JP2008096607A - Image printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image printing device capable of displaying as many items of printing environment as possible on one picture when setting the printing environment, and also preventing user's misoperation from being caused. <P>SOLUTION: The image printing device is provided with a display means for superposing and displaying a set picture for setting the printing environment by a user and a confirmation picture for showing the set printing environment to the user on a touch panel. Thus, margin is formed on the touch panel. The margin is utilized to display as many items of the printing environment as possible on one picture without making the area of a button for the item of the printing environment smaller. However, when the set picture and the confirmation picture are thus superposed, such a problem causes that it is hard to view the superposed pictures. Then, the image printing device is provided with a changing means for changing the display form of one picture touched by the user for a predetermined time out of the two pictures. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image printing apparatus, such as a printer, a copier, or a multifunction peripheral, which sets a printing environment using a touch panel.

  In recent years, image printing apparatuses such as printers, copiers, and multifunction machines are rapidly spreading not only in offices but also in general households. Among these, there are many image printing apparatuses that include a touch panel and can set various print environments such as paper size and print density by the user operating the touch panel.

  FIG. 5A shows an example of the display on the touch panel of such an image printing apparatus. In the setting screen 510 for setting the printing environment (corresponding to the basic screen tag), buttons indicating the printing environment items of “paper selection”, “copy density”, “reduction / enlargement”, “aggregation”, and “image quality” are displayed. Has been. The user operates these buttons to set the printing environment for these items. In the example of FIG. 5A, the paper is “A4R (A4 portrait orientation)”, the copy density is “automatic”, the reduction / enlargement is “automatic magnification”, the aggregation is “none”, The image quality of the original is set to “text + photo”.

  The printing environment set in this way is displayed on the confirmation screen 520 (corresponding to the function list tag). By referring to the confirmation screen 520, the user can confirm whether the printing environment has been set correctly, and if there is a problem, the user can set it again, which is convenient.

From the viewpoint of convenience as described above, as shown in FIG. 5 (a), an image printing apparatus that simultaneously displays two screens of a setting screen 510 and a confirmation screen 520 on a touch panel is disclosed in Patent Document 1 below, for example. It is disclosed.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-111828

  However, the technique of Patent Document 1 has the following problems.

  As the functions of image printing devices in recent years have improved, the number of print environment items that can be set by the user has increased, and in a limited display area on the touch panel, all items can be displayed on a single screen. Have difficulty. Rather, in order to display all items, it has become common to require a display area corresponding to several screens.

  For this reason, for example, as shown in FIG. 5B, switching buttons 511 and 512 are provided in the setting screen 510, and by operating these switching buttons 511 and 512, the user can display a page ( For example, the item is set by switching the setting screen 510 to FIG.

  As a matter of course, the procedure for setting the printing environment by the user becomes more complicated when the number of pages to be switched is larger. In order to reduce the burden on the user's procedure, it is desirable to display as many items of the printing environment as possible on one screen. For this purpose, it is conceivable to reduce the area of the button of each item, but when the button area is small, there is a high possibility of causing an erroneous operation such as touching the adjacent button when the user touches. Come.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and when setting the printing environment, it is possible to display as many items of the printing environment as possible on a single screen, and not to cause an erroneous operation of the user. An object of the present invention is to provide an image printing apparatus capable of performing the above.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention employs the following means.

  First, the present invention is premised on an image printing apparatus including a touch panel that simultaneously displays two screens: a setting screen for setting a printing environment by a user and a confirmation screen for showing the set printing environment to the user.

  In such an image printing apparatus, display means for displaying the setting screen and the confirmation screen on the touch panel is provided. As a result, a margin is generated on the touch panel. By utilizing this margin, it is possible to display as many items of the printing environment as possible on one screen without reducing the area of the button of the item of the printing environment. It is. However, when the superposition is performed as described above, there is a problem that it becomes difficult to see the setting screen and the confirmation screen. In order to solve this, the image printing apparatus of the present invention is provided with a changing unit that changes the display mode of one of the two screens touched by the user for a predetermined time. As the change of the display mode, it is assumed that the display blinks, the color is changed, and the density is changed. However, these may be used alone or in combination.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to display as many items of the printing environment as possible on one screen by using the margin generated on the touch panel by overlapping the setting screen and the confirmation screen. Is possible. Moreover, the problem that it is difficult for the user to see can be solved by blinking one of the superimposed screens.

  Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing an overall configuration of an image printing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment.

  When the user uses the image printing apparatus 100 to copy a document, the user places the document on the document table 103, for example, and instructs the operation unit to print. When the instruction is given, printing is performed by operating the following units (drive units).

  In the image reading unit 101, the light emitted from the light source 104 is reflected by the document placed on the document table 103 and guided to the image sensor 108 by the mirror 105. The image sensor 108 photoelectrically converts the received light to generate document image data.

  The image forming unit 102 forms an image on a sheet fed from the sheet feeding cassette 122. The image forming unit 102 includes a photosensitive drum 109, a charger 100, an exposure unit 111, a developing unit 112, a transfer unit 113, and the like disposed around the photosensitive drum 109, and a fixing device 118 disposed on the downstream side thereof. Have. The surface of the photosensitive drum 109 is charged by the charger 110, and then light is irradiated by the exposure device 111 according to the image data. By doing so, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photosensitive drum 109. Then, a toner image is formed on the photosensitive drum 109 by attaching toner to the electrostatic latent image on the developing device 112. Thereafter, the toner image is transferred onto a sheet by the transfer unit 113. In this way, the image forming process in the image printing apparatus 100 is performed.

  Further, the image forming unit 102 feeds one sheet from any one sheet feeding cassette 122 using a pickup roller 115 when performing printing. The paper drawn from the paper feed cassette 122 is drawn to the paper transport path 125 by the transport roller 124. Thereafter, the sheet is fed between the photosensitive drum 109 and the transfer unit 113 by the registration roller 117.

  When the sheet passes between the heating roller 119 and the pressure roller 120 in the fixing device 118, the visible image is fixed on the sheet by heat and the pressing force on the sheet. The image forming unit 102 discharges the paper that has passed through the fixing device 118 to the paper discharge tray 121.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram relating to control of the image printing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment.

  The image printing apparatus 100 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 201, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 202, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 203, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 204, and a driver 205 corresponding to each drive unit in printing. They are connected via a bus 206. The CPU 201 uses, for example, the RAM 202 as a work area, and executes a program stored in the ROM 203, the HDD 204, or the like. Then, the operation of each drive unit shown in FIG. 1 is controlled by exchanging data and commands with the driver 205 based on the execution result.

  Next, each unit other than the drive unit used in the image printing apparatus 100 of the present embodiment will be described. Each means to be described later (see FIG. 3) other than the drive unit also operates as each means when the CPU 201 executes a program.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the image printing apparatus 100 of the present invention.
When performing copying or the like, the user first operates the touch panel 11 constituting the operation unit, and inputs the input means 15 (by means of the reading means 17 such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) as an example of the imaging element 108. RAM: Image data is input to a random access memory (not shown). Specifically, the detection unit that constitutes the touch panel detects a user touch (press) on the touch panel 11 and transmits the detection to the predetermined unit, here, the reading unit 17. The reading unit 17 is not an essential component of the image printing apparatus 100 of the present invention. For example, from the personal computer 19a, the scanner 19b, and the facsimile apparatus 19c connected to the image printing apparatus 100 via a network, The image data may be input to the input unit 17.

  When the user prints the image data with the printing unit 16, the user operates the touch panel 11 to indicate the touch and the coordinates thereof through the detection unit, using the setting unit 14 (a program stored in the ROM 203). Notification). Upon receiving the notification, the setting unit 14 sets the printing environment for the image data according to the touched coordinates and other touch times. Here, as described in the background art above, the printing environment refers to a user size when performing printing such as paper size, copy density, presence / absence of reduced / enlarged printing, presence / absence of aggregate printing, image quality of a document, and the like. Is an item to set.

  Conventionally, as already shown in FIG. 4A, in this setting, a setting screen 510 for setting the printing environment by the user and a confirmation screen 520 for showing the set printing environment to the user are set. The screen was displayed on the touch panel 11 at the same time.

  The image printing apparatus 100 of the present invention displays the setting screen 510 and the confirmation screen 520 on the touch panel 11 in a superimposed manner as shown in FIG.

  In other words, the display unit 12 (which is a program stored in the ROM 203) superimposes the setting screen 510 on which the above-described printing environment items are listed and the confirmation screen 520 showing the setting results of these items on the touch panel 11. Is displayed. This superimposition is realized by performing a parallel movement (numerical constant shift) of the coordinates for specifying the coordinates on the touch panel 11 among the data for displaying the confirmation screen 520 shown in FIG. .

  In addition, at the time of the superposition, the confirmation screen 520 is displayed so as to be able to be confirmed (viewed) up to the overlapped portion of the setting screen 510 displayed on the lower layer thereof.

In order to display the information in a confirmable manner, the display means 12 displays the confirmation screen 510 on the setting screen 510 after performing a transparent process, for example.
As a result, a margin S is generated on the touch panel 11 as shown in FIG. If this margin S is utilized, as shown in FIG. 4B, more items of the printing environment can be displayed on a single screen without reducing the area of the buttons of the above items. Therefore, when the user sets the printing environment, it is not necessary to switch the setting screen 510 for many pages, and the burden on the user's procedure can be reduced.

  However, on the other hand, when such superposition is performed, there is a problem that it is difficult for the user to see both the setting screen 510 and the confirmation screen 520. Therefore, the image printing apparatus 100 of the present invention is provided with a changing unit that changes the display mode of one of the two screens touched by the user for a predetermined time.

  For example, if the user keeps touching the confirmation screen 520 for a predetermined time (for example, 3 seconds), the changing means 13 (which is a program stored in the ROM 203) detects this touch and touch time and confirms this. The display means 12 is instructed to cause the screen 520 to blink.

  Here, such a change in the display mode is not limited to the blinking of the display as described above, and a change in color, a change in density, and a luminance are also effective methods, and these may be executed in combination. May be. For example, if the user keeps touching the confirmation screen 520 for 3 seconds, the changing means 13 can be programmed so that the confirmation screen 520 is darkly displayed in red and blinks.

  Note that when a portion where the two screens of the setting screen 510 and the confirmation screen 520 overlap is touched for the predetermined time, it may be unclear which screen is touched. In order to eliminate this, for example, when the border of the setting screen 510 (double line in FIG. 4 (a)) or the border of the confirmation screen 520 (dotted line in FIG. 4 (a)) is touched for a predetermined time. In addition, the changing means 13 can be programmed to change the display mode of the setting screen 510 and the confirmation screen 520, respectively.

  Furthermore, the changing means 13 makes it difficult to see the above-mentioned display by blinking one of the setting screen 510 and the confirmation screen 520, for example, at predetermined time intervals without detecting a touch during the superposition. It can also be solved. In this case, when the detecting unit detects a touch on the touch panel by the user when the display of one screen is turned off at the time of blinking, the setting unit 14 uses the touch as an instruction for the other screen. Process. Thereby, it is possible to avoid a situation in which which screen is touched is unknown.

  By overlaying the setting screen 510 and the confirmation screen 520 as described above, it becomes possible to display as many items of the printing environment as possible on a single screen by utilizing the margin generated on the touch panel, and for the user. This makes it possible to reduce the burden of procedural settings when setting the printing environment.

  The image printing apparatus according to the present invention can display as many items of the printing environment as possible on one screen by using the margin generated on the touch panel by overlapping the setting screen and the confirmation screen. It becomes. According to this, since it is not necessary to reduce the area of the button of each item of the printing environment, it is possible to prevent an erroneous operation such as touching an adjacent button when the user touches. Moreover, the problem that it is difficult for the user to see can be solved by blinking one of the superimposed screens. Therefore, it is useful as a printer, a copying machine, a multifunction machine, or the like.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image printing apparatus according to the present embodiment. FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram relating to control of the image printing apparatus according to the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image printing apparatus according to the present embodiment. An example of a touch panel display in the image printing apparatus according to the present embodiment. An example of the display of the touch panel in the conventional image printing apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

11 Touch panel (detection means)
12 Display means
13 How to change
14 Setting method
15 Input means
16 Printing means
17 Reading means
19a personal computer
19b scanner
19c facsimile machine
100 image printing device
510 Setting screen
520 confirmation screen

Claims (6)

In an image printing apparatus provided with a touch panel that simultaneously displays two screens, a setting screen for accepting setting of a printing environment and a confirmation screen for displaying the printing environment set on the setting screen.
An image printing apparatus, comprising: a display unit configured to superimpose display of both the setting screen and the confirmation screen on the touch panel. The image forming and printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a changing unit that changes a display mode of one of the two screens touched by the user for a predetermined time. The image printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the change in the display mode is blinking of the display. The image printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the display mode change is a color change. The image printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the change in the display mode is a change in luminance or density. The display means blinks any one of the two screens, and
2. The image printing according to claim 1, further comprising setting means for processing the input as an input to the other screen when an input to the touch panel is detected when one of the screens disappears during the blinking display. apparatus.

Images