JP2003078667A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer capable of discriminating an event such as shortage of print paper sheet by itself and continuing printing by image processing adaptive to the new paper sheets. SOLUTION: An event detection device 23 of the printer 2 detects an event for conducting the image processing, an image processing device 24 of the printer 2 conducts the image processing adaptive to new paper sheets to be printed. When the event detection device 23 detects shortage of print paper sheets and another paper sheet tray is available, an engine 25 of the printer 2 allows the other paper sheet tray to automatically feed paper sheets.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus which performs image processing suitable for a medium to be printed by itself.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A printing device prints based on print data from a host. In this case, the host performs the image processing according to the medium to be printed by the installed printer driver.

That is, when the printing apparatus is, for example, an ink jet type and prints on plain paper as a medium,
Since the ink that has landed on the medium bleeds and the paper becomes wavy, image processing is performed so that the amount of ink that is ejected is reduced. On the other hand, when the medium is glossy paper, ink bleeding is small, and therefore different image processing is performed, which is different from the case of plain paper.

[0004]

However, as described above, when the printer driver installed on the host side performs the image processing according to the medium to be printed, the image processing between the host and the printing apparatus is performed. The interface needs to be dependent on the host, and there is a problem that the connection destination of the printing device is limited.

Further, when the image processing is carried out on the host side, the image data normally expressed in RGB is YMCK.
There is also a problem in that the amount of print data becomes large because the data is decomposed into two and transmitted to the printing apparatus.

Further, if the image processing is carried out on the host side, it becomes necessary for the host side to have parameters peculiar to the printing apparatus. In that case, there is also a problem in that when a change occurs in the specific parameter, both the driver on the host side and the control program on the printing device side must be modified.

Further, when the printing apparatus runs out of paper during printing and the type of supplied paper is different, the printing up to that point is interrupted, and another type of paper is specified again. There is also a problem in that printing must be executed again.

Incidentally, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 5-221051, image processing is performed in accordance with the selection of a sheet designated in advance by the printing apparatus. When there are a plurality of cassettes, color processing suitable for the designated cassette is performed.

However, in such a prior art, the printing apparatus side has a plurality of image processing mechanisms adapted to the paper and a control portion for selecting the same, but it judges the event such as paper exhaustion by itself. It is impossible to automatically feed paper from another cassette, perform image processing suitable for the fed paper, and continue printing.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and provides a printing apparatus capable of self-determining an event such as paper exhaustion, performing image processing suitable for a new paper, and continuing printing. It is something that can be provided.

[0011]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus which receives print data before image processing, performs image processing according to a medium to be printed, and executes printing. There is an image processing mechanism that performs image processing, an event detection mechanism that detects events such as paper exhaustion and an image processing request, and printing on a medium according to the detection result of the event detection mechanism and the image processing by the image processing mechanism. And an engine for performing. Further, the image processing mechanism can perform re-image processing according to the detection result of the event detection mechanism. Further, the engine can automatically feed the paper from the other paper feed tray when there is another paper feed tray when the event detection mechanism detects the paper shortage. The printing method according to claim 4 is a printing method in which print data before image processing is received, image processing is performed according to a medium to be printed, and printing is performed. According to the detection process by the event detection mechanism and the image processing by the image processing mechanism, the first step of processing, the second step of detecting an event including a paper shortage and an image processing request by the event detection mechanism, and the engine And a third step of printing on a medium. In addition, the first step may include a fourth step of performing re-image processing according to the detection result of the event detection mechanism. Further, the third step includes the fifth step of automatically feeding the paper from the other paper feed tray when there is another paper feed tray when the event detection mechanism detects the paper shortage. Can be set. In the printing apparatus according to the present invention, when the print data before the image processing is received, the image processing according to the medium to be printed is performed and the printing is performed, the image processing mechanism performs the image processing, and the event The detection mechanism detects an event including paper shortage and an image processing request, and the engine prints on the medium according to the detection result of the event detection mechanism and the image processing by the image processing mechanism.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the printing apparatus of the present invention, FIGS. 2 and 3 are diagrams for explaining the operation of the printing apparatus of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is the printing of FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the other operation | movement of an apparatus.

The printer 2 shown in FIG. 1 is connected to the host 1, for example. The printer 2 receives print data from the host 1 before the image processing is performed. The printing device 2 and the host 1 may be in the form of a remote host connected by a network or in the form of a local host of direct connection.

The printing device 2 includes a ROM 21, a RAM 22,
Event detection mechanism 23, image processing mechanism 24, engine 2
5, input unit 26, display unit 27, CPU 28, host IF
It is equipped with 29.

The ROM 21 stores programs and data for controlling the printing operation of the printing device 2. A print image is stored in the RAM 22. The RAM 22 is also used as a work area.

The event detection mechanism 23 detects an event such as paper shortage. The image processing mechanism 24 performs image processing. The engine 25 is in charge of printing on a medium such as paper. Further, when the event detection mechanism 23 detects that the paper is out, the engine 25 automatically feeds the paper from the other paper feed tray if there is another paper feed tray.

The input unit 26 inputs data such as various settings. The display unit 27 displays setting information and the like. The CPU 28 controls the operation of each unit. The host IF 29 is responsible for exchanging communication with the host 1.

Next, the operation of the printing apparatus 2 having such a configuration will be described.

Prior to the description, the printing device 2 is, for example, an ink jet printer having a plurality of paper feed trays. Further, when there is no more paper in the first selected paper feed tray, it is possible to continuously print by automatically feeding paper from another paper feed tray.

Further, it is assumed that plain paper is set in the first selected paper feed tray and dedicated glossy paper is set in another paper feed tray, and document data of a plurality of pages is printed using plain paper. Let us take the case where the plain paper is used up during printing.

First, as shown in FIG. 2, when an event of no paper in the first paper feed tray occurs, the event detection mechanism 23 detects the event. At this time,
It is searched whether there is another paper tray (S01),
If not (S02), a paper out alarm is displayed (S
06), printing is interrupted.

On the other hand, if there is another paper feed tray in (S02), it is judged whether or not there is a request for continuous printing (S03). This is due to the user's instruction in advance whether or not to feed paper from another paper feed tray before printing.
By the way, if the setting is such that continuous printing is always performed, the flow of (S03) is unnecessary.

When there is no request for continuous printing, a paper out alarm is displayed (S06) and printing is interrupted. When there is a request for continuous printing, reimage processing is performed by the image processing mechanism 24 (S04). The redrawing process here is an image process from plain paper printing to dedicated glossy paper. When the reimage processing is completed, the engine 25 restarts printing on the special glossy paper automatically fed from another paper feed tray (S0).
5).

By the above procedure, even if the first paper feed tray runs out of paper, the paper is automatically fed from another paper feed tray, and the print data suitable for the special glossy paper, which is the medium that has been fed. By using, it is possible to continue printing without interruption. The number of paper feed trays is not limited to two as described above, and may be three or more.

The flow of image data according to the above procedure will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3, the print data before being subjected to the image processing transmitted from the host 1 is the image processing mechanism 2.
4 shows a flow of processing by 4 and printing by the engine 25.

First, the print data transmitted from the host 1 to the printer 2 is divided into control data and image data. The divided image data is held in the image data buffer 22a in the RAM 22. The image data buffer 22a holds image data before image processing.
Generally, this image data is in RGB format.

When the event detection mechanism 23 detects an image processing request event, color space conversion / γ in the image processing mechanism 24 is performed.
The image data before the image processing is read by the correction unit 24a. After that, the image data after the image processing that has undergone the multi-value conversion processing by the multi-value conversion unit 24b in the image processing mechanism 24 is stored in the RAM 22.
It is written in the drawing memory 22b therein. The format of this data is generally the KCMY format. The engine 25 in the printer 2 reads the data in the drawing memory 22b,
Perform printing.

Here, the following events can be considered as events requiring image processing. In the printing apparatus 2 having a plurality of paper feed trays already exemplified, when there is no more paper in the selected paper feed tray and it is desired to feed from another paper feed tray to continue printing, and at that time, another paper feed tray is used. There is a case where a medium different from the past is set in the tray.

As another event, print data may be transmitted from the host 1. This should usually be the most common case. Still another event is that the selected paper feed tray runs out of paper and a different medium is set in the same paper feed tray.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the event detection mechanism 23 on the printing apparatus 2 side detects an event for image processing and the image processing mechanism 2 on the printing apparatus 2 side.
4, the image processing suitable for the paper to be printed is performed, so that the image processing on the host 1 side can be omitted. At the same time, since it is not necessary to perform image processing on the host 1 side, the amount of print data transmitted from the host 1 to the printing apparatus 2 is reduced, so communication traffic between the two is reduced.

Further, since the image processing is carried out on the printing apparatus 2 side, even if the parameters peculiar to the image processing are changed, the influence is not exerted on the host 1 side. Further, since an event of performing image processing on the printing device 2 side is detected, printing is continued without the host 1 side being aware of it even when the medium changes in the middle.

Further, since it is not necessary to provide the image processing mechanism 24 on the host 1 side, the interface between the host 1 and the printing device 2 does not have to be device-dependent, and there are restrictions on the host 1. Lost. That is, for example, the output from the video reproducing device can be input to the printing device 2.

When the same image data is copied and printed, the first sheet is printed on plain paper as a test print.
Even when printing the next and subsequent sheets of glossy paper, the print data need only be transmitted from the host 1 only once at the beginning, and therefore throughput can be improved.

In the present embodiment, the case where there are a plurality of paper feed trays has been described, but when there is only one paper feed tray, printing can be performed according to the flow of FIG.

That is, when an event that the sheets in the designated paper feed tray are exhausted is detected, the sheet setting waits (S11). When the paper is set (S1
2) It is determined whether or not the medium is different from before (S13). If they are not different, printing is resumed as it is (S15). If they are different, the image data created for the previous medium is discarded, and the reimage processing is performed according to the newly set medium (S).
14). When the image processing is completed, printing using the image data is restarted (S15).

[0037]

As described above, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention, when the print data before the image processing is received, the image processing suitable for the medium to be printed is performed, and the printing is executed,
The image processing mechanism performs image processing, and the event detection mechanism detects events including paper shortage and image processing request,
The engine prints on the medium according to the detection result by the event detection mechanism and the image processing by the image processing mechanism, so it judges the event such as paper out by itself and performs the image processing suitable for the new paper. Printing can be continued.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a printing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the printing apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the printing apparatus in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining another operation of the printing apparatus of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 host 2 printing devices 21 ROM 22 RAM 22a image data buffer 22b Drawing memory 23 Event detection mechanism 24 image processing mechanism 24a Color space conversion / γ correction unit 24b Multi-value converter 25 engine 26 Input section 27 Display 28 CPU 29 Host IF

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. Receive print data before image processing,
A printing apparatus for performing image processing according to a medium to be printed and performing printing, an image processing mechanism for performing the image processing, an event detection mechanism for detecting an event including a paper shortage or an image processing request, A printing apparatus comprising: an engine that prints on the medium according to a detection result of an event detection mechanism and image processing by the image processing mechanism. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image processing mechanism performs reimage processing according to a detection result of the event detection mechanism. 3. The engine automatically feeds the paper from the other paper feed tray when there is another paper feed tray when the event detection mechanism detects the paper shortage. The printing apparatus according to claim 1. 4. Receiving print data before image processing,
A printing method for performing printing by performing image processing according to a medium to be printed, which includes a first step of performing the image processing by the image processing mechanism and a paper exhaustion or an image processing request by the event detection mechanism. And a third step of performing printing on the medium according to the detection result of the event detection mechanism and the image processing by the image processing mechanism by the engine. How to print. 5. The printing method according to claim 4, wherein the first step includes a fourth step of performing reimage processing according to a detection result of the event detection mechanism. 6. The third step comprises automatically feeding paper from another paper feed tray when another paper feed tray is present when the paper is detected by the event detection mechanism. 5. The process according to claim 4, which includes 5 steps.
The printing method described in.