JP2610888B2 - Printing equipment - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, and more particularly, to a printing apparatus common to general-purpose computers and the like.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a device of this type, when a job result processed by a host computer is received and printed out, repeat printing between each job or one job (a plurality of copies are received in response to one job result). "Sorting paper" was output during the printing process.

This sort paper is used to clarify the boundaries of each JOB that is printed continuously, and is usually analyzed by the printing device in the information transferred from the host computer.
A sheet that is automatically printed and output by the printing apparatus itself when information that can be recognized as B start (or JOB end) is received, or in the case of repeat printing, when print output of each JOB result is completed.

In this way, the host computer outputs the result of processing each job to the printing device one after another. Naturally, the output printing paper is in a multi-layered state. One printed job sandwiched between
Can be easily determined as the output result.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, although it is effective in that each job can be easily recognized, it is wasteful to print the sorting paper one by one for each job. I can't. In particular, when there are a large number of JOBs in which the processing result is printed on a few sheets of printing paper, the sorting paper becomes an enormous proportion as a whole.

The present invention has been made in view of such prior art,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing apparatus which saves printing papers and makes it easy to recognize between printed matters of each job.

[Means for Solving the Problem] In order to solve this problem, the present invention has the following configuration.

That is, input means for inputting print information, storage means for storing at least one page of image data to be printed, and image data based on the print information input by the input means are sequentially stored from the head position of the storage means. A first storage unit, a second storage unit that stores image data input by the input unit from a last position of the storage unit, and a first storage unit that stores the first and second print information units for each print information unit input by the input unit.
And a printing unit for reading out image data stored in the storage unit in a predetermined direction and printing out the image data.

[Operation] In the configuration of the present invention, the image data based on the print information input by the input unit is stored in the storage unit by one of the first and second storage units. This first
The switching of the second storage means is switched by the switching means, but the image data stored in the storage means is printed out by the printing means.

Embodiment An embodiment according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<Description of Outline of Configuration (FIG. 1)> In the figure, reference numeral 100 denotes a printing apparatus main body, and reference numeral 200 denotes a data source (for example, a host computer).

The printing apparatus main body 100 has the following configuration. Reference numeral 1 denotes a CPU that controls the entire printing apparatus main body 100;
It operates according to the program (the flowchart of FIG. 3) stored in M1a. A font ROM 2 stores a pattern corresponding to the input character code. Reference numeral 3 denotes a RAM used as a work area during the control operation of the CPU 1, and includes an inversion flag 3a described later.
Reference numeral 4 denotes an input interface for receiving data output from the data source 200, and reference numeral 5 denotes an output page buffer for storing one page of data. Reference numeral 6 denotes a printer interface, and an image stored in the page buffer 5 is stored in the printer interface 6.
Is output to the printing unit 7 via the. Note that the pattern development corresponding to the character code in this output page buffer 5 is performed by CPU1.
However, it is needless to say that the processing may be performed by hardware.

<Explanation of Processing Outline (FIGS. 2A and 2B)> The basic operation of the printing apparatus of the present embodiment in the above-described configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. 2A and 2B.

In the embodiment, in order to clarify each JOB result printed out, each time one JOB result is printed out,
The output direction is reversed (upside down). Thus, when looking at the printed matter printed out, it is possible to easily understand from where to where the result of one job is. Incidentally, when the job end code is actually input from the data source 200, the content of the reversal flag 3a in the conventional job printing is set to an opposite value (on / off) to switch between normal printing and reverse printing. Print.

I. Normal printing (FIG. 2 (a)) Normal printing is performed when the state of the inversion flag is OFF. Character code input from data source 200 is font R
The pattern is formed by OM2 and is sequentially developed from the top position of the page buffer 5. FIG. 2A shows this state. Hereinafter, when the data is developed in the direction indicated by the broken line in the drawing and the development is completed for that line, the processing of developing to the next line is repeated. When the pattern for one page is developed in this way, the pattern is output to the printing unit 7 via the printer interface 6 sequentially from the top line of the page buffer 5. Hereinafter, this printing process is repeated until a job end code is input from the data source 200.

II. Reverse printing (FIG. 2 (b)) When the state of the reverse flag is ON, reverse printing is performed. Character code input from data source 200 is font R
Pattern with OM2. However, at this time, this pattern is not developed from the head position of the page buffer 5, but is rotated once by 180 degrees and developed sequentially from the tail position of the page buffer 5. FIG. 2B shows this state. Hereinafter, when the data is developed in the direction of the broken line in the figure and the development is completed on that line, the processing of developing the data in the next line (the direction of the developed line in the figure) is repeated. When a pattern for one page is developed in this way,
As a result, the page buffer 5 is developed upside down from the normal printing described above. When the development of one page is completed in this way, the data is output to the printing unit 7 via the printer interface 6 sequentially from the top line of the page buffer 5. This printing process is also repeated until a job end code is input from the data source 200.

As described above, the effects described above can be achieved by switching between the normal printing and the reverse printing described above on a job-by-job basis.

<Explanation of Processing Procedure (FIG. 3)> The above processing will be briefly described as a flowchart of FIG. Hereinafter, CPU1 will be used according to this flowchart.
The details of the processing will be described.

When the printing apparatus 100 is powered on, first, in step S
When 1, the inversion flag 3a is reset to "0". Then step S
In step 2, the page buffer 5 is cleared to "0", and in steps S3 and S4, it is checked whether data has been output from the data source 200. When the data is received, it is determined in step S5 whether the data is a JOB end code. If it is determined that the input data is the JOB end code, the process from step S6 is executed.

At step S6, the current state of the inversion flag 3a is “0” (=
OFF) is determined. If it is determined that the inversion flag 3a is off, the process proceeds to step S7, where the inversion flag 3a is set to "1" (on), and the process returns to step S3. If the determination in step S6 is NO, that is, if it is determined that the inversion flag 3a at that time is "1" (ON), the process proceeds to step S6.
In S8, the inversion flag 3a is reset to "0".

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S5 that the received data is a character code, control is transferred to step S9,
It is determined whether the inversion flag at that time is “0”.
If the determination is YES, the process proceeds to step S10 for normal printing, and a pattern corresponding to the input character code is generated and stored sequentially from the top position of the page buffer 5. If the determination in step S9 is NO, the process proceeds to step S11 to perform reverse printing, and the pattern corresponding to the character code is rotated by 180 degrees. The rotated pattern is developed from the last position of the page buffer 5 in the next step S12.

In any case, when the development to the page buffer is completed, it is determined in step S13 whether or not the development for one page is completed. If not, the process returns to step S3 and the same processing is performed. I do. When pattern development for one page is completed, images are sequentially output from the top line of the page buffer 5 to the printing unit 7 via the printer interface 6 in step S14, and print output processing is executed.

As explained above, the development to page buffer is
By inverting each time, printout is performed upside down for each JOB unit. Therefore, as in the related art, the breaks of each job can be recognized without printing the sorting paper one by one, and the printing paper can be saved.

Further, in the embodiment, the switching is performed with the JOB end code, but the switching may be performed with the JOB start code.

Note that the data source 100 (host computer) does not automatically output the job start code (or end code) to the printing apparatus at the start (or at the end) of the job. For the host computer 10, the JOB start code (or the end code is simply a part of the information to be output to the printing apparatus, and the JOB start code (or the end code) is recognized when the information is analyzed by the printing apparatus. is there.

In order to make JOB a group of sections and to easily separate them within one JOB result, change the judgment in step S5 in the flowchart in FIG. 3 to “JOB end code or section end code”. Good. However, it is better to remove the output paper at the end of one job output because it is impossible to know the job unit break.

In the embodiment, the printing unit prints one line at a time. However, in the printing unit having a dot matrix type printing head, this is achieved by developing images for a plurality of lines on the scan buffer 6a.

Furthermore, in the embodiment, the apparatus for receiving and printing the character code is described as an example, but it is also possible to receive and print the image data. Therefore, a font ROM is not always necessary.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, print output is performed upside down for each print output unit. Therefore, as in the related art, it is possible to find the break of each printing unit without printing the sorting paper one by one and to save the printing paper.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a block configuration of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment, and FIGS. 2 (a) and 2 (b) are diagrams for explaining the principle of developing a page buffer during normal printing and reverse printing in the embodiment. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the CPU in the embodiment. In the figure, 1 ... CPU, 1b ... ROM, 2 ... Font ROM, 3
... RAM, 3a... Inversion flag, 4... Input interface, 5... Page buffer, 6... Printer interface, 7.

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] An input unit for inputting print information; a storage unit for storing at least one page of image data to be printed; and a head position of the storage unit for sequentially storing image data based on the print information input by the input unit. A first storage unit for storing image data input from the input unit from the last position of the storage unit; and a first storage unit for each print information unit input by the input unit. ,
A printing apparatus, comprising: switching means for switching between second storage means; and printing means for reading out image data stored in the storage means in a predetermined direction and printing out the image data. 2. The switching means includes a job start code or a job
2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the switching is performed by detecting an end code.