JP2003324577A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer which can send a handwritten message replying to a document sent by electronic mail without operating a personal computer or the like. <P>SOLUTION: A mail address of a sender (From) or a broadcast receiver (CC) is extracted from information contained in a header of electronic mail (Step 200). The electronic mail is converted to a barcode image (Step 201). The mail address is printed as expressible data (barcode) being included in original data to be printed (Step 202). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer, FA
The present invention relates to a printing device such as X or a copying machine, and more particularly to a printing device capable of printing print data sent by electronic mail.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional printing apparatus, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 2
As shown in 000-222337, it is considered that the printing apparatus receives the e-mail with the print data attached and prints the print data. Proposed.

Such a conventional printing apparatus is very convenient because it can directly provide a printed matter even if there is no personal computer at the destination or a user who does not know how to use the personal computer. Met.

[0004]

However, in the conventional printing apparatus, even if the recipient tries to send a reply to the sender, if the recipient does not have a personal computer or knows how to operate the printer, There was a problem that it was not possible to reply easily.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a printing apparatus including print processing means capable of printing print data sent by e-mail on a sheet. The print processing means, when performing print processing of print data on paper, is a sender address of an electronic mail,
Alternatively, the printing apparatus is a printing apparatus that performs print processing by superimposing electronic mail address information on a transmission source address and a simultaneous transmission destination on print data.

[0006]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an MFP (multifunction printer) which is a printing apparatus of the present invention. The scanner unit 1 reads a document, and the printer unit 2 prints data read by the scanner unit 1. A print processing unit that prints print data input via a network (not shown) or prints print data attached to an electronic mail. Also,
In the printer unit 2, the print data read by the scanner unit 1 is attached to an e-mail, and Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-22233 is used.
E-mail sending means capable of sending, using so-called scan to e-mail, using a technique similar to that shown in FIG.

When printing the print data attached to the electronic mail in this MFP, as shown in FIG.
In the software procedure, first, the mail addresses of the sender (from) and the broadcast receiver (cc) are extracted from the information included in the header of the electronic mail (step 20).
0), the email is converted to a barcode image (step 201). In addition, the reply destination (return
To) is specified, the reply destination may be extracted and treated as the transmission destination. Here, for example, CODE93 is used as the barcode that can express the electronic mail address. The CODE 93 can express ASCII characters including @, and this MFP can handle up to 50 characters. If it can handle 50 characters, it can represent virtually any email address. Thereafter, the original print data is printed by superimposing the barcode image created in step 201 (step 202).

The present invention is characterized by printing a barcode image including e-mail address information together with print data, as in step 202. FIG. 3 is an example of print data that is originally desired to be printed by the MFP. A bar code image is superimposed on this print data in step 202, and the result is that the bar code image is printed on the information of the paper as shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, a barcode is printed on the upper part and an e-mail address is printed on the lower part so that the user can identify it. In this embodiment, only the email address of the sender corresponding to from is printed, but the broadcast recipient corresponding to CC may also be printed.

This method of superposing the bar code image for printing can be realized by adding the electronic mail address to the command and adding it to the print data by using the bar code printing function provided in the printer unit 2. In this MFP,! R! UNIT D; BARC 27, Y, 'HIROSHI-SAKAMOTO @ KYOCERA.CO.
By generating the command of JP ', 50,50,4,8,16,32,4,8,16,32; PAGE; EXIT; in step 201, the barcode image can be printed.

The recipient of the electronic mail will have the printed matter shown in FIG. 4 in hand, and if he / she wants to reply, he / she writes the message directly in the margin of the printed matter. Then, the printed matter is inserted into the scanner unit 1 of the MFP, and the COPY button 3 in FIG. 1 is pressed. For details of the COPY button 3, as shown in FIG. 5, an E-Mail button 11 for instructing a transmission mode by e-mail is provided next to the COPY button 3. By pressing this button, an E-mail address is displayed on the display means 13. A list is displayed, and the up-down key 12 can be used to select a destination address from the e-mail list. As shown in FIG. 5, the first selected [R
E] means a reply, and if the scanned printout has an e-mail address indicated by a bar code, it will be sent to that address, and if a valid bar code cannot be read, it will be sent to the last received sender. It is an option to send it. Here, when the COPY button 3 is pressed, the scan of the printed matter is started, and the print data of the read image is transmitted to the designated transmission destination (reply destination) as an attachment file of the electronic mail.

When the scanner unit 1 reads a printed matter,
The bar code may be detected by reading all the print data of the page and then searching the data, but in the present embodiment, since the bar code is recorded in the main scanning direction of the scanner unit 1, The bar code may be detected from the data sequentially output from the line sensor of the scanner unit 1. In particular, if the position of the bar code is almost fixed, the bar code may be read according to the position.

Then, if the reply destination address is determined, transmission is performed using the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-222337.
It can be transmitted in the form of so-called scan to e-mail. Even if the original sender replies again, since the barcode is printed at the same position, it will be overwritten and there is no particular problem.

In this embodiment, the case where the barcode image is printed on the paper as the electronic mail address information has been described, but the electronic mail address information may be embedded in the electronic mail address information. In this case, by applying a digital watermark to the entire image, it is possible to solve the problem that the barcode and the original print data overlap. Further, since the data amount can be increased more than the one-line barcode, the cc address can be easily included. Further, when a digital watermark is used, information cannot be read by humans, so that the display means 13 displays “E-Mail”.
It is preferable to display such as "You can reply automatically with a button."

As a method other than printing the bar code image on the paper, a unique number is attached to the received electronic mail, the number is printed on the paper by the bar code, and the hard disk inside the MFP or compact flash ( The storage means (registered trademark) or the like may store e-mail address information such as the number and the sender e-mail address or the cc recipient address associated with the number. By doing so, when you read the reply printed matter, the number unique to the printed matter is read first,
The reply destination e-mail address associated with it is read out from the storage means and used as a reply destination. This method has an advantage that a large barcode area is not required on the paper surface, but since the reply destination is stored in a specific MFP, the printed matter printed by another MFP is scanned as in the above-described embodiment. Although there is a drawback that the above-mentioned reply cannot be made when the data is read by the section 1, if the information is shared by the server, any MFP can reply easily.

[0015]

As described above, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention, at the time of printing the print data on the paper, the sender address of the electronic mail or the electronic mail address information regarding the sender address and the simultaneous destination is displayed. By superimposing the print data on the print data, it is possible to provide a printing device that can reply by handwriting to a document sent by e-mail without operating a personal computer or the like.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the printing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a printed matter by the printing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a printed matter in which electronic mail address information is also printed by the printing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a partially enlarged view of the printing apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Scanner section 2: Printer section 3: COPY button 11: E-Mail button 12: Up-down key 13: Display means

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Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A printing apparatus comprising a print processing unit capable of printing print data sent by e-mail on a sheet, wherein the print processing unit sends an e-mail when the print data is printed on the sheet. A printing apparatus, wherein an original address, or a sender address and e-mail address information relating to a simultaneous destination are superimposed on print data for print processing. 2. An image reading means and an electronic mail transmitting means, wherein the image reading means reads the electronic mail address information from the paper printed by the print processing means, and the electronic mail transmitting means replies based on the read information. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing apparatus sends an electronic mail of the above. 3. If the data read by the image reading means does not include electronic mail address information, the electronic mail sending means sends an electronic mail as a reply to the sender electronic mail address of the last received electronic mail. 3. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the printing apparatus transmits. 4. An identification information assigning unit for assigning identification information corresponding to each piece of electronic mail address information, wherein the print processing unit superimposes the identification information on the print data to perform print processing. Item 2. The printing device according to item 1.