JP2008097383A - Print system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a print system capable of enhancing the image quality of a print output, by control based on a detail image preparation process parameter from a superordinate device. <P>SOLUTION: A personal computer 5 determines an image preparation process control parameter, based on information as to a laser printer 1, an indication content received from an operator, a parameter for expressing a state of the laser printer 1 received from the laser printer 1, and a print content based on a print data, and transmits the image preparation process control parameter, together with the print data, to the laser printer 1, and the laser printer 1 executes a printing operation, based on the image preparation process control parameter and the print data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a print system for controlling printing by connecting an electrophotographic printer to one or a plurality of host devices.

The conventional electrophotographic printing device has control software on the printing device side and performs all the controls including the image forming process. On the host device side such as a computer connected to the printing device, the tray is selected. Only the designation of the output paper type, the enlargement / reduction ratio, the number of prints, etc. and the display of the print status were performed.
FIG. 4 is a schematic functional explanatory diagram of a printing system that controls printing by connecting a general electrophotographic printer to a host device. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, a laser printer 1 and a personal computer as a host device. (PC) 3 is connected to each other, and information such as the remaining amount of toner, the paper size in the cassette, and the progress of printing is sent from the laser printer 1 side to the personal computer 3 side, and the printing status is displayed on the personal computer 3 side. In addition, information such as the designated number of prints and designated paper size and designated print data are sent from the personal computer 3 side to the laser printer 1 side, and printing is performed on the laser printer 1 side in accordance with the information and data.

As a prior art, as Patent Document 1, a teacher signal is created by storing image data read from an original and comparing the image data once copied with the image, and based on the teacher signal. A technique for controlling learning function means such as a neuronetwork and controlling target blocks of respective units is disclosed.
As Patent Document 2, an OA device group including a management unit that manages the state of consumables and a communication unit that transmits and receives the state and the like, control of the OA device, and transmission / reception of commands from the host computer An adapter device including at least a control unit for performing a call to the host computer in response to various reports from the office device, a communication unit for communicating with the adapter device and the OA device through a communication line, and the adapter device and the OA. Communication means for storing information to be transmitted / received to / from the device, processed data, information for managing the adapter device and the OA device, data processing means for processing the information, and communication with the outside other than the adapter device and the OA device A technology comprising communication means, display means for displaying accumulated information, data processed data, and the like, and printing means. It is shown.

As Patent Literature 3, a receiving unit that receives data transmitted from a host device, and the data received by the receiving unit is control information for controlling the formation of a toner image corresponding to the type of print medium And a control unit that controls the formation of a toner image based on the control information when the determination unit determines that the data is control information.
As disclosed in Patent Document 4, when an installation environment state of each image forming apparatus is detected by an environment sensor provided in each image forming apparatus, environment information is transmitted to the host computer via a communication line, and the condition determining means A technique for automatically setting image forming conditions to be analyzed and to obtain an optimum image density for each image forming apparatus is disclosed.

As a patent document 5, a host computer of a printing system determines whether or not the paper size of a document matches the paper size of a recording paper when printing is instructed from application software, and the paper sizes do not match. When the determination is made, an instruction to change the paper size of the recording paper is given, and when the printing with the paper size of the recording paper loaded in the LBP main body is instructed, the printing information and the image correspond to the paper size of the recording paper. A technique for re-editing data and outputting it to the LBP main body is disclosed.
As Patent Literature 6, installation environment information (for example, temperature / humidity information) of an image forming apparatus is obtained based on regional information and current time information held by a host computer, and this is transmitted to the image forming apparatus to obtain an image. A technology is disclosed in which the forming apparatus determines an image forming condition based on the installation environment information and forms an image based on the image forming condition.

As Patent Document 7, an adjustment parameter generation unit generates an adjustment parameter according to a default conversion formula or a condition input by a user, an adjustment parameter storage unit stores the generated adjustment parameter, and an output data expansion unit However, a technique is disclosed in which adjustment image is referred to, output image data is generated based on the captured output data, and the color-reduced data is output from the processed data output terminal to an output device such as a printer.
As Patent Document 8, when a process cartridge is attached to an image forming apparatus and when image formation is performed, the process cartridge detection unit detects whether or not the process cartridge has a recording medium. The image forming operation is executed under the optimum image forming conditions unique to the image forming apparatus based on the management information recorded on the recording medium. If not, a technique for executing an image forming operation with versatile settings is disclosed.

Patent Document 9 discloses an image forming apparatus having a transfer unit, a separation unit, and a simultaneous transfer exposure unit. The control parameters in at least one of image formation conditions, materials used for image formation, an environment in which image formation is performed, and an image formation mode A technique is disclosed that includes a control unit that uses and controls the operation of the simultaneous transfer exposure unit.
JP-A-5-227338 JP-A-10-174153 JP-A-2005-70116 JP-A-5-260302 JP-A-9-323457 JP 2003-202780 A JP 2002-314822 A JP 2005-172958 A JP 2003-208031 A

However, the conventional printing apparatus has the following problems.
In the conventional printing apparatus, most of the printing process including the image forming process is controlled by software built in the printing apparatus, so that the processing capability is limited and detailed control is not performed.
For example, the print process control according to the print contents is not performed in a fine unit such as for each page.
In addition, the printing process control software built in the printing apparatus has to secure a large number of functions and a constant processing speed under many restrictions, and it has been difficult to reduce development costs.

Further, in the conventional apparatus, since there is no means for confirming the print image quality until the output is actually performed, useless trial output cannot be avoided.
In addition, the image forming process control method built into the printing apparatus like the conventional apparatus cannot cope with the aging effect of the printing apparatus and consumable materials for printing, so it is difficult to maintain the image quality at the time of shipment. It was.
The present invention has been made to solve the above-described conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printing system capable of improving the image quality of print output by control based on detailed image forming process parameters from a host device. It is to be.

In order to achieve the above object, an invention according to claim 1 is a printing system for controlling printing by connecting an electrophotographic printer to at least one host device, wherein the host device is information related to the printer. An image formation process control parameter is determined from the instruction content received from the operation means, the parameter indicating the status of the printer received from the printer, and the print content based on the print data received from the operation means, and the image formation process control parameter is determined. The printer has a function of transmitting process control parameters to the printer together with print data, and the printer has a function of performing a printing operation based on the image forming process control parameters and print data.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the host device determines an image formation process control parameter by predicting an output image quality.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the host device executes a simulation to predict an output image and determine an image formation process control parameter.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the process control processing on the printer side is a basic process control, a process state knowledge, and a communication function with a computer.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the parameters indicating the status of the printer received from the printer include the type of printing paper, the humidity, temperature, and degree of deterioration of each part of the printing apparatus, and the remaining amount and degree of deterioration of printing consumable materials. It is characterized by comprising.

The invention according to claim 6 is characterized in that the print content by the print data is a print content of whether it is a picture, a character, a color, a monochrome, a coarse or a fine.
The invention described in claim 7 is characterized in that the image forming process control parameter determination method is changed by updating software on the host device side.
The invention according to claim 8 is characterized in that a plurality of the host devices are connected to the printer.

According to the present invention, the image quality of the print output can be improved by the control by the detailed image forming process parameter from the host device.
Further, according to the present invention, even when a plurality of host devices share a printer, it is possible to control the image forming process according to the output contents for each individual host device, for each print output, or for each page. .

Further, according to the present invention, development and manufacturing costs can be reduced by reducing the weight of the hardware and software of the print output apparatus.
Further, according to the present invention, the improvement of the print output image quality can be realized by updating the image forming process control software arranged in the upper apparatus.
Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to suppress wasteful use of consumables such as printing paper and toner.
Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to maintain a constant print output image quality autonomously corresponding to the temporal variation factor.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1A is a schematic functional explanatory diagram of a printing system embodying the present invention, FIG. 1B is a basic configuration diagram of the personal computer 5 shown in FIG. 1A, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a functional explanatory diagram of the host device shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the print system shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1A, in this printing system, a laser printer 1 and a personal computer 5 as a host device are connected to each other via a LAN 7 or the like.
As shown in FIG. 1B, the personal computer 5 has a RAM 9, a ROM 11, a storage device 13 such as a database 12, and a CPU 15, and will be described below based on software (program) stored in the ROM 11. The operation is to be performed.

That is, the personal computer 5 is based on software stored in the storage device 13, and an operator operates information on the laser printer 1 incorporated in the software, characteristic data of the printing material, and operation means such as a keyboard and a mouse (not shown). From the instruction content A received from the operating means, the parameter B representing the state of the laser printer 1 received from the laser printer 1, and the content C of the print data, an appropriate image formation process control parameter D is determined, Appropriate image forming process control is realized by transmitting the image forming process control parameter D to the laser printer 1 together with the print data C and the like.
More specifically, in step 101 of FIG. 3, the personal computer 5 receives the instruction content A and the print data C from the print operator, and further receives a parameter B representing the state of the laser printer 1 from the laser printer 1 (step 1). 103). Here, the parameter B representing the state of the laser printer 1 includes the type of printing paper, the humidity, temperature, and degree of deterioration of each part of the printing apparatus, the remaining amount and degree of deterioration of printing consumable materials, and the like. Further, the contents of the print data received from the operator are printed contents indicating whether it is a picture, a character, a color, a monochrome, or coarse or fine.

Next, the personal computer 5 uses software based on the instruction content A and print data C from the print operator, the parameter B indicating the state of the laser printer 1 from the laser printer 1, and the software stored in the storage device 13. An appropriate image formation process control parameter D is determined from the information about the built-in laser printer 1 and the characteristic data of the printing material (step 105).
That is, as shown in FIG. 2, the CPU 15 incorporates an image forming process simulator 19 based on the control software 17 of the printing apparatus stored in the personal computer 5, and the image forming process simulator 19 is charged, exposed and developed. Built-in functions for simulating each image forming process of transfer and fixing, parameters representing the characteristics of the printer process to be used from the characteristic data group attached to the simulator (exposure device characteristic data, photoconductor characteristic data, The behavior of the image forming process is predicted using the characteristic data of the transfer belt, the characteristic data of the fixing roller, and the characteristic data of the printing material used in the printer (characteristic data of toner, carrier, paper, etc.).
Based on the predicted value of the image formation process behavior, printer status, print data contents and printer user instructions, appropriate image formation process control parameters (exposure timing, bias voltage value, linear speed, replenishment amount of printing material) Timing, fixing unit temperature, etc.).

Here, if the final image or the image quality evaluation index value predicted by the image forming process simulator 19 in the personal computer 5 is confirmed on the screen of the host device, the priority of the output image is adjusted, the paper used is changed, the image process is performed. The control parameters can be adjusted to optimize the output image.
Then, the personal computer 5 adds the determined image forming process control parameter D to the print data C or the like and transmits it to the laser printer 1 (step 107).

Here, in the method according to the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the personal computer 5 adds the image forming process control parameter D to the print data C or the like for each printing unit and transmits it to the laser printer 1. It has become.
For example, if an image forming process control parameter D suitable for each page is added as a print unit for each page unit of print output, the image forming process control suitable for each page can be performed. .
In addition, when one printer 1 is shared by a plurality of personal computers 5, an image forming process control parameter D is added to each print data C sent from each personal computer 5, so that an operation corresponding to the processing content of each personal computer 5 is performed. Image process control is possible.

Next, the laser printer 1 forms an image based on the print data C and the image forming process control parameter D transmitted in addition to the print data C for each printing unit (step 109).
As shown in FIG. 2, the image forming process control parameter D is all determined by the personal computer 5 in accordance with the software stored in the personal computer 5. Therefore, it is possible to improve the determination method of the image forming process control parameter D only by updating the software placed on the personal computer 5 and the attached data.
Also, by updating / adding the characteristic information database 12, it is possible to improve the optimization of the image forming process control parameter D determined to be the addition of the corresponding printer type and the addition of the corresponding consumable type (toner cartridge, paper, etc.).

Further, by updating the image forming process simulator 19 shown in FIG. 2, it is possible to improve the prediction accuracy and make the image forming process control more appropriate.
Further, since the image forming process control parameter D is all determined by the personal computer 5 in accordance with the software stored in the personal computer 5, the process control processing on the printer side is performed with the basic process control, the knowledge of the process state, and the computer. The communication function can be limited.
Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the priority matter regarding the output image can be obtained by checking the final image or the image quality evaluation index value predicted by the image forming process simulator 19 on the personal computer 5 on the screen of the host device without performing the test printing. Adjustment of the paper to be used, adjustment of the paper to be used, and adjustment of the image process control parameters, the output image can be optimized.

  Also, in a multi-function peripheral having an image scanning device, the final output is automatically or manually operated at the timing indicated by the operation of the control software placed on a button or host device provided on the printing device or periodically. By importing the image data into the host device, analyzing the image data and comparing and evaluating with the predicted value of the image forming process simulator of the host device, the parameter values representing the characteristics and status of the printing device and the property parameter values of the printing material are corrected. To do. In this way, by maintaining a constant simulation accuracy, the image formation process control parameter value can be corrected, and the quality of the print output image can be maintained at a constant level.

1A and 1B show a printing system embodying the present invention, in which FIG. 1A is a schematic functional diagram, and FIG. 2B is a basic configuration diagram of a personal computer shown in FIG. It is a function explanatory view of the personal computer shown in FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the print system shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a schematic function explanatory diagram of a printing system that controls printing by connecting a general electrophotographic printer to a host device.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Laser printer, 3 ... Personal computer, 5 ... Host apparatus, 7 ... LAN, 9 ... RAM, 11 ... ROM, 12 ... Characteristic information database, 13 ... Storage device, 15 ... CPU, 17 ... Printing device control software, 19 ... Imaging process simulator

Claims (8)

A printing system for controlling printing by connecting an electrophotographic printer to at least one host device,
The host apparatus is configured to generate an image formation process from information related to the printer, instruction contents received from the operation means, parameters indicating the status of the printer received from the printer, and print contents based on print data received from the operation means. A function for determining control parameters and transmitting the image formation process control parameters to the printer together with print data;
The printing system, wherein the printer has a function of performing a printing operation based on the image forming process control parameter and print data.   The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the host apparatus determines the image forming process control parameter by predicting an output image quality.   The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the host apparatus executes a simulation to predict an output image and determines the image forming process control parameter.   2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the process control processing on the printer side is a basic process control, a process state knowledge, and a communication function with a computer.   The parameter representing the status of the printer received from the printer includes the type of printing paper, the humidity, temperature, and degree of deterioration of each part of the printing apparatus, and the remaining amount and degree of deterioration of printing consumable materials. The printing system according to 1.   The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the print content based on the print data is a print content indicating whether it is a picture, a character, a color, a monochrome, a coarse, or a fine.   The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the image forming process control parameter determination method is changed by updating software on the host device side.   The printing system according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the host devices are connected to the printer.

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