restoring unit that restores the discharge destination changed by the discharge destination changing unit. 6. A recording medium on which a program for forming an image for each page and causing an image forming apparatus that discharges the sheet to execute a process is recorded, wherein an error detection process for detecting occurrence of an error is provided. A data erasing process for erasing the image data, and executing the data erasing process when an error is detected by the error detecting process. 7. A recording medium on which a program for forming an image for each page and causing an image forming apparatus that discharges the sheet to execute a process is recorded, wherein: an error detection process for detecting occurrence of an error; A color printer determining process for determining whether the forming device is an image forming device that forms an image in color, and an image forming color changing process for changing the image forming device to form an image in a single color are performed. When the error detection processing detects that an error has occurred, and when the color printer determination processing determines that the image forming apparatus is an image forming apparatus that forms an image in color, the image forming color change processing And a recording medium on which a program is recorded. 8. A pixel thinning-out process for thinning out all pixels formed in a certain color is further executed, and the occurrence of an error is detected by the error detection process.
8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein when the image forming apparatus determines that the image forming apparatus is not an image forming apparatus that forms an image in color, the pixel thinning processing is performed when an image is formed. Recording medium on which the program of the above is recorded. 9. A recording medium on which a program for forming an image for each page and causing an image forming apparatus for discharging the image to execute a process is recorded, wherein an error detecting process for detecting occurrence of an error, and a paper discharging process And a recording medium storing a program for executing a discharge destination change process when an error is detected by the error detection process. . 10. The recording medium according to claim 9, further comprising a discharge destination restoring process for restoring a discharge destination changed by the discharge destination changing process.