JP5012459B2 - Printing apparatus and printing apparatus control method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer which outputs a beautiful double-sided printing result by distributing printing data to the front surface and the rear surface in a good balance even when a printing data length is different for every printing job, and by freely changing distribution of front surface data and rear surface data for every printing job, and also to provide a control method of the printer. <P>SOLUTION: The control method of the printer has: the expansion step (S22) of analyzing and expanding the printing data as expansion data into a printing data storage part 105; and the printing step (S28) of setting a boundary value of the expansion data according to a boundary value setting indication CA which sets the boundary value to separate the expansion data to the front surface data and the rear surface data, separating the expansion data to the front surface data and the rear surface data according to the boundary value when the boundary value is set by the boundary value setting indication CA, and carrying out double-sided printing according to a cutting indication CC. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that performs double-sided printing on a wound printing object and a method for controlling the printing apparatus.

  Printing apparatuses capable of printing on both sides of printing paper have been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2). Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 include a page number update unit that updates a page number when the host computer instructs double-sided printing, and an odd page / even number page determination unit that determines whether the page number is odd or even. An odd page processing unit that performs printing on the front side of the paper when the page-through number is an odd number and temporarily stores the paper on which the front side printing has been completed in the intermediate tray; and a print command for even pages when the page-through number is an even number An even page processing unit that sets the top address and length of the column in the control table, and a back side printing processing unit that performs back side printing for each even page on the front side printed paper stored in the intermediate tray, A printing system is described.

  In the above printing system, when executing double-sided printing, double-sided printing is instructed in advance by a double-sided printing designation command from the host computer. That is, in order to switch between single-sided printing and double-sided printing, it is necessary to instruct by a command from the host computer. In addition, a printer that switches between double-sided printing and single-sided printing by turning on / off a dip switch of a printing apparatus has been proposed. If it is set to perform double-sided printing, if the storage capacity of the intermediate tray is exceeded or the end of a single-sided document is detected during the front-side printing process, the front-side printing process is switched to the back-side printing process.

  By the way, printing apparatuses that perform printing on continuous paper such as roll paper are known. For example, when receipt printing is performed on roll paper, the receipt length issued for each transaction is different. When there are many purchased items, the length of the issued receipt becomes long, and when there are few purchased items, it becomes short. When the receipt length is long, double-sided printing can shorten the issued receipt length and suppress consumption of the roll paper.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 03-027344 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 04-001067

  However, since the print data in a single receipt issuance process (one print job) is different, when executing double-sided printing, which of the print data included in one print job determines the boundary between the front data and the back data The balance of the printed results on the front and back sides changes depending on whether the position is provided. Furthermore, if you want to print the details of the purchased product on the front side and print the coupon on the back side, if you do not set a boundary between the character data and the image data, it may be printed on the back side from the middle of the image data. appear. If the back side of the image data is printed on the back side, it is impossible to issue a receipt that appeals to the customer's vision and gives an impact. Therefore, it is desirable that the boundary between the front surface data and the back surface data can be freely set for each print job.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and in a printing apparatus that performs double-sided printing on a wound print object, even when the print data length differs for each print job, the print data The purpose is to distribute the material in a balanced manner on the front and back sides. It is another object of the present invention to provide a printing apparatus and a printing apparatus control method capable of outputting beautiful double-sided printing results by freely changing the distribution of front surface data and back surface data for each print job.

The present invention that can solve the above-mentioned problems is a printing apparatus that performs double-sided printing on a wound printing object,
A data development unit that analyzes the print data and stores the data in the data storage area as development data;
In response to a boundary value setting instruction for setting a boundary value for separating the expanded data into data on one surface and data on the other surface, a boundary value setting unit that sets a boundary value of expanded data;
When the boundary value is set by the boundary value setting instruction, the developed data is separated into data on one side and data on the other side based on the boundary value, and duplex printing is performed according to the print start instruction And a printing unit that performs the above.

Further, the present invention that can solve the above-described problems is a control method for a printing apparatus that performs double-sided printing on a wound printing object,
A development step of analyzing the print data and developing the data in a data storage area as development data;
In response to a boundary value setting instruction to set a boundary value for separating the expanded data into data on one surface and data on the other surface; and
When the boundary value is set by the boundary value setting instruction, the developed data is separated into data on one side and data on the other side based on the boundary value, and duplex printing is performed according to the print start instruction And a printing step.

  According to the above configuration, the boundary value of the decompressed data is set by the boundary value setting instruction. Since the boundary value can be set freely for each print data, even if the data length of each print data is different, depending on the setting of the boundary value, the data on one side of the print object and the data on the other side You can change the distribution freely and output beautiful double-sided printing results.

  In the printing apparatus of the present invention, when the boundary value is not set by the boundary value setting instruction, the printing unit performs the double-sided printing with the position where the developed data is separated in half as a boundary value. Features.

  In the printing apparatus control method of the present invention, when the boundary value setting instruction is not given, double-sided printing is performed using the position where the developed data is divided in half as a boundary value.

  According to the above configuration, when the boundary value is not set, the position where the expanded data is divided in half is recognized as the boundary value, so the print data is distributed in a balanced manner between one surface and the other surface of the print target. can do.

In the printing apparatus of the present invention, the data development unit measures the number of dots of the development data,
The boundary value is the number of dots in the vertical direction of the development data when the transport direction of the print object is the vertical direction.

Further, the control method of the printing apparatus of the present invention measures the number of dots of the development data in the development step,
When the transport direction of the print object is the vertical direction, the number of dots in the vertical direction of the developed data is set as the boundary value.

  According to the above configuration, the number of dots is measured while developing the print data in the data storage area. For this reason, even when the boundary value is not set, a value half the number of measurement dots (measurement dot number / 2) can be set as the boundary value.

Further, the printing apparatus of the present invention has a cutting unit for cutting the print object based on a cut instruction for cutting the print object,
The printing unit simultaneously performs the double-sided printing in accordance with the cut instruction serving as the print start instruction.

In the printing apparatus control method of the present invention, in the printing step, double-sided printing is simultaneously performed according to a print target cut instruction serving as the print start instruction.
After the printing step, the printed object after the printing process is cut based on the cutting instruction.

  According to the above configuration, since printing is performed simultaneously on both sides of the print target, after printing on one side of the print target, compared to the case of printing on the other side of the print target, Since printing can be performed in a short time, the amount of power used can be reduced. Further, by performing double-sided printing, continuous paper can be saved and the frequency of continuous paper replacement can be reduced. Furthermore, since printing and cutting are performed only with a print start instruction, it is not necessary to use both the print start instruction and the cut instruction, and labor saving of command input can be achieved.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments for carrying out the invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the host computer 20 is connected to a POS register (store front terminal) 40 having a product unit totaling function installed in a store such as a convenience store or a supermarket. The store terminal 40 transmits the acquired data to the host computer 20 and transmits a receipt issuance instruction when the counting process is completed. The host computer 20 generates a receipt issuance job in response to the receipt issuance command and transmits it to the printing apparatus 10 as print data.

  The printing apparatus 10 performs single-sided printing or double-sided printing on a print target (in this embodiment, continuous paper wound like roll paper) according to print data transmitted from the host computer 20. In the present embodiment, the printing apparatus 20 operates as a line thermal printer that performs receipt printing.

  The printing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment includes a data receiving unit 101, a boundary value setting unit 102, a print data developing unit 104, a print data storage unit 105, an image data storage unit 107, and a printing unit 106. ing. The data receiving unit 101 receives print data transmitted from the host computer 10, analyzes it, and inputs it to the print data developing unit 104. In addition, if the data reception unit 101 includes the print start instruction CB as a result of analyzing the print data, the data reception unit 101 inputs the instruction to the printing unit 106. If the received print data is analyzed and a boundary value setting instruction CA is included, the instruction is input to the boundary value setting unit 102.

  The boundary value setting unit 102 generates expanded data in response to a boundary value setting instruction CA that sets a boundary value for separating the expanded data expanded in the print data storage unit 105 into data on one surface and data on the other surface. Set the boundary value of. In the present embodiment, the boundary value is the number of dots in the vertical direction of the development data when the transport direction of the continuous paper 30 is the vertical direction. The printing apparatus 10 has a command that can specify dots for the boundary value between the front surface printing and the back surface printing, and is stored in the boundary value setting unit 102.

  The print data expansion unit 104 measures the number of dots in the expansion data while expanding the print data in the received print data in the print data storage unit 105.

  The print data storage unit 105 expands print data among the print data transmitted from the host computer 20. In the present embodiment, data on one surface (front surface data) and data on the other surface (back surface data) are expanded in one data storage area of the print data storage unit 105. Therefore, there is no need to provide a separate data storage area for duplex printing. The print data storage unit 105 is a volatile memory such as a RAM.

  The image data storage unit 107 stores image data for printing a logo on the continuous paper 30. The image data storage unit 107 may be a nonvolatile memory such as an EPROM or an EEPROM, or a volatile memory such as a RAM. If the non-volatile memory is used, the defined image data remains even when the printing apparatus 10 is turned off, so that it is not necessary to define the image data again. On the other hand, in the case of a volatile memory, when the power of the printing apparatus 10 is turned off, the defined image data disappears, but new image data can be defined by an image data definition instruction.

  When an image data definition instruction is input from the data receiving unit 101, the image data is defined in the image data storage unit 107. The image data definition instruction is an instruction for associating the key code with the data size, color, and actual definition data of the image data and storing them in the image data storage unit 107. That is, it is an instruction for storing image data such as a logo separately from text data such as characters. However, if an invalid value (data outside the definition area) is input as the key code, data size, color, and definition data, or if a data size exceeding the storage capacity of the image data storage unit 107 is specified, the image data Image data is not defined in the storage unit 107.

  The printing unit 106 includes two print heads 1061 a and 1061 b that are opposed to each other with the continuous paper 30 interposed therebetween, and a cutting unit 1062 that cuts the continuous paper 30. The printing unit 106 simultaneously performs printing processing on both sides of the continuous paper 30 based on the data developed in the print data storage unit 105 by the print head 1061a out of the two print heads 1061a and 1061b.

A line thermal type print head is used as the print heads 1061a and 1061b. When printing for one line of the print head is performed, the continuous paper 30 is conveyed by a conveyance amount corresponding to one line. The printing process and the conveying process for one line are repeated, and continuous printing is simultaneously performed on both sides of the continuous paper 30.
Note that thermal paper is used as the continuous paper 30. The continuous paper 30 is obtained by winding a belt-like paper into a cylindrical shape, and is used by being attached to the printing unit 106.

In this embodiment, when the boundary value is set by the boundary value setting instruction CA, the printing unit 106 uses the development data stored in the print data storage unit 105 based on the set boundary value as the data on one side. The data is separated from the data on the other side, and double-sided printing is performed according to the print start instruction CB.
On the other hand, when the boundary value is not set by the boundary value setting instruction CA, double-sided printing is performed using the position where the developed data is divided in half as the boundary value.
If the maximum number of vertical dots of the developed data is set as the boundary value by the boundary value setting instruction CA, single-sided printing results.

  In the present embodiment, the print start instruction CB is a cut instruction CC for cutting the continuous paper 30. After performing single-sided printing or double-sided printing in accordance with the cutting instruction CC, the continuous paper 30 is cut by controlling the cutting unit 1062.

Next, operations of the host computer 20 and the printing apparatus 10 will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a receipt job issuance process performed by the host computer of this embodiment.
First, sequential receipt print data transmitted from the storefront terminal 40 is acquired (step S11), and a receipt issuance command is acquired (step S12). The host computer 20 accumulates print data in a buffer (not shown) in the host computer and generates a print image. The number of vertical dots of the print image is calculated (step S13), and the position where the print image is switched between the front surface data and the back surface data is calculated (step S14).

  As a method for calculating the position where the print image is switched between the front surface data and the back surface data, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, when the print image I is composed of character data T and image data G, the character data T and A space section with a certain distance from the image data G is grasped, and the number of dots from the front end of the print image I to the space portion is calculated. This number of dots is used as a switching position. In the case of FIG. 3, the maximum number of vertical dots of the print image I is 520 dots, and 240 dots from the front end of the print image I to the space portion are calculated as the switching position.

When the switching position is calculated, a boundary value setting instruction CA for setting the front / back switching position as a boundary value is generated (step S15), the boundary value is set by a command, and the print data is transmitted to the printing apparatus 10 (step S16). . Further, after the print data is transmitted, a cut instruction CC that is a print start instruction is generated and transmitted to the printing apparatus 10 (step S17). In the present embodiment, the boundary value setting instruction CA generated in step S15, the print data transmitted in step S16, and the cut instruction CC generated and transmitted in step S17 are referred to as print data.
When the print image I is composed of the character data T and the image data G as described above, the image data print instruction is included in addition to the boundary value setting instruction CA, the print data, and the cut instruction CC.
As described above, in the present invention, it is assumed that the host computer 20 has a function of pre-reading the developed image of the printing apparatus 10 in order to calculate the boundary value between the receipt front surface printing and the back surface printing.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a printing process performed by the printing apparatus according to the present embodiment.
When the print data sent from the host computer 20 is received (step S21), the data is analyzed and the boundary value setting instruction CA is set, the boundary value setting unit 102 sets the set boundary value. Here, the front / back switching position calculated by the host computer 20 is set as the boundary value. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, when the maximum number of vertical dots of the print image I is 520 dots, 240 dots from the front end of the print image I to the space portion are set as boundary values.

  Further, the data receiving unit 101 continues data reception / analysis until a cut instruction CC, which is a print start instruction, is received. As a result of the data analysis, if it is print data, it is expanded in the print data storage unit 105 (step S22). At this time, the print data expansion unit 104 measures the number of dots of the expansion data expanded in the print data storage unit 105 (step S23). In addition, measurement of the number of image development data dots in the image data storage unit 107 is also included.

  When the cut instruction CC is received (step S24: Yes), it is determined whether there is a boundary value setting by the boundary value setting instruction CA (step S25). If the boundary value is set (step S25: Yes), The boundary value is set as the back surface printing start position (step S27). On the other hand, if the boundary value is not set (step S25: No), the half value of the measured dot number (boundary value = measured dot number / 2) is set as the boundary value, and the calculated boundary value is set as the back surface printing start position. Set (step S28).

  The printing unit 106 separates the developed data stored in the print data storage unit 105 into front surface data and back surface data based on the number of vertical dots set as the back surface printing start position, and simultaneously executes double-sided printing ( Step S29). For example, in the case of a print image as shown in FIG. 3, the print head 1061a executes surface printing based on the development data from the top end in the vertical direction of the development data to 240 dots, and the print head 1061b is 240 dots or more and is the maximum. Back side printing is executed based on the development data up to 520 dots in the number of vertical dots.

  Incidentally, the print image I to be printed in the present embodiment is composed of character data T and image data G. Since the image data G is defined in the image data storage unit 107, the image data is image data. It must be read from the storage unit 107 and printed. Only the character data is expanded in the print data storage unit 105. In other words, the print head 1061a performs surface printing based on the character data expanded from the vertical leading edge of the expanded data to 240 dots, while the print head 1061b is based on the image data read from the image data storage unit 107. As a result, the back side printing is executed. However, because the print data development unit 104 performs measurement in consideration of both the number of character data development dots and the number of image data development dots, depending on the boundary value setting, it may be divided and printed on the front and back sides of the image data. There is also a possibility.

  After performing duplex printing, the continuous paper 30 is cut (step S30), and the number of dots measured in step S23 is reset (step S31). Returning to step S21, the same processing as described above is repeated for the print data continuously sent from the host computer 20.

  Here, FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a printing result obtained by this processing. FIG. 5A shows the front side, and FIG. 5B shows the back side. In this example, the character data T constituting the print image I shown in FIG. 3 is printed on the surface of the continuous paper 30 as the print result 1 (print data developed in the print data storage unit 105). On the other hand, image data G constituting the print image I shown in FIG. 3 is printed as a logo X on the back surface of the continuous paper 30. Since double-sided printing is performed in this process, the continuous paper piece 30a obtained by cutting the continuous paper 30 has the length of the data with the larger number of dots when the development data is separated by the boundary value. That is, in the present embodiment, boundary value: 240 dots <maximum number of vertical dots−boundary value (520 dots−240 dots = 280 dots), and therefore the length of the data of the logo X is 280 dots.

  Incidentally, it is possible to set the boundary value as the maximum number of vertical dots: 520 dots. In this case, only the print head 1061a is driven, and one-sided printing is performed on the surface of the continuous paper 30 based on the data developed from the leading edge in the vertical direction to the maximum number of vertical dots: 520 dots.

  As described above, according to the printing apparatus 10 of the present embodiment, the boundary value setting instruction for setting the boundary value for separating the development data stored in the print data storage unit 105 from the host computer 20 into the front surface data and the back surface data. In accordance with CA, the boundary value of the expanded data can be set for each print data. If the boundary value is set, the print head 1061a executes the surface printing based on the development data from the front end in the vertical direction of the development data to the boundary value, and the print head 1061b develops from the boundary value to the maximum number of vertical dots. Backside printing is executed based on the data. Therefore, since the boundary value can be freely set for each print data sent from the host computer, even if the data length of each print data is different, depending on the setting of the boundary value, the front surface data and the back surface data of the continuous paper 30 The distribution of printing can be freely changed, and beautiful double-sided printing results can be output.

  Furthermore, since single-sided printing is executed when the boundary value is set to the maximum number of vertical dots, it is possible to switch between double-sided printing and single-sided printing by simply setting the boundary value without specifying a printing method in advance.

  Further, when no boundary value is set, the maximum number of vertical dots in the development data: the number of dots divided by half of 520 dots, that is, 260 dots is set as the boundary value. Print data can be distributed in a balanced manner. Further, since double-sided printing is performed, if the boundary value is halved of the maximum number of vertical dots, the length of the continuous paper piece 30a can be shortened to the maximum, so that consumption of the continuous paper can be suppressed. At the same time, the replacement frequency of the continuous paper 30 can be reduced.

  In addition, if you want to print the details of the purchased product on the front side and print a logo or coupon on the back side, you can set a boundary between the character data and the image data, so print on the back side from the middle of the image data. It will not be done. For this reason, it is possible to issue a double-sided printing receipt that appeals to the customer's vision and gives an impact.

  Further, since printing and cutting of the continuous paper 30 are performed only by the cut instruction CC, it is not necessary to use both the print start instruction and the cut instruction, and labor saving of command input can be achieved.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is the flowchart which showed the receipt job issue processing which the host computer of this execution form does. It is a figure which shows an example of the printing image expand | deployed by the buffer of the host computer of this embodiment. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a printing process performed by the printing apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1. It is a figure which shows an example of the double-sided printing result in the printing apparatus shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10: Printing apparatus, 20: Host computer, 30: Continuous paper, 30a: Continuous paper piece, 40: Store front terminal, 101: Data receiving part, 102: Boundary value setting part, 104: Print data expansion | deployment part, 105: Print data storage 107: Image data storage unit 106: Printing unit 1061a, 1061b: Print head 1062: Cut unit

Claims (1)

A printing apparatus that performs double-sided printing on a wound print object,
A data development unit that analyzes the print data and stores the data in the data storage area as development data;
Triggered by reception of a cut instruction, it is determined whether or not a boundary value setting instruction for separating the development data into data on one side and data on the other side is received,
If a boundary value setting instruction has been received, in accordance with the boundary value setting instruction, set a boundary value of the expanded data,
When the boundary value setting instruction is not received, the number of dots of the development data is measured, and when the conveyance direction of the print object is the vertical direction, the half value of the number of dots in the vertical direction of the print data is A boundary value setting unit to be set as a boundary value;
Based on prior Symbol boundary value is set by the boundary value setting unit, the separate decompressed data to the data of the data and the other surface of the one side, the print start instruction triggered by the reception of the cut instruction a printing unit that performs duplex printing according to,
A cutting unit for cutting the print object based on the cutting instruction;
Printing apparatus characterized by having a.

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