JP2005266144A - Paper weight predicting method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a paper weight predicting method and a device therefor by which the number of sheets is exactly confirmed by predicting the weight of printing paper output from a printing device and comparing the predicted weight with the actual weight of the printing paper. <P>SOLUTION: On the basis of the result of analysis by a PDL analysis part 13A, an image analysis part 13B and an attribute analysis part 13C, a weight prediction part 15 calculates the weight of the paper itself on the basis of the kind and the number of sheets of the output paper and also calculates the weight of toner to be used. On the basis of humidity measured by a humidity measuring part 14A and temperature measured by a temperature measuring part 14B, the weight of the paper itself is corrected, and the weight of the toner is added to the corrected weight, whereby the weight of the entire output result is predicted. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a paper weight prediction method and apparatus, and more particularly to a paper weight prediction method and apparatus for predicting a paper weight of a printing paper output from a printing apparatus.

  In recent years, as the performance of a printing apparatus such as a printer is improved, an opportunity for printing a document having a large number of pages is increasing.

  By the way, in a printing apparatus, a blank page may be mixed in the output result due to rare cases such as double feeding of paper. In order to prevent this, it is essential to check the output result.

This confirmation process requires a lot of time and effort for documents with a large number of pages and output results with a large number of copies. Therefore, the number of sheets can be confirmed by measuring the weight of the output sheets. (See, for example, Patent Document 1, Patent Document 2, and Patent Document 3).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-294509 JP 2000-263903 A JP 2002-117386 A

  However, the weight of the paper output from the printing device may vary depending on conditions such as the environment, and it is not possible to accurately check the number of sheets by simply measuring the weight of the output paper. was there.

  Therefore, the present invention predicts the weight of the printing paper output from the printing apparatus, and compares the predicted weight with the actual weight of the printing paper, so that the paper weight can be accurately confirmed. An object is to provide a prediction method and apparatus.

  In order to achieve the above-described object, the invention of claim 1 is a paper weight prediction method for predicting the weight of printing paper to be output based on output data, wherein the type of printing paper and the number of output sheets of printing paper are The paper weight of the printing paper output based on the above is calculated, and the paper weight is corrected by a correction coefficient determined based on at least the humidity.

  The invention of claim 2 is characterized in that, in the invention of claim 1, the correction coefficient is determined based on the humidity and temperature.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, the weight of the paper is a toner weight of a toner that forms an image on the printing paper.

  According to a fourth aspect of the invention, in the third aspect of the invention, the toner weight is calculated based on the output data.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the paper weight is increased or decreased according to a printing attribute specified for the output data.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a paper weight predicting apparatus for predicting a weight of a printing paper to be output based on output data, wherein the printing paper is output based on the type of the printing paper and the number of output sheets of the printing paper. The paper weight calculating means for calculating the paper weight of the paper, the humidity measuring means for measuring the humidity, and the paper weight calculated by the paper weight calculating means by at least the correction coefficient determined based on the humidity measured by the humidity measuring means. And a paper weight correcting means for correcting the above.

  The invention of claim 7 further comprises temperature measuring means for measuring temperature in the invention of claim 6, wherein the paper weight correcting means is measured by the humidity measured by the humidity measuring means and the temperature measuring means. The paper weight calculated by the paper weight calculating means is corrected by a correction coefficient determined based on the measured temperature.

  The invention according to claim 8 is the invention according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the paper weight calculating means calculates the paper weight including a toner weight of toner forming an image on the printing paper. And

  The invention according to claim 9 is the invention according to claim 8, further comprising toner weight calculating means for calculating the toner weight based on the output data.

  According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any of the sixth to ninth aspects, the paper weight calculation means increases or decreases the paper weight according to a printing attribute specified for the output data. It is characterized by that.

  According to the present invention, the paper weight of the printing paper to be output is calculated based on the type of the printing paper and the output number of the printing paper, and the paper weight is corrected by a correction coefficient determined based on at least the humidity. Thus, the weight corresponding to the number of sheets can be accurately predicted, and as a result, the number of sheets can be reliably confirmed by the weight.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of a paper weight prediction method and apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a print control apparatus to which the present invention is applied. As shown in the figure, the print control apparatus 1 includes a job receiving unit 11, an output data holding unit 12, a PDL analyzing unit 13A, an image analyzing unit 13B, an attribute analyzing unit 13C, a humidity measuring unit 14A, a temperature measuring unit 14B, a weight. A prediction unit 15, a banner generation unit 16, a display unit 17, and a job transfer unit 18 are provided. The print control apparatus 1 can also be configured as a print server that operates a computer based on a program that implements each function.

  The job receiving unit 11 receives a print job including image data obtained by reading an original with the scanner 2, a print job generated by application software and a printer driver on the PC 3, and the like.

  The output data holding unit 12 holds output data and attributes included in the job received by the job receiving unit 11.

  When the output data held by the output data holding unit 12 is described in a page description language, the PDL analysis unit 13A analyzes the page description language and performs printing based on the page description language. Predict the amount of toner used when done.

  When the output data held by the output data holding unit 12 is image data, the image analysis unit 13B analyzes the image data and uses the toner used when printing based on the image data is performed. Predict the amount of

  The attribute analysis unit 13C analyzes an attribute that may affect the weight of the output result among the job attributes held by the output data holding unit 12. Attributes affecting the weight include paper size, paper type, enlargement / reduction processing, N-up processing (multiple page allocation), duplex printing designation, presence / absence of post-processing such as stapling and punching, and the like.

  The humidity measuring unit 14 </ b> A measures the humidity around the print control apparatus 1. If possible, it is desirable that the humidity measurement be performed near the printer 4 and the humidity measurement unit 14A obtain the value.

  The temperature measurement unit 14 </ b> B measures the temperature around the print control apparatus 1. If possible, it is desirable that the temperature is measured in the vicinity of the printer 4 and the temperature measurement unit 14B is configured to acquire the value.

  The weight prediction unit 15 sets the amount of toner predicted by the PDL analysis unit 13A and the image analysis unit 13B, the attribute analyzed by the attribute analysis unit 13C, the humidity measured by the humidity measurement unit 14A, and the temperature measured by the temperature measurement unit 14B. Based on this, the weight of the paper output by the corresponding job is predicted. Details of the weight prediction will be described later.

  The banner generation unit 16 generates output data for printing a banner sheet in which job information including the weight predicted by the weight prediction unit 15 is described, for example, a banner sheet as shown in FIG.

  The display unit 17 displays the weight predicted by the weight prediction unit 15 on a display device (not shown) or a job issuer such as the scanner 2 or the PC 3.

  The job transfer unit 18 adds the output data for the banner sheet generated by the banner generation unit 16 to the output data stored in the output data storage unit 12, and the attribute is stored in the output data storage unit 12. At the same time, it is transferred to the printer 4 as a job.

  Here, a weight prediction method by the weight prediction unit 15 will be described. The weight prediction unit 15 calculates the weight of the output paper itself, corrects the calculated weight based on the temperature and humidity, and adds the toner weight to the correction result to predict the weight of the output paper. To do.

  In the calculation of the weight of the paper itself, the paper weight per sheet is specified based on the paper size of the paper to be used and the type and thickness of the paper based on the analysis result of the attribute analysis unit 13C. Then, the weight of the sheet itself is calculated by multiplying the specified number of sheets per sheet by the number of sheets used.

  Further, when double-sided printing or N-up printing is designated, the number of sheets used is decreased according to the designation. When insertion of blank paper or slip sheet is designated, the number of sheets used is increased according to the designation.

  The calculation of the weight of the sheet itself is performed when there are a plurality of sheets to be used, or when a plurality of sheets are used, such as when bookbinding is specified and a cover is used.

  When the staple is designated, the weight corresponding to the staple is added, and when the punch is designated, the weight reduced by the punch is subtracted.

  The correction of the weight of the paper itself is performed using a correction coefficient determined based on the relationship between the humidity and the paper weight as shown in FIG. 3, for example. The relationship between the humidity and the paper weight shown in FIG. 3 has a plurality of types depending on the type and temperature of the paper, and the weight prediction unit 15 selects and corrects an appropriate correction coefficient.

  The weight of the toner is calculated based on the amount of toner predicted by the PDL analysis unit 13A and the image analysis unit 13B. At that time, based on the analysis result of the attribute analysis unit 13C, the enlargement / reduction processing designation, The value is increased or decreased based on the designation of N-up printing or the like.

  The weight prediction by the weight prediction unit 15 described here is calculated by, for example, an expression shown in Equation 1.

  In the equation shown in Equation 1, a is the weight of one A4 size plain paper at a specific temperature and humidity, b is the weight of one A3 size high quality paper at a specific temperature and humidity, and h1 ( x) is the correction factor for plain paper at humidity x% at the measured temperature, h2 (x) is the correction factor for fine paper at humidity x% at the measured temperature, and t is the total toner used It is weight. The equation shown in Equation 1 shows an example of calculating the total weight when outputting 30 sheets of A4 plain paper and 5 sheets of A3 fine paper.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a print control apparatus to which the present invention is applied. It is the figure which showed the example of the banner sheet. It is the figure which showed an example of the relationship between the weight of paper and humidity.

Explanation of symbols

1 Print control device 2 Scanner 3 PC
4 Printer 11 Job Receiving Unit 12 Output Data Holding Unit 13A PDL Analysis Unit 13B Image Analysis Unit 13C Attribute Analysis Unit 14A Humidity Measurement Unit 14B Temperature Measurement Unit 15 Weight Prediction Unit 16 Banner Generation Unit 17 Display Unit 18 Job Transfer Unit

Claims (10)

A paper weight prediction method for predicting the weight of printing paper to be output based on output data,
A paper that calculates the paper weight of a printing paper that is output based on the type of the printing paper and the number of output sheets of the printing paper, and corrects the paper weight by a correction coefficient that is determined based on at least humidity. Weight prediction method. The correction factor is
The paper weight prediction method according to claim 1, wherein the paper weight prediction method is determined based on the humidity and temperature. The paper weight is
3. The paper weight prediction method according to claim 1, wherein a toner weight of a toner that forms an image on the printing paper is added. The toner weight is
4. The paper weight prediction method according to claim 3, wherein the paper weight prediction method is calculated based on the output data. The paper weight is
5. The paper weight prediction method according to claim 1, wherein the paper weight is increased or decreased according to a printing attribute specified for the output data. In a paper weight prediction device that predicts the weight of printing paper to be output based on output data,
Paper weight calculation means for calculating the paper weight of the printing paper to be output based on the type of printing paper and the number of output sheets of the printing paper;
A humidity measuring means for measuring humidity;
A paper weight predicting apparatus comprising: a paper weight correcting unit that corrects the paper weight calculated by the paper weight calculating unit using at least a correction coefficient determined based on the humidity measured by the humidity measuring unit. A temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature;
The paper weight correcting means is
The paper weight calculated by the paper weight calculating means is corrected by a correction coefficient determined based on the humidity measured by the humidity measuring means and the temperature measured by the temperature measuring means. Paper weight prediction device. The paper weight calculating means includes
8. The paper weight prediction apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the paper weight is calculated including a toner weight of toner for forming an image on the printing paper. 9. The paper weight prediction apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising toner weight calculation means for calculating the toner weight based on the output data. The paper weight calculating means includes
The paper weight prediction apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the paper weight is increased or decreased according to a printing attribute specified for the output data.

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