JP3474185B2 - Double-sided printing control method and printing control device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to print control,
In particular, the present invention relates to a double-sided printing control method for a page printer (laser printer, LED (liquid crystal diode) printer, LCS (liquid crystal shutter) printer, etc.) with a double-sided printing mechanism.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, double-sided printing, in which different page contents are printed on the front surface and the back surface of one sheet, has become widespread. As a control device for such a page printer having a double-sided printing mechanism, there is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-160731,
Examples thereof include those described in Japanese Patent No. 1067 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-7174. The page sizes printed on the front and back sides of a sheet of paper must be the same.

Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-63870 discloses that
As a special double-sided printing, a printer that collectively records print information for a plurality of pages on the front surface and the back surface of a sheet is disclosed.

[0004]

In a conventional print control apparatus for performing double-sided printing, in which data for one page is printed on each side of a sheet, when the sheet size is changed between the front side and the back side of the sheet,
Printing is canceled or another size of paper is mixed in the printer, causing a printer error. Therefore, there is a problem that printing cannot be performed.

Further, the print control device receives document data (which is composed of a print command string and is also referred to as print data) for only one document, and the document data ends at either one of the front page and the back page. , The last page of the document is not specified,
A phenomenon occurs in which one or more pages including the last page continue to stay in the printer. In this case, there arises a problem that the user cannot obtain the double-sided printing result for the entire first document until the print control device receives the next document data. Further, if the paper stays in the printer for a certain time or longer, a printer error (paper jam or the like) may occur depending on the mechanism of the printer.

Further, since the above-mentioned prior art is mainly intended for the intermediate tray type double-sided printing mechanism, sufficient consideration is given to the cyclic double-sided printing mechanism as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. Didn't. Therefore, when the cyclic double-sided printing mechanism is used, there is a problem that double-sided printing control cannot be performed with a degree of freedom equal to or higher than that of the conventional technique.

Specifically, no consideration has been given to the following items, and it has not been possible to provide a double-sided printing function which is more flexible and easy for the user to use.

(1) A function of changing the paper size and the number of copies for each paper in one document. Furthermore, the function to change the paper size and the number of copies for each page.

(2) Paper size, number of copies, vertical and horizontal direction of paper,
Specifications and procedures of processing when the paper feed unit, paper discharge unit, etc. are specified for back side printing. In particular, specifications and procedures for continuing printing without stopping printing when the logical consistency of the paper size, number of copies, paper length and width directions, etc. is broken between the front and back sides.

(3) In the print control device, (a) the maximum retention number of sheets in the printer engine is reached, (b) document end,
(C) Paper size change, (d) Paper feed unit, Paper discharge unit change,
(E) Processing procedure when it is detected that the first half of the printing paper has completed the circulation. In double-sided printing using the cyclic double-sided printing mechanism, first, printing is performed on the back side or front side of the paper for the paper feed path 1 and the paper ejection path 2 (referred to as first half printing), and then the front or back side of the paper is fed. Printing on the paper path 2 and the paper discharge path 1 (referred to as second-half printing) is performed. “Circulation completion of the first half printing paper” means that the paper for which the first half printing is completed has circulated in the printer engine, and then the second half printing is performed in the paper feed path 2.
It is a state in which it is possible to do.

(4) Multipage copy processing procedure in which the number of print copies is 2 or more. Especially, the processing procedure of multi-page copy when the maximum number of retained sheets in the printer engine is exceeded.

A first object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned first problem and to enable printing when the paper size and the number of copies are different on the front surface and the back surface of the paper.

A second object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned second problem and to eliminate the above-mentioned phenomenon that the paper continues to stay in the printer.

A third object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned third problem and to provide a double-sided printing control method and apparatus with a high degree of freedom in double-sided printing using a printer with a cyclic double-sided printing mechanism. To do.

[0015]

In order to achieve the above object, a print control device according to the present invention interprets and executes a print command received from a higher-level device that issues a print command sequence, and a printer with a cyclic double-sided printing mechanism. In a print control apparatus for instructing printing to a plurality of pages, a page buffer for a plurality of pages, a drawing processing unit that performs drawing processing in the page buffer according to the print command sequence, and contents of the page buffer drawn by the drawing processing unit A print processing unit that performs print processing based on the above, wherein the drawing processing unit performs drawing processing on the page buffer in page order, and activates the print processing unit for pages that have been sequentially drawn, The section determines whether the page is a first half print page or a second half print page according to the activation from the drawing processing section, and if the page is a first half print page. After that, if the first half printing is performed and the page is for the second half printing, the printing process is set to the second half printing waiting state, and the printing process in the second half printing waiting state is performed in response to detection of a predetermined release condition of the second half printing waiting state. The printing is performed after releasing the waiting state.

The arrival of the maximum retention number of sheets in the printer engine can be used as a condition for releasing the second half print waiting state.

In this case, the print task for the second half print page is in the second half print waiting state until the maximum retention number of sheets of the printer engine is reached. When the print task for second-half printing detects that the number of retained sheets in the printer has reached the maximum number of retained sheets, the first print task in the second-half print waiting state is released from the waiting state, and the print task is placed in the waiting state. To do.

Further, the detection by the drawing task section of the document end page based on the reception of the command indicating the end of double-sided printing from the upper apparatus can be used as the release condition for the second half print waiting state.

In this case, for example, the drawing processing unit activates the double-sided printing end processing unit. The duplex printing end processing unit
It is determined whether there is a task in the second half print waiting state, and if there is any task, the print processing in the second half print waiting state is released from the latter half print waiting state in order from the beginning.

Further, the detection of the change of the paper size, the paper feed unit, or the paper ejection unit can be used as a condition for releasing the second half print waiting state.

Further, the detection of the completion of the circulation of the first half printing paper can be added to the release condition of the second half printing waiting state.

In this case, for example, any one of the paper size, the paper feed unit, and the paper discharge unit is changed according to the paper size designation, the paper feed unit designation, and the paper discharge unit designation included in the print command sequence from the host device. The drawing processing unit detects the presence / absence of the value and sets it in the control table. When the drawing processing unit detects a change in any one of the paper size, the paper feeding unit, and the paper discharging unit, there is print data for the front page of the paper, but the corresponding back page is a blank page with no print data. Determine if paper is detected. This judgment is Ye
If s, the drawing processing unit activates the print task for the blank back page and acquires the page buffer in order to realize the blank print for the back side. The print processing unit refers to the contents of the control table, and if any of the paper size, paper feed, and paper discharge unit is changed, the latter half printing is sequentially performed for all the printing processes in the second half printing waiting state from the beginning. Release from the waiting state. After that, the print processing for this page is shifted to the second half print waiting state. Then, after the printing by the printing task for the second half printing page released from the second half printing waiting state is all executed, the printing is continued from the page where the paper size, the paper feed unit, the paper ejection unit and the like are changed.

Various cancellation conditions for the second half print waiting state are as follows:
Can be used together.

According to the present invention, even if the paper size is changed between the front side and the back side of the paper, the back side page is left blank after the printing task for the back side page is activated and the page buffer is acquired. You can continue printing with the paper size as the front page. Therefore, it is possible to realize printing with different paper sizes on the front surface and the back surface of the paper.

Further, the drawing processing unit detects the end of the double-sided printing document received from the host device, and the double-sided printing end processing unit activated based on this detection discharges the remaining half-printed residual paper in the printer engine. Then, double-sided printing of this document can be completed.

Further, by executing the above procedure,
(A) When the paper size is changed in one document or for each paper,
(B) If the change causes a loss of logical consistency between the front surface and the back surface of the paper, (c) the maximum retention number of the printer engine,
The double-sided printing can be continued without any trouble in the case where the document end, the paper size change, the paper feed unit change, the paper discharge unit change, or the like is detected.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to deal with print data in which the number of copies to be printed is different between the front surface and the back surface of one sheet, or print data in which the vertical and horizontal directions of the paper are different.

[0028]

EXAMPLES Examples of the present invention will be described in detail below. First, the configuration of the printing system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the configuration diagrams of FIGS. 1 and 2.

As shown in FIG. 1, this printing system comprises a host computer 100, a print control device 110, and a printer engine section 120 with a cyclic double-sided printing mechanism.

The print control device 110 includes a host communication control unit 111, a command buffer unit 112, and a command processing unit 1.
13, a page buffer control unit 114, a page buffer unit 115, and a printer control unit 116.

The print command transmitted from the host computer 100 is received by the host communication control unit 111 and stored in the command buffer unit 112. Hereinafter, the print command may be simply referred to as a command. Command buffer section 1
The commands in 12 are processed by the command processing unit 113, and the drawing data such as characters, figures, and images which are the execution results are stored in the page buffer unit 115. The data in the page buffer unit 115 is stored in the printer control unit 11
6 is read, converted into a signal of a format that can be received by the printer engine unit 120, and output to the printer engine unit 120. The printer engine unit 120 prints on the paper surface using an electrophotographic mechanism, a wire dot printing mechanism, or the like according to the input signal.

In the present embodiment, since double-sided printing control is performed, the single-sided / double-sided printing designation command issuing unit 101, the double-sided printing end designation command issuing unit 102, the paper feeding unit designation command issuing unit 103, and the paper ejection are performed in the host computer 100. Copy designation command issuing unit 104, paper size designation command issuing unit 1
05, a paper vertical / horizontal direction designation command issuing unit 106, and a print copy number designation command issuing unit 107 are provided. It also has a communication control unit 108 for communicating with the print control apparatus 110. Each of the units 101 to 107 specifies one-sided printing / two-sided printing, end of two-sided printing, paper feed unit, paper ejection unit, paper size, paper length / width direction, and number of prints to the print control apparatus 110. -Issue a double-sided printing designation command, a double-sided printing end designation command, a paper feed portion designation command, a paper discharge portion designation command, a paper size designation command, a paper vertical / horizontal direction designation command, and a print copy number designation command.

The command processing unit 113 is a drawing processing unit 11.
31, print processing unit 1132, double-sided printing end processing unit 113
Have three. The page buffer control unit 114 has a page buffer management table unit 1141 and the printer control unit 116 has a printer management table unit 1161. Details of these tables will be described later.

In this embodiment, the command processing unit 113, the page buffer control unit 114, and the printer control unit 116 in the print control apparatus 110 are provided with a mechanism for double-sided printing control. First, as shown in FIG. 2, the command interpreting unit 20 is provided in the drawing processing unit 1131 (also called a drawing task unit to be realized as a task) in the command processing unit 113.
1, single-sided / double-sided printing designation command processing unit 202, double-sided printing end designation command processing unit 203, paper feed unit designation command processing unit 204, paper ejection unit designation command processing unit 205, paper size designation command processing unit 206, paper length and width direction A designated command processing unit 207, a print number designation command processing unit 208,
A page break processing unit 209 is provided. The processing procedure of each unit 201 to 209 is as shown in FIGS. 26 to 34, which will be described in detail later.

A double-sided printing designation determining unit 21 is provided in a print processing unit 1132 (also referred to as a print task unit to be realized as a task as described later) in the command processing unit 113.
0, front side printing designation determining section 220, front side printing pre-processing section 1
(230), front-side printing pre-processing unit 2 (240), back-side printing pre-processing unit 250, print macro issuing unit 260, printer engine retention sheet number updating unit 270, double-sided printing paper no error processing unit 280, for multi-page copying Post-processing unit 290
Was set up. Here, the front surface printing pretreatment unit 1 (230)
Is a double-sided printing discharge flag determination unit 231, a printer engine retention sheet number determination unit 232, a front side printing waiting / cancellation unit 23.
3, a front-side printable task wait canceling unit 234 when the double-sided print ejection flag is turned on, a front-side printable task wait canceling unit 235 when the number of stays in the printer engine reaches, and a multi-page copy print task synchronization control unit 236. The front-side printing preprocessing unit 2 (240) includes a printer engine retention sheet number determination unit 241 and a multi-page copy print task synchronization control unit 242. The back side printing pre-processing unit (250) includes a printer engine staying sheet number determination unit 251, a front side printable task waiting release unit 252 when the double-sided print ejection flag is turned ON, and a front face printable task wait release when the printer engine maximum staying sheet number is reached. And part 253. The processing procedure of each unit constituting the print task unit 1132 is as shown in FIGS. 36 to 45, which will be described in detail later.

Further, a double-sided printing end processing section 1133 (also called a double-sided printing end task section to realize as a task) is provided in the command processing section 113 so that the above-mentioned double-sided printing end command processing section activates this task. The second problem in the prior art can be solved by executing the double-sided printing ending process by this task. The processing procedure of the double-sided printing end processing unit 113 is as shown in FIG. 35 and will be described later.

In the print control apparatus 110, double-sided printing control is realized so that the following two items can be achieved.

(1) In order to reduce the program change from the single-sided printing control method as much as possible, the command reception and the drawing processing are made as identical as possible to the single-sided printing control device, and the double-sided printing control is mainly performed by the printing processing.

(2) If the drawing for the latter half printing is delayed, the printer engine unit 120 does not have a mechanism for holding the latter half printing for the page.

An example of a print command sequence transmitted from the host computer 100 to the print control device 110 will be described with reference to FIG.

The main print command sequence includes a document head portion 500,
A first page section 510, a second page section 520, a third page section 530, ..., A document end section 540. The document head portion 500 includes a reset command 501 for initializing attribute parameters, a single-sided / double-sided printing designation command for designating either one-sided / two-sided printing.

First page section 510 and second page section 520
The third page unit 530 uses various attribute parameter setting commands (511 to 514, 516, 517, 52) for designating the drawing and printing contents of the first to third pages.
4, 52A) and various drawing command sequences (515, 51A).
8, 525, 52B, 535, 538) and a page break command (519, 529, 539) for indicating a page break.
Consists of.

In the document end portion 540, at least a double-sided print end designation command 541 is arranged in the case of double-sided printing to clearly indicate the end of this document.

In this example, as the above-mentioned attribute parameter setting commands, a paper size designation command 511, a print number designation command 512, a character type designation command 513, a character size designation command (514 and 524), a line width designation command 516, and a line. Although the seed designation command 517 and the fill pattern designation command 52A are shown, arbitrary attribute parameters relating to drawing and printing can be set using various attribute parameter setting commands.

Further, in this example, as the drawing command, a character code string (515 and 525) for instructing the drawing of the character string.
And 535) and arc drawing commands (518 and 538)
Although the polygon filling command 52B is shown, any drawing of characters, figures, and images can be designated by using this drawing command. Further, the page break command (519, 529, 539) explicitly indicating the page break is arranged at each page break, but the page break may be implicitly shown instead of this page break command. Examples of implicit page breaks include a paper size designation command, a print number designation command, a printing direction (portrait / landscape) designation command, and automatic page breaks. The automatic page break means that when the character drawing is specified for a line exceeding the page length, the print control device (a) sets the page length within the range of 1
This is a mechanism for performing printing for pages and (b) printing for the next page in excess of the page length.

6 and 7 show the specifications of various printing condition designating commands relating to double-sided printing. In the figure, the command name, the argument of the command, the function of the command, the data error determination condition indicating the determination error of the argument specification error, and the initial value of the argument are shown. The commands include single-sided / double-sided print designation, paper size designation, print copy number designation, paper length / width direction designation, and print direction designation commands (above, FIG. 6).
And the commands for specifying the paper feed unit, the paper discharge unit, and the end of double-sided printing (above, FIG. 7).

FIG. 8 shows processing specifications when various printing conditions are specified for the front surface and the back surface of the paper. That is, specify the paper source,
The specifications for the front side and the back side of each of the designations of the paper discharge unit, the paper size, the number of print copies, and the paper length and width direction are shown. As shown, in this embodiment, all designations are permitted on both the front surface and the back surface. However, when the back surface is specified to be inconsistent with the front surface specification, the back surface of the sheet is discharged as a blank sheet and the back page is printed as the front page of the next sheet.

Next, the hardware configuration of the print control apparatus 110 will be described with reference to FIG.

The print control device 110 includes a CPU bus 91,
Host communication controller 92, CPU 93, ROM 9
4, a user operation panel 95, a sub CPU 96, a printer memory controller 97, and a RAM 98.

The CPU bus 91 is composed of various input / output signals (address signal, data signal, other control signals) of the CPU 93.

The CPU 93 uses the CPU bus 91 to
Input / output is performed with peripheral controllers such as 92, 96 and 97 and memories such as 94 and 98.

In the host communication controller 92, the print controller 110 is connected to the host computer 100 and the host I / O.
A controller for performing communication according to an I / F called F. As a physical I / F of this communication (host I / F), SCSI (Small Computer System) is used.
mInterface), RS232C, RS422,
GP-IB (General Purpose Int)
erface Bus), Centronics, HDLC
(High-Level Data LinkCont
), Ethernet (registered trademark), or the like, and an appropriate hardware logic of the controller 92 is mounted according to the type of physical I / F used.

The ROM 94 includes an initialization start-up program (IPL (Initial Pro) for the print controller 110.
(Gram Loading) program is also called) and a part of character font is stored.

The RAM 98 has (a) the print control device 11
0 control program, (b) remaining character font,
(C) command buffer memory, (d) page buffer memory, and (e) page buffer management table,
It stores various management tables such as a printer management table and a task management table, and others. Of these, (a) and (b) are stored by being downloaded from the host computer 100 by the IPL program. Further, (a) and (b) are not stored in the RAM 98, but the ROM 94
It may be stored in advance. On the contrary, the ROM 94 may store all the character fonts in the RAM 98 without storing any character fonts.

The sub CPU 96 follows the user's operation panel 95 and the printer engine unit 120 according to the instruction of the CPU 93.
I / O processing is performed between and.

The printer memory controller 97 is a RAM
The process of reading the contents of 98 (the contents of the normal page buffer unit) into the printer engine unit 120, and the RAM 98
In the case of RAM, the DRAM memory is controlled (refreshing, etc.). This read processing is performed by the built-in DMA (Direct
t Memory Access) function.
When the reading of the data for one page from the page buffer is completed, the printer memory controller 97
Asserts an interrupt signal (a part of the signal in the CPU bus 91) to the CPU 93 to activate the page buffer read end interrupt process by the CPU.

In the print control device 110, the sub CPU 96 is connected to the signal line 902-1 with the printer engine section 120.
The printer memory controller 97 through the signal line 90
I / F called a printer engine I / F via 2-2
To communicate according to.

When the printer engine unit 120 is a shuttle printer, the printer memory controller 97 uses the signal line 902-2 to format-convert the contents of the page buffer unit and then output the contents to the printer engine unit 120. When the printer engine unit 120 is a laser printer, the printer memory controller 97 uses the signal line 902-2 to convert the contents of the page buffer unit from parallel to serial, and then outputs the contents to the printer engine unit 120.

When the printer engine unit 120 is a shuttle printer, the signal line 902-1 is used to receive a signal or the like for indicating the page head position from the printer engine unit 120. If the printer engine unit 120 is a laser printer, the sub-CPU 96 sends a command for inquiries or instructions to the printer engine unit 120 via the signal line 902-1.
It is used to carry a command for receiving a response status from 0, a status transmission / reception signal, and a control signal for controlling the procedure for reading the contents of the page buffer unit to the printer engine unit 120.

Next, the software configuration of the print control apparatus 110 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in the figure, the software includes a monitor unit 1010 and a task processing unit 1020.
Composed of and. The monitor unit 1010 is the kernel unit 1.
011, a host communication control unit 1012, a command buffer control unit 1013, a file control unit 1014, a page buffer control unit 1015, a printer control unit 1016, a command buffer unit 112, and a page buffer unit 115.

The kernel unit 1011 comprises a main routine of an interrupt control program, a main routine of supervisor call (abbreviated as SVC) control, a task control unit, and a timer control unit.

The host communication controller 1012 exchanges various commands between the host computer 100 and the print controller 110. For example, a print command sequence is received from the host computer 100, and various events (error occurrence, page print end, document print end, etc.) occurring in the print control device 110 are reported to the host computer 100. To do.

The command buffer control unit 1013 controls a write start pointer, a write end pointer, a read pointer, etc. used when writing and reading the command buffer unit 112.

The host communication control unit 1012 uses the command buffer control unit 1013 to store the print command in the command buffer unit 112. Similarly, using the command buffer control unit 1013, the drawing task unit 1021 in the task processing unit 1020 described later reads out the contents of the command buffer unit 112 and processes them.

The file control unit 1014 is a part for controlling each file belonging to the secondary storage device in the print control device, and is for controlling access to data in each file and the file entity forming the file. It manages (a set of a plurality of blocks). Each task in the task processing unit 1020 controls a file by using various SVC functions for file control in the file control unit 1014.
Even if the file control unit 1014 is not provided, double-sided printing control can be performed without any trouble.
014 can improve system performance and usability.

The page buffer controller 1015 has a plurality of pages.
Space management (acquisition and release management) is performed for the page buffer unit 115 having a page configuration. By using this free space management, when drawing and writing to the page buffer becomes necessary, as many page buffers as necessary that are determined according to the paper size are acquired, and when the drawing contents are read out. The page buffer can be released.

The printer control unit 1016 includes a printer engine unit 120 and a printer engine adapter (sub CPU 9).
6 and printer memory controller 97) space management,
It controls input / output with the printer engine unit 120.

The task processing unit 1020 is the drawing task unit 1
021, a print task unit 1022, and a processing unit 1023 for other tasks. FIG. 11 shows a list of tasks implemented in the print control apparatus 110. In the figure, the task number,
The task name, system (S) / user (U) task classification, task function, priority, etc. are shown for each task.

The print task section 1022 (FIG. 10) has print task 1 (10221) and print task 2 (1022).
2), ..., Print task N (10223). For each print task n, the drawing task is a page buffer unit 115.
When the drawing is completed, the drawing task is activated. Each activated print task n executes the print processing for each page buffer (for one page on the paper surface) for which drawing has been completed. This print processing is executed by issuing various SVC commands for printer control to the printer control unit 1016. A plurality of print tasks are prepared for parallel processing of different pages. The total number of print tasks to be prepared is the maximum value of the number of print tasks that can be concurrently processed in the apparatus. In this embodiment, the print tasks corresponding to the maximum number of sheets that can exist between the paper feed unit and the paper discharge unit of the printer engine unit 120 are prepared at any time. This number increases or decreases depending on the specifications of the printer engine unit 120.

With respect to the processing contents of each part in this software configuration, apart from the fact that it is expanded for double-sided printing control, Japanese Patent Application No. 1-164637 and Japanese Patent Application No. 1-164637 previously filed by the applicant of the present invention.
It is similar to the case of -282747. That is, FIG.
It is possible to improve the print throughput by executing the plurality of tasks shown in (1) in parallel.

The command buffer section 112 and the page buffer section 115 may be regarded as a memory section which does not belong to the monitor section 1010 or the task processing section 1020.

The respective parts shown in the software structure of FIG. 10 are associated with the respective parts in the hardware structure diagram of FIG. 9 as follows.

(1) The program of the monitor unit 1010 (excluding the command buffer unit 112 and the page buffer unit 115) is stored in the ROM 94 or the RAM 98 for the CPU 93 and executed by the CPU 93.

(2) The command buffer section 112 and the page buffer section 115 are arranged in the RAM 98.

(3) Each processing unit in the task processing unit 1020, that is, the drawing task unit 1021, the print task 1 (10
221), print task 2 (10222), ..., Print task N (10223), and other task processing unit 102.
The program for 3 is stored in the RAM 98 or the ROM 94 and is executed by the CPU 93.

Each part in the configuration diagrams of FIGS. 1 and 2 is associated with each part of the software configuration of FIG. 10 as follows.

(1) The host communication controller 111 of FIG. 1 corresponds to the host communication controller 1012 of FIG.

(2) The command buffer section 112 and the page buffer section 115 in FIG. 1 correspond to the same name section in FIG.

(3) The command processing unit 113 shown in FIG.
Corresponding to the task section related to command processing in the task processing section 1020 of 0.

(4) The drawing processing unit (drawing task unit) 1131 in FIGS. 1 and 2 corresponds to the drawing task unit 1021 in FIG.

(5) The print processing unit (print task unit) 1132 in FIGS. 1 and 2 corresponds to the print task unit 1022 in FIG.

(6) Double-sided printing end processing unit 1133 of FIG.
Corresponds to the processing unit 1023 for other tasks in FIG.

FIG. 12 shows the correspondence between the drawing order and the printing order when the drawing task and the printing task process double-sided printing in parallel. The drawing task sequentially draws in each page buffer in the order shown in this figure. The print task reads and prints the page buffer for which drawing has been completed in the procedure shown in this figure. In the upper part of the figure, the total page buffer memory is 1
0, the maximum retained number of printer engines is 3, the lower side is for the case where the total number of page buffer memories is 8, and the maximum retained number of printer engines is 5, but the same applies to other cases. In the following description,
It is assumed that the first half printing is performed on the back surface of the paper (even pages) and the second half printing is performed on the front surface of the paper (odd pages). The reverse case can also be realized in the same manner.

In each example of FIG. 12, each page is first drawn sequentially from the first page. The odd-numbered pages (front side) such as the first, third, and fifth pages are put on standby for printing, and the even-numbered pages (back side) such as the second, fourth, and sixth pages are sequentially printed. In the example in the upper half of FIG. 12, when the second, fourth, and sixth pages are printed on three sheets, respectively, the number of remaining sheets in the printer engine reaches 3. The first page, which is the front page, is printed and the paper is ejected. As a result, there will be a sheet of paper in the printer engine, so the next even page (8th page)
Page) is printed. As a result, the number of staying sheets reaches 3 again, so that the third page which is the front page of the second sheet is printed and the sheet is ejected. After that, the tenth page, the fifth page, the twelfth page, ... Are similarly printed. As a general rule, the paper is ejected when printing odd pages.

In the example in the lower half of FIG. 12, the maximum number of remaining sheets in the printer engine is 5, so the reading to the printer engine is first performed on all the second, fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth pages. It is carried out sequentially for 5 pages. Here, since the staying number reaches 5, the front side page (first page) of the first sheet is printed next. As a result, the next back page (the twelfth page) fills the vacant space of one sheet generated in the printer engine. Then, page 3, page 1
Pages 4, page 15, ... Are printed. FIG.
An outline of parallel processing of drawing task and printing task in double-sided printing is shown in. In the figure, P1, P2, ... Show page serial numbers. Further, the operation procedure is shown for the case where the number of print copies is 1 and the maximum number of stays in the printer engine is 5, but the same applies to other cases.

(1) The drawing task unit 1131 sequentially reads the print command string from the command buffer unit 112 and draws it in the page buffer unit 115. When the drawing is completed, the front-side / back-side printing is set in the page buffer management table unit 1141 and the print tasks are sequentially activated for the page buffers for which the drawing is completed. The started print tasks are connected to the queue (not shown)
CPUs are sequentially assigned and executed by the dispatcher. In the figure, the drawing task is shown as being executed at the same time as the print task for the sake of illustration, but in reality, the CPU processing amount by the print task is not large and, for example, when the print task of the figure is “printing” or the like. The drawing task is executed in the available free time.

(2) Of the print tasks, the front page (P
1, P3, P5, ...) print task waits for the front surface print queue by issuing a front surface print wait macro, which will be described later, until the printer engine maximum retention number, which is one of the front / back surface print switching conditions, is reached. To the standby state (see the lower left of FIG. 13). In the processing of the front side print waiting macro, after the macro issuing task is put into the front side printing waiting state, the task dispatcher is activated and the control is transferred to the print task for the back side page.

(3) When the printing task for the front side page detects that the printer engine staying number, which is one of the front side / back side printing switching conditions, has reached the printer engine maximum staying number, the front side printing wait release macro and the front side Issue a print wait macro. The front-side printing wait release macro releases the first print task in the front-side printing waiting state from the waiting state. The front surface print waiting macro performs the above-mentioned processing.

(4) Of the print tasks, the back page (P
The print tasks for 2, P4, P6, ... 9 read the contents of the rendered page buffer corresponding to this back page,
Print.

(5) By repeating the above procedure,
The print tasks for P1, P3, ..., P9 wait for front side printing, and the print tasks for P2, P4 ,. Then, in the processing of the print task for P11, the number of retained sheets in the printer engine reaches the maximum number of retained sheets in the printer engine, and therefore the front side print wait release macro and the front side print wait macro are issued. The front side printing wait release macro is set to P at the head of the front side printing wait state.
Release the print task for 1 from the waiting state. as a result,
P1 is printed.

(6) After that, the printing of P12, the front side printing waiting of P13, and the first printing task in the front side printing waiting state (P3)
From the waiting state of, the printing of P3, etc.
Duplex printing continues.

(7) As the conditions for switching the front surface / back surface printing, in addition to detection of the maximum staying number of sheets in the printer engine, document end, paper size change, paper feed unit, paper eject unit change, first half printing paper circulation completion There is detection etc.

Note that the parallel processing operation of the drawing task and the printing task as shown in FIG.
4 to FIG. 25 while referring to the management table shown in FIG.
It is realized by executing the processing procedure from 6 to FIG. 14 to 18 show various page buffer management tables, and FIGS. 19 to 25 show various printer management tables.

The contents of the page buffer management table 1141 will be described with reference to FIGS. 14 to 18. The management table includes a page buffer unit 115 including a plurality of pages.
It is used in order to prevent an idle time from being used in the use of the page buffer section and to prevent an error in the access order of each task to the page buffer section in the writing by the drawing task and the reading by the printing task.

FIG. 14 shows the page buffer management table section 1
The whole structure of 141 is shown. This table includes common information for all page buffers and information for each page buffer. The common information for all page buffers is the page buffer No. that the drawing task should write next (called the drawing page buffer No.) and the page buffer No. that the printing task should read next (the print page buffer No. concerned). ,), The page buffer number currently being printed out, the start address of each page buffer 0, 1, ..., N-1, the work memory address for the drawing section, the page buffer size, the current print condition value, and the total page buffer. Describe the number of faces N, command unsolved information, and the like.

Of these, the current print condition value is used to store the default value when the drawing task sets the print condition for each page buffer.

Further, as the information for each page buffer,
Describe task-related information, printing conditions, and printer memory controller setting information for each page buffer. The contents of these pieces of information are shown in FIGS. 15 to 17, respectively. The contents of the command unsolved information are shown in FIG.

The task related information 1500 of FIG. 15 describes the drawing and printing states of the page. That is,
From the drawing task number 1501 that is using this page, the print task number 1502 that is using this page, the forward pointer 1503 to the task that is waiting for this page to become available, and the backward pointer 1504 to the task that is waiting to be available to this page Become.

The printing condition 1400 shown in FIG. 16 is the paper feed section code 1401, the paper ejection section code 1402, and the paper size code 1.
403, paper length and width code 1404, single-sided / double-sided printing designation 1
405, front / back side print designation 1406, print page serial number 1407, total number of prints 1408, current number of prints 14
09, total number of blank pages printed 1410, current number of blank pages printed 14
11, printing direction (portrait / landscape) 14
12, a double-sided printing discharge flag 1413, a drawing error processing mode 1414, and a character expansion mode 1415.

The printer memory controller setting information 1700 shown in FIG. 17 indicates the printer memory controller status 1701, the control register status 1702, and the page head address 170 which indicate whether the printer memory controller is ready / working / failed.
3, left margin dot number Lm1704, right skip long word number Rm1705, top margin dot number Tm1706, paper size width long word number Wx17
07, paper size height dot number Dy 1708, and status register status 1709.

The command unsolved information in FIG. 18 includes an unsolved flag, an unsolved command start address, and an unsolved command end address.

The above page buffer management table 114
The contents of 1 are basically the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application No. 1-
This is similar to the case of 164637 and Japanese Patent Application No. 1-282747, but in the present invention, the printing conditions are expanded as shown in FIG. In other words, the total number of blank pages printed 1410, the current number of blank pages printed 1411, and the double-sided print ejection flag 1413 are added, and there is also a case of single-sided printing, but the unused single-sided / double-sided printing designation code 1405 and front / backside printing The designated code 1406 is used.

Of these, the total number of blank pages printed 1410 and the current number of blank pages printed 1411 are provided so that printing can be continued even when the numbers of copies do not match on the front surface and the back surface of the paper. The double-sided printing discharge flag 1413 is set when the drawing task detects any one of a paper feed unit change, a paper discharge unit change, and a paper size change among the front / back face print switching conditions.
Provided for contacting print tasks.

Single-sided / double-sided printing designation code (1405)
Is provided for each page to describe either single-sided printing or double-sided printing, and front / back side print designation code (1406)
Is used to describe whether each page is front side printing or back side printing.

The value set by the double-sided printing discharge flag 1413 is
Determined as follows. This flag is represented by 3-bit data.

0: No need for discharging during double-sided printing Other than 0: Necessary for discharging during double-sided printing Bit 0: Used as paper feed section change flag Bit 1: Used as paper discharge section change flag Bit 2: Used as paper size change flag Since the double-sided printing discharge flag 1413 has a 3-bit configuration, it is possible to detect which factor has occurred when a paper feed unit change, a paper discharge unit change, and a paper size change occur simultaneously. When the value of the double-sided printing discharge flag 1413 is other than 0, the print control device 110 determines that the printer engine unit 1
Eject all the paper in 20 once. After that, the paper feed section,
After changing the required paper ejection unit and paper size, double-sided printing is resumed.

The print condition 1400 shown in FIG. 16 is written by the print condition specifying subcommand process in the drawing task in accordance with the instruction of each print condition specifying subcommand received from the host computer 100. The drawing subcommand process in the drawing task performs the drawing process on the drawing page using the following information of the printing conditions.

-Paper size code-Paper portrait / landscape code-Front / back side print designation-Print direction-Drawing error processing mode-Character expansion mode It should be noted that the drawing process is performed by converting the paper size code and the paper portrait / landscape code. Drawing processing is performed using the drawing frame memory description parameters described in.

Since the drawing task performs double-sided printing, the following contents are written in each page buffer.

Single-Sided / Double-Sided Printing Designation / Surface / Backside Printing Designation / Double-Sided Printing Ejection Flag Further, the print task performs printing processing on the print page for which drawing has been completed, using the following information.

-Paper feed code-Paper output code-Paper size code-Paper vertical / horizontal code-Print page serial number-Total number of prints-Current number of prints-Simplex / Double-sided printing-Surface / Backside printing-Double-sided printing discharge flag Further, in the print processing, the printer memory controller is controlled using the printer memory controller setting information 1700 (FIG. 17) converted from information such as the paper size code and the paper length / width code.

Next, the contents of the printer management table 1161 will be described with reference to FIGS. 19 to 25. This management table is used to manage the usage status of the printer (sub CPU 96 and printer engine unit 120) by the print task, the input / output status with the printer, and to perform resource management and input / output control of the printer.

FIG. 19 shows the overall structure of the printer management table 1161. This table shows the sub CPU status 19
20, printer status 1930, printing condition 1900, task related information 1940, and discharge completion monitoring information 1950.

FIG. 20 shows the contents of the sub CPU status 1920. As the sub CPU status 1920, the sub CPU communication status (unused / command sending / status receiving)
And the sub CPU ready state (normal / abnormal) are described.

FIG. 21 shows the contents of the printer status 1930. The printer status 0930 includes a print instruction by a print task, enable / disable of a change instruction of the paper feeding / discharging unit, and a printer engine status (ready / error / warm-up /
During test printing), describe the paper feed section status and paper output section status.

FIG. 22 shows the contents of the print condition 1900.
In this field, the value of the corresponding code in the print condition field on the page buffer management table for the page buffer corresponding to this print task is used, and the print task issues a series of printer control macros using these values. Before doing so, the print task executes the print processing for the main print target page buffer while receiving the copy and referring to them. The code to be copied is shown in FIG.
Paper feed section code 1401 and paper discharge section code 140 shown in
2, paper size code 1403, paper length and width code 1404,
There are a total print copy number 1408, a current print copy number 1409, a total blank page print copy number 1410, and a current blank page print copy number 1411.

FIG. 23 shows the contents of the task related information 1940. As the task-related information 1940, a task number that is using the printer, and a forward pointer and a backward pointer to tasks that are waiting for an empty printer are described.

FIG. 24 shows the contents of the discharge completion monitoring information.
In this embodiment, the latest discharged page number of each of the discharge units 1 to 5 is managed, and the page serial number of each monitored page of the discharge completion monitoring timers 1 to 25 and the designated discharge unit are managed. is doing.

FIG. 25 exemplifies the contents of the paper feed section status and the paper discharge section status 1933 of the printer status 1930. here,
The 13-byte data is used to manage the current states of the paper feed unit and the paper discharge unit. Note that "R" in the figure indicates that the bit is unused (Reserved).

The contents of the printer management table 1161 described above are basically the same as in the case of the invention of the previous application, but in the present invention, since the double-sided printing control is performed, the following code is added to the printing condition (FIG. 22). reference).

(1) Number of stays in the printer engine 1905 (2) Front side printing Post required flag 1906 (3) Front side printing Post waiting task number 1907 (4) Back side printing Post required flag 1908 (5) Back side printing Post waiting task number 1909 ( 6) ECB for multi-page copy communication (1910, 1
(7) Total number of blank sheets printed 1903 (8) Current number of blank sheets printed 1904 (9) Double-sided printing paper no error occurrence flag 1912 (10) Waiting for front surface printable task end ECB 1913 The item (1) is provided to control the switching between front-side printing and back-side printing while managing the number of sheets of paper retained in the printer engine. (2) to (6) are provided so that the print task corresponding to each page performs synchronous control when performing multi-page copying of double-sided printing. (7) and (8) are double-sided multi-page copies, which are provided in order to continue double-sided printing without trouble even when the number of prints does not match on the front and back sides of the same sheet. (9) and (10) are provided to perform the paperless error processing in double-sided printing.

As the paper discharge completion monitoring information, FIG.
As shown in (a), the latest discharge page serial number of each discharge unit (b) the page serial number for each discharge completion monitoring timer and the designated discharge unit are described.

In the case of double-sided printing, the page serial number is counted only for the front page discharged to the paper discharge section,
The page serial number of the back page that is temporarily discharged and stored in the printer engine is not counted. Specifically, the counting is performed as follows.

(A) If the paper is not the end of the document,
The latest discharged page serial number is a value obtained by adding 1 to itself.

(A) If the paper is the end of the document, and if there is a back page, the latest discharged page serial number is set to a value obtained by adding 1 to itself, as in (a). When there are only front pages, unlike (a), the latest discharged page serial number itself is used as it is.

FIG. 52 shows an example of the latest discharged page serial number management in double-sided printing. In FIG. 52, Case 1 (FIG. 52A) is a case where double-sided printing is performed on six sheets of the same size, and this page is a document when the discharge of the front page (page serial number 5) is detected. Since it is not the end of the above, the latest discharged page serial number is set to 6 by adding 1 to 5 of the page serial number of the page. Case 2 ((b) in the figure) is a case where double-sided printing is performed on five sheets of the same size, and this page is the end of the document when the discharge of the front page (page serial number 5) is detected. , The latest discharged page serial number is set to 5 of the page serial number of the page itself. Case 3 ((c) in the figure) is a case where the paper size changes between page serial numbers 1 to 2 and 2 to 3. In this case, since each page is printed on one side, the latest discharged page serial number is updated as shown in this figure. Case 4
((D) in the figure) shows a case where the paper size changes between page serial numbers 1 to 2 and 5 to 6. In this case, single-sided printing for page serial numbers 1 and 6, page serial numbers 2 to 5
For double-sided printing, the latest paper discharge page serial number is updated as shown in this figure. In case 5 and case 6 ((e) and (f) in the figure), the page serial numbers 1 and 2 have the same paper size but different number of print copies. In Case 5, the latest ejected page serial number is updated to 2 at the time when the two copies of the actual print data and the two copies of the blank sheet for the page serial number 1 (front page) are completed.
In Case 6, the latest discharged page serial number is updated to 2 when four copies of the actual print data for the page serial number 1 (front page) are completed.

When an error that requires reprinting such as a paper jam occurs, the print control apparatus performs the reprinting from the page next to the above-mentioned latest discharged page serial number, so that reprinting without wasteful duplication can be performed. The effect is that it can be done.

The reprinting is realized by the print control device controlling the printer engine section using the print command sequence retransmitted from the host computer or the print command sequence held in the print control device. .

26 to 45, the processing procedure of the drawing task and the printing task, which are the essentials of the double-sided printing control in this printing system, will be described below. First, the points of each will be described.

The processing procedure of the drawing task is almost the same in the double-sided printing mode as in the single-sided printing. The points of double-sided printing of the drawing task are as follows.

(1) The page feed processor 209 distinguishes between single-sided printing and double-sided printing, and front-side printing and back-side printing, using the corresponding code for the drawing page buffer number in the page buffer management table 1141. 1405 and 140
Fill in 6).

(2) When a paper size change is detected in the paper size designation command process 206, a paper size change flag (implemented as a part of the double-sided print ejection flag 1413 in this embodiment) in the page buffer management table is set. set.

(3) When the paper feed unit change command or the paper discharge unit designation command process 205 detects a paper feed unit change or a paper discharge unit change, the paper feed unit change flag or the paper discharge unit change flag in the page buffer management table is detected. Paper section change flag (also double sided print ejection flag 1413 in this embodiment)
Realized as a part of).

(4) It is assumed that at the time of detection of (2) and (3), there is print data for the front page of the paper, but there is no print data for the corresponding back page, and a blank paper is detected. In this case, in order to realize the blank printing for the back side, the print task for the blank back side page is activated and the page buffer is acquired. The detailed procedure is shown in FIGS. 28 to 32.

(5) When the end of the document is detected in the command buffer reading process by the command interpreting unit 201, the double-sided printing end task is started in order to request the end process of the document printing.

(6) When a discrepancy in the number of printed copies of the front page and the back page is detected in the print copy designation command processing, the total number of blank pages printed is the page buffer management table for the page buffer with the smallest number of print copies of the front and back pages. Fill in. The detailed procedure is shown in FIG.

Next, the points of the print task will be described.

(1) The print task is activated when the drawing task detects a page break condition and detects the completion of page buffer data for one page. It ends immediately after the printer-free macro (FIG. 48) is issued.

(2) A plurality of print tasks (for example, FIG. 11)
Task numbers 7 to 16) are prepared. The print task does not end at the end of paper discharge as in the above-mentioned prior invention, but immediately after the printer-free macro is issued. As a result, it is sufficient to prepare print tasks for the minimum number of page buffers (corresponding to the total number N of page buffer surfaces in FIG. 14).

(3) The print task first issues a printer reserve macro, confirms that the printer is free, and then issues various print macros (shown in FIGS. 46 to 48) to the printer engine. Issue. When the use of the printer engine is over, issue a printer-free macro,
Release the possession of the printer engine.

(4) To the printer engine, the ready state confirmation macro, the sheet feeding section confirmation macro, the sheet feeding section instruction macro, the printing instruction macro, etc. are issued in order. In the case of multi-page copy, the above issuance of the macro SVC is repeated several times for printing.

(5) When an error related to the printer engine is detected in the processing of each macro, the error processing is performed in each macro processing.

(6) In the processing of each macro, when it is necessary to wait for a response from the printer engine after issuing a command to the printer engine, the print task is put in the response waiting state, and the CPU executes other tasks during that time. It can be so.

(7) Double-sided printing control is performed as follows.

(A) The front page printing task waits for front page printing, and the back page printing task prints. Repeat this.

(B) When the back page is printed and "printer engine maximum staying number of sheets reached" is detected, one print task linked to the front of the front side print queue (queue) is removed, and Put the print task at the end of the front side print queue. Then, after printing the print task for the front page removed from the queue, the process returns to the processing of the print task for the next back page.

(C) When a "paper size change", a "paper feed section change", or a "paper discharge section change" is detected in the processing for the front side page or the back side page, the front side page queued for the front side print queue is detected. Remove all the print tasks for this page from the book queue, and connect the print tasks for this page to the front side print queue. Then, after all the print tasks for the front page that has been dequeued are printed, the pages after the changed page are continued.

(D) When "no paper" is detected, the suspended task shown in FIG. 11 is first activated. The suspended task is (a) setting of the double-sided printing paper out error occurrence flag 1912,
(A) Releasing the wait for the front surface printable task (releasing the front surface print task corresponding to the stagnant paper in the printer from the front surface print queue and post processing for the front surface print post (Post) wait), (c) wait (front surface print Wait for completion of available tasks).

The last print task of the front surface printable tasks issues a post to issue the print instruction and then release the wait (waiting for the end of the front surface printable task). According to this post, the process moves to the suspended task again. As the paper is replenished, the interrupted disk finishes the processing and returns to the normal double-sided printing processing by the printing task.

The processing procedure for the "paper out" error is such that even if the detection of the paper out error is a synchronous error accompanying the issuance of various printer control macros by the print task, the sub CPU 96 is irrelevant to the issuance of the macro. It is common even when an asynchronous error is detected by. Therefore, the processing procedure for the "paper out" error can be collectively managed regardless of the synchronous error and the asynchronous error.

(E) When a "printer engine maximum staying number of sheets reached" is detected in multi-page copy, one print task for the front page linked to the head of the front print queue is removed, and the print task for this page is removed. To wait. As this wait state, if this page is the front page, the front print post wait state is used, and if this page is the back page, the back print post wait state is used.
Then, after printing the print task for the front page that has been removed from the front print queue, the wait state (if this page is the front page, the back print post wait state,
If it is a back page, post the print task in the front side print post waiting state. After that, the print task removed from the front side print queue is placed in a wait state.

(F) In multi-page copying, when the number of front side print copies and the number of back side print copies do not match, the side with the smaller number of print copies is matched with the number of print copies with the side with the larger number of print copies, and a blank sheet is printed for the smaller number of print copies.

(G) The double-sided printing end task activated in response to the detection of the end of the document by the drawing task cancels the front side printing wait. Specifically, it releases all the print tasks in the front side printing queue from the waiting state and releases the front side printing Post waiting task. In addition, the two-sided printing end task includes
As shown in FIG. 11, give the same priority as the print task,
The document end process described above is performed, but the actual print process is not performed. As a special print task, the operation is performed.

FIG. 26 shows details of the processing procedure of the drawing task.
Starting from FIG. 35, description will be made.

First, the overall procedure of the drawing task will be described with reference to FIG. The drawing task starts with drawing preparation (261
0) initializes various drawing parameters and tables (2611). After the drawing preparation, the drawing process repeats command interpretation (2621) and command execution (2630) in an endless loop (2620).

In the command execution 2630, branching is performed according to the command (2631), single-sided / double-sided printing designation command processing (2632), double-sided printing end designation command processing (2633), paper feed unit designation command processing (2634),
Paper discharge section designation command processing (2635), paper size designation command processing (2636), paper length / width direction designation command processing (2637), print copy number designation command processing (263
8), page break processing (2639), character drawing (263A),
Graphic drawing (263B) and other processing (263C)
I do.

Single-sided / double-sided print designation command processing (263
In 2), as shown in FIG. 27, the value of the single-sided / double-sided printing designation parameter that is the input argument of this command is set to the single-sided / double-sided printing designation code area (1405) for the drawing page buffer number in the page buffer management table. ), Fill in.

Double-sided printing end designation command processing (263
In 3), as shown in FIG. 28, first, the page buffer immediately before the drawing page buffer number is designated to be printed on the front side, or the front / back side print designation code (1405) for the page buffer is designated. The determination is made while referring to the information (281).

When the front side printing is designated, the following two items are executed.

(1) The page buffer reserve macro is
It issues for the same paper size as the page buffer immediately before the drawing page buffer number 1 (282).

(2) The print task is activated and blank page printing is performed on the page buffer acquired in (1) (2
83).

(3) Next, the double-sided printing end task is activated to execute the end processing for this document (28
4).

In the paper feed unit designation command processing (2634), as shown in FIG. 29, first, the value of the paper feed unit code which is the input argument of this command is used for the drawing page buffer number in the page buffer management table. It is filled in the paper feeding unit code area 1401 (291). Then, it is determined whether there is a change in the paper feeding unit (292). If the paper feed unit is changed, it is determined whether double-sided printing is designated for the page buffer with the drawing page buffer number (29).
3). If double-sided printing is designated, the page buffer immediately before the drawing page buffer number is designated for front-side printing, or referring to the front-side / back-side printing designation code (1405) for the page buffer, The determination is made (294). If this determination is yes, it is determined whether the double-sided printing discharge flag 1413 is OFF (295). This judgment is ye
If s, execute the following three items.

(1) Start print task (296) (2) Reserve page buffer (297) (3) Enter front print designation in front / back print designation code for the drawing page buffer number (298).

After the judgment of 294, the paper feed unit change flag which is a part of the double-sided printing discharge flag 1413 is set to ON (299).

In the paper discharge unit designation command processing (2635), as shown in FIG. 30, first, the value of the paper discharge unit code which is the input argument of this command is used for the drawing page buffer number in the page buffer management table. (301) is entered in the paper discharge section code area 1402 of

Subsequently, it is determined whether there is a change in the discharge section (302). If the paper discharge unit is changed, it is determined whether double-sided printing has been designated for the page buffer of the drawing page buffer number (303). If double-sided printing is designated, the page buffer immediately before the drawing page buffer number is designated for front-side printing, or the front-side / back-side printing designation code for the page buffer (140
The determination is made with reference to 5) (304). This judgment is ye
If s, it is determined whether the double-sided printing discharge flag 1413 is OFF (305). If this judgment is yes, the following three items are executed.

(1) Start print task (306) (2) Reserve page buffer (307) (3) Enter front print designation in the front / back print designation code for the drawing page buffer number (308).

After the judgment of 304, the paper discharge section change flag which is a part of the double-sided print discharge flag 1413 is set to ON (309).

In the paper size designation command process (2636), as shown in FIG. 31, first, the value of the paper size code which is the input argument of this command is set to the paper for the drawing page buffer number in the page buffer management table. Fill in the size code area 1403 (311).

Subsequently, it is judged whether or not the paper size is changed, that is, whether the input paper size of this command is different from the paper size of the previous page (312). If the paper size is changed in this determination, it is determined whether double-sided printing is designated for the page buffer of the drawing page buffer number (31
3). If double-sided printing is designated, the page buffer immediately before the drawing page buffer number is designated for front-side printing, or referring to the front-side / back-side printing designation code (1405) for the page buffer, A determination is made (314). If this determination is yes, it is determined whether the double-sided printing discharge flag 1413 is OFF (315). This judgment is ye
If s, execute the following three items.

(1) Start printing task (3151) (2) Reserve page buffer (3152) (3) Write the front side printing designation in the front side / back side printing designation code for the drawing page buffer number (3153).

If the determination at 315 is No, a page buffer re-reserve macro is issued (3154).

If the determination at 314 is No, a page buffer re-reserve macro is issued (316).

After the judgment of 314, the paper size change flag which is a part of the double-sided printing discharge flag 1413 is set to ON (317).

If the judgment at 313 is No, a page buffer re-reserve macro is issued (318).

The above 3152, 3154, 316, and 318
The page buffer is acquired for the changed paper size.

If the judgment at 313 is No, a page buffer re-reserve macro is issued (318).

The above 3152, 3154, 316, and 318
The page buffer is acquired for the changed paper size.

Paper length / width direction designation command processing (2637)
Then, as shown in FIG. 32, first, the value of the paper vertical / horizontal direction code which is the input argument of this command is written in the paper vertical / horizontal direction code area 1404 for the drawing page buffer number in the page buffer management table ( 321).

Subsequently, it is determined whether there is a change in the paper length / width direction, that is, whether the input paper length / width direction of this command is different from the paper length / width direction of the previous page (322). If there is a change in the paper length and width directions in this determination, it is determined whether double-sided printing is designated for the page buffer of the drawing page buffer number (323). If double-sided printing is designated, the page buffer immediately before the drawing page buffer number is designated for front-side printing, or referring to the front-side / back-side printing designation code (1405) for the page buffer, A determination is made (324). If this determination is yes, it is determined whether the double-sided printing discharge flag 1413 is OFF (32
5). If this judgment is yes, the following three items are executed.

(1) Print task activation (3251) (2) Page buffer reserve (3252) (3) Enter the front side print designation into the front side / back side print designation code for the drawing page buffer number (3253).

If the determination at 325 is No, the page buffer re-reserve macro is issued (3254).

If the determination at 324 is No, a page buffer re-reserve macro is issued (326).

After the judgment of 324, the paper size change flag which is a part of the double-sided printing discharge flag 1413 is set to ON (327).

If the determination at 323 is No, a page buffer re-reserve macro is issued (328).

The above 3252, 3254, 326 and 328
The page buffer is acquired in the vertical and horizontal directions of the changed paper. It should be noted that even if paper of the same area, for example, A4 is used, the acquisition area in the page buffer unit 115 is different if the paper is different in the vertical and horizontal directions, but the acquisition area may be the same. In this case, 3254 and 32
The processes of 6 and 328 are unnecessary.

In the print copy number designation command processing (2638), as shown in FIG. 33, the value of the print copy number which is the input argument of this command is set to the total print copy number code for the drawing page buffer number in the page buffer management table. Fill in the area (1408).

In the page break process (2639), as shown in FIG. 34, the drawing page buffer number is first copied to the printing page buffer number in the page buffer management table (341), and then the drawing page buffer is set. The number is updated (342). Then, the print task is activated (343) and the page buffer is reserved (344). In the print task activation in step 343, the print page buffer number is set as an input parameter when the task activation macro is issued, so that the print target page buffer number is transmitted to each print task.
Then, it is determined whether double-sided printing is designated for the page buffer of the drawing page buffer number (3
45). If double-sided printing is designated, the page buffer immediately before the drawing page buffer number is designated for front-side printing, or referring to the front-side / back-side printing designation code (1405) for the page buffer, A determination is made (346). If this determination is yes, the front / back side print designation code for the drawing page buffer number is set to the back side print designation (347). If this determination is No, the front / back printing designation code for the drawing page buffer number is set to the front printing designation (348). The page buffer reserve in step 344 is issued for the default paper size. As the default paper size, the initial paper size is set at the beginning of the document, and the paper size of the previous page is set in the middle of the document.

FIG. 35 shows the details of the processing procedure of the print task.
From FIG. 44, description will be made.

First, the overall procedure of the print task will be described with reference to FIG. The print task first takes out the print page buffer number which is the print target page buffer number of the main print task from the input parameter area for this task (3510). Subsequently, the print task acquires the printer usage right by the printer reserve macro (3511) and releases the printer usage right by the printer free macro (351).
Perform 2). Subsequently, it is determined whether double-sided printing is designated for the page buffer of the print page buffer number or not, with reference to the single-sided / double-sided printing designation code (1405) for the page buffer (3520).
If double-sided printing is designated, it is determined whether the page buffer of the print page buffer number is designated for front-side printing or referring to the front-side / back-side printing designation code (1405) for the page buffer (3521). ).
If this judgment is yes, front-end printing pretreatment 1 (3530)
As a result, the processes of steps 3531 to 3535 are performed.

First, it is judged whether or not the double-sided printing discharge flag 1413 for the print page buffer number is ON (353).
1). If it is ON, the waiting for the front-side printable task is released (3532) when the double-sided printing discharge flag is turned ON. 35
If the judgment of No. 31 is No, the number of remaining printer engine (1
905) is less than or equal to the maximum retention number of printer engines (3533). If this determination is yes, the waiting for the front surface printable task is canceled when the maximum number of retained sheets in the printer engine is reached (3534). Here, the maximum retention number of printer engines is a parameter that is determined according to the type of printer engine, the paper size, and the paper length and breadth direction, and is set in advance in a table (in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2) in the print control device 110 at the time of initialization. (Not shown).

After the judgment of step 3531, the print task issues a front side printing wait macro and shifts this task to the front side printing waiting state (3535).

Thereafter, the print task executes the following procedure (354
1 to 3555), the print task repeats the total number of print copies and the total number of blank page print copies a total number of times to perform substantial printing for the total number of print copies and blank page printing for the total number of blank page print copies.

(1) It is judged whether double-sided printing is designated for the page buffer of the print page buffer number (3541). If double-sided printing is designated, it is determined whether the page buffer of the print page buffer number is designated for front-side printing or referring to the front-side / back-side printing designation code (1405) for the page buffer (3542). ).

(2) If this determination is yes, pretreatment 2 for front surface printing is performed (3543). If No, preprocessing for back surface printing (3544) is performed.

(3) A series of print macro issuing processing is performed (3545).

(4) The printer engine retention sheet number is updated (3550). Specifically, the following is done.

(4-1) First, it is determined whether double-sided printing is designated for the page buffer having the print page buffer number (3551). If double-sided printing is designated, it is determined whether front-side printing has been designated for the page buffer of the print page buffer number or by referring to the front-side / back-side printing designation code (1405) for the page buffer (3552). ).

(4-2) If this determination is yes, the printer engine retention sheet count (1905) is decremented by 1 (355).
3). If No, the number of remaining printer engine (190
5) is incremented by 1 (3554).

(5) Double-sided printing paper no error occurrence flag 1
It is determined whether 912 is ON (3555). If ON, double-sided printing paper-less error processing is performed (3556). Details of this processing will be described later with reference to FIG.

After repeating the above steps (3541 to 3556), the print task performs back side printing Post related processing (356) as multi-page copy post-processing (3550).
1), the front side printing Post waiting task number and the back side printing Post waiting task number are updated (3562). After that, the task end macro is issued (3570) and the process is ended.

The purpose of issuing the printer reserve / free macro by 3511 and 3512 is shown below.

(A) Each print task (referred to as print task A) first obtains the right to use the printer by the printer reserve in the series of print macro issuing processing (3545) (401). After that, by issuing the print macros 403-407, the printer engine unit 120
I / O processing between and. In the input / output processing, each print macro is the print task A that is the issuer of this macro.
To the I / O wait state. (B) At this time, another print task (called a print task B) activated after the print task A is put into the execution state by the function of the task dispatcher in the task control unit 12 ′ (see FIG. 50) described later. May be transferred. The functions of the task control unit 12 'and the task dispatcher are the same as those described in the prior application of the present applicant, Japanese Patent Application Nos. 1-164637 and 1-282747.

(C) However, the print task B is 3510.
After the processing of (3), a printer reserve macro is issued at 3511. At this time, the above-mentioned print task A is
Since the printer usage right has already been acquired by the processing of (1), the print task B is transferred to the printer usage right acquisition waiting state.

(D) As a result, the print task B started after the print task A is prevented from advancing the print processing such as 3520 to 3570.

(E) When the print task A issues the printer-free macro and releases the right to use the printer, the print task B is immediately released from the waiting state for acquiring the right to use the printer, and the right to use the printer is released. To win.

(F) By the above, the printing in which the page order shown in FIG. 12 is observed can be achieved.

(G) When the printer reserve / free macro is not issued by 3511 and 3512,
Since the processing shown in (c) above is not performed, the print task B started after the print task A has 3520 to 3520.
The printing process of 570 is advanced. Therefore, the number of remaining printer engine sheets is unexpectedly updated, and the front side printing waiting state is released and released. Therefore, it may not be possible to achieve the printing that adheres to the page order shown in FIG. 12 described above, resulting in a confusing printing result for the user.

With reference to FIG. 36, the double-sided printing discharge flag is turned ON.
A procedure for releasing the waiting for the front surface printable task (3532) will be described. First, it is determined whether there is a waiting task in the front side printing queue (361). If there is, the front-side printing wait release macro shown in FIG. 47 is issued in the release mode 1 to release all the tasks in the front-side printing queue from the front-side printing waiting state in order from the head (362). Next, it is determined whether the front surface printing Post required flag 1906 is ON (36
3). If it is ON, after turning off this flag (36
4) The Post macro is issued with the address of the ECB (Event Control Block: not shown) for the multi-page copy communication for the front side printing Post waiting task number 1907 as an input (365). After the process associated with the determination in step 363,
The double-sided printing discharge flag is turned off (366).

Here, the contents of the post macro (event occurrence wait release macro) and its corresponding wait macro (event occurrence wait macro) are the same as in the prior invention.

Referring to FIG. 37, the waiting for the front surface printable task is released (3
The procedure of (534) will be described. First, it is determined whether the front surface printing Post required flag 1906 is ON (371). If it is ON, after turning off this flag (372), the front surface printing Po
A Post macro is issued using the ECB address for multi-page copy communication for the st waiting task number 1907 as an input (373). If the determination in step 371 is OFF, it is determined whether there is a waiting task in the front side printing queue (37
4). If there is, the front-side printing wait release macro shown in FIG. 47 is issued in release mode 0 to release the first task in the front-side printing queue from the front-side printing waiting state (375).

38. Referring to FIG. 38, the front surface printing pretreatment 2 (3
The procedure 543) will be described. First, it is determined whether the printer engine staying number (1905) is smaller than the printer engine maximum staying number (381). If this judgment is yes,
By performing the processing of steps 382 to 389 as described below, the control is transferred to the back surface printing to be put into the printer engine if there is one, and the main surface is printed if not. First, it is determined whether the back side printing Post required flag 1908 is ON (382). If it is ON, this flag is turned OFF (383), and the Post macro is issued with the ECB address for multi-page copy communication for the back side printing Post waiting task number 1909 as input (384). After turning on the front surface printing Post required flag 1906 (385),
A Wait macro is issued with the ECB address for multi-page copy communication for this print task as an input (386).
If the determination of 382 is OFF, it is determined whether there is a waiting task in the front side printing queue (387). If so, after turning on the front surface printing post required flag 1906 (388),
The Wait macro is issued with the ECB address for multi-page copy communication for this print task as an input (389).

Using FIG. 39, preprocessing for back side printing (35
The procedure 44) will be described. First, it is determined whether the number of retained printer engines (1905) is greater than or equal to the maximum number of retained printer engines (381). If this determination is yes, by performing the processing of steps 392 to 395 as follows,
The maximum number of stays in the printer engine has been reached, so surface printing is started. If this determination is No, the printer engine can still store paper, so the process proceeds to 3545 in FIG. 35 to print the back side corresponding to the main print task.

In step 392, it is determined whether the double-sided printing discharge flag is OFF. If this determination is Yes, the waiting for the front surface printable task is canceled when the maximum number of retained sheets in the printer engine is reached (393). The processing procedure of this step 393 is the same as that shown in FIG. Subsequently, after the back side printing Post required flag 1908 is turned ON (39
4), Multi-page copy contact EC for this print task
Issue Wait macro with B address as input (39
5).

The procedure of a series of print macro issuing processing (3545) will be described with reference to FIG. In this process, first, a printer reserve macro is issued (401) to acquire the right to use the printer engine. Then, the value of the corresponding item in the print condition field for the print page buffer number in the page buffer management table is copied to the print condition field in the printer management table (402). Next, the paper feed unit confirmation macro is issued (403), the paper feed unit instruction macro is issued (404), and the paper ejection unit confirmation macro is issued (4).
05), issuance of a paper discharge unit instruction macro (406), issuance of a print instruction macro for single-sided / double-sided printing (407), and issuance of a printer-free macro (408). By issuing the printer-free macro, the right to use the printer engine by this task is released. Steps 401 and 403-4
The functions of each printer control macro 08 are shown in FIGS. 45 to 47.

The processing procedure of the print instruction for single-sided / double-sided printing (407) will be described with reference to FIG. This macro is an extension of the print instruction macro of the prior invention so that it can be applied to both single-sided printing and single-sided printing. The realization method is the printer engine unit 120.
It can be realized in the same manner, although it is slightly different depending on the specifications of. Below, one implementation example is shown. First, the print instruction mode (prnmode) that is an input parameter of this macro
Is 1 or 2 and it is determined whether double-sided printing is designated (411). If this determination is Yes, the following processing (4
12 to 4152).

(1) It is judged whether the printer engine is the one-sided printing mode (412). If so, in order to set the printer engine to the double-sided printing mode, the double-sided printing mode selection command is issued to the printer engine unit 120 by the sub CPU
96 is instructed (4121). (2) It is determined whether the print instruction mode (prnmode) is 1 and front surface printing is designated (413). If this determination is Yes, a print instruction for double-sided / front-side printing (414)
I do.

Specifically, after instructing the sub CPU to select a front surface printing path (4141), the sub CPU is instructed to issue a print instruction signal to the printer engine section 120 (4142). If it is determined in step 413 that the front side printing is not instructed and the back side printing is instructed, a print instruction for both-side / reverse side printing (414) is performed. Specifically, after instructing the sub CPU to select the back side printing path (4151), the printer engine unit 12 of the print instruction signal
The sub CPU is instructed to issue 0 (4152). In the selection of the front surface printing path in step 4141, the paper feeding path 2 and the paper discharging path 1 in FIG. 4 are selected as the paths for the second half printing. Further, in the selection of the back side printing path in step 4151, the paper feeding path 1 and the paper discharging path 2 in FIG. 4 are selected as the first half printing path. The method of selecting the main path is an appropriate method according to the specifications of the printer engine unit 120. Further, it is possible to determine whether the print path is for front surface printing before the processing of 4141 and omit the processing of 4141 if it is already for front surface printing. The same applies to the process of step 4151.

If the determination in step 411 is no, the following processing (416 to 418) is executed.

(1) It is judged whether the printer engine is the double-sided printing mode (416). If so, in order to set the printer engine to the single-sided printing mode, the sub-C issuance of the single-sided printing mode selection command to the printer engine unit 120.
The PU 96 is instructed (417).

(2) To issue a print instruction for single-sided printing (418), the sub CPU is instructed to issue a print instruction signal to the printer engine section 120 (418 and 4181).

Regarding the printer engine section 120,
When the sub CPU 96 or the CPU 93 issues a command to the printer engine unit 120 to inform that the drawing of the print page buffer is completed and printing can be performed immediately in response to the instruction to issue the print instruction signal of steps 4142, 4152, and 4181 to the sub CPU. Contact by signal. Therefore, it is possible to prevent an extra delay in the printing process by the printer engine unit 120. The above processing is not particularly performed for the printer engine unit that is not provided with this function.

The processing procedure of the back side printing Post related processing (3561) will be described with reference to FIG. In this process, first
It is determined whether the back side printing Post required flag 1908 is ON (4
31). If it is ON, after turning off this flag (43
2), using the ECB address for the multi-page copy communication for the back side printing Post waiting task number 1909 as the input,
A macro is issued (433).

The processing procedure of the double-sided printing paper-less error processing (3556) shown in FIG. 35 will be described with reference to FIG.
In this processing, it is determined whether the printer engine staying sheet number 1905 is 0 after performing a series of print macro issuing processing (3545) and printer engine staying sheet number updating (3550) (421). If this judgment is yes and it is confirmed that the first half printed paper is not accumulated in the printer engine, the multi-page copy communication ECB address for the front side printing post waiting task number 1907 is input,
The post macro is issued (422).

[0226] Using FIG. 43, the task number for waiting for printing on the front side and the task number for waiting for printing on the back side are updated (3562).
The processing procedure will be described. In this process, first, it is determined whether double-sided printing is designated for the page buffer having the print page buffer number or not, with reference to the single-sided / double-sided printing designation code (1405) for the page buffer (441). If double-sided printing is designated, it is determined whether front-side printing is designated in the page buffer of the print page buffer number or by referring to the front-side / back-side printing designation code (1406) for the page buffer (442). ). If this determination is yes, 2 is added to the front side printing Post waiting task number 1907 (4421). After that, it is judged whether the task number waiting for the front side printing Post is larger than the total number of print tasks (4422).
The st waiting task number 1907 is set to the front surface printing Post waiting task number 1907-the total number of printing tasks (4423).

If the determination in step 442 is No, the back side printing Post waiting task number 1909 is incremented by 2 (44
24). Thereafter, it is judged whether the task number waiting for back side printing Post is larger than the total number of printing tasks (4425).
Wait task number 1909-total number of print tasks (44
26).

If the determination in step 441 is No and single-sided printing is designated, the front-side printing Post waiting task number 1907 is incremented by 1 (443). After that, it is determined whether or not the front-side printing Post waiting task number is larger than the total number of printing tasks (444), and if so, the front-side printing Post waiting task number 1907 is set to 1 (445). Then, the back side printing Post waiting task number 1909 is incremented by 1 (44
6). After that, it is determined whether the back side printing Post waiting task number is larger than the total number of printing tasks (447), and if so, the back side printing Post waiting task number 1909 is set to 1 (44).
8).

Next, the processing procedure of the double-sided printing end task will be described with reference to FIG. This task first issues a printer reserve macro and acquires the right to use the printer (450). Then, it is determined whether there is a waiting task in the front side printing queue (451). If so, by issuing the front side print wait release macro in release mode 1,
All the tasks in the front side printing queue are released from the front side printing waiting state in order from the head (452). Next, surface printing Po
It is determined whether the st necessary flag 1906 is ON (453). O
If the flag is N, this flag is turned off (454), and the Post macro is issued with the ECB address for multi-page copy communication for the front print Post waiting task number 1907 as input (455). After the above processing, the double-sided printing end task terminates the processing by issuing a printer-free macro to release the right to use the printer (456).

The purpose of issuing the printer reserve / free macros 450 and 456 is shown below.

(A) Prevent the double-sided print end task from being executed before the print task issued before the double-sided print end task to finish the actual printing. As a result, it is possible to achieve printing in which the page order shown in FIG. 12 is maintained.

(B) Explaining the print command sequence in FIG. 5 as an example, each print task for the first page to the third page is executed by the printer reserve in the series of print macro issuing processing (3545). The usage right is acquired (401). After that, the print macros 403 to 407 are issued to perform input / output processing with the printer engine unit 120. In the input / output processing, each print macro shifts each print task, which is the issuer of this macro, to the input / output waiting state.

(C) At this time, the double-sided printing end task activated after each print task is the task control unit 1 described above.
It may be moved to the execution state by the function of the task dispatcher in 2 '.

(D) However, the task for finishing double-sided printing is 4
At 50, a printer reserve macro is issued. At this time, since the above-mentioned print tasks have already acquired the printer use right by the processing of 401, the double-sided printing end task B is moved to the printer use right acquisition waiting state.

(E) As a result, the double-sided printing end task activated after the print tasks for the first page to the third page are prevented from proceeding the processing of 451 to 455.

(F) Further, when the last print task, in this example, the print task for the third page, issues a printer-free macro and releases the right to use the printer, the double-sided print end task is executed. The printer is immediately released from the waiting state for acquiring the right to use the printer and acquires the right to use the printer.

(G) By the above, printing in which the page order shown in FIG. 12 is observed can be achieved.

(H) If the printer reserve / free macro is not issued by 450 and 456, the processing shown in (d) above is not performed, so the double-sided printing end task started after each print task. But 451-4
The processing of 55 is advanced. Therefore, unexpected processing for releasing the surface printing waiting and processing related to the surface printing post is performed. Therefore, it may not be possible to achieve the printing that adheres to the page order shown in FIG. 12 described above, resulting in a confusing printing result for the user.

Next, the function of the page buffer control macro will be described with reference to FIG. This macro performs acquisition, release, and reacquisition of the page buffer similarly to the prior invention of the present applicant, Japanese Patent Application No. 1-282747, but in this embodiment, the following points are provided to support double-sided printing. Extended.

(1) Search of Free Page Buffer The free page buffer searches from the page buffer next to the last acquired page buffer. If the page buffer is in use, the next page buffer is searched. In this way, the search is sequentially performed until a free page buffer is found. If no free page buffer is found after searching all page buffers once, wait for page buffer to become empty.

For example, assume that the last acquired page buffer is the sixth. Then, the free page buffer search for the next page is performed from the seventh page buffer. Therefore, if the page buffer is free (unused), the page buffer is acquired. If it is in use, the free page buffer is searched sequentially for the eighth and subsequent pages in the page buffer.

(2) Page Buffer Reserve and Page Buffer Reservation One unit of the page buffer will be described as A4 size.
This is because in the method of using B5 size as one unit, extra memory is generated when the page buffer of A3 size is acquired, but other sizes such as B5 are set to 1
The same can be realized as a unit.

(A) When the input paper size is A4 size or smaller Even when the paper size is A4 size or smaller such as A5 and B5 size, the page buffer for one unit of A4 size is acquired.

(B) When the input paper size is larger than the A4 size, when the paper size is larger than the A4 size such as B4 and A3 size and smaller than the A3 size, the page buffer for 2 units of the A4 size (the page buffer for the A3 size) ), The pair of page buffers 0 and 1, page buffers 2 and 3, etc. are acquired. For example, as shown in FIG. 49, it is assumed that the unit page buffer of A4 size is used for three sides (0 to 2) and the paper size to be acquired next is larger than A4 size. In this case, the above-mentioned search for the empty page buffer is performed by using the page buffer acquisition starting point as an even-numbered page buffer, so that the page buffers 4 and 5 are acquired instead of the page buffers 3 and 4. This is to use the page buffer without waste. If the empty areas of the page buffers, such as the page buffers 3 and 4, are simply acquired, the number of the A3 size page buffers that can be arranged will be four (page buffer 9). And 0 cannot be obtained continuously).

As shown in FIGS. 46, 47 and 48, the following printer control macros were prepared.

(A) Printer initialization (b) Ready status confirmation (c) Print instruction for single-sided / double-sided printing (d) Sheet feeding section confirmation (e) Sheet feeding section instruction (f) Paper ejection section confirmation (g) Ejection Paper section instruction (h) Printer reserve (i) Printer free (j) Waiting for front side printing (k) Releasing front side printing (l) Ejecting the first half printed paper (m) Changing printer status (n) Checking error code Macro above Many of them are the same as those of the prior invention of the present applicant, Japanese Patent Application No. 1-164637 and Japanese Patent Application No. 1-282747, but in the present invention, since double-sided printing is supported, (D), (e), (f), (g),
While expanding the function of (n), (c), (j),
Added macros (k), (l), and (m).

Next, the processing method for a paper out error will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

When a paper-out condition occurs, in single-sided printing, the print control device (printer controller) 1 is used until paper is replenished.
10 is a suspended state called a hold state. When the paper is replenished, the hold state is released and the printing process is restarted. If the same processing as in single-sided printing is performed during double-sided printing, the sheet remains in the printer engine. Therefore, in the double-sided printing, when the paper runs out, the paper retained in the printer engine can be printed (the latter half printing of the front page), so printing is executed and the retained paper is ejected. And
The print control apparatus 110 is kept in the hold state until the paper is replenished, and when the paper is replenished, the printing control apparatus 110 is restarted from there. It should be noted that the absence of paper occurs and is detected in the back side printing (first half printing).

When the paper out error is detected, the interrupt task and the print task execute the procedure shown in point (d) of point (7) of the print task. In this procedure, the processing procedure of “waiting release of front surface printable task” by the suspended task will be described for each case of (a) synchronous error and asynchronous error, and (b) single page copy and multipage copy. The processing procedure of “waiting release of surface printable task” will be mainly described.

(A) Synchronous paper-free error (a) Single-page copy processing procedure In paper-free error processing at the time of single-page copy, the front-side page except the print task for the front page corresponding to the paper-free occurrence page is excluded. Releases all print tasks in the print queue from the wait state.

FIG. 53 shows a page serial number 10 (hereinafter referred to as P10, similarly a page with a page serial number i is represented as Pi).
When a paper out error occurs in, the print tasks for P5 and P7 (linked to the front side print queue) that are in the front side print wait state are removed from the queue, released from the wait state, and printing is performed. I am doing it.

53 will be described in more detail.

In this figure, the processing by the print task for the print data drawn in each page buffer is shown directly below the page buffer. For example, page buffer 1
The processing below is shown directly below (53A1).

First, page serial number 1 (P1, 53A
2) Wait for front side printing by print task (5301, abbreviated as wait in this figure) and print (5309) -Subsequently release front side print wait by print task for page serial number 9 (P9, 53A3) (5311) (In this figure, the description is abbreviated as “wait release”) and the front side print waiting of this task itself (5312). Similarly, the following processing is shown just below the page buffer 2 (53B1).

First, page serial number 2 (P2, 53B
Printing by the print task for 2) (5302) -Then, the suspended task is activated by error processing related to the print task for page serial number 10 (P10, 53B3) (5
315) and printing by this print task (5319) The processing procedure in this figure will be described in order.

(1) Page serial number 1 (P1, 53A
The print task for 2) becomes the front side print wait (5301).

(2) Page serial number 2 (P2, 53B
The print task for 2) performs printing (5302).

(3) Hereinafter, waiting for front side printing of a print task for page serial number 3 (5303), printing a print task for page serial number 4 (5304), waiting for surface printing of a print task for page serial number 5 (5305). The printing task for page serial number 6 is printed (5306).

(4) Next, the print task for page serial number 7 detects the arrival of the number of remaining sheets in the printer engine, and releases the top print task in the front side print queue from the front side print waiting state (5307, the release state When the print task itself is released from the queue), the print task itself shifts to the front side print waiting state (5308).

(5) The print task for page serial number 1, which is released from the front side print waiting state by 5307, prints (5309).

(6) The print task for page serial number 8 (P8) prints (5310).

(7) Page serial number 9 (P9, 53A
The print task for 3) detects that the number of remaining sheets in the printer engine has been reached, releases the head print task in the front side print queue from the front side print waiting state (5311), and shifts to the front side print waiting state of the print task itself. (5312) is performed.

(8) The printing task for page serial number 3 released from the front side print waiting state by 5311 performs printing (5313).

(9) When the print task for page serial number 10 (P10) tried to print, a paper out error occurred (5314).

(10) The error processing related to the print task for the page serial number 10 (P10) starts the interrupted task,
All the front side print waits other than the front side page corresponding to the suspended task are released (5315).

(11) The print task for page serial number 5 and the print task for page serial number 7 which have been released from the front side print waiting state by 5315 perform printing (5316 and 5317).

(12) The user or system administrator supplies paper (5318).

(13) As the paper is replenished, the print task for page serial number 10 (P10) prints (531).
9).

(14) Hereinafter, the print task for the page serial number 11 shifts to the front side print waiting state (5320), the print task for the page serial number 12 prints (5321),
The process proceeds such as shifting the print task for page serial number 13 to the front side print waiting state (5322) and printing the print task for page serial number 14 (5323).

(B) Processing procedure for multi-page copy In the paper-free error processing at the time of multi-page copy, first, the number of print completion copies of the paper-free error occurrence page is checked. If the printing has been completed for the total number of prints, the current blank print count is set. If not, the current print copy is set as the print completion print count.

When the number of copies to be printed is 0, all the print tasks in the front side print queue except the print task for the front side page corresponding to the paper out error page are released from the waiting state.

When the number of print completion copies is 1 or more, up to the print task for the front page corresponding to the paper-free occurrence page,
Releases all print tasks in the front side print queue from the waiting state. If the front surface printing POST required flag is ON, turn this flag OFF and then release the front surface printing POST wait
Execute using ost macro.

FIG. 54 shows the case where the paper out occurs in the second copy of P4. In this case, in detail, a print task waiting for front side printing is connected to the front side print queue.
An example is shown in which the number of print completed copies of the paper-free page is one or more.

Here, when a paper out error occurs, the suspended task is activated. The processing procedure of the suspended task is shown in FIG. In the interrupted task, if there is no paper error (571),
Double-sided printing paper out error flag 1912 (Fig. 22)
After turning on (573), the waiting for the front surface printable task is released (574).

In this wait release, the front side print wait release of the print task corresponding to the page serial number 3 (P3) in the front side print queue and the Post task for the print task with the page serial number 1 (P1) in the front side print POST wait state. Perform processing. afterwards,
The suspended task enters a wait state for the end of the surface printable task by issuing the wait macro (575).

Then, printing is performed on the staying paper in the printer engine, that is, the fifth copy of P1 and the first copy of P3 are printed. In the processing of the print task for page serial number 3 (P3), when the first copy is printed (all the accumulated sheets in the printer engine are printed),
5 is performed and the above-described processing of 3555 and 3556 shown in FIG.
By issuing the post macro in the processing of 422 in 1, the suspended task is released from the front side printable task end waiting state (corresponding to 575). This returns to the processing of the interrupted task. The suspended task performs the same conventional processing as in single-sided printing. In the conventional processing for the suspended task, all task suspension 576, wait (wait) 577,
Resume all tasks 578, task end 575, etc. are executed.
The details of the processing are the same as those described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-121523, which is a prior invention of the present applicant.

FIG. 54 will be described in more detail.
In this figure as well, as in FIG. 53, the processing by the print task for the print data drawn in each page buffer is shown directly below the page buffer. For example, page buffer 1
Directly below (54A1), page serial number 1 (P1, 54
The following processing by the print task for A2) is shown.

-Wait for front side printing (5401, abbreviated as "wait" also in this figure) -Printing the first copy (5407), back side printing post waiting task post (5408), and the task itself wait ( 54
09).

-Printing the second copy (5413), back printing post waiting task post (5414), and the wait itself of this task (5415) -Printing the third copy (5419) and the task itself wait
(5420) -Printing the fourth copy (5424), back side print post waiting task post (5425), and the task itself wait (54
26) Printing the fifth copy (5429) Similarly, the following processing by the print task for the page serial number 2 (P2, 54B2) is shown just below the page buffer 2 (54B1).

[0280] Printing of the first copy (5402), printing of the second copy (5403), printing of the third copy (5404), and release of front-side printing (5405, abbreviated as "wait release" in this figure) Description) and wait of this task itself (5406) -Printing of the fourth copy (5410), post of front side print post task (5411), and wait of this task itself (54
12). Here, in the post of the front side print post waiting task,
Input the ECB address for multi-page copy communication for the task number waiting for front side printing post. Also, the w of the task itself
In ait, the ECB address for multi-page copy communication for the task number of the task is input.

Printing the fifth copy (5416) The processing procedure in this figure will be described in order.

(1) Page serial number 1 (P1, 54A
The print task for 2) becomes the front side print wait (5401).

(2) Page serial number 2 (P2, 54B
The print task for 2) is the printing of the first copy (5402),
Printing the second copy (5403) and printing the third copy (54
04), release front side printing wait (5405), and wait (5406) of this task itself. (3) The print task for the page serial number 1, which is released from the front side print waiting state by 5405, is the print of the first copy (5407) and the back side print post waiting task post (54
08) and the task itself waits (5409). Here, in the post of the back side print post waiting task, the back side print po
Input the ECB address for multi-page copy communication for the st waiting task number. Also, in the wait of the task itself,
EC for multi-page copy contact for task number of the task
Input B address.

(4) The print task for the page serial number 2 is the print of the fourth copy (5410), the front print post waiting task post (5411), and the wait (5) of this task itself.
412) is performed. Here, the po of the task waiting for the surface printing post
In st, the ECB address for multi-page copy communication for the task number waiting for front side printing post is input. In the wait of the task itself, the ECB address for contacting the multi-page copy for the task number of the task is input.

(5) The print task for the page serial number 1, which has been released from the wait state by 5411, is the printing of the second copy (5413) and the post (5) of the back side print post waiting task.
414) and the task itself waits (5415).

(6) The print task for page serial number 2, which has been released from the wait state by 5414, prints the fifth copy (5416).

(7) The print task for page serial number 3 releases the wait state based on 5415 by issuing the pos macro (5417). Subsequently, the task waits for front side printing (5418).

(8) The print task for page serial number 1, which has been released from the wait state by 5417, prints the third copy (5419) and waits for itself (5420).

(9) The print task for the page serial number 4 is the print of the first copy (5421), the front print post waiting task post (5422), and the wait (5) of this task itself.
423) is performed.

(10) The print task for page serial number 1, which is released from wait at 5422, is the printing of the fourth copy (5424) and the post-printing post-waiting task post (54
25) and the task itself waits (5426).

(11) When the print task for page serial number 2 released from wait by 5425 tried to print the second copy, a paper out error occurred (542).
7).

(10) The error processing related to the print task for the page serial number 2 activates the suspended task, and the suspended task performs the next processing (5428).

[0293] -Turn on the error occurrence flag for double-sided printing paper
Set to (5428-1).

Releasing wait for front surface printable task (542
8-2). In this waiting release, the front side print wait release (5428-2A) of the print task corresponding to the page serial number 3 (P3) in the front side print queue and the print task with the page serial number 1 (P1) in the front side print POST wait state Post processing (5428-2B) is performed.

Subsequently, the suspended task issues a wait macro to enter the front-end printable task end wait state (5428-3).

(11) The print task for page serial number 1 released from the wait state by 5428-2B is
The second copy is printed (5429).

(12) The print task for page serial number 3, which has been released from the wait state (front-side print POST wait state) by 5428-2A, prints the first copy (543).
0). Subsequently, as shown in (Note 1) of FIG. 54, the task detects that the number of remaining printer engine sheets is 0 (corresponding to 421 in FIG. 51), and thus issues a post macro (FIG. 51). 422), the suspended task is released from the above-mentioned waiting state for finishing the surface printable task (5431), and this task waits itself (543).
2).

(13) The user or system administrator supplies paper (5433).

(14) As the paper is replenished, the print task for the page serial number 2, which was suspended due to the occurrence of the paper-out error, resumes processing and executes printing of the second copy (54
34). (15) Next, page serial number 2 (P2, 54
Print task for B2) prints the third copy (5435)
Printing of the fourth copy (5436), post of the front side print post waiting task (5437), and wait of this task itself (5
438).

(16) Below, the print task for page serial number 3 which has been released from wait by 5437 is the print of the second copy (5439) and the back side print post waiting task post task.
(5440) and the task itself waits (5441), and so on.

FIG. 55 shows the case where paper empty occurs in the fifth copy of P2. In this case, in detail, there is no print task waiting for front side printing in the front side printing queue,
An example is shown in which the number of print completed copies of the paper-free page is one or more.

Here, when a paper-out error occurs, the suspended task is activated. In the suspended task, after turning on the double-sided printing paper no error occurrence flag, the waiting for the front side printable task is released.

In this waiting release, Post processing is performed for the print task of page serial number 1 (P1) in the front side printing POST waiting state. Then, the suspended task issues a wait macro to enter a waiting state for the surface printable task end (575).

Then, printing is performed on the staying paper in the printer engine, that is, printing of the third and fourth copies of P1 is performed. In the processing of the print task for the page serial number 1 (P1), when the fourth copy is printed (all the accumulated sheets in the printer engine are printed), the above-described processing of 3555 and 3556 shown in FIG. The suspended task is released from the surface printable task end wait state (corresponding to 575) by issuing the post macro by the processing of 422 in FIG. This returns to the processing of the interrupted task. The suspended task is the same as in the case of FIG.
The same conventional processing as for single-sided printing is performed.

FIG. 56 shows the case where the paper out occurs in the first copy of P4. In this case, in detail, a print task waiting for front side printing is connected to the front side print queue.
An example is shown in which the number of print completed copies of the paper out occurrence page is 0.

Here, when a paper out error occurs, the suspended task is activated. In the suspended task, after turning on the double-sided printing paper no error occurrence flag, the waiting for the front side printable task is released.

In this waiting release, Post processing is performed for the print task of page serial number 1 (P1) in the front side printing POST waiting state. Then, the suspended task issues a wait macro to enter a waiting state for the surface printable task end (575).

Then, printing is performed on the staying paper in the printer engine, that is, printing of the fourth and fifth copies of P1 is performed. In the processing of the print task for the page serial number 1 (P1), at the time when the fifth copy is printed (all the accumulated sheets in the printer engine are printed), the above-described processing of 3555 and 3556 shown in FIG. The suspended task is released from the surface printable task end wait state (corresponding to 575) by issuing the post macro by the processing of 422 in FIG. This returns to the processing of the interrupted task. The suspended task is the same as in the case of FIG.
The same conventional processing as for single-sided printing is performed.

(B) Asynchronous paper-less error (a) Single-page copy processing procedure In asynchronous paper-free error, in principle, printing of the back side page corresponding to the front side page connected at the end of the front side printing queue In the process, a paper out error occurs.

Therefore, all print tasks in the front side print queue are printable, except for the print task for the front side page that is queued at the end of the queue. Therefore, those printable print tasks are released from the front side print waiting state and printing is performed.

For example, P3, P5,
When P7 and the print task are connected, it is assumed that paper out occurs at P8. In this case, the print tasks of P3 and P5 excluding the print task of P7 are removed from the front side print queue, the front side print waiting state is released, and printing is performed.

(B) Processing procedure during multi-page copy The asynchronous paper-out error is the paper-out error in the print processing of the back page corresponding to the front page connected at the end of the front print queue, as in the case of single page copy. Occurs.

Therefore, the number of print completion copies of the back page corresponding to the front page connected at the end of the queue is checked. If the printing has been completed for the total number of prints, the current blank print count is set. If not, the current print copy is set as the print completion print count.

When the number of copies to be printed is 0, all print tasks in the front side print queue except the print task for the front side page which is linked to the end of the queue are released from the front side print waiting state. .

When the number of print completion copies is 1 or more, all the print tasks in the front side print queue are released from the front side print waiting state. If the front surface printing POST required flag is ON, turn this flag OFF and then release the front surface printing POST wait
Execute using ost macro.

(C) Outline of processing The processing for printing the staying paper in the printer engine when the paper out error occurs will be described with reference to FIG.
It was done in the interruption task of.

Next, the multi-page copy processing method in double-sided printing will be described with reference to FIGS. 58 to 67. First, if the number of front side prints and the number of back side prints match,
Next, a case where the number of front side printed copies and the number of back side printed copies do not match will be described.

(1) When the front-side printed copy number and the back-side printed copy number match When the front-side printed copy number and the back-side printed copy number match, this can be realized by using the processing procedure described so far. . An example of the processing procedure of this case is shown in FIGS. The way to read these figures is the same as that already described with reference to FIGS. 53 and 54.

FIG. 58 shows a case where the print document is composed of pages having page serial numbers of 6 or more, the number of print copies is 2, the number of page buffer faces is 6, and the maximum retention number of the printer engine is 3 (paper size is A4). This figure is a diagram for explaining a case where the number of print copies is smaller than the maximum number of stays in the printer engine.

FIG. 59 shows a case where a print document is composed of pages having page serial numbers 6 and above, the number of print copies is 3, the number of page buffer faces is 6, and the maximum retention number of the printer engine is 3 (paper size is A4). This figure is a diagram for explaining a case where the number of print copies = the maximum number of stays in the printer engine.

FIG. 60 shows a case where the print document is composed of pages having page serial numbers 6 and above, the number of print copies is 4, the number of page buffer pages is 6, and the maximum retention number of the printer engine is 3 (paper size is A4). This figure is a diagram for explaining a case where the number of print copies> the maximum number of stays in the printer engine.

(2) When the front-side printed copy number and the back-side printed copy number do not match When the front-side printed copy number and the back-side printed copy number do not match, printing is performed as follows. Here, the smaller number of prints is a,
Let b be the number of prints on the larger side.

For the side with the larger number of print copies, the actual printing of the number of print copies b is performed.

Printing on the side with the smaller number of copies is performed as follows.

The actual printing of the number of copies a is performed.

Print blank pages for the number of print copies | a- |. Here, | ab | represents the absolute value of the difference between a and b.

In order to realize the above processing, the page buffer management table and printer management table, the print copy number designation command processing, the blank page printing method, the print task, and the page buffer read end processing are performed as follows.

(A) Page buffer management table and printer management table The page buffer management table 1141 is provided with a total blank print count 1410 and a current blank print count 1411 (FIG. 16).
reference). The printer management table 1161 is provided with a total blank print count 1903 and a current blank print count 1904 (see FIG. 2).
2).

(B) Command for specifying the number of print copies When the number of print copies for the back page is specified, it is compared with the number of print copies for the corresponding front page, and the absolute value of the difference is used as the total number of blank page print copies in the page buffer management table. The corresponding area 1410 is set. FIG. 61 shows the processing procedure. Note that the processing procedure of FIG. 33 described above is applicable only when the number of front-side printed copies and the number of back-side printed copies match. On the other hand, the processing procedure of FIG. 61 is applicable to both cases where the number of front side printed copies and the number of back side printed copies do not match.

(C) Blank page printing method In order to realize blank printing, the following was done.

Regarding the page buffer used,
In addition to the total number of prints designated by the user, the total number of blank prints is read from the page buffer.

After reading the total number of prints, the page buffer is cleared (cleared to zero). Then, blank page printing is performed by reading out the total number of blank page print copies from the cleared page buffer.

When the reading from the page buffer is completed only for the total number of print copies + the total number of blank print copies, the page buffer in use is released by using the page buffer free macro.

(D) Print task The print task processing procedure is as shown in FIGS. 35 to 44 and 51.

The print task is the printer management table 11
The front side printing control or the back side printing control is performed using the printing control information such as the printing condition area 1900 in 61. The total number of copies 140 of the page buffer management table 1141
8 and the total blank sheet print number 1410 are copied to the total print sheet number 1901 and the total blank sheet print sheet number 1903 of the printer management table, and are used to control the multi-page copy printing of the corresponding page (front surface printing or back surface printing).

(E) Page buffer read end interrupt process FIG. 62 shows the processing procedure of the page buffer read end interrupt process. This process is performed each time reading from the page buffer is completed.

As shown in the figure, first, the printer memory controller 97 is reset and the interrupt enable (62
1) The page buffer read end monitoring timer is reset (622).

Subsequently, it is determined whether reading from the page buffer has been completed for the total number of print copies 1901 times (623).
If it has been completed, the current blank page print number 1411 is updated for the page buffer number (described in 1141) that is currently being printed out (6231). If not completed, the current number of print copies 1409 is updated for the page buffer number that is currently being printed out (6232).

Subsequently, it is determined whether the next printing is the last of the total number of print copies (624). If it is the last, the drawing / printing state of the page buffer is set to "printing 2" for the page buffer number currently being printed out (6241).

When the actual printing for the total number of print copies and the blank printing for the total number of blank page prints are completed, a page buffer free macro is issued for the page buffer number that is currently being printed out, and the corresponding page buffer is released. (625
1).

Next, the application result of the double-sided printing processing method, which is applicable even when the number of front side printed copies and the number of back side printed copies do not match, will be described below.

First, FIGS. 63 to 65 show examples of the processing status of double-sided printing when the number of front-side printed copies> the number of back-side printed copies.
In this case, the back side pages of the difference between the front side printed copy number and the back side printed copy number are printed as blank sheets. The way to read these figures is the same as that already described with reference to FIGS. 53 and 54.

In FIG. 63, a print document is composed of pages having page serial numbers of 6 or more, the number of print copies is 2 on the front side, 1 copy on the back side, the number of page buffer sides is 6, and the maximum retention number of the printer engine is 3 (paper size is A4). Is the case. This figure is a diagram for explaining a case where the number of prints on the front surface is smaller than the maximum number of stays in the printer engine.

In FIG. 64, a print document is composed of pages having page serial numbers of 6 or more, the number of print copies is 3 on the front side, 1 copy on the back side, the number of page buffer faces is 6, and the maximum retention number of the printer engine is 3 (paper size is A4). Is the case. This figure is a diagram for explaining a case where the number of front side print copies = the maximum number of stays in the printer engine.

In FIG. 65, a print document is composed of pages having page serial numbers of 6 or more, the number of print copies is 4 for front side, 2 for back side, the number of page buffer sides is 6, and the maximum retention number of printer engine is 3 (paper size is A4). Is the case. This figure is a diagram for explaining a case where the number of front side print copies> the maximum number of stays in the printer engine.

Next, FIGS. 66 to 68 show examples of the processing status of double-sided printing when the number of front-side printed copies is smaller than the number of back-side printed copies.
In this case, the front page having only the absolute value of the difference between the back side printed copy number and the front side printed copy number is printed as a blank sheet. The way to read these figures is the same as that already described with reference to FIGS. 53 and 54.

In FIG. 66, a print document is composed of pages having page serial numbers 6 and above, the number of prints is 1 front side, 2 back sides, the number of page buffer sides is 6, and the printer engine maximum retention number is 3 (paper size is A4). Is the case. This drawing is a diagram for explaining the case where the number of back side print copies is smaller than the maximum retention number of printer engines.

In FIG. 67, a print document is composed of pages having page serial numbers of 6 or more, the number of print copies is one copy on the front side, three copies on the back side, the number of page buffer pages is 6, and the maximum retention number of the printer engine is 3 (paper size is A4). Is the case. This figure is a diagram for explaining a case where the number of back side print copies = the maximum retained number of printer engines.

FIG. 68 shows a print document composed of pages having a page serial number of 6 or more. The number of print copies is 2 on the front side, 4 on the back side, the number of pages in the page buffer is 6, and the maximum retention number of the printer engine is 3 (paper size is A4). Is the case. This figure is a diagram for explaining a case where the number of back side print copies> the maximum retention number of printer engines.

Next, the multiple paper discharge unit support system will be described.

First, the method of monitoring the completion of discharge will be described. The print task monitors until the printed paper is discharged to the paper discharge unit. A timer was used as a means for monitoring. The paper discharge monitoring timer is set to the time from when a print instruction is given to the printer engine until the paper is discharged to the paper discharge unit. If an error does not occur before the timer times out, it is determined that the paper has been normally ejected, and the page serial number update processing is performed.
FIG. 69 shows a print sequence from the print instruction to the end of discharge.

Next, the multiple paper discharge unit support system will be described.

When using a plurality of paper ejection units, the paper ejection time differs depending on the paper ejection units. Therefore, when the paper with the page serial number n is ejected from the paper ejection unit 1 and the paper with the page serial number n + 1 is ejected from the paper ejection unit 2, the paper with the page serial number n + 1 ejected later is ejected first. Sometimes.

In the conventional discharge end confirmation method, when the phenomenon of "reversal of the discharge end order" occurs, there is a problem that the discharge end page serial number is grasped and the print task end timing is wrong.

Therefore, in order to solve the above problems and support a plurality of paper discharge units, the printer management table 116 described above is used.
Using the paper discharge completion monitoring information 1950 in 1 (see FIG. 24), the following was performed.

(A) A plurality of paper discharge completion monitoring timers are provided. As the number of timers, the maximum number of sheets that may stay in the printer engine is prepared. In the vertical synchronization signal request interrupt processing corresponding to the print instruction macro issued by the print task, (i) writing the page serial number of the paper to be monitored and the designated paper discharge section in the area corresponding to this timer in the printer management table, and (ii ) The sequential discharge completion monitoring timer was selected, the timer value that was determined by the discharge unit and the paper size was set in this timer, and this timer was started.

(B) An area for managing the latest page serial number of the discharged paper for each paper discharge section is prepared in the printer management table as described above.

(C) The discharge completion monitoring timer interrupt process
Based on the value entered in (i) of (a) above, the latest paper ejection page serial number (value in the printer management table described in (b)) of the paper ejection unit for which paper ejection has ended is updated. did.

(D) It is assumed that the sheet discharge section includes sheet discharge section 1 to sheet discharge section m. At this time, at the end of page printing or when an error occurs, the print control device cuts off the discharge of "the minimum value of the page serial numbers corresponding to each of the discharge completion monitoring timers 1 to 25-1". It was decided as a page serial number that completed printing normally without any. After that, the page printing end page serial number or the retransmission start page serial number is set in the corresponding area in the report data from the print control device to the host computer.

As described above, even when the phenomenon of "reversal of the discharge end order" occurs by using a plurality of paper discharge units, the discharge end page serial number can be correctly grasped and the print task can be ended at the correct timing. I did it.

Further, the above embodiment is based on the above-mentioned prior invention (FIG. 5).
It can also be realized as an extension function to 0). That is, the processing of the drawing processing unit and the print processing unit may be configured as a multitasking configuration so that parallel processing (pipeline processing by a single processor) or parallel processing (simultaneous processing by a plurality of processors) can be performed. In this case, each component in FIG. 1 is associated with each component in FIG. 50 as follows.

(1) The host computer 100 is the host computer 100 ′ (2) The host communication control unit 111 is the host communication control unit 11
8 '(3) Command buffer section 112 is command buffer section 11' (4) Command processing section 113 is task processing section 13 '(5) Drawing processing section 1131 is drawing task processing section 131'
(6) The print processing unit 1132 causes the print task processing unit 132 ′ to
(7) The page buffer control unit 114 has the page buffer control unit 116 ′, and (8) the page buffer unit 115 has the page buffer unit 1.
In 4 ′, (9) the printer control unit 116 is changed to the printer control unit 117 ′.
To

[0363]

According to the present invention, in double-sided printing, 1
Permits specification of paper size, number of copies, and paper length and width in units of two pages corresponding to the front and back sides of a sheet of paper, and the paper size, number of copies, and paper length and width directions on the front and back sides of a sheet of paper. Different specifications can be accepted.

Further, the drawing processing unit detects the end of the double-sided printing end document received from the host device, and the double-sided printing end processing unit activated based on this detection detects the residual paper sheet printed in the first half in the printer engine. You can eject and finish the double-sided printing of this document.

Furthermore, when double-sided printing is designated, even if the paper feed section, the paper discharge section, or the paper size is designated for the back side of the paper, the main back page is printed as a blank sheet, and thereafter the main back surface is printed. By printing the page as a new front page, it is possible to specify printing conditions with a large degree of freedom, as in the case of single-sided printing.

In the printing system using the printer of the cyclic double-sided printing mechanism, the same specification as in the case of single-sided printing of various printing conditions is permitted, and the logical consistency between the front surface and the back surface of the paper is specified by the specification of these printing conditions. , The printer engine maximum retention number, document end, paper size change,
Even when a change in the paper feed unit, a change in the paper discharge unit, or the like is detected, double-sided printing can be continued without hindrance, so that it is possible to provide a double-sided printing function with a high degree of freedom and easy for the user to use.

The print control device has a multi-task configuration, and by performing double-sided printing while receiving the print command from the upper-level device, the drawing process, and the printing process in parallel, the maximum performance of the printer with the cyclic double-sided printing mechanism can be obtained. You can withdraw. As a result, the printing throughput of the printing system can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a cyclic double-sided printing mechanism.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a single-sided printing method and a double-sided printing method using a cyclic double-sided printing mechanism.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a print command string according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the specifications of a printing condition designation command relating to double-sided printing according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the specifications of a print condition specifying command relating to double-sided printing according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining processing specifications when each printing condition is specified on the front surface and the back surface of the paper according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a hardware configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a software configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining a task list of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining the correspondence between the drawing order and the printing order in the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining an outline of operations of a drawing task and a printing task for double-sided printing according to the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a configuration diagram of a page buffer management table in the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a configuration diagram of a page buffer management table in the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a configuration diagram of a page buffer management table in the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a configuration diagram of a page buffer management table in the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a configuration diagram of a page buffer management table according to the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a configuration diagram of a printer management table according to the present invention.

FIG. 20 is a configuration diagram of a printer management table according to the present invention.

FIG. 21 is a configuration diagram of a printer management table according to the present invention.

FIG. 22 is a configuration diagram of a printer management table according to the present invention.

FIG. 23 is a configuration diagram of a printer management table according to the present invention.

FIG. 24 is a configuration diagram of a printer management table according to the present invention.

FIG. 25 is a configuration diagram of a printer management table according to the present invention.

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating a processing procedure of a drawing task according to the present invention.

FIG. 27 is a diagram for explaining a processing procedure of single-sided / double-sided printing designation command processing (a part of drawing task) according to the present invention.

FIG. 28 is a diagram for explaining a processing procedure of double-sided printing end designation command processing (a part of drawing task) according to the present invention.

FIG. 29 is a diagram for explaining a processing procedure of a paper feed unit designation command process (a part of a drawing task) according to the present invention.

FIG. 30 is a diagram illustrating a processing procedure of a paper discharge unit designation command process (a part of a drawing task) according to the present invention.

FIG. 31 is a diagram illustrating a processing procedure of a paper size designation command process (a part of a drawing task) according to the present invention.

FIG. 32 is a diagram for explaining a processing procedure of a paper vertical / horizontal direction designation command process (a part of a drawing task) according to the present invention.

FIG. 33 is a diagram for explaining a processing procedure of a print copy number designation command process (a part of a drawing task) according to the present invention.

[Fig. 34] Fig. 34 is a diagram for explaining a processing procedure of page break processing (a part of drawing task) in the present invention.

FIG. 35 is a diagram illustrating a processing procedure of a print task according to the present invention.

FIG. 36 is a diagram for explaining the processing procedure for releasing the waiting for the front-side printable task (a part of the print task) in accordance with the double-sided printing discharge flag being turned on in the present invention.

FIG. 37 is a diagram for explaining a processing procedure for releasing waiting for a front surface printable task (a part of a print task) when the maximum retention number of sheets of the printer engine is reached in the present invention.

FIG. 38 is a diagram for explaining a processing procedure of front-end printing pretreatment 2 (a part of a printing task) according to the present invention.

[Fig. 39] Fig. 39 is a diagram for describing a processing procedure of back-side printing preprocessing (a part of a printing task) according to the present invention.

FIG. 40 is a diagram illustrating a processing procedure of a series of print macro issuing processing (a part of print task) according to the present invention.

FIG. 41 is a diagram for explaining a processing procedure of a print instruction for single-sided / double-sided printing according to the present invention.

FIG. 42 is a diagram for explaining the processing procedure of the back side printing Post related processing (a part of the printing task) in the present invention.

FIG. 43 is a diagram for explaining a processing procedure for updating a front-side printing Post waiting task number and a back-side printing Post waiting task number (a part of a printing task) according to the present invention.

FIG. 44 is a diagram for explaining a processing procedure of a double-sided printing end printing task in the present invention.

FIG. 45 is a diagram for explaining the function of a page buffer control macro in the present invention.

FIG. 46 is a diagram for explaining the function of the printer control macro in the present invention.

FIG. 47 is a diagram for explaining the function of the printer control macro in the present invention.

FIG. 48 is a diagram for explaining the function of the printer control macro in the present invention.

FIG. 49 is a diagram for explaining the function of page buffer reserve in the present invention.

FIG. 50 is a diagram for explaining a functional configuration when the present invention has a multitask configuration.

FIG. 51 is a diagram illustrating a processing procedure of double-sided printing paper-less error processing according to the present invention.

FIG. 52 is a diagram for explaining the management method of the latest discharged page serial number in the present invention.

FIG. 53 is a diagram for explaining the double-sided printing paper-less error processing in the present invention.

FIG. 54 is a diagram for explaining the double-sided printing paper-less error processing in the present invention.

FIG. 55 is a diagram for explaining the double-sided printing paper-less error processing in the present invention.

FIG. 56 is a diagram for explaining the error processing without a double-sided printing paper according to the present invention.

[Fig. 57] Fig. 57 is a diagram for explaining a processing procedure of a suspended task according to the present invention.

FIG. 58 is a diagram for explaining a multi-page copy processing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 59 is a diagram for explaining a multi-page copy processing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 60 is a diagram for explaining a multi-page copy processing method according to the present invention.

[Fig. 61] Fig. 61 is a diagram for explaining a processing procedure of a print copy number designation command processing according to the present invention.

FIG. 62 is a diagram for explaining a processing procedure of page buffer read interrupt processing in the present invention.

FIG. 63 is a diagram for explaining a multi-page copy processing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 64 is a diagram for explaining a multi-page copy processing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 65 is a diagram for explaining a multi-page copy processing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 66 is a diagram for explaining a multi-page copy processing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 67 is a diagram for explaining a multi-page copy processing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 68 is a diagram for explaining a multi-page copy processing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 69 is a diagram for explaining a multiple paper discharge unit support system in the present invention.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI G06F 3/12 B41J 3/00 S (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B41J 29/38 B41J 3 / 60 B41J 5/30 B41J 21/00 G06F 3/12

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of sheets are printed based on the received print data .
Print the front side of the paper and then the back side.
In Ukoto, a double-sided printing control method of the duplex printing mechanism with printer for duplex printing of the plurality of sheets, the duplex printing mechanism with the printer, the paper size is different between the front surface and the back surface of one sheet When print data is received ,
Based on the front-side printing data of the print data,
Then, the front side is printed, and the back side of the paper is blank.
For the surface-printed that remains inside the printer as it is
Print the back side of the paper, eject all, and then change the paper size.
The paper based on the backside printing data of the print data.
A double-sided printing control method, characterized in that front side printing is performed on the paper after size change . 2. A plurality of sheets are printed based on the received print data .
Print the front side of the paper and then the back side.
A double-sided printing control method for a printer with a double-sided printing mechanism that performs double-sided printing on a plurality of sheets, wherein the printer with a double- sided printing mechanism specifies the paper size for the back side of the paper in the print data. If there is, specify
If the specified paper size is the same as the front paper size
For example, perform front side printing on the paper and continue double-sided printing.If different , print on the front side of the paper.
Printing, leaving the back side of the paper blank.
Mark the back side of the printed paper that has accumulated inside the printer.
Print and eject all, then change to the specified paper size.
The back side printing data for the back side with the specified paper size.
A double-sided printing control method, characterized in that front side printing is performed on a sheet of paper having a changed paper size . 3. A plurality of sheets are printed based on the received print data .
Print the front side of the paper, then the back side.
Thus, in the double-sided printing control method of the printer with a double-sided printing mechanism for performing double-sided printing on the plural sheets of paper, the printer with the double- sided printing mechanism specifies the number of print copies on each of the front surface and the back surface of one sheet of paper. when receiving the print data, the surface and the back surface printing copies of each of one sheet of the specified it is determined whether or not coincident with each other, the case of mismatch, low number of copies of the front and back surfaces Regarding the other side, the double-sided printing control method is characterized in that the number of prints is matched to the side with the larger number of prints, and blank printing is performed for the number of prints smaller. 4. A plurality of sheets are printed based on the received print data .
Print the front side of the paper and then the back side.
A double-sided printing control method for a printer with a double-sided printing mechanism that performs double-sided printing on a plurality of sheets of paper, wherein the printer with a double-sided printing mechanism is configured to print on both the front and back sides of one sheet of paper vertically and vertically. If the lateral receives different print data, the surface printing data of the print data
The front side of the paper is printed based on
The surface remains blank and remains inside the printer.
Print the front side of the printed paper on the back side and eject all
Change the paper length / width direction and print the back side of the print data.
For the paper after changing the paper length / width direction based on the usage data
Duplex printing control method comprising the surface printing line thing.