JP2001341390A - Printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that printing costs of papers, toner, etc., amount equally to those of a normal job in a printing form in which the result of a delivery paper discharged by a delivery command by means of pressing a delivery switch or the like is used only to confirm printed contents or in the like manner without being used for an original purpose and is often discarded after the confirmation because the printing form is based on a printing form of the normal job. SOLUTION: Separately from a delivery form at a normal printing time, delivery form information for designating a paper feed tray, designating a printing color, designating a toner density, designating a paper size, designating a printing face, designating a printing direction, designating n up printing, designating a scaling ratio, designating a resolution, etc., is provided to be used when forcible delivery is carried out. When a delivery command means orders the forcible delivery, a delivery information control means outputs on the basis of the delivery form information pages where printing errors occur.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a printing system, and more particularly to a technique for controlling a printing form of a print result discharged in response to a discharge instruction.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional printing system, when a print job is executed and printing is to be performed, a failure occurs in a host device or a printing device, or when a character font to be printed does not have a character font to be printed. If the print page cannot be completed for some reason, printing cannot be continued. In this case, by instructing the cancellation of the print job, the next print job can be printed without incurring the printing cost of paper, toner, or the like. I can't. In some cases, the user may want to print only printable data in order to confirm the print result of the print job. Therefore, many printing apparatuses are provided with a paper discharge switch, and have a function of forcibly printing printable print data in response to a paper discharge instruction such as pressing the paper discharge switch.

As a conventional example of forcibly discharging a print sheet having an error as described above, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-263026 discloses a method in which when an error occurs, a print error sheet is discharged to a discharge tray different from the normal print, There is a description of the invention that distinguishes it from printing.

[0004]

As described above, the print result printed by the discharge instruction such as pressing the discharge switch, that is, the print result due to the discharge is used for analyzing factors such as obstacles and confirming the print contents. They are often used and then discarded, and rarely used for the original purpose of the print job. However, in the above-described conventional technique, the print form of the print result by paper discharge is based on the print form of a normal print job, and therefore requires a printing cost equivalent to that of a normal job. In particular, in printing using special paper such as preprint paper, paper cost is a problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to reduce the printing cost at the time of printing by paper discharge by making the print form of the print result by the above-mentioned forced paper discharge different from that of a normal print job, and to improve the usability of the user. Another object of the present invention is to provide a printing system capable of improving the printing quality.

[0006]

The object of the present invention is to provide information on a discharge form for forced discharge, separately from a discharge form at the time of normal printing, and to instruct the forced discharge by the discharge instruction means. At this time, the paper discharge information control means is achieved by outputting a page in which a print error has occurred based on the paper discharge form information.

Here, the discharge mode information is, for example, information indicating a sheet feed tray, information indicating a print color, information indicating a toner density, information indicating a sheet size, Either information indicating a print surface, information indicating a print direction, information indicating n-up printing for printing n pages on one sheet, information indicating an enlargement / reduction ratio, or information indicating resolution is set. To do.

The object of the present invention is to provide a paper discharge mode information storage means for storing paper discharge mode information set by the paper discharge mode information instructing means, and a discharge mode stored in the paper discharge mode information storage means at the time of forced paper discharge. This may be achieved by displaying the paper form information and resetting it by the paper discharge form information instructing means when it needs to be changed.

In order to achieve the above object, a discharge mode change permission / inhibition instructing means is provided, and a discharge mode based on the discharge mode information at the time of forced discharge is set, or the same discharge mode as a normal print job is performed. It may be instructed whether to use the form.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. The host device 101 is connected to the printing device 110 directly or via a network, and has a function of transmitting a print job 102 to the printing device 110. The operation switch 103 has a paper ejection instruction means 104,
The paper ejection instruction means 104 is a paper ejection instruction 107 for instructing paper ejection.
To the printing device 110. The operation switch 103 includes a paper discharge mode information instruction unit 105,
The paper discharge form information instructing means 105 outputs the paper discharge form information 108 which is information indicating a print form at the time of paper discharge to the printing apparatus 110.
Means for sending to The printing apparatus 110 includes a paper discharge information control unit 111 and a paper discharge unit 113. The paper discharge information control unit 111 sets a print mode when discharging paper to a print mode according to the paper discharge mode information 108. It has a function of controlling the paper discharging means 113, and the paper discharging means 113 has a function of discharging paper. Further, the operation switch 103 has a paper ejection mode changeability information instructing unit 106 to be described later.

FIG. 2 is an external view of the operation switch 103 having the paper ejection instruction means 104 and the paper ejection form information instruction means 105. When a print job 102 is transmitted from the higher-level device 101 and printing is to be performed by the printing device 110, a print page can be completed due to some cause such as a failure or lack of a character font to be printed. Otherwise, the printing device 110 cannot continue printing. However, when the paper ejection switch 203 of the operation switch 103 is pressed, a paper ejection instruction 107 is transmitted to the printing apparatus 110 by the paper ejection instruction means 104, and the printable print data is forcibly printed. At this time, the paper-discharge-form information instructing means 105 can add and instruct the paper-discharge-form information 108, which is information indicating the print form at the time of paper discharge, as a parameter of the paper-discharge instruction 107, for example.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a discharge instruction 107 and a discharge form information 108 for instructing the discharge information control means 111. The paper ejection instruction control statement 301 is a control statement indicating the paper ejection instruction 107, and paper ejection mode information 108 is added as a parameter of the paper ejection instruction control statement 301. 302, paper ejection tray information 303, print color information 304, toner density information 305, paper size information 306, print surface information 307, print orientation information 308, Information 30 indicating nUP printing for printing n pages on a sheet of paper
9, information 310 indicating the enlargement / reduction ratio, information 3 indicating the resolution
11 and the like, and arbitrary information can be set each time a sheet ejection instruction is issued. The setting of the paper discharge mode information 108 is performed by the left switch 206 and the right switch 2 of the operation switch 103.
07, the upper switch 208, the lower switch 209, the set switch 205, and the paper discharge mode information instructing means 105 such as the display panel 201.

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of a display panel for setting the paper discharge mode information. When the paper ejection switch 203 on the operation switch 103 is pressed, a display prompting the user to input a print mode for paper ejection as shown in FIG.
1 is displayed. Ejection print format option display area 404
Displays options that can be selected in the printing apparatus 110 corresponding to the items shown in the item display area 401. The user can select the left switch 206 and the right switch 20.
7, each item of the paper discharge print mode is sequentially selected by using the upper switch 208, the lower switch 209, the set switch 210, and the cursor 405. The selected print mode at the time of paper discharge is displayed in the print form display area 403 for each item. When the print mode of the originally specified print job 102 is also displayed in the print mode display area 402 of the print job, it is possible to compare the print mode at the time of discharge with the print mode of the originally specified print job. it can. As described above, the print mode information 108 at the time of sheet discharge is input from the operation switch 103 by the sheet discharge mode information instruction unit 105, and added as a parameter of the sheet discharge instruction 107 to the printing apparatus 110
Sent to In the printing apparatus 110, the paper discharge mode information 10
In order to discharge the paper in the printing form according to the first embodiment, the paper discharge information control unit 111 controls the paper discharge unit 113 and outputs the discharge form information 1
The paper is discharged by the paper discharging unit 113 in a printing mode according to the printing method 08. For example, even when the sheet is discharged to the tray A in the printing mode of the normal print job, if the sheet feeding tray B is selected in the discharging mode, the sheet discharge information Is issued to the paper discharging means 113, and the paper discharging means 113 performs paper discharging from the paper feed tray B.

As described above, the print mode at the time of paper discharge is different from that of a normal print job by the paper discharge instruction means 104, the paper discharge form information instruction means 105, the paper discharge information control means 111, and the paper discharge means 113. It becomes possible to make it a printing form.

Here, it is time-consuming to input each item of the paper discharge mode information 108 from the operation switch 103 every time the printing apparatus 110 is instructed to discharge paper, which is inconvenient. For this reason, the printing apparatus 110 has a discharge form information storage section 114 having a function of storing the discharge form information 108 instructed by the discharge form information instructing section 105 in addition to the discharge information control section 111 and the discharge section 113. The discharge form information 108 is stored in the discharge form information storage unit 114 so that each time the discharge is instructed, the discharge form information 1
It becomes unnecessary to input each item of 08, and the usability is improved. If the discharge mode information 108 is stored in advance in the discharge mode information storage unit 114 before the print job 102 is transmitted, the discharge instruction unit 104 outputs the discharge instruction 107.
Is issued, the paper discharge information control means 111 refers to the paper discharge form information storage means 114 and
Paper discharging means 1 based on the paper discharging mode information stored in
13 is controlled to discharge the paper. That is, it is possible to discharge the paper in a print form based on the discharge form information only by instructing the discharge. In addition, if a plurality of discharge mode information is stored in the discharge mode information storage unit 114, it is easy to instruct a print mode corresponding to a print job instructing discharge.

FIG. 5 is an example of a display panel diagram when setting the discharge form information when a plurality of discharge form information is stored in the discharge form information storage means 114. Operation switch 10
When the paper discharge switch 203 on the button 3 is pressed, the pattern of the paper discharge form information stored in the paper discharge form information storage means 114 is displayed on the display panel 201 as shown in FIG.
The user uses the left switch 206, the right switch 207, the set switch 210, and the cursor 507 to select a discharge mode information pattern corresponding to the print job from the discharge mode information pattern display area 506. The selected paper discharge mode information pattern is added as, for example, a parameter of the paper discharge instruction 107 and transmitted to the printing apparatus 110. The paper discharge information control means 111 refers to the paper discharge form information storage means 114, recognizes the paper discharge form information corresponding to the selected paper discharge form information pattern, and controls the paper discharge means 113 to control the paper discharge form information. The paper is ejected in a printing form according to. That is, when instructing discharge, it is possible to select a print mode at the time of discharge according to the print job only by selecting the discharge mode information pattern from the operation switch 103. If the desired print form information pattern at the time of discharge is not registered in the discharge form information storage unit 114, the other print form information 508 is selected to directly output the discharge form information shown in FIG. A display at the time of setting can be performed, and arbitrary discharge form information can be set.

By the way, even in the case of printing in accordance with a paper discharge instruction, there are cases where it is desired to discharge paper in the same print form as in a normal print job, as in the past. In this case, by setting the print form information 108 at the time of paper discharge to a print form similar to a normal print job, it is possible to discharge paper in a print form similar to a normal print job. It is time-consuming to input each item of the paper discharge mode information 108 from the operation switch every time an instruction is given, which is inconvenient. For this reason, the operation switch 103 indicates, in addition to the paper ejection instruction means 104 and the paper ejection form information instruction means 106, whether the paper ejection form according to the paper ejection instruction is based on the paper ejection form information or the printing result of a normal job. Discharge form changeability information instructing means 1 having a function of designating discharge form changeability information 109 as information.
06. According to the instruction of the discharge form change permission / prohibition information 109, it is possible to instruct whether the discharge form according to the discharge instruction is based on a print result of a normal job or based on the discharge form information, thereby improving usability.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a display panel when setting the discharge form change permission / prohibition information. When the paper discharge switch 203 on the operation switch 103 is pressed, a display prompting input of paper discharge mode changeability information is displayed on the display panel 20 as shown in FIG.
1 is displayed. The user uses the left switch 206, the right switch 207, the set switch 210, and the cursor 601 to select whether or not to change the print mode when discharging paper.
When "YES" is selected, the display is switched to a display for prompting the user to input the discharge mode information as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, and after the discharge mode information is input, the discharge mode is changed together with the discharge mode information 108. Discharge form change permission / inhibition information 109 indicating that printing is permitted
Is added as a parameter of the paper ejection instruction 107 and transmitted to the printing apparatus 110. If “NO” is selected, the discharge form change enable / disable information 109 indicating that the change of the discharge form is prohibited is added as a parameter of the discharge instruction 107 and transmitted to the printing apparatus 110. Paper discharge information processing means 1
In step 11, whether the discharge mode is based on the print result of the normal job or the discharge mode information is determined based on the discharge mode change availability information 109, and the discharge mode indicating that the change of the discharge mode is permitted Only when the change permission / inhibition information 109 is received, the sheet is discharged in the discharge mode according to the discharge mode information. As described above, the paper discharge mode changeability information instructing means 106 is operated by the operation switch 10.
When added to 3, it is possible to determine whether the discharge mode is based on the print result of the normal job or the discharge mode information each time the sheet is discharged, and thus the discharge mode is set to the print result of the normal job. It is possible to cope with a user who wants to be based.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the panel display when the paper discharge switch is pressed and the operation until the paper discharge instruction is transmitted. When printing cannot be continued for some reason and the discharge switch is pressed (S1), a screen for prompting the user to input print mode changeability information as shown in FIG. 6 is displayed on the display panel (S2). When the discharge form change permission information is input (S3), the discharge form change permission information is determined (S3).
4). If the discharge form change permission / non-permission information is acceptable, it is determined whether the discharge form information is stored in the discharge form information storage unit 114 (S5). If the paper discharge mode information is stored, a screen for prompting the user to set the paper discharge mode information is displayed on the display panel as shown in FIG. 5 (S6). When the discharge form information is input (S7), it is determined whether the input discharge form information pattern has selected another print form (S7).
8). If the input discharge form information pattern is any other print form, a screen for prompting the setting of the discharge form information as shown in FIG. 4 is displayed on the display panel (S9). Even when the discharge form information is not stored in the discharge form information storage unit 114 in S5, the display as shown in FIG. 4 is performed (S9).
When the discharge mode information is input (S10), a discharge instruction parameter is generated based on the input discharge mode information (S11). Similarly, when the paper discharge mode information pattern input in S8 is not the other print mode, a paper discharge instruction parameter is generated based on the input paper discharge mode information (S11). Then, the generated parameters are added to the paper ejection instruction and transmitted to the printing apparatus 110 (S12). If the discharge form change permission / prohibition information is negative in S4, the discharge form information is transmitted to the printing apparatus 110 without being added to the discharge instruction (S12).

When discharge form information different from the normal print form such as change of print color, change of paper size, change of print direction, designation of n-up print, change of enlargement / reduction ratio, change of resolution, etc. A method of redrawing the print data in order to perform printing based on the paper discharge mode information is considered. At this time, if the printed page cannot be completed due to a lack of a character font or the like, the same error may not occur at the time of redrawing. For this reason, at the time of forced paper discharge, drawing data may be generated from the original drawing data based on the paper discharge mode information. For example, when the printing color is changed from monochrome printing to monochrome printing, the drawing data of the printing color is logically ORed for each pixel and printed as black drawing data. When changing the paper size, specifying n-up printing, changing the enlargement / reduction ratio, or changing the resolution, the drawing data is enlarged or reduced to generate drawing data for discharge printing. With these, the print content can be made the same as the original print content, so that it is possible to analyze factors such as the initial failure and check the print content.

According to the present invention, in a printing apparatus having a plurality of paper feed trays, for example, when expensive paper is set and used in the paper feed tray A in a normal print job, printing by paper discharge is compared. Change the type of paper by selecting paper tray B on which cheap paper is set,
The cost of paper at the time of paper discharge can be reduced.

According to the present invention, in a printing apparatus capable of full-color printing, for example, when a normal print job is performed by full-color printing, printing by paper discharge is monochrome printing with a relatively low toner price. Accordingly, the toner cost can be reduced, and the printing by paper discharge can be designated as a toner color having a low usage rate, and by using monotone printing, the life of the toner cartridge can be extended and the toner cost can be reduced. .

Further, according to the present invention, in a printing apparatus capable of adjusting the toner density, for example, by lowering the toner density at the time of printing by paper discharge from the toner density at the time of printing of a normal print job, The consumption amount can be suppressed, and the cost of the toner can be reduced.

According to the present invention, for example, as shown in FIG. 8, in a normal print job, A4 size, single-sided printing, vertical direction, 1UP printing for printing one page on one sheet, enlargement / reduction rate of 100% In the case of using the printer, as shown in FIG. 9, when printing by paper ejection, A4 size, single-sided printing, vertical direction, 4UP printing in which four pages are printed on one sheet, and enlargement / reduction ratio of 50% In addition, as shown in FIG. 10, A3 size, double-sided printing, horizontal printing, 2UP printing in which two pages are printed on one sheet, and enlargement / reduction ratio of 100% can be set. In other words, the number of sheets to be printed is reduced while the printing form desired by the user, for example, one-sided printing is desired, or the user wants to set the enlargement / reduction rate to 100%, and the number of sheets to be printed is reduced. can do.

[0026]

According to the present invention, it is possible to discharge paper in a printing mode different from a normal print job when paper is discharged by a forced paper discharge instruction. The printing cost can be reduced, and the usability for the user can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is an external view of an operation switch.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a discharge instruction and a discharge form information instruction.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a display panel when setting paper discharge mode information.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display panel when setting discharge form information when a plurality of discharge form information is stored in a discharge form information storage unit.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display panel when setting discharge form change permission / prohibition information.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a panel display when the discharge switch is pressed and an operation up to issuance of a discharge instruction.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a print mode of a normal print job.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a printing mode 1 at the time of paper ejection according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a printing mode 2 at the time of paper ejection according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: Host device, 102: Print job, 103: Operation switch, 104: Discharge instruction means, 105: Discharge form information instruction means, 106: Discharge form changeability information instructing means,
107: discharge instruction, 108: discharge form information, 109: discharge form change enable / disable information, 110: printing device, 111: discharge information control means, 112: discharge control information, 113: discharge means, 201 ... Display panel, 202: Online switch, 203: Discharge switch, 204: Reset switch, 205: Set switch, 206: Left switch, 2
07: right switch, 208: upper switch, 209: lower switch 301: discharge instruction control amount, 302: information indicating paper feed tray, 303: information indicating discharge tray, 304: information indicating print color, 305 ... Information indicating toner density, 306... Information indicating paper size, 307... Information indicating a printing surface, 30.
8 information indicating print orientation, 309 information indicating nUP printing for printing n pages on one sheet, 310 information indicating enlargement / reduction ratio, 311 information indicating resolution 401, item display area, 402 Print mode display area for print job, 403... Print mode display area for discharge, 404.
Discharge print mode selection display area 405 Cursor 501 Item display area 502 Print job print mode display area 503 Discharge print mode display area pattern 1, 504 Discharge print mode display area pattern 2,50
5: Printed-out print form display area pattern 3 506: Discharged form information pattern display area, 507: Cursor, 508: Other print form information 601: Cursor

Claims (4)

[Claims] A discharge instruction unit for instructing forced discharge, and a print mode for discharging based on discharge mode information which is an instruction from the discharge instruction unit and information indicating a print mode for discharging. Paper discharge information control means for controlling paper discharge, and a paper discharge means for discharging paper in accordance with an instruction of the paper discharge information control means, and performing paper discharge in a printing mode different from a normal print job at the time of forced paper discharge. Characterized printing system. 2. A discharge form information indicating means for setting discharge form information indicating a print form at the time of discharge, and a discharge form storing the discharge form information set by the discharge form information indicating means. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, further comprising an information storage unit, capable of performing forced paper ejection in a print mode different from a normal print job. 3. A sheet discharge mode changeable / impossible instructing unit for instructing whether a sheet discharge mode at the time of forcible sheet discharge is the same as the sheet discharge mode information or a print job is provided. The printing system as described. 4. The paper discharge mode information includes information indicating a paper feed tray, information indicating a print color, information indicating a toner density, information indicating a paper size, information indicating a print surface, or print information. 4. The information according to claim 1, wherein the information includes one of information indicating an orientation of the image, n-up printing, information indicating an enlargement / reduction ratio, and information indicating a resolution. Printing system.