JP2007296702A - Inkjet recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To minimize an output completion period of time for a plurality of page manuscripts including a drying period of time for the manuscripts in an inkjet printer. <P>SOLUTION: This inkjet recording device is constituted by providing a printing job/printing order managing mechanism, and a notification means. In this case, the printing job/printing order managing mechanism controls a printing sequence in such a manner that images and orders having a higher ink hitting amount may be printed with precedence in the inkjet printer which outputs a plurality of images. The notification means notifies an operator of the drying completion time. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an inkjet recording apparatus that records an image by ejecting ink onto a recording medium, and a computer apparatus that controls the inkjet recording apparatus and manages output data.

  In general, output from an inkjet printer requires a certain time until the ink on the surface is dried. In particular, with the recent increase in the speed of the recording method, the case where the drying time of the ink on the paper becomes a bottleneck of the total output time has become prominent.

  In contrast, the ink discharged on the recording medium is used to predict the drying time of the ink, to avoid paper stains due to the overlap of the recording paper at the time of multiple outputs, and to obtain a sufficiently dry output result. Ink jet recording control methods such as Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 have been proposed as methods for calculating the drying time of the ink according to the recording medium, the type of ink, and the like.

Patent Document 3 proposes a printing apparatus that shortens the print drying time of a plurality of originals by using an inkjet recording unit having a plurality of paper discharge stacking sections.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-34247 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 3-173647 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-366234

  In the above conventional example, the drying time for each output paper is predicted from various parameters, and the conveyance of the next output paper and the discharge timing of the output paper are controlled, thereby avoiding the contamination of the paper due to the undried document.

  However, in general, a multi-page document is considerably dispersed in drying time depending on the printing contents. For example, a manuscript containing a lot of natural images takes a long time to dry, whereas a manuscript with a focus on characters has a relatively short drying time.

  When continuously outputting a multi-page original with a mixture of pages with these different characteristics, if the final page contains a page that takes a very long time to dry, the operator can use the original as the final print result. Is obtained by adding the drying time to the printing end time of the last page. In particular, the acquisition of the print result is awaited only for the time required for the drying time.

  In the present invention, a predicting unit that predicts the drying end time for each page from print data and ink drying characteristics, and a job management unit that dynamically controls the output order together with the output timing of output data over a plurality of pages are used. The time required for the operator to obtain the final print result is minimized by exchanging and optimizing the page print order of a multi-page document having different drying time characteristics. .

  In addition, by providing a means for notifying the operator of the time when the final print result is obtained, convenience is provided to the operator.

  As described above, according to the present invention, when printing on a multi-page inkjet printer, the difference in the drying time characteristics for each page is evaluated, and the printing order is changed, so that all pages of the document can be dried. This time is minimized so that the operator can obtain the final product in a short time.

  Next, details of the present invention will be described in accordance with the description of the embodiments.

  The overall configuration in this embodiment is shown in FIG. 101 is a host computer represented by a well-known personal computer, which is composed of a CPU device, a high-speed internal storage device, an external storage device having a large capacity and semi-permanent storage capability, and a console device having an interface with a user. . Reference numeral 102 denotes an ink jet printer having a multi-stage paper discharge stacking unit 103.

  The inkjet printer and the personal computer are connected by a bidirectional printing interface 104 represented by a network interface and a USB interface.

  FIG. 2 shows the components of the present invention.

  The constituent elements of the inkjet printer 102 are shown on the left side, and the constituent elements of the host computer 101 are shown on the right side.

  201 is a controller that controls the operation of the printer, 202 is a print engine that performs printing on paper, and 203 is a discharge stacking unit selection unit that selects a multi-stage discharge stacking unit 103 to which a printed document is conveyed. It is.

  Reference numeral 211 denotes application software that allows an operator to view, edit, and process documents and image data. Reference numeral 212 denotes a printer driver that controls the ink jet printer and converts document data / image data into raster data that can be interpreted by the printer.

  A print job management area 213 temporarily stores and stores raster data converted by the printer driver, and 214 controls raster data for each page accumulated in the print job storage area, control of the printing order of pages, and management of other attributes. A print page management table 215 is a drying time calculation unit that interprets raster data for each page accumulated in the print job storage area and calculates an ink drying time for each page.

  FIG. 3 shows details of the page management table created on the host computer. It has one record corresponding to the print data for one page.

  Each record includes a page number, a pointer (file name) indicating raster data transmitted to the printer, a drying time for each page calculated by the drying time calculation device, a printing end time notified from the printer, a printing end time, and the like. It has a drying end time calculated from the drying time as a field.

  FIG. 4 shows a page management table (4-1) in which the drying time for each page is recorded, and a result (4-2) in which the pages are arranged in order of increasing drying time.

  FIG. 5 is a page management table in which printing end time and drying time are recorded. Further, the drying time calculated by the host computer is recorded.

  FIG. 6 is a notification dialog that is displayed on the console of the host computer and notifies the operator of the total drying end time.

(Printing instructions)
First, the operator selects document data for generating a print result of a plurality of pages on the screen of the host computer, and instructs printing.

  Document data here refers to a file or file containing document data having a logical page structure, such as an image data group consisting of a large number of images scanned by a film scanner, document data of a known word processor, DTP, vector processor, etc. Point to a group.

(Development to raster data and accumulation of print jobs in page units)
The instructed document data is developed into raster data for each page by the printer driver in the host computer 101 and transferred to the print job storage area 213.

  The print job storage area 213 is constructed on an external recording area on the host computer 101, and manages raster data that is directly processed by the printer 102 and is to be printed in units of pages.

  The raster data transferred to the print job storage area 213 is subsequently transferred to the ink-jet printer 102 and printed. In general, the print processing of the ink-jet printer is slower than the rasterization processing of the original on the host computer side.

  Therefore, when printing document data having a plurality of pages, a plurality of raster data for the second and subsequent pages are accumulated and stored in the print job storage area 213 after a predetermined time has elapsed.

  Further, at the same time as raster data is accumulated and stored in the print job storage area, page information waiting for printing is stored in the print page management table 214 as shown in FIG.

  In this embodiment, it is assumed that the print page management table 214 is also created as a file on the external storage device, like the print job storage area 213.

(Calculation of drying time for each page)
Subsequently, the drying time calculation unit 215 calculates the drying time of the ink after printing the document based on the stored raster data.

  The dry time is calculated by, for example, the density of pixels to be printed in raster data, the pixel color used, the result of decomposition into CMYK, the ink usage rate obtained from the print head ink configuration of the printer, This is carried out by referring to an experimentally predetermined drying time table or the like based on the environmental temperature acquired from the non-illustrated thermometer and the environmental humidity acquired from the non-illustrated hygrometer.

  The means for calculating the drying time used here is disclosed, for example, in JP-A-11-34247.

  Subsequently, the host computer 101 stores the drying time for each page in the drying time storage field of the print page management table 214 as shown in FIG.

(Change the order of printed pages based on the calculated page drying time)
Subsequently, the host computer 101 uses the drying time for each page as a key, and arranges the printing order of the print jobs stored in the print page management table so that the longest drying time comes first.

  As the alignment means, a known quick method or the like is used.

  The result of arranging the print page management table 214 according to the drying time is shown in FIG.

  In the example of FIG. 4, since the printing time of the last printed page 4 is as long as 80 seconds, the printing order is changed to the second.

(Transfer print job to inkjet printer)
Subsequently, the printer driver 212 of the host computer 101 sends the print job raster data stored in the print job storage area 213 to the printer interface 104 in the management order of the print page management table 214 that is arranged and reconfigured in order of long drying time. Via the inkjet printer 102.

  An undried document that has been printed by the inkjet printer 102 is discharged to the discharge stacking unit 103 in the order of printing.

  In addition, the printer interface 104 according to the present invention has a bidirectional communication function, and the inkjet printer 102 transfers the information to the host computer 101 when printing on paper is completed.

  Receiving the print completion notification on the paper, the host computer 101 acquires the print end time from the real-time clock, and stores the acquired time in the print completion time field of the print page management table 214 corresponding to the printed page.

(Printed documents are output to the stacking unit in page order)
Incidentally, the ink jet printer 102 according to the present invention has a plurality of stages of paper discharge stacking sections 103 as shown in FIG.

  In this embodiment, the ink jet printer 102 has a total of four paper discharge stacking sections, and numbers (1), (2), (3), and (4) are assigned to the respective paper discharge stacking sections.

  The document pages are discharged in the order of printing (1)-> (2)-> (3)-> (4).

  In other words, if the document is up to four pages, it is possible to continuously perform the operation from printing to discharging without worrying about the drying time of the ink applied to the paper.

  If the number of pages of the printed document designated by the operator is within 4 pages, the operation up to printing is completed by the above operation, and only the waiting for the document to dry is waited.

(Notify the user of the drying end time of all pages as a result of page order exchange)
Subsequently, the host computer 101 determines the completion time of the printed document as follows.

  By the way, the time when the operator can obtain a completed document is the time when printing of all pages is completed and the ink printed on the paper of each page is dried.

  Here, the drying end time of the printed document for each page is defined as the printing end time added with the drying time calculated for each page.

  When the transfer of raster data for all pages to the printer 102 is completed and the host computer 101 receives a print end notification for the last page, the host computer 101 determines the drying time for each page calculated at the print end time for each page. Is stored in the drying end time field of the print page management table 214 as the document completion time for each page.

  Subsequently, the host computer 101 sequentially compares the drying end time fields of the print page management table 214 to obtain the latest time.

  Subsequently, the host computer 101 drives the window system and displays a dialog box as shown in FIG. 6 on the console device.

  By viewing this dialog on the console, the operator can know the time when the drying of the printed matter ends.

Hardware configuration of the present invention Host computer and printer Job management table and directory File system image Notification GUI display Configuration of data storage area in the present invention Configuration of data storage area in the present invention Configuration of data storage area in the present invention

Claims (4)

  In an ink jet recording apparatus for recording an image by ejecting ink onto a recording medium, conversion means for converting a document file on a computer device into a raster data format that can be output by an ink jet printer, and an ink ejection target from the output raster data Calculating means for calculating the drying time of ink on the print medium, print job management means for accumulating and managing output raster data in units of pages, a print job management table for managing the output order of the print jobs, An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: control means for controlling the output order of print jobs to be accumulated and managed so as to minimize the total drying time according to the result of the drying time calculating means.   2. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print job management table includes a dry time management field.   3. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a print completion time management field in a print job management table, and recording the notified print completion time based on the print completion information from the ink jet recording apparatus. An ink jet recording apparatus.   3. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the print job management table has a drying end time management field, obtains the drying end time from the drying time and the print completion time, records this, and records the drying end corresponding to each page. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: a notification unit that obtains the drying end time of all pages from the time and notifies the operator of this.

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