JP2007106540A - Image forming device and control method and program for image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming device capable of suppressing occurrence of jamming and to provide a control method and a control program for the image forming device. <P>SOLUTION: In this paper size invalid printing, printing is performed to feed a paper sheet for printing for printing the nth printing page after completion of delivery of a printing paper sheet printed by processing of the (n-1)th page (step S73) when the nth printing page is printed in printing job and the printing paper sheet is longer than the printing page specified in the printing job in the direction of conveyance. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image generation apparatus, a control method for the image generation apparatus, and a control program.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a page printer such as a laser printer may print after confirming that the page size specified for a print job matches the size of the printing paper. Hereinafter, this printing method is referred to as “paper size effective printing”.

In paper size effective printing, the page size specified in the print job is equal to the actual print paper size. For example, during printing, the next paper to be printed is fed. It is possible to reliably perform continuous printing in which the paper feed, printing, and paper discharge processes are repeated one after another. Therefore, according to the paper size effective printing, it is usually possible to increase printing productivity (number of printed sheets per unit time).

Also, in the paper size effective printing, if the page size specified in the print job and the paper size loaded in the paper feeding device that feeds the printing paper are different, the size is different for each printing of one page. An error message is displayed to prompt the user to change the paper. Then, when the user replaces the paper with a size suitable for the page size of the print job, printing is actually started. That is, in the paper size effective printing, when the page size specified in the print job and the paper size loaded in the paper feeding device that feeds the printing paper are different,
This is “single page printing” in which paper feed, printing, and paper discharge processes are performed one page at a time. Therefore, when the page size specified for the print job is different from the paper size of the printing paper, printing productivity is lowered.

Emphasizing the productivity of printing when the paper sizes are different, even when the paper sizes are different, printing may be performed without displaying an error message. At this time, according to the page size specified by the print job, printing is performed by controlling the timing of feeding, printing, and discharging the printing paper. Hereinafter, this printing method is referred to as “paper size invalid printing”.

In the paper size invalid printing, even when the page size of the print job is different from the paper size of the printing paper, the printing productivity is excellent in that an error display for prompting paper replacement is not performed. However, in order to control the conveyance of the paper according to the page size of the print job, the timing for controlling the paper feeding / printing / paper ejection may deviate from the optimum timing for the actual paper, which may cause a jam. In particular, when the paper size of the printing paper is longer than the page size of the print job along the transport direction, part of the printing paper actually remains inside the printer at the timing when the printer recognizes that the paper is discharged. Therefore, there is a high possibility that a jam will occur.

Therefore, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for performing control for delaying the paper feed timing when the possibility of a jam in continuous printing increases. By delaying the paper feed timing, the amount of print paper remaining in the printer is reduced when a jam occurs, so that it is possible to reduce the trouble of removing the paper from the printer and restoring the printable state. .

JP 2004-155522 A (refer to page 4, paragraph (0012))

However, the technique described in Patent Document 1 cannot suppress the occurrence of jam itself.

SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides an image generation apparatus, an image generation apparatus control method, and a control program that can suppress the occurrence of a jam.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention is configured to load a plurality of printing sheets, and sequentially feed the loaded printing sheets according to a sheet feeding unit that sequentially feeds the loaded printing sheets and a print job including a plurality of printing pages. A printing unit that prints a print page for each printing paper; a conveyance unit that sequentially conveys the printing paper fed from the paper feeding unit to the printing unit;
Compare the length of the print paper and the print page along the transport direction, and the length of the print paper loaded in the paper feed unit along the transport direction is longer than the length of the print page along the transport direction. And control means for controlling the paper feed means to feed the print paper for printing the next print page after discharging the print paper printed by the transport means.

According to this configuration, for print paper that is longer in the transport direction than the print page, the next print paper is fed after the print paper is discharged, so the page size of the print page and the paper size of the print paper Even if they are different, the print paper before paper discharge does not remain in the image forming apparatus at the paper feed timing. Therefore, the occurrence of jam can be suppressed.

Here, the paper size of the printing paper to be loaded is preset in the paper feeding means, and the control means sets the length along the conveyance direction of the printing paper from the paper size set in the paper feeding means. It is preferable to obtain.

In this way, even if there is no means for detecting the paper size of the printing paper loaded in the paper feeding means, the length along the conveyance direction of the printing paper can be acquired and controlled. Therefore,
With a simple configuration, the occurrence of jam can be suppressed.

Here, the transport unit includes a discharge detection unit that detects discharge of the printing paper, and the control unit performs printing for printing the next print page after the discharge detection unit detects the discharge. It is preferable to perform control for feeding the paper to the paper feeding means.

In this way, since the print paper for printing the next print page is fed after detecting the discharge of the print paper, the occurrence of jam can be suppressed more reliably.

Here, the control means is fed from the paper feed means when the length along the transport direction of the printing paper loaded in the paper feed means is equal to or shorter than the length along the transport direction of the print page. It is preferable to control the paper feeding means, the printing means, and the conveying means based on the paper size of the printing paper.

In this way, when the length along the transport direction of the print paper loaded in the paper feed means is equal to or shorter than the length along the transport direction of the print page, the paper feed / print / Even if the paper discharge is controlled, no print paper remains in the image forming apparatus at the paper feed timing. Since the printing paper to be printed next can be fed after the paper is reliably discharged, the occurrence of jam can be suppressed.

Here, a plurality of printing sheets are loaded, and further includes a sheet feeding unit having a sheet size detecting unit for detecting the size of the loaded printing sheet, and the control unit performs printing from the sheet feeding unit having the sheet size detecting unit. When feeding paper, let the paper size detection means detect the size of the printing paper, confirm the match between the size of the printed page and the size of the detected printing paper, and then print paper for next printing It is preferable to perform control for feeding the paper to the paper feeding means.

In this way, when the printing paper is fed from the paper feeding means having the paper size detecting means, the paper is fed after confirming that the size of the printed page matches the paper size detected by the paper size detecting means. Thus, printing (paper size effective printing) can be performed. Therefore, printing can be performed by an appropriate printing method depending on the presence / absence of the paper size detecting means.

The present invention may also be a method invention. That is, according to the present invention, a plurality of printing sheets are loaded, a feeding unit that sequentially feeds the loaded printing sheets, and a printing page for each printing sheet that is sequentially fed according to a printing job including a plurality of printing pages. An image generating apparatus comprising: a printing unit that prints the image; and a conveyance unit that sequentially conveys the printing paper fed from the paper feeding unit to the printing unit, and conveys and discharges the printing paper printed by the printing unit. In the control method, for the printing paper and the printing page, the comparison step for comparing the length along the conveyance direction and the length along the conveyance direction of the printing paper loaded in the paper feeding means If it is longer than the length along the transport direction,
And a control step of controlling the paper feed means to feed the print paper for printing the next print page after discharging the print paper printed by the transport means.

Furthermore, the present invention may be a program. That is, according to the present invention, a plurality of printing sheets are loaded, a feeding unit that sequentially feeds the loaded printing sheets, and a printing page for each printing sheet that is sequentially fed according to a printing job including a plurality of printing pages. Printing means for printing,
A control program for controlling an image generating apparatus comprising: a conveying unit that sequentially conveys printing sheets fed from a sheet feeding unit to a printing unit; The computer compares the length of the print paper and the print page in the transport direction with each other, and the length along the transport direction of the print paper loaded in the paper feeding unit is equal to the transport direction of the print page. A control step of performing control to feed the printing paper for printing the next print page to the paper feeding means after discharging the printing paper printed by the conveying means when the length is longer than It is characterized by that.

(First embodiment)
A first embodiment according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a system according to the first embodiment. As shown in FIG.
The system includes a host computer 1 and a printer 2.

The host computer 1 is a host device of the printer 2 that transmits a print job to be printed to the printer 2, and is specifically a general-purpose personal computer. The host computer 1 executes the application program and the driver program under a predetermined operation system, so that the application 10 and the printer driver 1
Functions as 1.

The application 10 is a print request source for the printer 2, and a user who makes a print request sets various printing conditions according to a setting screen displayed on a display (not shown) of the host computer 1. The printing conditions include the type of paper such as A4, A3, and B4, and the designation of the paper feed port that feeds the printing paper on which the page is printed. When the user performs printing, a request to that effect is made from the application 10 or the printer driver 11 based on an operation signal input from a keyboard or a mouse (not shown). When the application 10 requests, a print request and a GD representing an image to be printed
I (Graphic Device Interface) format data is transferred to the printer driver 11.

The printer driver 11 receives GDI data from the application 10 and generates a print job that can be processed by the printer 2. A print job consists of an image, text, text, etc. to be printed for each page to be printed (hereinafter referred to as a print page).
ription language). The print job also includes a paper feeding device 30 that feeds the printing paper on which the print page is printed, data specifying the paper type, and the like.
When the printer driver 11 generates a print job, the printer driver 11 transmits the print job to the printer 2.

Next, the configuration of the printer 2 will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the printer 2 includes a controller 20 that controls various operations of the printer 2, a paper feeding device 30 loaded with printing paper,
The print engine 40 that prints on the print paper, the paper transport mechanism 50 that transports the print paper to the print engine 40, transports the paper after printing, and discharges the paper, and the discharged print paper are stacked. A paper discharge tray 60 and an operation panel 70 for a user to operate the printer 2.

The controller 20 is a host I / F that is an interface with the host computer 1.
21, an engine control I / F 22 that controls the print engine 40, a transport control I / F 23 that controls operations of the paper feeding device 30 and the paper transport mechanism 50, a panel control I / F 24 that controls the operation panel 70, and a CPU 25 RAM 27 and ROM 26 are provided. The components of the controller 20 are connected so as to be able to exchange data with each other.

The CPU 25 is a part that controls various processes performed by the controller 20. ROM26
Is recorded with a control program 28 for controlling the printer. The RAM 27 is a general-purpose memory used as a working memory for various processes, and stores a print job transmitted from the host computer 1.

The components of the controller 20 shown in FIG. 1 are controlled by the CPU 25 reading and executing the control program 28 stored in the ROM 26.

The operation panel 70 is a part for the user to operate the setting / operation of the printer 2, and has various buttons for receiving an input operation and an LCD display unit 71 for displaying a user interface screen.

The user can select a user interface screen (for example, FIG. 2) displayed on the LCD display unit 71.
By operating the operation panel 70 in accordance with (a) and (b)), it is possible to set the paper size of the paper feeding device 30 and whether to perform paper size effective printing. Data indicating the contents of each setting is stored in the ROM 26 or the RAM 27 by the controller 20.
Of course, the paper size loaded in the paper feeding device 30b that does not have the paper size detection mechanism 31 and the setting for paper size effective printing may be set from the host computer 1 side.

The paper feeding device 30 is loaded with a large number of printing papers in a cassette-shaped container, and has a transport control I / F 2.
3 is connected. However, the form of the paper feeding device 30 may be a tray-like configuration on which a large number of printing papers are stacked. The paper feeding device 30 feeds the loaded printing papers one by one to the outside of the paper feeding device 30 according to a control signal received from the transport control I / F 23.

A single printer 2 is provided with a plurality of paper feeding devices 30. As an example, the printer 2 in FIG. 1 includes paper feeding devices 30a and 30b. Here, the paper feeding device 30 a has a paper size detection mechanism 31 that detects the size of the loaded printing paper.
It is assumed that there is no loaded paper size detection mechanism 31 in b. The paper size detection mechanism 31 detects the front end that is the leading side in the transport direction and the rear end that is the trailing side in the transport direction of the fed print paper, thereby determining the length along the transport direction as the paper size. It is to detect.

For the paper feeding device 30b without the paper size detection mechanism 31, the paper size set by the user through the operation panel 70 is set as the paper size of the loaded printing paper.

Next, the paper transport mechanism 50 and the print engine 40 will be described. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conveyance path from the sheet feeding device 30 to the sheet discharge tray 60 and various configurations along the conveyance path. In practice, the transport path R is formed in a curved shape so as to go around a plurality of rollers or the like, but in FIG. 3, the transport path R is shown in a straight line for the sake of simplicity of explanation.

As shown in FIG. 3, the paper feeding device 30 includes a paper feeding cassette 33 loaded with printing paper and a paper feeding roller 32. The paper feed cassette 33 is configured to be detachable from the paper feed device 30. By removing the paper feed cassette 33, the cassette can be replaced or the printing paper can be replenished. The paper feed roller 32 is rotatably supported with respect to the paper feed device 30 while being in contact with the surface of the printing paper loaded in the paper feed cassette 33.

The printer 2 also includes a paper feed roller 32 when the paper feed device 30 is set in the printer 2.
A drive motor for the paper feed roller 32 is provided at the position of the shaft end. This motor is used for transport control I
By driving according to the signal from / F23, the printing paper is fed out from the paper feeding device 30 and fed.

The paper transport mechanism 50 includes a plurality of rollers for transporting printing paper, and has a paper feed roller 51 and a paper discharge roller 52 in the example of FIG. The paper feed roller 51 and the paper discharge roller 52 are each a pair of rollers that are rotatably supported and sandwich the conveyance path R, and a driving motor (not shown) is provided at the shaft end of the rotation shaft of the rollers. ing.
The motor is driven in accordance with a signal from the conveyance control I / F 23 and each roller rotates in a predetermined direction, whereby the printing paper is fed out in a predetermined conveyance direction along the conveyance path R.

Further, the paper transport mechanism 50 has a paper discharge position detection sensor 53 in the vicinity of the transport path R on the downstream side with respect to the paper discharge roller 52 in order to control the transport of the printing paper. The paper discharge position detection sensor 53 detects that the front edge or the rear edge of the conveyed printing paper has passed the sensor position, and transmits a detection signal to the conveyance control I / F 23 at the detected timing.

The print engine 40 includes a photosensitive drum 42, an exposure unit 41 that forms an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 42, an intermediate transfer belt 43 to which an image obtained by developing the electrostatic latent image is once transferred,
A transfer unit 44 that transfers an image on the intermediate transfer belt 43 to a printing sheet, a fixing unit 45 that fixes the transferred image on the sheet, and the like are provided. Each component of the print engine 40 is connected to the engine control I / F 22 and controlled by the engine control I / F 22.

Here, the procedure of the printing operation of the printer 2 will be briefly described. When the print engine 40 receives print data from the engine control I / F 22, first, the exposure unit 41 is driven,
A latent image corresponding to the print data is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 42. The latent image is developed on the photosensitive drum 42 by a developing unit (not shown), and the developed image is the intermediate transfer belt 43.
Once transferred to the top. Here, when color printing is performed, the developed image is transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 43 for each color of C (cyan), M (magenta), Y (yellow), and K (black). To form a color image.

The transferred image is fed out to the position facing the printing surface of the printing paper by the intermediate transfer belt 43 and transferred to the printing paper by the transfer unit 44. The printing paper on which the image has been transferred is conveyed to the position of the fixing unit 45 by the paper conveying mechanism 50, and the fixing unit 45.
Printing is performed by fixing the image with the image transferred onto the printing paper. The printed paper after printing is transported by the paper transport mechanism 50 and discharged to the paper discharge tray 60 by the paper discharge roller 52.

In addition, the print engine 40 transfers the image onto one sheet of printing paper, and then the photosensitive drum 42.
A cleaning process is performed to remove the developer remaining on the surface. At the timing when the cleaning process is completed and the next sheet is ready for printing, a signal for permitting printing of the next page is transmitted to the controller 20.

In the printer 2 described above, for the paper fed from the paper feeding device 30a, the actual paper size is detected by the paper size detection mechanism 31 provided in the paper feeding device 30a, and the conveyance control is performed according to the paper size. Thus, paper feeding / printing / paper ejection can be controlled at the timing of the actual paper size (paper size effective printing).

However, since the paper feeder 30b does not have the paper size detection mechanism 31, the paper feeder 3
For paper fed from 0b, the actual paper size cannot be detected. Therefore, since the controller 20 controls paper feeding / printing / paper ejection using a paper size preset for each paper feeding device 30, the control timing may be shifted. For example, although the type of the print page designated for the print job is A4 and the designated paper feed port is the paper feed device 30b, the paper feed device 30b is actually loaded with A3 paper. It is possible. In this case, the controller 20 controls the conveyance of the sheet according to the designated size “A4” of the print job. Therefore, the controller 20 actually controls the conveyance path R of the printer 2 at the timing when the printed sheet is discharged. A part of the trailing side of the paper remains. As described above, since the conveyance timing of the paper is shifted, optimal conveyance control cannot be performed. In particular, there is a high possibility that a jam will occur as a result of the controller 20 assuming that no printing paper remains in the printer 2 even though printing paper remains in the printer 2.

Therefore, in the printer 2 of the present embodiment, when there is no paper size detection mechanism 31, “single page printing” is performed to control to wait for paper discharge and then to feed the printing paper to be printed next. Like to do. Next, processing performed by the printer 2 will be described in detail according to a flowchart.

When the printer 2 receives a print job from the host computer 1, the printer 2 processes a plurality of print pages included in the print job. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process of printing the print page n (n is an integer equal to or greater than 1) among a plurality of print pages. When printing a plurality of print pages, the CPU 25 performs the process shown in FIG. 4 sequentially on the plurality of print pages.

When the processing for the n-th page is started, in step S10, the controller 20 interprets the print job and selects the designated paper feeding device 30 among the plurality of paper feeding devices 30a and 30b.

Next, in step S <b> 20, the controller 20 determines whether or not the selected paper feeding device 30 has a paper size detection mechanism 31. In the example of FIG. 1, if the paper feeding device 30a is selected, the paper size detection mechanism 31 is provided (Yes), and the process proceeds to step S30. If the paper feeding device 30b is selected, the paper size detecting mechanism 31 is not provided (N
o) Go to step S40.

In step S30, the transport control I / F 23 detects a paper size by transmitting a signal for detecting the paper size loaded in the paper size detection mechanism 31 of the selected paper feeding device 30a.
The process proceeds to the paper size effective printing process in step S50.

Further, when the process proceeds from step S20 to step S40, since the selected paper feeding device 30b does not have the paper size detection mechanism 31, the operation panel 70 is selected for the selected paper feeding device with reference to the data stored in the ROM 26 or RAM 27. The paper size set in advance is acquired as the paper size of the printing paper to be fed.

Next, in step S60, the controller 20 determines whether or not paper size effective printing is set. If the paper size valid printing is set (Yes), step S50.
Perform effective paper size printing. If the paper size valid printing is not set (No), the paper size invalid printing in step S70 is performed.

Next, the paper size effective printing in step S50 will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of the paper size effective printing process. When the paper size effective printing starts,
First, in step S51, the page size of the print page (nth page) specified in the print job is compared with the paper size acquired in step S30 or S40, and it is determined whether or not they are equal. . If they are equal (Yes), the process proceeds to step S52.

If the page size of the print page is not equal to the paper size (No), step S
The process proceeds to 53, and the determination of “No” in step S53 is repeated until the operation of the print engine 40 stops and the engine is stopped (step S53).
An error message for prompting paper replacement is displayed on the CD display unit 71 (step S54).
In step S55, step S5 is performed until paper replacement is performed according to the displayed message.
5 is repeated (No), and the paper loaded in the paper feeding device 30 selected by the user is replaced with a paper suitable for the print page size (Yes), the error is released and step S5 is performed.
Proceed to 2.

In step S52, the controller 20 determines whether printing of the nth page can be permitted. Here, if the signal indicating that the printing is ready after completion of the cleaning process has not been received from the print engine 40, it is determined that printing is not permitted (No), and the determination in step S52 is performed until the signal is permitted. Repeat. When a signal indicating that printing is possible is received from the print engine 40, it is determined that printing can be permitted (Yes), and the process proceeds to step S56.

In step S52, if printing of the nth page is permitted, the CPU 25 performs the process shown in FIG.
The process for the next (n + 1) th page is started in the same manner as the process for the nth page shown in FIG. That is, the processing of the (n + 1) th page is started from step S10 while performing the processing of the nth page.

In step S56, the CPU 25 transmits a paper feed command to the transport control I / F 23. Upon receipt of a paper feed command, the transport control I / F 23 drives the paper feed roller 32 of the paper feed device 30 to feed the printing paper and control each roller of the paper transport mechanism 50 to feed the paper. The transport of the printed paper is started.

Next, in step S57, the CPU 25 causes the engine control I / F 22 to transmit print data. The engine control I / F 22 performs a drawing process on the print job and generates print data. The print data is converted into a predetermined signal system corresponding to the print engine 40 and transmitted to the print engine 40. The print engine 40 performs exposure / development / development according to the received print data.
The transfer and fixing processes are sequentially performed. At this time, in accordance with each process of the print engine 40, the conveyance control I / F 23 controls the paper conveyance mechanism 50 to print an image on the printing paper.
End paper size effective printing.

Next, the paper size invalid printing in step S70 will be described. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing for invalid paper size printing. When you start printing with invalid paper size,
First, in step S71, the controller 20 compares the transport direction length of the print page specified in the print job with the transport direction length of the print paper. Here, the length in the transport direction is obtained from the print page size designated by the print job, and the length in the transport direction of the print paper is obtained from the paper size acquired in step S40. If the length of the print page in the transport direction is equal to or longer than the length of the print paper in the transport direction (Yes), the process proceeds to step S72 and waits for the n-th page from the print engine 40 to be printed. When the length of the print page in the transport direction is shorter than the length of the print paper in the transport direction (No), the process proceeds to step S73.

In step S <b> 73, the controller 20 determines whether or not the printed paper is discharged by the processing of the (n−1) th page in order to perform single page printing. Here, transport control I
/ F23 receives the output from the paper discharge position detection sensor 53, and the CPU 25 detects the paper discharge timing. (N-1) If the paper on which the page is printed has not been discharged (No), after waiting for a predetermined period of time to return to the process of step S73 again, the determination is repeated until the paper is discharged. When the paper is discharged (Yes), the process proceeds to step S72.

In the case of the process for the first page, since there is no previously processed sheet in step S73, the process proceeds to step S72 without determining whether to discharge the sheet.

As for the processing after step S72, the same processing as that of step S52, step S56 and step S57 of paper size effective printing is performed. That is, the determination in step S72 is repeated until print permission is received from the print engine 40 in step S72 (No).
When the print permission of the nth page is received from the print engine 40 (Yes), the process proceeds to step S74 to perform control for feeding the printing paper from the paper feeding device 30. Next, when print data is generated and the print data is transferred to the print engine 40 to print on the fed print paper (
Step S75), the paper size invalid printing is terminated. If printing of the nth page is permitted in step S72, the processing of the (n + 1) th page is started while performing the processing of the nth page.

When the paper size valid printing or the paper size invalid printing is completed, the process returns to the process of the flowchart of FIG. 4, and in step S80, it is determined whether or not the discharge of the printing paper for the nth page is completed. If the CPU 25 makes a determination based on the output of the paper discharge position detection sensor 53 and the paper discharge has not been completed (No), after the elapse of a predetermined time, the determination in step S80 is performed again to complete the paper discharge. Repeat until the process. If the trailing edge of the printing paper passes the sensor position and the paper discharge is completed (Yes), the processing for the nth page is ended.

Note that the process of step S71 corresponds to a comparison process, and the processes of steps S20 to S80 correspond to a control process. In particular, step S72, step S73, step S74 and step S7.
The process 5 corresponds to the control process according to claim 1.

As described above, in the printer 2 according to the present embodiment, either the paper size valid printing or the paper size invalid printing can be set according to the setting of the paper feeding device 30 specified by the print job and the user. . In the paper size invalid printing, when the print paper is longer in the transport direction than the print page, the print paper used for processing the print page is output at the timing when the previous print paper is discharged. Printing is controlled so that paper is fed.

  Hereinafter, effects in the first embodiment will be described.

(1) In paper size invalid printing, when printing paper is longer in the transport direction than the print page, 1
Since the previous printing paper ((n-1) page) is reliably discharged and the nth page is fed, printing is performed by single page printing, so the previous processing The target print paper does not remain inside the printer. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the possibility that a jam occurs due to the conveyance timing for the printing paper remaining inside the printer.

(2) In the invalid paper size printing, when the printing paper is shorter or equal in the transport direction than the printing page, the paper is fed without waiting for the completion of the discharge of the previous printing paper.
High printing productivity. Further, in this case, since the printing paper of the previous process does not remain in the printer, it is possible to perform printing with high productivity while suppressing the occurrence of jamming.

(3) In the paper size effective printing, the paper is fed without waiting for the discharge of the previous printing paper, so that the printing productivity is high. According to the selected paper feeding device 30 and the user setting, it is determined whether to perform the paper size valid printing or the paper size invalid printing, so that printing with high productivity is performed while suppressing the occurrence of jamming. Can do.

(4) In the paper size invalid printing, the paper feeding device 30 is processed using the paper size preset by the operation panel 70, and therefore the paper feeding device 3 without the paper size detection mechanism 31 is used.
It is possible to perform printing while suppressing the occurrence of a jam even on a sheet fed from 0b. That is, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of jam with a simpler configuration.

As mentioned above, although one Embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to such Embodiment at all, It can also implement with a various form within the range which does not deviate from the meaning of this invention. Hereinafter, a modification will be described.

(Variation 1) The conveyance control is performed according to the print page size specified in the print job, and the timing at which the print page is recognized to be discharged (for example, “Yes in step S73”
At the timing when “determined”), a message may be displayed on the LCD display unit 71 to allow the user to confirm whether or not the printed sheet is discharged to the discharge tray 60. When the user confirms the discharge according to the message, the controller 20 performs a control for starting the feeding of the printing paper to be printed next by operating the operation panel 70 and performing an input operation of the discharge completion. Even if it does in this way, generation | occurrence | production of jam can be suppressed.

(Modification 2) In the above-described embodiment, when the print page is longer in the transport direction than the paper size of the paper supply device 30, by performing single page printing, the occurrence of jam is suppressed, while the printing productivity is reduced. . In view of this, the user may be allowed to set whether to give priority to jam suppression or printing productivity. If the print page is longer in the transport direction than the paper size, if priority is given to jam suppression, single page printing is performed in which the paper is fed after the previous page is ejected. If printing productivity is given priority, even if the print page is longer than the paper size, printing is performed without waiting for the discharge of the previous page, thereby preventing a decrease in productivity. The timing for setting may be set in advance by the user, or when the print page is longer in the transport direction than the paper size, the LCD display unit 71 provided on the operation panel 70 switches to single page printing. The message may be displayed so as to prompt the user to make the setting.

(Modification 3) In the above embodiment, the example of the printer 2 as an image generation apparatus has been described. The image forming apparatus of the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to various devices such as a copying machine and a fax machine, as long as the device uses a printing method for each page.

The figure which showed the structure of the system which concerns on 1st Embodiment. The figure which showed an example of the user interface screen. (A) is a paper size loaded in the paper feeder, (b) is a diagram showing a screen for setting paper size effective printing. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conveyance path from a sheet feeding device to a sheet discharge tray and various configurations along the conveyance path. The flowchart which showed the process which prints the print page of the nth page. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing for valid paper size printing. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing for invalid paper size printing.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Host computer, 2 ... Printer, 10 ... Application, 11 ... Printer driver, 20 ... Controller as control means, 21 ... Host I / F, 22 ... Engine control I / F, 23 ... Transport control I / F, 24 ... Panel control I / F, 25 ... CPU as computer, 26 ... ROM, 27 ... RAM, 28 ... Control program, 30 ... Paper feed device as paper feed means, 31 ... Paper size detection mechanism, 32 ... Paper feed roller , 33 ... paper feed cassette, 40
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS Print engine as printing means 41 ... Exposure unit 42 ... Photosensitive drum 43 ... Intermediate transfer belt 44 ... Transfer unit 45 ... Fixing unit 50 ... Paper transport mechanism as transport means 51 ... Paper feed roller , 52 ... paper discharge roller, 53 ... paper discharge position detection sensor, 60 ...
Paper discharge tray, 70... Operation panel, R.

Claims (7)

A plurality of printing sheets are loaded, and a sheet feeding unit that sequentially feeds the loaded printing sheets;
Printing means for printing the print page for each of the sequentially fed print sheets according to a print job including a plurality of print pages;
Conveying means for sequentially conveying the printing paper fed from the paper feeding means to the printing means, conveying the printing paper printed by the printing means, and discharging the printing paper;
For the print paper and the print page, compare the length along the transport direction,
When the length of the printing paper loaded in the paper feeding unit along the conveyance direction is longer than the length of the printing page along the conveyance direction, the conveyance unit discharges the printed printing paper. ,
An image generation apparatus comprising: a control unit that performs control to feed a printing sheet for printing a next print page to the sheet feeding unit. The image generation apparatus according to claim 1,
In the paper feeding means, the paper size of the printing paper to be loaded is preset,
The image generation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit obtains a length along a conveyance direction of the printing paper from a paper size set in the paper feeding unit. The image generating apparatus according to claim 1 or 2,
The transport means includes a paper discharge detecting means for detecting paper discharge of the printing paper,
The control means controls the paper feed means to feed a print sheet for printing the next print page after the paper discharge detection means detects the paper discharge. . The image generation apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The control means includes
When the length along the transport direction of the printing paper loaded in the paper feeding means is not more than the length along the transport direction of the print page,
An image generating apparatus that controls the paper feeding unit, the printing unit, and the conveying unit based on a paper size of a printing paper fed from the paper feeding unit. The image generation device according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
A paper feeding means having a paper size detecting means for detecting a size of the loaded printing paper;
The control means includes
When feeding printing paper from a paper feeding means having the paper size detecting means,
The paper size detecting means detects the size of the printing paper, confirms the coincidence between the size of the printed page and the detected size of the printing paper, and then supplies the printing paper for next printing to the paper feeding means. An image generating apparatus that performs control to feed paper. A plurality of printing sheets are loaded, and a sheet feeding unit that sequentially feeds the loaded printing sheets;
Printing means for printing the print page for each of the sequentially fed print sheets according to a print job including a plurality of print pages;
A control method for an image generating apparatus, comprising: a transport unit that sequentially transports printing paper fed from the paper feeding unit to the printing unit, and transports and discharges the printing paper printed by the printing unit. And
A comparison step of comparing the lengths along the transport direction for the printing paper and the printing page;
When the length along the transport direction of the printing paper loaded in the paper feeding means is longer than the length along the transport direction of the print page,
And a control step of performing control to feed the print paper for printing the next print page to the paper feed means after the transport means discharges the printed print paper. A method for controlling an image generation apparatus. A plurality of printing sheets are loaded, and a sheet feeding unit that sequentially feeds the loaded printing sheets;
Printing means for printing the print page for each of the sequentially fed print sheets according to a print job including a plurality of print pages;
A control program for controlling an image generating apparatus, comprising: a conveying unit that sequentially conveys printing paper fed from the paper feeding unit to the printing unit, and conveys and discharges the printing paper printed by the printing unit Because
On the computer,
A comparison step for comparing the lengths along the conveyance direction for the printing paper and the printing page,
When the length along the transport direction of the printing paper loaded in the paper feeding means is longer than the length along the transport direction of the print page,
A control step of performing control to feed the print paper for printing the next print page to the paper feed means after the transport means discharges the printed print paper. Control program.

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