JP2003080792A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce an amount of work of a user by automatically printing a figure showing a punch position at the side of a printer when the apparatus is in a state incapable of a punching process although the apparatus carries out the punching process when it is in a state capable of the punching process. SOLUTION: The printer is provided with an image data-receiving means 11 for receiving image data, an image data-processing means 14 for processing the image data and plotting on an image memory, and a printing means 3 for forming images to a transfer sheet on the basis of the image data. In the printer, when image data with punching designated is to be printed, the image data-processing means 14 controls the printing means 3 to execute the punching process if the apparatus is in the state capable of the punching process and to print the figure showing the punch position if the apparatus is in the state incapable of the punching process.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to various printers, print function means for digital copying machines, and printing apparatuses such as facsimile machines.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Image data receiving means for receiving image data, image data processing means for processing the image data and drawing it on an image memory, and printing means for forming an image on a transfer sheet based on the image data. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-168186 is known in relation to a printing apparatus provided with. This publication discloses a technique in which, when image data is created on the host side, data including a punch graphic can be created and transmitted to a printer.

Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-343797 is also known. This publication discloses a technique that can save energy by printing punched patterns instead of actually punching them at the time of trial printing.

[0004]

In conventional printing apparatuses such as printers, there is no punching function, and the user manually punches after printing. At that time, there is known a technique of printing a graphic indicating a punch position together with image data so that a user can easily grasp the punch position. In addition, after that, a finisher (paper post-processing) device was developed so that the printing device can have a stapling function as well as a punching function.

However, the punch by the current finisher device cannot punch at an arbitrary position on the printing paper, and normally can punch only at the rear end in the carrying direction. Therefore, depending on the orientation of the image data, it is not possible to punch at the designated position. In that case,
(A) release the punch, (b) stop with an error,
(C) The result that the user does not want is obtained by performing the processing such as forcibly punching.

Therefore, in the present invention, the punching process is executed when the punching process is possible, but when the punching process is not possible, the printing device automatically prints the figure indicating the punch position. By doing so, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printing apparatus capable of reducing the work load of the user.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 provides an image data receiving means for receiving image data, and image data for processing the image data and drawing it on an image memory. In a printing apparatus including a processing unit and a printing unit that forms an image on a transfer sheet based on the image data, when printing the image data with a punch designation, punching is performed if punching is possible. The image data processing means has a printing device for controlling the printing means as a main feature so that the processing is executed, but when the punching processing is impossible, the figure indicating the punching position is printed.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the printing apparatus according to the first aspect, the image data processing means is responsive to the type of punching device connected or the type of punching specified by the received image data. The printing apparatus having the function of changing the figure indicating the punch position is a main feature.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the printing apparatus according to the first aspect, the image data processing means has a main feature of the printing apparatus which causes the printing apparatus to print the figure indicating the punch position in an inconspicuous state.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, the configuration of a printer such as a laser printer, which is an embodiment of the printing apparatus of the present invention, will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG.

The printer 1 comprises a controller 2, a printer engine 3 and a display / operation unit 4. The controller 2 converts the image data from the host device 20 into bitmap data (drawing data) and outputs it to the printer engine 3 according to the set control mode and the control code from the host device (20). And is composed of the following parts.

That is, a host interface (hereinafter "interface" is abbreviated as "I / F") 11, engine I / F 12, panel I / F 13, CPU 14, program ROM 15, font ROM 16, RAM 1
7, NV-RAM 18 is provided.

The host I / F 11 is for receiving control codes and image data sent from the host device 20 such as a personal computer, and for sending a status signal indicating the status of the printer to the host device 20. , Various parallel I / Fs or serial I / Fs are selected according to the host device 20 to be connected. This host I
/ F11 is an image data receiving means.

The engine I / F 12 sends commands and drawing data to the printer engine 3 and receives status signals from the printer engine 3. The panel I / F 13 transmits display control data and receives each key information with the display operation unit 4.

The CPU 14 is a central processing unit, and operates by a control program stored in the program ROM 15 to perform overall control of the controller 2 such as processing of control codes and image data from the host device 20. . The CPU 14 is an image data processing unit that converts the image data into drawing data and draws it on the image memory (this process is referred to as "drawing process" hereinafter).

The program ROM 15 stores a control program used by the CPU 14 to process and manage data in the controller 2 and control peripheral modules, and the font ROM 16 stores various fonts used for printing.

The RAM 17 is a random access memory, and includes a work memory used when the CPU 14 processes data, a reception buffer for spooling image data from the host device 20, and drawing data created by the CPU 14 processing the image data. Used for storing image memory.

The NV-RAM 18 is a non-volatile memory that retains internal data even when the power is turned off.
The contents of the mode instruction etc. from are stored. The printer engine 3 is a printing unit, and includes a laser writing unit that optically scans an internal photoconductor (not shown) with laser light modulated according to a drawing signal, the photoconductor, and process devices around the photoconductor. Image forming unit,
In addition, a mechanical unit including a sheet conveying unit including rollers such as a pair of registration rollers and the like, and an engine driver that is a control unit thereof.

Then, in response to a command and a drawing signal from the controller 2, the engine driver controls the sequence operation of the image forming unit and the sheet conveying section and the modulation of the drawing signal to the laser writing unit to perform the printing process.

The above-described paper transport unit is provided with a plurality of paper feed trays for storing transfer sheets and sending them to the image forming unit, and a plurality of paper discharge trays for discharging printed transfer sheets, which are used by a control command from the controller 2. The paper feeding / discharging unit to be selected is selected.

Although an example in which the printer engine 3 performs laser writing printing is shown here, the printing method of the printer engine 3 is not limited to these, and other methods such as an ink jet method and a thermal transfer method are used. It doesn't matter. The display operation unit 4 includes an operation unit for setting the operation mode of the printer 1 and a display unit for displaying the operation state of the printer 1.

Next, the drawing direction of the image data will be described with reference to FIG. First, there are two types of document orientations: portrait (1) and landscape (2). The portrait (1) is a portrait document which is often used for portraits, and the landscape (2) is a landscape document which is often used for landscape paintings.

Next, there are two types in the paper conveying direction as well. Short edge feed (hereinafter "short edge feed" is abbreviated as "SEF") in which the short side of the paper is the main scan and long edge feed in which the long side of the paper is the main scan. (Hereinafter, "long edge feed" is abbreviated as "LEF") (4).

The drawing direction of the image data is 2 × 2 × 2, which is a combination of the document direction (two types) and the paper conveyance direction (two types) described above, and those rotated 180 degrees.
= 8 types are assumed.

For example, the portrait document (1) is SEF
When printing with (3), a case like (5) in FIG. 2 is conceivable. Similarly, when printing the portrait document (1) this time with LEF (4), (6) in FIG. ) Is possible.

Table 1 shows combinations of the above drawing directions.

[0027]

[Table 1]

That is, when printing the portrait document (1) and when printing the landscape document (2), there are four types of options.

However, in the current finisher device,
In general, the position where punching is possible is limited to the rear end of the conveyance direction.If this is taken into consideration, the rotation angle is determined from the document direction and the punch position, and the paper conveyance direction can be selected. There is no room for it.

This is shown in Table 2, and a concrete image is shown in FIGS. 3 (1) to 3 (8).

[0031]

[Table 2]

Therefore, the required direction (SEF / LE
If the paper feed tray of F) is not set, a case occurs in which the document cannot be punched, although it is possible to simply print the document. For example, if only LEF input trays are available, upper punching of portrait documents cannot be processed.

Conventionally, in such a case, a process such as (a) releasing the punch, (b) stopping with an error, (c) forcibly punching, or the like is performed, resulting in an undesired result. It was.

In the present invention, in such a case,
(A) Releasing punching is adopted, but by drawing a figure at the position where it should have been punched, it is possible to simplify the alignment when the user manually processes punching after printing. You can

The operation flow of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. This operation flow shows the processing contents of the CPU 14. (S1) First, a tray to be fed is selected from the received image data and control code. If the tray for paper feed is specified, that tray is used. If the tray for paper feed is not specified, A is used.
A paper feed tray of an appropriate size is selected from paper sizes such as 4 and B5. In addition, there are cases in which both SEF and LEF paper feed trays of the same size exist and drawing is possible in either of them. In this case, the transport speed is usually faster when the LEF paper feed tray is selected, but it cannot be decided unconditionally because it depends on conditions such as the length of the transport path and the time required for image rotation. Further, when the punch position is specified, the punch position must also be taken into consideration to select a paper feed tray in an appropriate paper feed direction. If an appropriate paper feed tray cannot be found, processing such as (d) stopping due to an error and (e) selecting an appropriate paper tray is performed according to the operation mode set by the display operation unit 4.

(S2) When the paper feed tray is determined, image data is drawn according to the paper size. In some cases, it is necessary to rotate the drawing data.

(S3) If the data specifies the punching process, it is investigated whether or not the punching process is possible. As a case where the punching process cannot be executed, various factors can be considered in addition to the case where only the paper feed trays of different directions are present. For example, the punch unit may not be attached. In this case, the punch unit itself may not be attached, or the punch unit having the number of holes different from the designated number of holes may be set. Further, there are cases where the unit for receiving punch waste is full and cannot receive punch waste any more. In addition, depending on the type of paper such as OHP or thick paper, punching may not be possible.

(S4) Punch processing is specified,
For pages that cannot be executed, draw a figure at the position where it should have been punched. At that time, the figure is drawn by reflecting the characteristics of the punch unit. For example, when the 2-hole punch is designated, the figure indicating the punch position is drawn at two places. When the 3-hole punch is designated, the figure showing the punch position is drawn at three places. When the 4-hole punch is designated, the figure indicating the punch position is drawn at four positions. If the number of punch holes is not specified, a figure indicating the punch position is drawn at the number of holes of the connected punch units. When the number of punch holes is not specified and the punch unit is not connected, a figure showing the center alignment position is drawn. When the punch position is drawn, the print result is drawn so as to be inconspicuous compared to the text. For example, a printer capable of color printing draws in light blue, which is known not to be transferred during copying. Or print in grayscale on a monochrome printer. Or, print with shading. Or, print with a broken line. As a result, even if the user does not perform the manual punching after printing, the automatically added figure is less noticeable than the text. Further, even when manual punching is performed, even if there is a deviation between the drawn figure and the actual punch hole, it can be made inconspicuous and the finish becomes beautiful.

(S5) When the drawing data is completed, it is transferred to the fed paper.

(S6) If the page has no punch designation, the sheet is discharged as it is. Pages that have been punched but cannot be punched are also ejected.

(S7) If the punch is designated and the page can be punched, the sheet is ejected after the punching is performed.

[0042]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the punching process is impossible, the figure indicating the punching position is printed. Therefore, the user can easily perform the punching process manually after the printing process is completed. can do. Also, at this time,
When punching is possible, by not printing a figure, it is possible to eliminate waste of toner, ink, etc. necessary for printing, and the printing finish becomes beautiful.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the graphic indicating the punch position is changed according to the type of punch device connected or the type of punch specified by the received image data. After the end, the user can easily perform the punching process manually. Further, since the number of punch holes is the same, the deviation between the graphic printing position and the actual punch position is minimized, and the finish becomes beautiful.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the graphic indicating the punch position is printed in a color that is inconspicuous, the graphic indicating the punch position is conspicuous even if the user does not perform the punch processing after the print processing is completed. It can be lost. Further, even when punching is performed, the positional deviation becomes inconspicuous.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a drawing direction of a printing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing punch positions.

FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 printer 2 controller 3 Printer engine 4 Display operation unit 11 Host I / F 12 Engine I / F 13 panel I / F 14 CPU 15 Program ROM 16 font ROM 17 RAM 18 NV-RAM 20 Host device

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Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An image data receiving means for receiving image data, an image data processing means for processing the image data and drawing it on an image memory, and a printing means for forming an image on a transfer sheet based on the image data. When printing image data with punch designation in a printing device equipped with, punch processing is executed if punch processing is possible, but if punch processing is not possible, punch position The image data processing means controls the printing means so as to print the figure showing the printing device. 2. The image data processing means has a function of changing a figure indicating a punch position in accordance with the type of punch device connected thereto or the type of punch designated by the received image data. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing apparatus is a printing apparatus. 3. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image data processing means causes the printing apparatus to print the figure indicating the punch position in an inconspicuous state.