JP2019155728A - Printing device, printing method and computer program - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a printing device that can reduce costs of consumable supply to be used until printing performed on a plurality of media on the basis of a printing job for each page is stopped, when the printing is started and then the printing is stopped.SOLUTION: A printing device, which performs printing on a plurality of media on the basis of a printing job for each page, comprises a storing part that stores cost information relating to costs of consumable supply to be used in the printing and a determining part that determines order of printing each page. The determining part calculates costs of the consumable supply for printing each page from the cost information, and determines the order of printing so that costs of the consumable supply to be used after the printing is started until the middle of the printing do not surpass costs in performing printing in order of pages.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, a printing method, and a computer program.

2. Description of the Related Art There is known a technique that enables a printing operation on a plurality of sheets to be performed in a series of operations based on a print job for a plurality of pages in which a plurality of different types of sheets are set. For example, digital printers for commercial printing in recent years provide high-value-added printed matter by enabling printing corresponding to a print job for a plurality of pages in which different types of paper are mixed. As a high added-value printed matter, for example, there is a photo book using luxurious paper as a cover.
In addition, a technique for reducing as much as possible sheets that are wasted when printing is canceled (when printing is stopped), that is, sheets that have been printed before cancellation is known. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique in which an early page is printed in a low-speed mode and printing after a certain number of prints is exceeded is switched to a high-speed mode. This technique reduces the number of sheets that are wasted as a result of printing before canceling by printing in the low-speed mode the first page where a printing error is likely to be found.

Japanese Patent No. 5830490

When printing multiple pages on different types of paper and canceling printing after the start of printing, in order to reduce wasted costs, the type of paper is used in addition to the number of sheets. It is preferable to consider the cost of consumables such as.
The present invention provides a printing apparatus capable of reducing the cost of consumables used up to a stop when printing is stopped after starting printing performed on a plurality of media based on a print job for each page. With the goal.

  A printing apparatus according to the present invention is a printing apparatus that performs printing on a plurality of media based on a print job for each page, a storage unit that stores cost information regarding the cost of consumables used for printing, and each page A determining unit that determines a printing order of the printer, and the determining unit calculates a cost of the consumable for printing each page from the cost information and is used from the start of printing to the middle of printing. The printing order is determined so that the cost of the consumables does not exceed the case of printing in page order.

  The printing apparatus according to the present invention can reduce the cost of consumables used until the cancellation when the printing is stopped after starting the printing performed on a plurality of media based on the print job of each page.

1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a printing apparatus according to a first embodiment. 1 is a block diagram of a hardware configuration of a printing apparatus according to a first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a software configuration of the printing apparatus according to the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is a flowchart for determining a printing order in the printing operation of the first embodiment. It is a table of the relationship between paper type and cost information in the first embodiment. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the effect of 1st Embodiment. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the effect of 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart for determining the printing order in the printing operation of the second embodiment. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the effect of 2nd Embodiment. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the effect of 2nd Embodiment. It is a schematic diagram of the input screen of paper information as the first embodiment. It is a schematic diagram of an example of the printing order in the printing operation of 2nd Embodiment. FIG. 10 is a flowchart for determining a printing order in a printing operation according to a modification.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described by dividing them into a first embodiment and a second embodiment.
<< First Embodiment >>
The first embodiment will be described below. The relative arrangement of the components, the apparatus shape, and the like described in the present embodiment are examples, and these examples do not limit the scope of the present invention. In this specification, “printing apparatus” is not limited to a dedicated machine specialized for printing functions, but also includes a multifunction machine that combines printing functions and other functions, a manufacturing apparatus that forms images and patterns on paper, and the like. Shall be.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a printing apparatus 100 that uses cut paper (paper (an example of a medium) that is cut into a predetermined size such as L plate, A4, and A3).

  The printing apparatus 100 includes a paper feeding unit 120 (an example of a paper feeding unit), a print head 105, and a scanner unit 107. Here, as an example, the paper feeding unit 120 includes a first paper feeding tray 101 for A4 size paper, a second paper feeding tray 102 for A4 size paper, and an A3 size paper feeding tray 103. ing. The size of each paper feed tray is an example. The printing apparatus 100 includes an ink tank 106, a drying unit 108, a reversing unit 109, a sorting unit 110, a paper discharge tray 111, a control unit 113, an operation unit 114, and a transport mechanism 115. Yes. Each of the paper feed trays 101, 102, and 103 is not limited to three as shown in FIG. 1, and may have a plurality of stages other than 1 to 3 depending on the apparatus configuration.

The control unit 113 (an example of a computer) incorporates a controller (not shown) having a controller, a user interface, and various I / O interfaces, and controls various controls of the printing apparatus 100.
The transport mechanism 115 includes a rotation roller 104 and transports the paper from the paper feed unit 120 to the paper discharge tray 111 (an example of a paper discharge unit). The transport mechanism 115 transports the paper drawn from the first paper feed tray 101, the second paper feed tray 102, or the A3 paper feed tray 103 along the direction of arrow a. Further, the rotation roller 104 included in the transport mechanism 115 transports the paper in the direction b in the figure. The rotating roller 104 is arranged in the entire conveyance path in the drawing other than the roller drawn by the reference numeral 104 in FIG. 1, and conveys the paper along the conveyance path determined by motor control. The paper conveyed along the b direction passes below the print head 105.
In the print head 105, independent ink-jet heads for a plurality of colors are held side by side along the paper transport direction. The print head 105 discharges ink (an example of a recording material) from a plurality of discharge ports, which will be described later, toward the paper in synchronization with the conveyance of the paper, and forms an image on the paper (prints). That is, the ink ejected toward the paper is recorded as an image on the paper.

The ink tank 106 stores ink of each color independently (not shown in FIG. 1). The ink stored in the ink tank 106 is supplied to each inkjet head by each tube connected to the inkjet head corresponding to each color. As an example, each inkjet head is a line head arranged along the b direction which is the transport direction. The present embodiment is a so-called full multihead in which the discharge ports are arranged in a range in which the maximum width of the paper to be used covers the printing width.
The inkjet head of each color may be formed with a single chip without a seam, or the divided chips may be regularly arranged in a single row or a staggered arrangement. As an ink jet method for discharging ink from the discharge port, a method using a heating element, a method using a piezo element, a method using an electrostatic element, a method using a MEMS element, or the like can be adopted.
Further, the printing apparatus 100 is not limited to an ink jet printer, and may be another printing system such as a thermal printer (sublimation type, thermal transfer type, etc.), a dot impact printer, an LED printer, or a laser printer.

The rotating roller 104 conveys the paper on which the image is printed by the print head 105 to the scanner unit 107. The scanner unit 107 reads a print image or special pattern to check whether there is a problem with the print image or to check the state of the apparatus.
The paper that has passed through the scanner unit 107 by the rotating roller 104 is conveyed in the direction c in the figure and passes through the drying unit 108. The drying unit 108 is a unit that heats the paper passing through the unit with warm air in order to dry the ink adhering to the paper in a short time.
The sheet that has passed through the drying unit 108 by the rotating roller 104 is conveyed in the direction d in the figure and conveyed to the reversing unit 109. The reversing unit 109 reverses the front and back of the passing paper. The sheet that has passed through the reversing unit 109 and is reversed upside down is conveyed in the direction e in the figure. Next, the paper is further transported in the direction f in the drawing, returned again to the transport path below the print head 105, and the back surface is printed.
As described above, the printing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment uses the paper path conveyed in the order of symbols b, c, d, e, f, and b in FIG. It is configured so that the front and back are interchanged.

The paper that has been printed, that is, the paper that has been circulated through the circulation path and printed on both the front and back sides, branches without passing through the reversing unit 109 and is conveyed in the direction g in the figure, and is conveyed to the sorting unit 110. That is, the front-side printing paper is conveyed in the g direction in the middle of the first round of the circulation path, and the duplex printing paper is conveyed in the g direction after passing under the print head 105 twice by the circulation path. The paper that is branched and conveyed along the g direction and passes through the sorting unit 110 is stacked on, for example, a tray set for each print image.
The sorting unit 110 holds a plurality of trays 111 and 112, and sorts the paper into the trays 111 and 112 according to a paper discharge method such as a job unit or a copy unit. Here, the paper discharge method in the sorting unit 110 is not limited to the job unit or the copy unit, but can be sorted to another tray from the middle of one job unit or the copy unit. In addition, a configuration may be used in which trays are sorted according to jobs that have been changed in printing order, which will be described later, and jobs that have not been performed.
In the tray, paper discharge tray 111 that discharges paper that has been printed satisfactorily, and paper used for maintenance and paper that is discarded without being printed well (paper of low quality printing) are discharged. There is a waste tray 112 to be papered. The paper that is branched by the sorting unit 110 and conveyed in the h direction in the figure is sorted into a paper discharge tray 111, and the paper that is conveyed in the i direction in the figure is sorted into a disposal tray 112.

  The operation unit 114 is a unit for confirming the printing status such as which tray the printed sheets are stacked on, whether printing is in progress, whether printing is completed, or whether an error has occurred. Further, the unit is used by a user to perform operation / confirmation in order to perform confirmation of apparatus state such as ink remaining amount and paper remaining amount, apparatus maintenance such as head cleaning, and cancellation (cancel printing).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a hardware configuration of the printing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment.
The hardware includes a CPU 300, a ROM 202, an HDD 204, a reception unit 302, a first storage unit 303, a job control unit 305, a determination unit 306, a second storage unit 307 (an example of a storage unit), An image processing unit 308 and a printing unit 309 are included. In the hardware, the above-described components are connected via the system bus 209. Here, CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. ROM means Read Only Memory. The first storage unit 303 and the second storage unit 307 are each a RAM (Random Access Memory).

FIG. 3 is a software block diagram of a control configuration of the printing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment. Hereinafter, the flow of the printing operation of the present embodiment will be described with reference mainly to FIG.
First, the reception unit 302 receives a print job from the external device 301 and stores the received print job in the first storage unit 303. Here, the print job will be described. As an example, a print job includes information on a plurality of pages to be printed. For example, consumables such as image data to be printed on each page and paper types used for printing the page. And information. The image data is, for example, PDL data such as PDF or XPS, compressed data such as JPEG or PNG, and bitmap data. In addition to the above example, the print job includes color settings and layout information during printing.
Next, the operation unit 114 receives a print start instruction from the user and notifies the job control unit 305 of the print start of the received print job. The operation unit 114 displays the contents of each print job stored in the first storage unit 303 and the status of each print job (before printing, during printing, etc.). The user selects a job to be printed from the print jobs displayed on the operation unit 114 and gives an instruction to start printing.
Next, the job control unit 305 determines the print order of each page of the print job instructed to start printing, determines the discharge method of each page, and prints instructions to the determination unit 306. Here, the paper discharge method is either a face-up method for discharging paper with the front side facing up or a face-down method for discharging paper with the front surface facing down. The determination of the printing order of each page will be described later.
After determining the printing order of each page, the determining unit 306 issues a paper feeding instruction to the paper feeding unit 120 and an image processing instruction to the image processing unit 308 in units of pages according to the determined printing order. Specifically, the determination unit 306 instructs the paper feeding unit 120 to feed paper used for each page. Upon receiving the instruction, the paper feeding unit 120 selects a tray corresponding to the designated paper from the paper feeding trays 101 to 103, and feeds paper from the selected tray. The determination unit 306 instructs the image processing unit 308 to convert the data of each page into image data. Upon receiving the instruction, the image processing unit 308 converts the image data included in the print job into printable data, and transfers the converted printable data to the printing unit 309.
The printing unit 309 controls the print head 105 and performs printing based on the data transferred from the image processing unit 308 on a sheet conveyed from the sheet feeding unit 120 and passing under the sheet.

Next, a flow when printing is stopped during the printing operation of the printing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment, that is, when printing by the printing operation is canceled will be described with reference to FIG.
First, when the operation unit 114 receives a cancel instruction for printing (print job) during a printing operation from the user, the operation unit 114 instructs the job control unit 305 to cancel the print job. Accordingly, the job control unit 305 instructs the paper feeding unit 120 and the printing unit 309 to cancel the subsequent printing of pages.
The paper feeding unit 120 stops the paper feeding process for the instructed page, and the printing unit 309 stops the printing process for the instructed page.
As described above, when the printing apparatus 100 receives an instruction to cancel the printing operation, the printing apparatus 100 stops the printing operation by the print job halfway. In the present embodiment, the cancellation will be described using the case where the paper feed process or the print process is stopped in units of pages as described above. However, the print operation may be stopped immediately when a cancel instruction is issued.
Next, determination of the printing order of each page of the print job and determination of the discharge method of each page by the determination unit 306 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. As an example, these determinations are executed by the CPU 300 shown in FIG. 2 loading a computer program stored in the ROM 202 into the first storage unit 303.
First, the determination unit 306 acquires a print job instructed to be printed from the first storage unit 303 (S401). Next, the determination unit 306 determines whether or not costs have been acquired for all pages of the print job (S402). In this case, the determination unit 306 analyzes the print job when the cost acquisition for all pages has not been completed (No in S402). Then, information on which paper is used for a page for which cost acquisition has not been completed (so-called paper type analysis) is acquired (S403). Next, the determination unit 306 obtains the cost of the sheet to be used from the cost information table (see FIG. 5) stored by the second storage unit 307 (S404).
Here, a cost information table for managing the cost information of consumables will be described. FIG. 5 shows an example of a cost information table held by the second storage unit 307. In this table, the type of paper (column 501 in the figure), the cost information of the paper (column 502 in the figure), and the paper storage tray (column 503 in the figure) of the storage destination of the paper are linked. In addition, it is managed (with a relationship). If a sheet used by a certain page is specified by this table, the cost of the page can be acquired. For example, when a certain page uses “A3 glossy paper”, it can be obtained from this table that the cost of the page is 20 yen.
The contents of this table can be set by the user via the UI screen of the operation unit 114. For example, a new paper type can be added by the user setting.

FIG. 11 shows an example of an input screen for paper information. The user can select a tray with the tray input unit 1101 and input or select the name of the paper with the paper name setting unit 1102. Further, the user can update the cost information table information by inputting the cost information of the paper from the paper cost information input unit 1103 and pressing an update button 1104. As described above, by enabling the user to update information via the input screen of the operation unit 114, management of a new paper type that is desired to be used and change of the printing order to be described later using a new paper type are performed. be able to.
Next, when the cost acquisition for all pages of the print job is completed (Yes in S402), the determination unit 306 divides the data of all pages of the print job into the first half and the second half (S405). In the present embodiment, the number of pages of the print job is simply divided by 2 (number of pages / 2 is M), the M pages from the beginning of the original printing order are the first half, and the (M + 1) th to the last The description will be made assuming that the page is the latter half. When the number of pages is an odd number, it is assumed that the number obtained by dividing the number of pages-1 by 2 is M.
Next, the determination unit 306 performs cost evaluation for the first half (S406) and cost evaluation for the second half (S407). In the present embodiment, description will be made assuming that the evaluation value is simply calculated by calculating the sum of the costs used for each page in the first half and each page in the second half in each step. That is, the determination unit 306 calculates a cost (referred to as the first half cost) used in the first half page in S406, and calculates a cost (referred to as the second half cost) used in the second half page in S407.
Next, the determination unit 306 determines whether or not the cost of the first half is higher than the cost of the second half (S408).
Here, when the condition that the cost of the first half is higher than the cost of the second half is satisfied (Yes in S408), the determination unit 306 changes the print order of the print job in the reverse order of the page order. Is determined (S409). Further, the determination unit 306 sets the paper discharge method for the main print job to face up (S410). In this case, the sheets are discharged to the discharge tray 111 so as to overlap in the face-up state in the printing order.

On the other hand, when the condition that the cost of the first half is higher than the cost of the second half is not satisfied (No in S408), the determination unit 306 determines whether the cost of the first half is lower than the cost of the second half. (S411).
Here, when the condition that the cost of the first half is lower than the cost of the second half is satisfied (Yes in S411), the determination unit 306 determines the print order of the print job as the page order (referred to as the normal order). ) Is determined (S412). Further, the determination unit 306 sets the paper discharge method for the main print job to face down (S413).
On the other hand, the process regarding the case where the condition that the cost of the first half is lower than the cost of the second half is not satisfied in S411 will be described. That is, when the cost of the first half is the same as the cost of the second half (No in S411), the determination unit 306 sets the print order of the print job to the previous job (print when printing the print job immediately before the print job). (Sequence) is set (S414). For example, if the previous job is in reverse order, it is set in reverse order. Further, the paper discharge method is set to the same setting as the paper discharge method at the time of printing the previous job (S415).

Next, the effect of this embodiment will be described with reference to examples and drawings to be described later.
First, an example in which an affirmative determination is made in S408 of FIG.
The description will be made assuming that the print job for which the print instruction is given is a print job represented by the table of FIG. In the figure, a column 601 indicates the page number of each page specified in the print job. Further, a column 602 in the figure indicates the type of paper used in each page. Further, a column 603 in the figure indicates the sheet cost of each page acquired from the cost information table stored in the second storage unit 307.
In the case of the print job in this example, the cost of the first half and the cost of the second half are as follows.
First half cost = 200 yen + 10 yen + 10 yen + 1 yen
= 221 yen (total from page 1 to page 4)
Second half cost = 10 yen + 10 yen + 1 yen + 1 yen
= 22 yen (total from page 6 to page 9)
Therefore, the cost of the first half portion> the cost of the second half portion is established (Yes in S408 in FIG. 4), the printing order is reversed by S409 (printing from page 9 to page 1), and the paper discharge method is face-up by S410. Setting.

Next, a description will be given with reference to FIGS. 6B and 6C. FIG. 6B is a diagram for explaining cancellation when printing is performed in the normal order (comparative form). FIG. 6C is a diagram for explaining cancellation when printing is performed in the reverse order (in this embodiment).
Here, as to how to read each figure, each square with a number in it represents a sheet, and the number represents a page number included in the print job. The difference in the pattern of each square represents the difference in the type of each sheet. Page 1 is high-quality cardboard, pages 2, 3, 8 and 9 are glossy paper, and pages 4 to 7 are plain paper. These printing papers are conveyed in the k direction, which indicates that the printing process is executed when the printing paper is conveyed under the print head. Therefore, the printing process is executed in order from the downstream page in the k direction. In explaining the effect of cancellation, immediately after printing the first page, check the page and notice a printing error, then cancel and complete the cancellation at the print head in the figure. explain. Here, the first page means not the page order of the print job or image data but the first page in the print order. This print error includes errors caused by factors that affect all pages in the print job, such as setting errors related to the entire job, input job errors, and device-related errors (for example, ejection failure at the discharge port). It is assumed that mistakes can be found even if they are confirmed on the page. In the following description, the same diagram is used, but the way of viewing the diagram and the situation at the time of cancellation are all the same.
In FIG. 6B, which is an example of the comparative form, four sheets indicated by 604 in the figure are wasted and five sheets indicated by 605 in the figure are not wasted. In this case, the wasted cost is found to be 221 yen (200 yen + 10 yen + 10 yen + 1 yen) from the cost information shown in the column 603 in FIG.
On the other hand, in FIG. 6C as an example of the present embodiment, four sheets indicated by 606 in the figure are wasted, and five sheets indicated by 607 in the figure are not wasted. In this case, the wasted cost is 22 yen (10 yen + 10 yen + 1 yen + 1 yen) from the cost information shown in the column 603 in FIG.
In either case, the number of sheets that were wasted is the same (four), but in this embodiment, the printing order is determined based on the flow of FIG. 4 (in this case, the printing order is changed in the reverse order). Compared with the comparative form, waste can be reduced by 199 yen. In other words, the present embodiment can reduce the cost of paper used before printing is stopped when printing is stopped after printing is started. In the case of the present embodiment, the determination unit 306 performs printing so as not to exceed the cost of printing the same number of sheets corresponding to the number of sheets used from the start of printing to the middle of printing in the page order. This is possible because the order is determined.
Furthermore, in this embodiment, if the determination in step S409 in FIG. 4 is affirmative, the sheet discharge method is set to face-up in step S410. For this reason, in the present embodiment, it is possible to take out the product printed in the page order of the print job without rearranging the print order of all the pages after printing.

Next, an example in which a negative determination is made in S408 in FIG. 4 and an affirmative determination is made in S411 is shown.
Description will be made assuming that the print job instructed to print is a job represented by the table of FIG. The way of viewing FIG. 7A is the same as that of FIG. 6A described above. In the print job represented by the table in FIG. 7A, the cost of the first half and the cost of the second half are as follows.
First half cost = 1 yen + 1 yen + 1 yen + 1 yen
= 4 yen (total from page 1 to page 4)
Second half cost = 1 yen + 1 yen + 10 yen + 10 yen
= 22 yen (total from page 5 to page 8)
Therefore, the cost of the first half portion <the cost of the second half portion is established (Yes in S410 in FIG. 4), the printing order is the normal order (the same as the page order of the print job, printing from the page 1 to the page 8), The paper method is face down.

Next, a description will be given with reference to FIGS. 7B and 7C. FIG. 7B is a diagram for explaining cancellation when printing is performed in the normal order (this embodiment). FIG. 7C is a diagram for explaining cancellation when the printing order is changed in the reverse order.
In FIG. 7C, four sheets indicated by reference numeral 706 in the figure are wasted sheets, and four sheets indicated by reference numeral 707 in the figure are not wasted. It can be seen from FIG. 7A that the wasted cost is 22 yen (1 yen + 1 yen + 10 yen + 10 yen) from the cost information shown in the column 703 in FIG.

On the other hand, in FIG. 7B as an example of the present embodiment, four sheets indicated by 704 in the figure are wasted and four sheets indicated by 705 in the figure are not wasted. In this case, the wasted cost is 4 yen (1 yen + 1 yen + 1 yen + 1 yen) from the cost information shown in the column 703 in FIG.
If printing is performed in the order shown in FIG. 7C, there is a waste of 18 yen (22 yen-4 yen) compared to the case of the present embodiment. However, in this embodiment, it can be seen that printing can be performed in an order that suppresses waste during cancellation by controlling the printing order according to cost using the flow of FIG.
In this embodiment, in S405, the page of the number of pages of the print job / 2 is determined as the central page and divided into the first half part and the second half part. However, there are other methods for dividing the first half part and the second half part. Is also applicable. For example, it is possible to apply a method in which the central page is determined so that the sum of the costs, not the number of pages, is as close as possible between the first half and the second half, and divided into the first half and the second half. In this case, the number of pages included in each of the first half and the second half may be evaluated.
In S406 (S407), evaluation is performed using the sum of the costs of the pages included in the first half (second half). In this evaluation method, the cost is weighted according to the order of the pages, and the evaluation is performed using the sum of the results. Various methods such as a method of applying can be applied. For example, a method may be considered in which the weight of the page closer to the beginning of the printing order is increased in the first half and the weight of the page closer to the end of the printing order is increased in the second half. In this case, it is possible to change the order considering not only whether the expensive paper is included in the first half part or the second half part, but also at which timing it is printed, so that the cost of wasting at the time of cancellation is further reduced. Can do.

Next, there is an example in which a negative determination is made in S408 of FIG. 4 and a negative determination is made in S411. That is, this is an example in which the cost of the first half and the cost of the second half are the same.
As described above, when the cost of the first half and the cost of the second half are the same (No in S411), the print order is set to be the same as the print order of the print job immediately before the print job (S414). Further, the paper discharge method is set to be the same as the paper discharge method of the immediately preceding print job (S415). The reason why the setting is the same as that of the immediately preceding print job is to reduce the work of rearranging the deliverables after the printing is completed.
Here, it demonstrates concretely with reference to Fig.10 (a) and FIG.10 (b). 10A and 10B, printing based on the print job 1, the print job 2, and the print job 3 is performed, and the results of all the jobs are discharged to the same discharge tray 111. FIG. Represents. The print job 1 and the print job 3 are set to the normal order / face down because the cost of the first half is higher than the cost of the second half (S408 to S410 in FIG. 4). The print job 2 is an example in which the cost of the first half and the cost of the second half are the same.
FIG. 10B shows a case where S411, S414, and S415 are not present in the flow of FIG. 4, that is, if a negative determination is made in S408, S412 and S413 are obtained. In this case, the print order and the face direction are different between the print job 2, the print job 1, and the print job 3. For this reason, it is necessary to arrange the printing order of each print job after printing.
On the other hand, FIG. 10A is a case of the present embodiment, and shows a state in which printing is performed with the same settings as the immediately preceding print job. In this case, since all the print jobs are output with the same settings, the orientations of all the deliverables are aligned even if the user does not change the print order after printing.
As described above, in the case of the present embodiment, by including S411, S414, and S415 in the flow of FIG. 4, a result of a plurality of print jobs is discharged to the same discharge tray 111 after printing. Rather, the direction of all deliverables can be aligned.

<< Second Embodiment >>
Next, a second embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, portions of the present embodiment that are different from the first embodiment will be described. In addition, the part from which this embodiment differs from 1st Embodiment is a computer program substantially. Therefore, in description of this embodiment, FIGS. 1-3 used by 1st Embodiment can be applied mutatis mutandis. Moreover, in the element of this embodiment, when using the same element as the element of 1st Embodiment, the name and code | symbol of the element shall be the same as the case of 1st Embodiment.

The determination of the printing order of each page of the print job and the determination of the discharge method of each page by the determining unit 306 in the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. As an example, these determinations are executed by the CPU 300 shown in FIG. 2 loading a computer program stored in the ROM 202 into the first storage unit 303.
Steps S801 to S804 in FIG. 8 are the same as steps S401 to S404 in FIG. 4 in the first embodiment.
After the affirmative determination in S802, the determination unit 306 acquires the cost information of each page, and sets N representing the printing order of each page to 1 (S805).
Next, the determination unit 306 determines whether the printing order of all pages has been determined (S806). If the printing order of all pages has not been determined (No in S806), the determining unit 306 searches for a page with the lowest cost from among the pages for which the printing order has not yet been determined (S807). Next, the determination unit 306 determines the printing order of the lowest cost page found in S807 as the Nth (S808), and excludes the page from the search target in S807 (S809). Next, the determination unit 306 increases the value of N representing the printing order by 1 in S810.
If the printing order of all pages has been determined (Yes in S806), the determination unit 306 ends the processing for determining the printing order.
With the above flow, when the process of determining the printing order according to the present embodiment is completed, the printing order based on the print job is sorted so as to be printed from the page with the lowest cost. That is, in the present embodiment, the order of printing is determined by the determination unit 306 so that the cost of paper used from the start of printing to the middle of printing does not exceed the case of printing in page order.

  Next, the effect of this embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. Here, the effect when the print job shown in FIG. 6A is used again and printed in the printing order according to the present embodiment is the same as the case where printing is performed in the page order included in the print job and the printing order according to the first embodiment. This will be described in comparison with the effect when printing is performed.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining the printing order when the present embodiment is applied to the print job shown in FIG. 6A and the effect upon cancellation of the present embodiment. The way of viewing FIG. 9 is the same as the way of viewing FIG. 6 and FIG.
In the case of this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 9, the printing order of each page is rearranged so that the cost is low to high. Therefore, it can be seen that the wasteful cost that occurs at the time of cancellation in this embodiment is 4 yen (1 yen + 1 yen + 1 yen + 1 yen) from the cost information shown in the column 603 in FIG.
On the other hand, since the wasteful cost in the case of the first embodiment is 22 yen as described above, in the case of this embodiment, 18 yen (= 22 yen) compared to the case of the first embodiment. -4 yen) is also low. Further, in the case of the present embodiment, the cost is 217 yen lower than the case of the comparative form used in the description of the effect of the first embodiment (the wasteful cost is 221 yen, see FIG. 6B).
As described above, this embodiment can reduce useless cost when printing is stopped, as compared with the first embodiment.

Further, when printing a plurality of copies for the same print job, for example, the printing order may be changed by imitating the data of the plurality of copies into one data. For example, assuming that two copies of the print job of FIG. 6A are printed, the printing order in this embodiment is as shown in FIG. In the case of this modification, compared to the case where the printing order shown in FIG. 9 is repeated twice, the printing of pages using expensive paper can be summarized later.
Therefore, this modified example can further reduce the wasteful cost at the time of cancellation compared with the case where the printing order shown in FIG. 9 is repeated twice.
In the case of this modification, there are many cases where the stacking order of the products discharged to the paper discharge tray 111 is not the page order. For this, a post-processing machine (not shown) for sorting the page order may be connected to the printing apparatus 100 to change the overlapping order.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the determination unit 306, the image processing unit 308, the printing unit 309, and the like are provided in one printing apparatus 100 has been described as an example, but these are configured by a plurality of apparatuses. It is also applicable to cases. For example, the present invention can also be applied to a case where the printing apparatus is composed of two apparatuses, namely, Digital Front End and the other part (engine part).
In each embodiment, an example of calculating the cost of consumables from the cost of paper has been described. However, an example of a consumable is applicable not only to paper but also to other consumables. For example, the cost of consumables may be determined from the type of ink used for printing each page and the amount used. The total cost of paper and ink may be used as the cost of consumables. That is, when there are paper and ink as consumables, an example of the consumable may be at least one or both of paper and ink.
Further, in the description of the first embodiment, it is possible to use other printing methods such as a thermal printer (sublimation type, thermal transfer type, etc.), a dot impact printer, an LED printer, and a laser printer. In these examples, for example, the cost of consumables may be the toner type and the amount of use thereof. Also, the cost of the consumables may be the total cost of the paper and toner.
Further, in the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, when a negative determination is made in S408, another determination is made in S411. However, a flow without S411, S414, and S415 may be used as in the modification of FIG. In this case, the effects of S414 and S415 in the case where a negative determination is made in S411 are not exhibited, but among the effects described in the first embodiment, there are effects other than the effects in the case where a negative determination is made in S411. Effective in terms.

100 Printing device 306 Determination unit 307 Second storage unit (an example of storage unit)

Claims (10)

A printing apparatus that performs printing on a plurality of media based on a print job for each page,
A storage unit for storing cost information regarding the cost of consumables used for printing;
A determination unit that determines the printing order of each page;
The determination unit calculates the cost of the consumable for printing each page from the cost information, and the number of consumables corresponding to the number of sheets used from the start of printing to the middle of printing is the same. The printing apparatus is characterized in that the printing order is determined so as not to exceed the cost when printing in the page order.   The determination unit divides data of all pages included in the print job into a first half part and a second half part in page order, and determines the first half cost and the second half part of the consumable for printing the first half part from the cost information. Calculating the second half cost of the consumable for printing, and determining that the printing order is reverse to the page order when the condition that the first half cost is higher than the second half cost is satisfied. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: A transport mechanism for transporting the medium from the paper feed unit to the paper discharge unit;
The said conveyance mechanism conveys each medium so that each medium discharged to the said paper discharge part in the said printing order may overlap in a face-up state, when the said conditions are satisfy | filled. The printing apparatus according to 2.   4. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the determination unit determines the printing order as the page order when the condition is not satisfied. 5.   The determination unit divides data of all pages included in the print job into a first half part and a second half part in page order, and determines the first half cost and the second half part of the consumable for printing the first half part from the cost information. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a second half cost of the consumable for printing is calculated, and the printing order is determined in the page order when the first half cost is lower than the second half cost. .   The determination unit divides data of all pages included in the print job into a first half part and a second half part in page order, and determines the first half cost and the second half part of the consumable for printing the first half part from the cost information. The second half cost of the consumable for printing is calculated, and when the first half cost is the same as the second half cost, the print order is determined in the print order at the time of printing the print job immediately before the print job. The printing apparatus according to claim 1.   The determination unit calculates the cost of the consumables for printing each page from the cost information, and determines the printing order in ascending order of the cost of the consumables on each page. The printing apparatus according to 1.   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the consumable is at least one or both of a medium and a recording material recorded on the medium.   The cost information is stored in a storage unit that stores cost information related to the cost of consumables used for printing, the cost of the consumables for printing each page is calculated from the cost information, and printing is started. The printing order is determined so as not to exceed the cost when printing the same number of consumables corresponding to the number of sheets used from the time of printing to the middle of printing in the page order, and a plurality of media according to the printing order. How to print on.   Using the computer, the cost of the consumables for printing each page is calculated from the cost information regarding the cost of the consumables used for printing, and corresponds to the number of sheets used from the start of printing to the middle of printing. A computer program for determining a printing order so as not to exceed a cost when printing the same number of consumables in page order.