JP2876841B2 - Electrophotographic printer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrophotographic printer, and more particularly to control of a paper traveling speed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional electrophotographic printer has a constant paper traveling speed in printing.

[0003]

In this conventional paper speed control, printing is performed on blank pages where characters or graphics are not printed, when only a few lines are printed on the top of the paper, or when printing is performed on one page. In all cases, the paper runs at the same running speed and the printing operation is performed, and in any case, a printing time proportional to the number of printed sheets is required.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An electrophotographic printer according to the present invention finds the last line of a character to be printed or the lowermost end of graphics from data edited for printing, and determines this position as the lowermost position. A printing time calculation unit that calculates the time from the start of paper suction to the end of printing at the lowermost position; a timer unit that counts down the time calculated by the printing time calculation unit and outputs a signal when the time is up; And a speed control unit for controlling the running speed of the printing paper in accordance with a signal from the print processing unit for performing the printing process.

[0005]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention. Print data from the host device is received by the reception buffer 1 and sent to the print editing unit 2. The print editing unit 2 edits the print data, and converts the data for the paper size for printing
As matrix of black and white dots, it is output as matrix data that matches the resolution of the device. Upon receiving this data, the print time calculation unit 3 analyzes all the received data for black and white, and finds the last black print point when printing is performed. At this time, the referenced data is immediately stored in buffer 4
Transfer to. The position of the last black printing point found is set as the lower printing position, the distance between this position and the upper edge of the paper is found, and the time required to execute printing is calculated from that distance and the paper running speed during printing. I do. Since the printing operation is performed from the upper end to the lower end of the sheet, this time corresponds to the time during which printing is actually performed. Then, a time obtained by adding this time to the paper feeding time required until the actual printing is performed is set in the timer unit 6. At the same time as setting the time in the timer section 6, a print execution start signal is transmitted to the print processing section 5. The timer section 6 starts counting down at the same time as the time set by the printing time calculation section 3, and the print processing section 5 reads data from the buffer 4 and starts printing. At this time, the speed control unit 7 is controlled by the print processing unit 5, and runs the paper for printing. When the time set by the timer unit 6 has elapsed, the timer 6 outputs a signal to the speed control unit 7. When this signal is output from the timer unit 6, printing on the paper is completed, and the speed control unit 7 receiving this signal accelerates the paper to a higher paper speed than the paper running speed for performing the printing up to that time. Execute paper ejection.

In the case of blank printing, the printing time calculation unit 3 sets “0” to the timer unit 6 when it is determined that the printing is blank printing. Then, the timer unit instructs the speed control unit 7 to accelerate the traveling speed of the paper, and the paper travels at a high paper traveling speed from the time of the paper feeding operation,
Paper is discharged in a short time. If the paper traveling speed at the time of acceleration is twice as high as the paper traveling speed at the time of printing execution, the time required for blank paper printing is only half the time required in the related art.

The printing time can be reduced when the characters and graphics to be printed are small at the upper end of the paper or when a large amount of printing is performed.

[0009]

As described above, according to the present invention, the time required for printing on a sheet is calculated from print data, and when the time has elapsed, the running speed of the sheet is immediately accelerated and the sheet is discharged. Has the effect that the time from paper supply to paper discharge can be reduced, depending on the style of the text or graphics to be printed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 reception buffer 2 print editing unit 3 print time calculation unit 4 buffer 5 print processing unit 6 timer unit 7 speed control unit

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. Searching for the last line of a character to be printed or the lowermost end of graphics from data edited for printing execution, and using this position as the lowermost position, the position from the start of paper suction to the end of lowermost position printing is determined. A print time calculation unit for calculating time; a timer unit for counting down the time calculated by the print time calculation unit and outputting a signal when the time is up; and a signal from the timer unit and a print processing unit for performing print processing. An electrophotographic printer, comprising: a speed controller for controlling a traveling speed of printing paper.