JP2006256142A - Printer and method for printing - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer capable of simplifying a work of setting a paper size and an operation of controlling in relation to the setting of the paper size, and a method for printing. <P>SOLUTION: This printer comprises an automatic paper supply means, a manual paper supply means, a paper detection means 12, a manually supplied paper detection means 14, a paper size detection means 15, a paper size judgment means 54, and a printing designation means 55. In the case where the paper detection means 12 detects that a paper sheet having the size the same as that of a paper sheet to be printed is not placed in the automatic paper supply means and the paper size judgment means 54 judges that a size of a manually supplied paper is the same as that of the paper to be printed, the printing designation means 55 designates that the printing is to be automatically performed on the manually supplied paper. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method thereof, and more particularly to a printing apparatus such as a copying machine and a printer and a printing method thereof.

  Printing apparatuses such as copiers and printers have a paper feed tray for setting paper, and print on paper based on data (print data, control signals, etc.) transmitted from a host computer. The print data includes data related to the size of paper to be printed in addition to data such as characters and images to be printed.

  In a conventional printing device, frequently used paper is placed in the paper feed tray, and when printing on paper of a different size, the paper in the paper feed tray is replaced with paper of the size to be printed before printing. I was printing. However, with this method, it is necessary to replace the paper in the paper feed tray with the paper to be printed, and to return the frequently used paper to the paper feed tray after printing, which makes it difficult to set the paper size. was there.

Therefore, as a printing apparatus that solves such a problem, there is a printing apparatus that selects any one of a plurality of paper feed trays and prints on paper set in the selected paper feed tray (for example, a patent). See literature 1 or 2.)
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-235579 JP-A-9-104547

  However, in a printing apparatus that selects one of a plurality of paper feed trays, if the paper of the size to be printed is not set in the selected paper feed tray, it is desired to print the paper in the paper feed tray. It is necessary to replace the paper with the size or cancel the print data once and send the data including the contents to select another paper feed tray to the printer again. There has been a problem that the control regarding the setting becomes complicated.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides a printing apparatus and printing method capable of simplifying paper size setting work and simplifying control related to paper size setting. Objective.

  According to one aspect of the present invention, data relating to the size of a sheet to be printed has an automatic sheet feeding unit for automatically feeding a sheet and a manual sheet feeding unit for feeding a manually fed sheet. A sheet detecting unit that detects whether or not a sheet having the same size as the sheet to be printed is present in the automatic sheet feeding unit, and the manual feed A paper size detection unit that is provided in the paper supply unit and detects the size of the manually fed paper, and determines whether or not the size of the paper to be printed matches the size of the manually fed paper And a print instruction means for instructing to print on the manually fed paper, the paper detection means detects that there is no paper of the same size as the paper to be printed in the automatic paper feed means, Paper If the size determination means determines that the size of the paper to be printed matches the size of the manually fed paper, the printing instruction means automatically instructs to print on the manually fed paper. A printing device is provided.

  According to the present invention, the automatic paper feeding means detects whether or not the paper of the same size as that of the paper to be printed is provided, and the manual paper feeding means provides the size of the manually fed paper. Paper size detection means for detecting, paper size determination means for determining whether the size of the paper to be printed matches the size of the manually fed paper, and a print instruction means for instructing to print on the manually fed paper The paper detection means detects that there is no paper of the same size as the paper to be printed in the automatic paper feed means, and the paper size determination means determines the size of the paper to be printed and the size of the manually fed paper. If the print instruction means determines that they match, the print instructing unit automatically instructs to print on the manually fed paper. This eliminates the need to replace or cancel the print data once and send the data including the contents for selecting another paper feed tray to the printer again. Control regarding sizing can be simplified.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an automatic paper feeding unit for automatically feeding paper and a manual paper feeding unit for feeding manually fed paper, and relates to the size of paper to be printed. A paper detection step for detecting whether or not a paper having the same size as the paper to be printed is present in the automatic paper feeding means, based on the print data including the data. A paper size detecting step for detecting the size of the manually fed paper, a paper size determining step for determining whether the size of the paper to be printed matches the size of the manually fed paper, and the printing When it is detected that there is no paper of the same size as the paper size in the automatic paper feeder, and it is determined that the size of the paper to be printed matches the size of the manually fed paper, the paper is automatically fed manually. Printing method of a printing apparatus which comprises a print instruction step of instructing printing to paper is provided.

  According to the present invention, the paper detection means detects that there is no paper of the same size as the paper to be printed in the automatic paper feed means, and the paper size determination means detects the size of the paper to be printed and the size of the manually fed paper. If the print instruction means determines that they match, the print instruction means automatically instructs printing on the manually fed paper. This eliminates the need to cancel the data once and send the data including the contents to select another paper tray to the printing device again. This simplifies the paper size setting operation and controls the paper size setting. Can be simplified.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to realize a printing apparatus and printing method capable of simplifying the paper size setting operation and simplifying the control related to the paper size setting.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a printing apparatus according to the present embodiment connected to a host computer, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of a manual paper feed tray.

  With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, the external configuration of the printing apparatus 10 of the present embodiment will be described. The printing apparatus 10 is connected to a host computer 20, and includes automatic paper feed trays 11A and 11B that are automatic paper feed means, paper detection means 12A and 12B, and a manual paper feed tray 13 that is a manual paper feed means. , Manual paper detection means 14, paper size detection means 15, paper discharge tray 16, and operation panel 17. The printing apparatus 10 is, for example, a copier, a printer, or a multifunction machine having functions such as a printer, a copy, a fax, and a scanner. In the present embodiment, the following description will be given by taking a printer as an example of the printing apparatus 10.

  The host computer 20 is, for example, a personal computer or a workstation. The printing apparatus 10 receives data a from the host computer 20. This data a includes print condition data b and print image data c. The printing condition data b is data such as data relating to the size of paper to be printed and data relating to a paper feed tray used for printing. The print image data c is data such as characters and images to be printed.

  The automatic paper feed trays 11 </ b> A and 11 </ b> B are provided inside the printing apparatus 10. The automatic paper feed trays 11A and 11B are trays for automatically supplying paper, and are loaded with frequently used paper. In the present embodiment, the following description will be given by taking as an example a case where sheets of different sizes are set in the automatic paper feed trays 11A and 11B. Note that the paper sizes set in the automatic paper feed trays 11A and 11B may be the same.

  The paper detection unit 12A is provided in the automatic paper feed tray 11A, and the paper detection unit 12B is provided in the automatic paper feed tray 11B. The paper detection means 12A and 12B are connected to a printer engine 51 described later (see FIG. 7). The paper detection units 12A and 12B detect whether or not the automatic paper feed trays 11A and 11B have a paper having the same size as the paper to be printed included in the printing condition data b. The sheet detection means 12A, 12B transmits the detection result to the CPU 53 via the printer engine 51.

  The manual paper feed tray 13 is provided on the side surface of the printing apparatus 10. The manual paper feed tray 13 is a tray for feeding manually fed paper, and has a pair of slidable guide plates 21. The pair of guide plates 21 are for regulating the position of the manually fed paper.

  The manual paper detection unit 14 is provided on the side surface of the printing apparatus 10 and is connected to a printer engine 51 (see FIG. 7) described later. The manual paper detection unit 14 detects whether or not there is a paper manually fed to the manual paper feed tray 13. The manual sheet detection unit 14 transmits the detection result to the CPU 53 via the printer engine 51.

  The paper size detection means 15 is provided in the manual paper feed tray 13 and is connected to a printer engine 51 (see FIG. 7) described later. The paper size detection means 15 detects the width and length of the manually fed paper only when the size of the manually fed paper is a standard size such as A3, A4, B5... (When the paper size is irregular) Cannot be detected). The paper size detection means 15 detects the width of the manually fed paper when the pair of guide plates 21 are slid and coincide with the position of the fixed size. The paper size detection unit 15 transmits the detection result to the CPU 53 via the printer engine 51.

  The paper discharge tray 16 is provided on the side surface of the printing apparatus 10 on the side opposite to the side on which the manual paper feed tray 13 is provided. The paper discharge tray 16 is a tray for storing printed paper.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a printer single operation panel.

  The operation panel 17 includes a printer unit operation panel 18 for operating the printer unit and a touch panel 19. As shown in FIG. 3, the printer single operation panel 18 includes an online button 25, a reset button 26, a menu button 27, a forced paper discharge button 28, an OK button 29, a return button 31, a cursor button 32, and a display unit 33. Have. The single printer operation panel has the same configuration as a known printer operation panel.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen displayed on the touch panel when the size of the paper to be printed matches the size of the manually fed paper.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the paper detection means 12A, 12B detects that there is no paper of the same size as the paper to be printed in the automatic paper feed trays 11A, 11B, and a paper size determination means 54 to be described later should print it. When it is determined that the size of the paper and the size of the manually fed paper match, the touch panel 19 determines a predetermined time (hereinafter, “predetermined time T”) from the time when the paper size determination unit 54 determines that the paper size matches. The message 46 indicating that printing is to be performed on the manually fed paper and the time 47 until printing is started on the manually fed paper are displayed.

  As described above, the message 46 is displayed on the touch panel 19 until the predetermined time T elapses after the paper size determination unit 54 determines that the paper size to be printed matches the size of the manually fed paper. The user can recognize that the tray used for printing has been changed from the automatic paper feed trays 11A and 11B to the manual paper feed tray 13. Further, by displaying the time 47 until the printing is started on the touch panel 19, the user can recognize the time until the printing is actually started on the manually fed paper. Note that when the time 47 displayed on the touch panel 19 becomes 0, printing is automatically started on the manual paper.

  The touch panel 19 includes a print execution button 35 and a print cancel button 36. The print execution button 35 is a button used when printing on the manually fed paper is started. The print cancel button 36 is a button used when canceling printing on manually fed paper. The print execution button 35 and the print cancel button 36 are buttons that can be pressed only until a predetermined time T elapses.

  By providing such a print execution button 35 and pressing the print execution button 35 before the predetermined time T elapses, it is possible to immediately print on the manually inserted paper. Further, by providing the print cancel button 36, it is possible to cancel printing on the manually fed paper before the predetermined time T has elapsed. Thus, by providing the print execution button 35 and the print cancel button 36, the operability of the printing apparatus 10 can be improved.

  The touch panel 19 further has a time change area 37. The time change area 37 is an area for changing the length of the predetermined time T. The time change area 37 includes a time change button 41, a cursor movement button 42, numerical value changing buttons 43A and 43B, and a save button 44.

  The time change button 41 is a button for causing the touch panel 19 to display a screen for changing the length of the predetermined time T. The button 42 is a button for moving the cursor to the numerical value portion of the predetermined time T. The numerical value changing buttons 43A and 43B are for changing the numerical value of the predetermined time T. Pressing the numerical value changing button 43A increases the numerical value, and pressing the numerical value changing button 43B decreases the numerical value. The save button 44 is a button for saving the numerical value of the predetermined time T after the change.

  By the way, when the elderly person or the physically handicapped user is a user, it is necessary to set the paper in the manual paper feed tray 13 and move the pair of guide plates 21 to fit the size of the paper. The time may be longer than the time that young healthy people work. Therefore, the time change area 37 is provided and the predetermined time T is changed according to the state of the user's body (for example, the predetermined time T when the elderly person or the physically handicapped is the user). The convenience of the user can be improved.

  FIG. 5 is an example of a touch panel screen when the size of the manually fed paper is different from the size of the paper to be printed. As shown in FIG. 5, when the paper size determination unit 54 determines that the width and length (size) of the manually fed paper do not match the width and length of the paper to be printed, the touch panel 19 displays the manually fed paper. A message 48 is displayed indicating that the size is different from the size of the paper to be printed. By displaying such a message 48 on the touch panel 19, the user can easily recognize that the size of the paper set on the manual feed tray 13 is different from the size of the paper to be printed.

  FIG. 6 is an example of a touch panel screen for requesting confirmation of the size of the manually fed paper. As shown in FIG. 6, when the paper size detection unit 15 cannot detect the size of the manually inserted paper, the touch panel 19 displays a message 49 that requests confirmation of the size of the manually inserted paper. The message 49 also displays information on the size of the paper to be printed included in the printing condition data b (a message “unfixed 220 mm × 180 mm” shown in FIG. 6).

  As described above, the paper size detection unit 15 can detect only the size of the standard paper. Accordingly, by displaying the message 49 having the above-mentioned contents on the touch panel, for example, when an irregular size paper is set in the manual feed tray 13, the size of the paper to be printed and the manual feed tray displayed in the message 49 to the user are displayed. It is possible to check whether or not the size of the paper set to 13 matches. As a result, it is possible to prevent printing on a wrong size paper.

  FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating an internal configuration of the printing apparatus.

  Next, the internal configuration of the printing apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The printing apparatus 10 further includes a control unit 50 and a printer engine 51. Based on the print condition data b and print image data c obtained by analyzing the data a from the host computer 20, the control unit 50 converts the print image data c into video data. 51 is a general term for control mechanisms for causing the printer 51 to print. In the following description, the print image data c converted into video data is referred to as “print image data d”.

  The control unit 50 includes a host I / F 52, a CPU 53, a program ROM 56, a RAM 57, a font ROM 61, an NV-RAM 62, a panel I / F 63, and an engine I / F 64.

  The host I / F 52 receives data a transmitted from the host computer 20 or transmits a status signal from the printing apparatus 10 to the host computer 20. The host I / F 52 is an interface between the host computer 20 and the control unit 50.

  The CPU 53 performs overall control of the printing apparatus 10 by a control program stored in the program ROM 56. The CPU 53 analyzes the data a transmitted from the host computer 20, and based on the print condition data b and print image data d obtained by the analysis, the printer. The engine 51 is made to execute printing. Further, the CPU 53 stores the print condition data b and the print image data d in the RAM 57.

  When there is no paper to be printed in the automatic paper feed trays 11A and 11B designated by the print condition data b, the CPU 53 rewrites the data portion related to the paper feed tray used during printing in the print condition data b. Then, the paper feed tray used at the time of printing is changed to the manual paper feed tray 13 and the rewritten data (hereinafter referred to as “printing condition data f”) is stored in the RAM 57. Further, when printing on the manually fed paper, the CPU 53 transmits the printing condition data f to the printer engine 51 to perform printing.

  The CPU 53 includes a paper size determination unit 54, a print instruction unit 55, and a display control unit 60. The paper size determination means 54 compares the size of the manually fed paper detected by the paper size detection means 15 with the size of the paper to be printed included in the printing condition data f, and determines whether the paper sizes match. Make a decision.

  The print instructing means 55 detects that there is no paper in the automatic paper feed trays 11A, 11B that is the same size as the paper to be printed by the paper detection means 12A, 12B, and the manual paper detection means 14 in the manual paper feed tray 13. When the detected paper is detected and the paper size determination means 54 determines that the size of the paper to be printed matches the size of the manually inserted paper, the time when the paper size determination means 54 determines that the paper sizes match This is for instructing the printer engine 51 to automatically print on the manually fed paper after a predetermined time T has elapsed.

  As described above, the paper detection means 12A and 12B and the manual paper detection means 14 are provided, and the paper size determination means 54 and the print instruction means 55 are further provided in the CPU 53. When the paper size determination means 54 matches the paper size. By performing printing after a predetermined time T has elapsed from the determined time point, a manual feed tray immediately after rewriting the current paper size setting value (setting value in the RAM 57) of the printing apparatus 10 to the paper size to be printed. No printing is performed on the paper set in 13 (because the user can confirm whether the paper set in the manual feed tray 13 is a paper to be printed during a predetermined time T). Thereby, it is possible to prevent printing from being performed on a sheet having a size different from that of the sheet to be printed, and it is also possible to prevent the occurrence of a jam.

  When the paper size determination unit 54 determines that the size of the paper to be printed matches the size of the manually fed paper, the printer engine 51 may be instructed to automatically print on the manually fed paper. Therefore, as in the conventional printing apparatus, the paper in the paper feed tray is replaced with paper to be printed, or the print condition data b is canceled once, and the data including the content for selecting another paper feed tray is again displayed. Since there is no need to transmit to the printing apparatus, the paper size setting operation can be simplified, and the control related to the paper size setting can be simplified.

  Further, the paper detection means 12 detects that there is no paper of the same size as the paper to be printed in the automatic paper feed trays 11A and 11B, and the paper size determination means 54 determines the size of the paper to be printed and the size of the manually fed paper. When it is determined that the sizes match, the print instructing unit 55 detects that there is no manually fed paper once, and then the manual paper detecting unit 14 detects that there is a manually fed paper. Sometimes the printer engine 51 is instructed to start printing.

  Thereby, for example, when the material of the manually fed paper is different from the material of the paper to be printed, it is possible to prevent erroneous printing on the paper having a different material. In this case, when a manual paper having the same size as the paper to be printed is set, and the paper size determination unit 54 determines that the size of the paper to be printed matches the size of the manually fed paper, the print instruction unit 55 resumes printing. The printer engine 51 is instructed. This eliminates the need to delete the data a transmitted from the host computer 20 and transmit the data to the printing apparatus 10 again, thereby simplifying the control relating to the paper size setting.

  When the paper size determination unit 54 determines that the width and length of the manually fed paper do not match the width and length of the paper to be printed, the print instruction unit 55 stops printing on the manually fed paper. . As a result, it is possible to prevent erroneous printing on paper that matches only one of the width and length of the paper to be printed. In this case, when a manual paper having the same width and length as the paper to be printed is set, and the paper size determination means 54 determines that the width and length of the paper to be printed and the manually fed paper match, the print instruction means 55 instructs to resume printing.

  The display control means 60 controls display on the operation panel 17. When the paper size determination means 54 determines that the width and length of the manually fed paper do not match the width and length of the paper to be printed, the display control means 60 determines the size of the paper to be printed. A message that they are different is displayed on the touch panel 19 (see FIG. 5).

  In addition, when the paper size detection unit 15 cannot detect the size of the manually inserted paper, the display control unit 60 displays a message requesting confirmation of the size of the manually inserted paper on the touch panel 19 (see FIG. 6).

  The program ROM 56 stores a program for managing data in the control unit 50, a program for controlling the printing apparatus 10, and the like.

  The RAM 57 stores print condition data b and print image data d, and print condition data f as necessary.

  The font ROM 61 stores a plurality of fonts used when printing by the printer engine 51. The NV-RAM 62 is for storing data that should be preserved after the printing apparatus 10 is turned off. As the NV-RAM 62, a nonvolatile RAM can be used.

  The panel I / F 63 switches the state, mode, and font of the printing apparatus 10 displayed on the operation panel 17. The panel I / F 63 is an interface between the operation panel 17 and the control unit 50. The engine I / F 64 transmits a control signal b to the printer engine 51. The engine I / F 64 is an interface between the control unit 50 and the printer engine 51.

  The printer engine 51 prints the printing condition data b (when there is a sheet to be printed on the automatic sheet feeding trays 11A and 11B) or the printing condition data f (when there is no sheet to be printed on the automatic sheet feeding trays 11A and 11B). Based on the above, an electrostatic latent image is produced and developed on the photoconductor, a sheet to be printed is fed, and transferred and fixed on the sheet to form an image.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the printing process.

  Next, a printing process performed by the printing apparatus 10 will be described with reference to FIG. The following description is given by taking as an example a case where the data a transmitted from the host computer 20 includes data for printing with the automatic paper feed tray 11A.

  When the process shown in FIG. 8 is started, first, in STEP 71, data a transmitted from the host computer 20 is acquired. In STEP 72, the CPU 53 analyzes the data a, acquires the print condition data b and the print image data c, converts the print image data c into video data, and acquires the print image data d. Next, in STEP 73, the printing condition data b and the printing image data d are stored in the RAM 57.

  In STEP 74, the paper detection unit 12A detects whether there is a paper of the same size as the paper to be printed on the automatic paper feed tray 11A. If the paper detection unit 12A detects that there is no paper of the same size as the paper to be printed, the process proceeds to STEP 75. If it is detected that there is a paper of the same size as the paper to be printed, the process proceeds to STEP 83.

  Subsequently, in STEP 75, it is detected whether or not there is a sheet of the same size as the sheet to be printed in an automatic sheet feed tray other than the automatic sheet feed tray 11A (in this case, the automatic sheet feed tray 11B). In this case, the paper detection unit 12B detects whether there is a paper of the same size as the paper to be printed on the automatic paper feed tray 11B. If the sheet detecting unit 12B detects that there is no sheet of the same size as the sheet to be printed, the process proceeds to STEP 76, and if it is detected that there is a sheet of the same size as the sheet to be printed, the process proceeds to STEP 83.

  Note that the printing apparatus 10 of the present embodiment has the two automatic paper feed trays 11A and 11B as described above. Accordingly, when the paper detection unit 12B detects that there is no paper of the same size as the paper to be printed on the automatic paper feed tray 11B, the paper of the same size as the paper to be printed on all the automatic paper feed trays 11A and 11B. You can see that there is no paper.

  In STEP 76, the manual paper detection unit 14 detects whether or not there is paper in the manual paper feed tray 13. If the manual paper feed detecting unit 14 detects that there is paper in the manual paper feed tray 13, the process proceeds to STEP 78, and if it is detected that there is no paper in the manual paper feed tray 13, the process proceeds to STEP 77.

  In STEP 77, a paper having the same size as the paper to be printed is set in the manual paper feed tray 13. Thereafter, the process proceeds to STEP 78. Subsequently, in STEP 78, the size of the paper manually fed by the paper size detection means 15 is detected (paper size detection stage).

  Next, in STEP 79, the paper size determination means 54 determines whether or not the paper size of the manual feed tray 13 matches the size of the paper to be printed (paper size determination step). If the paper size determination means 54 determines that the size of the manually fed paper and the size of the paper to be printed are the same, the process proceeds to STEP 80, where it is determined that the size of the manually fed paper and the size of the paper to be printed are different. And the processing returns to STEP77.

  In STEP 80, the CPU 53 rewrites the data relating to the paper feed tray used during printing in the print condition data b to the content of printing from the manual paper feed tray 13, and acquires the print condition data f. In STEP 81, the printing condition data f is stored in the RAM 57.

  Next, in STEP 82, it is determined whether or not a predetermined time T has elapsed since the paper size determination unit 54 determined that the size of the paper in the manual paper feed tray 13 and the size of the paper to be printed match. If the CPU 53 determines that the predetermined time T has elapsed, the process proceeds to STEP 83. If it is determined that the predetermined time T has not elapsed, the process of STEP 82 is repeated. In the next STEP 83, printing is performed on the paper to be printed, and all processing is completed. As described above, printing of the printing apparatus 10 is performed by the method described with reference to FIG.

  By using the printing method as described above, when there is no paper of the same size as the paper to be printed on the automatic paper feed trays 11A and 11B, the size of the paper to be printed matches the size of the manually fed paper. A paper size determination step for determining whether or not the size of the paper to be printed matches the size of the manually fed paper, and a print instruction step for automatically instructing printing on the manually fed paper. By replacing the paper in the paper feed tray with the paper to be printed as in the conventional printing device, the data including the content for selecting the paper feed tray after canceling the data once is transmitted to the printing device again. Therefore, the paper size setting operation can be simplified and the control related to the paper size setting can be simplified.

  The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, but the present invention is not limited to such specific embodiments, and within the scope of the present invention described in the claims, Various modifications and changes are possible. In this embodiment, the printing apparatus 10 having two automatic paper feed trays 11A and 11B has been described as an example. However, the present invention can also be applied to a printing apparatus having three or more automatic paper feed trays. It is.

  The present invention can be applied to a printing apparatus and printing method capable of simplifying the paper size setting operation and simplifying the control related to the paper size setting.

It is sectional drawing of the printing apparatus of this Embodiment connected with the computer. FIG. 6 is an enlarged perspective view of a manual paper feed tray. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a printer single operation panel. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen displayed on a touch panel when a paper size to be printed matches a manually fed paper size. It is an example of the screen of a touch panel when the size of the manually fed paper is different from the size of the paper to be printed. 6 is an example of a touch panel screen for requesting confirmation of the size of a manually fed sheet. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an internal configuration of the printing apparatus. FIG. It is a flowchart for demonstrating a printing process.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Printing apparatus 11A, 11B Automatic paper feed tray 12A, 12B Paper detection means 13 Manual paper feed tray 14 Manual paper detection means 15 Paper size detection means 16 Paper discharge tray 17 Operation panel 18 Printer single operation panel 19 Touch panel 20 Host computer 21 Guide plate 25 Online button 26 Reset button 27 Menu button 28 Forced discharge button 29 OK button 31 Return button 32 Cursor button 33 Display unit 35 Print execution button 36 Print cancel button 37 Time change area 41 Time change button 42 Cursor move button 43A , 43B Numerical value change button 44 Save button 46, 48, 49 Message 47 Time 50 Control unit 52 Host I / F
53 CPU
54 Paper size determination means 55 Print instruction means 56 Program ROM
57 RAM
60 Display control means 61 Font ROM
62 NV-RAM
63 Panel I / F
64 Engine I / F

Claims (9)

It has an automatic paper feeding means for automatically feeding paper and a manual paper feeding means for feeding manually fed paper. Based on print data including data on the size of paper to be printed, A printing device that performs printing,
Paper detecting means for detecting whether or not the paper of the same size as the paper to be printed is in the automatic paper feeding means;
A paper size detecting means provided in the manual paper feeding means for detecting the size of the manually fed paper;
Paper size determination means for determining whether or not the size of the paper to be printed matches the size of the manually fed paper;
Print instruction means for instructing to print on the manually fed paper,
The paper detection means detects that there is no paper of the same size as the paper to be printed in the automatic paper feed means, and the paper size determination means matches the size of the paper to be printed and the size of the manually fed paper If it is determined, the printing instruction means automatically instructs to print on the manually fed paper.   The print instructing unit issues a print start instruction after a predetermined time has elapsed since the paper size determining unit determined that the size of the paper to be printed matches the size of the manually fed paper. The printing apparatus according to claim 1. A touch panel and display control means for controlling display on the touch panel;
Have
The touch panel has a print execution button for executing printing on the manually fed paper, and a print stop button for stopping printing,
The display control means displays on the touch panel a message that printing is performed on the manually fed paper and a time until printing is started on the manually fed paper until the predetermined time elapses. The printing apparatus according to claim 2.   The printing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the touch panel further includes a time change area for setting the length of the predetermined time. Further comprising manual sheet detecting means for detecting whether or not there is a manually fed sheet in the manual sheet feeding means,
When the paper detection unit detects that there is no paper of the same size as the paper to be printed in the automatic paper feeding unit, the paper size determination unit matches the size of the paper to be printed and the size of the manually fed paper. When the determination is made, the print instruction means detects that there is no paper that has been manually fed once, and thereafter, when the manual paper detection means detects that there is paper that has been manually fed, an instruction to start printing is issued. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing apparatus is performed.   When the paper size determination means determines that the width and length of the manually fed paper do not match the width and length of the paper to be printed, the print instruction means stops printing and removes the manually fed paper. 6. The paper according to claim 3, wherein the display control means displays a message on the touch panel that the size of the manually fed paper is different from the size of the paper to be printed. Printing device.   The display control means displays a message for requesting confirmation of the size of the manually fed paper on the touch panel when the paper size detecting means cannot detect the size of the manually fed paper. 5. The printing apparatus according to 5.   After the paper of the manual paper feeding means is replaced, when the paper size judging means judges that the paper that has been manually fed is the same size as the paper to be printed, the print instructing means instructs to resume printing. The printing apparatus according to claim 6 or 7, wherein: It has an automatic paper feeding means for automatically feeding paper and a manual paper feeding means for feeding manually fed paper. Based on print data including data relating to the size of the paper to be printed, A printing method for a printing apparatus that performs printing,
A paper detection step of detecting whether or not a paper having the same size as the paper to be printed is present in the automatic paper feeding means;
A paper size detection step for detecting the size of the manually fed paper;
A paper size determination step for determining whether or not the size of the paper to be printed matches the size of the manually fed paper;
When it is detected that there is no paper of the same size as that of the paper to be printed in the automatic paper feeder, and it is determined that the size of the paper to be printed matches the size of the manually fed paper, the manual paper feed is automatically performed. And a printing instruction step for instructing printing on the printed paper.

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