JP3292514B2 - Printing device with reduction function - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, and more particularly to a page printer having a variable resolution and a reduction function of a printer engine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Printing apparatuses having a variable resolution and reduction function as described above are already known. For example, a reduction function in a laser printer or the like reduces a moving amount and a font size. However, in this case, since the frame size is fixed to the paper size corresponding to the engine resolution, errors occur due to the accumulation of print positions and image scaling. However, there is a problem that the printing quality tends to be inferior to that at the time of 1: 1.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and improve the printing quality and printing performance of a printing apparatus, especially a page printer.
To provide a printer.

[0004]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention realizes a reduction function by changing the resolution of the printer engine in a printing apparatus having a printer engine with a variable resolution. A multi-resolution reduction unit, a software reduction unit that realizes a reduction function by a program, and the use of the multi-resolution reduction unit or the software reduction unit are selected, and according to the selected reduction unit, a designated paper size is selected. It is proposed to provide control means for selecting whether to create a frame of the paper size in the memory or to create a frame of the virtual size corresponding to the reduction ratio in the memory.

[0005]

In practicing the present invention, for a specified paper size, a choice is made between creating a frame memory for the paper size or creating a frame memory for a virtual size according to the reduction ratio. Depending on what you do, you can select a reduction function by changing the resolution of the engine. If it is not possible to realize the reduction function by changing the resolution of the engine, means for automatically enabling the function of printing by reduction by a program can be provided. At the time of reduction by changing the engine resolution, the font size can be displayed as a value obtained by multiplying the font size to be printed by the reduction ratio. It is advantageous to automatically judge and select the reduction by a program or the reduction of the engine resolution in consideration of the print quality.

[0006]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a printing apparatus to which the present invention can be applied.

Referring to FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a printer engine 4 which converts print data from the host into video data in accordance with a set control mode and a control code from the host computer 2. Control device or controller to transfer to The host interface (I / F) 10 transmits control signals and data from the host 2 to the printer, and transmits data from the printer to the host 2.
The CPU 11 is a read-only memory 13 (ROM).
Is a central processing unit that processes data (print data and control data) from the host according to a program stored in the printer and controls a printing process.

The random access memory 12 (RA
M) is a work area used when the CPU 11 performs processing, a buffer for managing and temporarily storing data from the host 10 in page units, converting the data stored in the buffer into an actual print pattern, -Includes a bit map area to store as data. font·
The cartridge 14 provides various types of fonts used for printing. Engine interface (I /
F) 15 is the controller 1 to the printer engine 4
And a status signal from the printer engine 4 to the controller 1.
The printer engine 4 creates and develops an electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor in response to a video signal and a control signal from the controller 1, and feeds a transfer sheet from a sheet feeding unit to transfer and fix the image. It is a general term for the mechanism to be formed. The operation panel interface 16 (I / F) is a signal interface for switching the state, mode, font, etc. of the printer, and the operation panel 5 is a display (LCD) for displaying the printer state and prompts.
And a switch section for switching the printer mode, font, and the like.

The data sent from the host 2 via the host interface 10 is divided by the CPU 11 into print data, print control data and other data, and the print data and print control data are stored in the random access memory 12. Is stored in the buffer. When the print command from the host or the data received from the host exceeds one page, the controller 1
A print start command is issued to the printer engine 4 via the interface 15.

The print data from the host 2 is printed via the printer engine 4 in a series of flows as described above.

Reference numeral 17 denotes a nonvolatile random access memory (NV-RAM), which is used to store various mode setting data as described later.

As described above, in a laser printer or the like, the reduction function has been realized by reducing the amount of movement, font size, and the like, and developing the reduced frame. In this specification, this type of reduction is referred to as soft reduction. Therefore, this software reduction has the disadvantage that the printing quality is often inferior to that at the same magnification because errors occur in the accumulation of printing positions and in scaling of images and the like.

Therefore, the present invention proposes to realize the reduction function by changing the resolution of the printer engine to compensate for this. This reduction function,
Multi-Resolution reduction function or simply M
This is referred to as an R reduction function.

In this case, the correspondence between the reduction ratio and the engine resolution is set to a 240 DPI (dot / inch) page.
The following table shows a printer as an example.

[0016]

[Table 1]

As is clear from the above table, the reduction ratio is 100
%, The resolution is set to 240 DPI for the printer engine, and for 88%, the resolution is set to 270 DPI, and the same setting is performed to increase the engine resolution even if the reduction ratio is increased. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent a decrease in print quality and improve the print quality.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

In step S1, for example, a reduction ratio is selected with reference to the table stored in the memory (NV-RAM) 17. This is performed by the user via the operation panel 5. In step S2, the user is caused to select either the MR reduction mode or the previously defined soft reduction mode via a liquid crystal display provided on the operation panel. In the case of MR reduction (S2 is Y
), The resolution information corresponding to the reduction ratio selected in step S1 is transferred to the printer engine side and set (step S3). If the soft reduction is selected in step S2 (step S2 is N), the selected reduction ratio is realized in the soft reduction mode at a standard resolution of, for example, 240 DPI (step S4). Become.

In step S5, it is determined whether or not the print quality is actually improved when printing is performed at the MR reduced resolution transferred to the engine side as compared with printing in the software reduced mode. For example, in the case of a 240 DPI page printer, the control code transmitted at 180 DPI is printed by 4/3 times as in the dot printer emulation mode even in the case of MR reduction. If the reduced rate is 75% (3/4 times), the software reduction reduces the need for the doubling process.
Since the print quality and print speed surpass MR reduced printing, in such a case, the printing is optimized by automatically selecting the software reduced mode (S4).

If the result of the determination in step S5 is "yes (Y)", the flow shifts to step S6 to determine whether or not a frame of the designated paper size can be stored in the memory at the reduction rate. . This is because there may be a case where a frame of the designated paper size cannot be obtained due to the remaining memory capacity or the like. If it cannot be obtained (in the case of N), the software is automatically reduced. If the required memory amount is available, a frame is created on the memory 12 in step S7, and the MR reduction is realized on the memory. Then
The reduction ratio variable is set to 100% for the created frame, and the MR reduction is determined (step S8). For example, in 320DPI engine resolution in step S1, if you set the reduction ratio to 75%, by setting the reduction ratio to 100% in step S8, in the actual printing, the reduction rate of 75% That is, the MR reduction of 320 DPI is realized. In other words, it means that the frame content is printed out as it is. Needless to say, step S8 is an internal process on software by the controller including steps S3, S5, S6, and S7, and the user is not involved. In step S9, it is determined whether or not the reduction ratio is actually changed by the soft reduction or the MR reduction in the branch from step S2. If the reduction ratio is changed, it is determined in step S10 that the reduction ratio is changed. In step S11, the font size reduced by the conversion in the above procedure is displayed, and the user can change the page format. Next, in step S12, reception data processing is performed to start printing, and in step S13, if the discharge condition is satisfied (for example, if one page is completely printed on the sheet), printing and discharging are performed. Execute (step S14),
Returning to step S1, printing of the next page is executed by repeating the above procedure. If the reduction ratio does not change in step S9, the process jumps to step S12.

[0022]

According to the present invention, not only the print quality is improved but also the print performance is improved by selectively employing a so-called MR reduction function in addition to the software reduction by the program. You.

While the present invention has been described in connection with preferred embodiments thereof, many modifications may be made in these embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. It should be understood that this is possible for All such modifications are to be included in the scope of the claims.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating an overall configuration of a printer to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a reduction function according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Controller 2 Host computer 4 Printer engine 5 Operation panel 10 Host interface 11 Central processing unit 12 Random access memory 13 Read-only memory 14 Font cartridge 15 Engine interface 16 Panel interface 17 Non-volatile random access ·memory

Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-4-189154 (JP, A) JP-A-4-31078 (JP, A) JP-A-2-238963 (JP, A) JP-A-4-320863 (JP) JP-A-5-16431 (JP, A) JP-A-4-21472 (JP, A) JP-A-3-234677 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB Name) H04N 1/38-1/393 B41J 2/485

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A printing apparatus provided with a printer engine having a variable resolution, wherein a multi-resolution reduction unit that realizes a reduction function by changing the resolution of the printer engine, and a software reduction unit that realizes a reduction function by a program. Selecting the use of the multi-resolution reduction unit or the software reduction unit, and, in accordance with the selected reduction unit, creates a frame of the specified paper size in a memory for the specified paper size, or And a control unit for selecting whether to create a frame of a virtual size corresponding to the reduction ratio on a memory. 2. If the control means cannot create a frame of the paper size on a memory, the control means creates a frame of the virtual size on a memory and selects the use of the software reduction means. The printing device according to claim 1, wherein: 3. When using the multi-resolution reduction means,
2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: means for displaying the font size as a value obtained by multiplying a font size to be printed by a reduction ratio. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said control means determines whether print quality is improved or not, and selects the use of said multi-resolution reduction means or said software reduction means. A printing device according to one of the preceding claims.