JP2001341382A - Printing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing apparatus which has a cancel function for a printing job of a plurality of stages to complicated printing data. SOLUTION: When a reset key input is present (S102; Y), a time T after the reset key is pressed is measured (S103) and discarding the printing data is started (S105). When an end condition time t1 and the time T are compared with each other, a cancellation process end condition is determined to be 'up to a page ejection command' (S107) if the time T is smaller than the end condition time t1 (S106; Y) and is determined to be 'up to a printing job end command' (S108) if the time T is larger than the end condition time t1 (S106; N). When it becomes a data stage where the printing data orders ejecting pages (S109; Y) or where the printing data orders terminating the printing job (S109; Y), the cancellation process is terminated. A CPU 9 continues the cancellation process to the printing data until the cancellation process end condition is satisfied (S110).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus,
In particular, the present invention relates to a printing apparatus such as a printer having a print job canceling function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, printing apparatuses such as printers and copiers having a cancel function that allows a user to designate a cancel process of a print job on an operation panel have been widely used. Regarding such a cancel function of the printing apparatus, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 5-77525 discloses that when a user presses a key again as an instruction to cancel a print operation, feeding of new print paper is stopped, and a cancel instruction is received. The printer with the cancel function clears all the print data remaining in the printer at the time of printing, discards all the data further transferred from the host device, and sets the printer mode to the state at the time of job start after a certain period of time. Has been described.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8-11396, after a cancellation instruction for canceling the processing of print data is input, the resetting is performed until the identification unit identifies a print data discharge command already stored in the storage unit. A printing apparatus in which means skips and discards print data stored in a storage means and a method of resetting the printing apparatus are described. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-58788 describes a printer and a printing method that, when a cancel request is received from a first cancel unit after a certain print job is started, the printing is canceled thereafter until the end of the print job. Have been.

[0004]

However, in the above-described conventional printing apparatus, if the termination condition of the cancel process for determining when to cancel the print job is a key input again, the print process is terminated. However, it is difficult to determine the optimal timing for pressing a key, and other print data may be erroneously canceled. Also,
If the termination condition of the canceling process is a discharge command, the subsequent data after the discharge command may be printed. Further, when the end condition is time-out, if data not to be canceled is transmitted before the time-out, print data not to be canceled may be canceled. As described above, in the printing apparatus having the function of canceling the print job from the conventional operation panel, the termination condition of the cancel processing is unconditionally such as "until a key is pressed again", "until a sheet ejection command", and "until a timeout". In other words, since one is determined for one printing apparatus, if the print data is complicated, the cancel function expected by the user may not be realized. In addition, since the cancellation condition for canceling print data that does not have the concept of a print job is also unambiguous, the cancellation function expected by the user may not be realized.

In a case where data of a plurality of emulations is mixed in one print job, when canceling the data in which the plurality of emulations are mixed, a conventional printing apparatus uses a condition for ending the canceling process. Is not gradual, but unambiguous, and it is not possible to select whether to perform it on a data-by-emulation basis or on a job-by-job basis, and cancel processing may continue until the end of the print job .

Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus having a function of canceling a multi-stage print job for complicated print data. A second object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus capable of more accurately canceling print data having no concept of a print job. A third object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus capable of performing a canceling process in units of print data of each emulation when print data of a plurality of emulations exists in one print job.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided receiving means for receiving a print job, and designating means for designating, by key input, a print job to be discarded among print jobs received by the receiving means. A discarding unit for discarding a print job designated by the designation unit; and a holding unit for retaining a plurality of end conditions set in advance based on predetermined requirements for key input by the designation unit. The means achieves the first object by executing a print job discard based on a plurality of stages of termination conditions held in the holding means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the first stage of the plurality of stages of the end conditions held in the holding unit is determined by converting the print job received by the receiving unit into pages. The second object is achieved by setting a discharge command for discharging.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the emulation for switching the operating system of a print job including a plurality of emulations in the first stage of the plurality of stages of end conditions held in the holding means. The third object is achieved by using a switching command.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing apparatus according to the present embodiment. Here, an example of the printing apparatus will be described as a laser printer, but is not limited to this. The laser printer 1 includes a controller 2, an operation panel 4, and a printer engine 13. The controller 2 includes a host I / F (interface) 5, a program ROM (read only memory) 6, a font R
OM7, panel I / F8, CPU (central processing unit) 9,
RAM (random access memory) 10, NV-R
An AM (non-volatile memory) 11, an engine I / F 12, and an option RAM 14 are provided.

The controller 2 is a control mechanism for converting print data from the host machine 3 into video data and outputting the video data to the printer engine 13 in accordance with a control mode set at that time and a control code from the host machine 3. . The host I / F 5 transmits control signals and data from the host machine 3 to the printer 1,
This is an interface for transmitting and receiving a status signal from the host machine 3 to the host machine 3. The CPU 9 performs data processing such as cancellation processing and printing processing on the print data and control data from the host machine 3 according to the program ROM 6.
The RAM 10 is a work memory used when the CPU 9 processes data, a buffer that manages data from the host machine 3 in page units and temporarily stores the data, converts the data stored in this buffer into an actual print pattern, It is used as a bitmap memory that stores data.

The NV-RAM 11 is a non-volatile RAM for storing data to be retained even when the power is turned off. The program ROM 6 stores a program for managing data in the controller 2 and controlling peripheral modules. The font ROM 7 has various types of fonts used for printing. Engine I / F12,
An interface for transmitting and receiving a control signal from the controller 2 to the printer engine 13 and a status signal from the printer 1 to the controller 2. The printer engine 13 forms an electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor of the printer 1 based on a video signal and a control signal from the controller 2 and transfers and fixes the electrostatic latent image to a transfer sheet fed from a sheet feeding unit to form an image. I do. The panel I / F 8 is the printer 1
An interface for transmitting and receiving signals for switching the state, mode, font, and the like. The operation panel 4
A display unit that indicates the status of the printer 1 and a switch unit that switches the mode, font, and the like of the printer 1.

The data transmitted from the host machine 3 via the host I / F 5 is used by the CPU 9 to print data and print control data (SP, CR, LF, HT, VT,
.. Etc.) and other data. The print data and print control data are converted into control codes and stored in the RAM 10 serving as a buffer. Host machine 3
If the print command from the printer or the data received from the host machine 3 exceeds one page, the controller 2
Converts the intermediate code into video data, and issues a print start command to the printer engine 13 via the engine I / F 12 when the conversion is completed. As described above, the data from the host machine 3 is printed by the printer engine 13 in the flow of the processing in each section described above.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a print job canceling procedure in the printing apparatus. When a key is input on the operation panel 4 of the printer 1 (Step 101; Y), the CPU 9 determines whether the key input is a reset key input (Step 102). If the input is the reset key input (step 102; Y), the CPU 9 measures the time T from when the reset key is pressed until it is released (step 103). After the end of the reset key input (Step 104; Y), the time T measured until the reset key is released is stored in the RAM 10 (Step 10).
3) Discarding the print data already received from the host machine 3 and created in the print data by the CPU 9, that is, the cancel process is started (step 105).

Next, the CPU 9 compares the end condition time t1 with the time T until the reset key is released to determine a print data canceling process end condition (step 106). Here, the end condition time t1 is a time for determining a cancel process end condition in comparison with the measured time T, and is set in advance, and the end condition time t1.
, The cancellation processing end condition is also set in advance. If the time T is shorter than the end condition time t1 (step 106; Y), the cancel process end condition is determined to be "until a page break command" (step 107), and the CPU 9
In the data stage for instructing a page break in the received print data (step 109; Y), the print data cancel process ends.

If the time T is longer than the end condition time t1 (step 106; N), the cancel process end condition is determined to be "until the print job end command" (step 108), and the CPU 9 sends the print data received from the RAM 10 At the data stage instructing the end of the print job (step 109; Y), the print data canceling process is ended. The CPU 9 continues the cancellation processing of the received data until the received data satisfies the cancellation processing end condition (Step 109; Y) (Step 11).
0).

In the present embodiment, the cancel processing end condition determined by comparing the time T with the end condition time t1 has two stages of "until a page break command" and "until a print job end command". The present invention is not limited to the two stages, and the cancellation process end condition corresponding to the end condition time t1 can be set in a plurality of stages. By setting the cancel processing end condition in a plurality of stages, it is possible to cope with complicated data cancel processing, and it is also possible to prevent erroneous cancellation processing of other print data. When a discharge command for discharging a print job in units of pages is set as the first stage of the multiple-stage cancel processing end condition, cancel processing in units of pages can be performed. In particular, when canceling print data that does not have the concept of a print job, that is, print data that requires immediate processing,
Alternatively, it is possible to select whether or not to perform the cancel processing at the end of the data, so that the cancel processing desired by the user can be performed, and it is possible to prevent the erroneous cancel processing of other print data.

Further, when an emulation switching command for switching the operating system of a print job including a plurality of emulations is set as the first stage of the plurality of stages of the cancel processing end condition, a plurality of emulation data are included in one print job. When canceling print data that may be mixed, you can select whether to execute the cancel processing by the data unit of each emulation or the print job end command, so the print data of the emulation that does not need to be reprinted is printed as it is However, only the minimum necessary cancellation processing can be executed, and waste of resources can be prevented. In the present embodiment, the cancellation processing termination condition is determined by comparing the time T during which the reset key is pressed with the preset termination condition time t1, but the present invention is not limited to this. The number of presses of the reset key corresponding to the cancel processing end condition is set in advance as the end condition number t2, and the number of times the reset key is pressed T2 is compared with the set end condition number t2 to determine the cancel process end condition. It can be determined and classified.

[0019]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the discarding means comprises:
Since the print job is discarded based on the multi-step end conditions held in the holding unit, the cancel processing within the range expected by the user can be easily performed, and other print data is erroneously canceled. Such a situation can be prevented.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the first stage of the plurality of stages of termination conditions held in the holding unit is a discharge command for discharging the print job received by the receiving unit in page units. By setting the cancel end condition until the end of data in the second and subsequent stages, cancel processing can be performed in units of pages. In particular, when canceling print data that does not have the concept of a print job, it is performed in units of pages. It is possible to select whether to perform until the end of the data, and it is possible to prevent the other print data from being erroneously canceled.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the first stage of the multi-stage end condition held in the holding means is an emulation switching command for switching the operating system of a print job including a plurality of emulations. When canceling print data in which multiple emulation data are mixed in a job, you can select whether to execute in units of each emulation data or to execute a job end command. It is possible to print the data as it is and execute only the minimum necessary cancel processing, thereby preventing waste of resources.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a print job cancel processing procedure in the printing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 laser printer 2 controller 3 host machine 4 operation panel 5 host I / F (interface) 6 program ROM (read only memory) 7 font ROM 8 panel I / F 9 CPU (central processing unit) 10 RAM (random access) -Memory) 11 NV-RAM (non-volatile memory) 12 Engine I / F 13 Printer engine 14 Option RAM

Claims (3)

[Claims] A receiving unit that receives a print job; a designating unit that designates, by key input, a print job to be discarded among print jobs received by the receiving unit; and a discarding print job designated by the designating unit. Discarding means, and holding means for holding a plurality of stages of end conditions set in advance based on predetermined requirements for key input by the specifying means,
A printing apparatus, wherein the discarding unit executes discarding of the print job based on a plurality of end conditions held in the holding unit. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first stage of the plurality of end conditions held by the holding unit is a discharge command for discharging the print job received by the receiving unit in page units. Item 6. The printing device according to Item 1. 3. An emulation switching command for switching an operating system of a print job including a plurality of emulations as a first stage of a plurality of stages of end conditions held in the holding unit. Printing device.