JPH04213447A - Frame number printing method for autoprinter - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automatically print a frame number on the back surface of a printed photograph on manual printing after a out of synchronism of frame position data occurs, and the frame position data from an LSI card, etc., can not be used. CONSTITUTION:While the out of synchronism of the frame position data is detected a frame number bar code is detected besides a film feeding quantity. When the out of synchronism of data is decided, the number of a frame actually set at the printing position of the film carrier is specified from the frame number bar code detected in advance. The frame number data is sent to a printer and the frame number is automatically printed on the back surface of the printed photograph.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for printing frame numbers in an auto printer, and more particularly to a method for printing frame numbers in an auto printer when a synchronization shift in frame number data occurs.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art In large-scale photofinishing laboratories, developed films are subjected to negative verification using a notcher puncher, a negative verification machine, etc., and then are sent to an automatic printer to print a large number of ordered films. As is well known, a notcher puncher notches a semicircular notch on a frame to be printed, inputs exposure correction data, and records this exposure correction data together with frame position data on a paper tape or recently an LSI card, etc. Record on media. At the time of printing, the recording medium and the film to be printed are set in the auto printer. An auto printer sets the frame to be printed at the print position based on the notch, identifies exposure correction data from an LSI card, etc. from the frame position data, and automatically corrects the exposure amount using this exposure correction data. Print and expose.

0003

In the above autoprinter, exposure correction data for a frame set at a print position is specified based on frame position data, and the exposure amount is automatically corrected using this exposure correction data. Therefore, if a synchronization error occurs in which the frame position data and the frame actually set at the print position do not match and deviate from each other, automatic exposure correction based on the frame position data becomes impossible. Therefore, there is a problem in that automatic printing cannot be performed thereafter. This data synchronization error is
Malfunction of the film feed section of the film carrier,
This occurs due to incorrect notch detection or even incorrect operation.

Incidentally, in recent years, it has become common practice to print negative film frame numbers on the back side of printed photographs so that frames can be easily specified when making additional prints. This frame number printing is performed based on the frame position data input to the recording medium using the notcher puncher, etc., so if a synchronization error occurs in the above data, printing will be performed automatically from now on. The problem is that it becomes impossible to do so.

[0005] The present invention is intended to solve the above-mentioned problem, and even when frame position data and actual frames do not match in an auto printer and a data synchronization error occurs, in subsequent manual printing, To provide a frame number printing method for an automatic printer capable of printing a frame number on the back of a printed photograph without particularly inputting the frame number or the like.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention detects a film feed amount and a frame number bar code when the film is fed when setting a frame to be printed at a print position on a film carrier. Then, compare the frame position data and the actual film advance amount to determine if the data is out of sync, and when it is determined that the data is out of sync,
In addition to switching from auto print mode to manual print mode, the actual frame number set at the print position on the film carrier is identified from the detected frame number barcode, and the frame number is printed on the back of the printed photo based on this frame number data. It was designed to do this.

[0007]

[Operation] The frame position data inputted at the time of negative verification etc. is compared with the actual film advance amount, and if the two do not match, it is determined that the data is out of synchronization. When this data synchronization shift occurs, the frame position data input during negative verification cannot be used, so the automatic print mode is automatically switched to the manual print mode. During detection of data synchronization, in addition to the film feed amount, a frame number barcode is detected during film feed. After determining that there is a simultaneous data shift, the frame number of the frame to be printed that is actually set at the print position is specified based on the read data of the frame number barcode. Then, based on this specified frame number data,
Print frame numbers during manual printing.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the autoprinter shown in FIG. 2, a negative film 10 that has undergone negative inspection is wound onto a take-up reel 11 and set on a mounting shaft 12. The auto printer is also provided with an LSI card reader 13, into which an LSI card 14 into which data has been input using a negative verification machine or the like is set.

As shown in FIG. 3, a large number of orders of film 10 are spliced together using splice tape 15 to make a long film, and a notch 17 is formed in a frame 16 to be printed by a notcher. Then, the position data, frame number data, and exposure correction data of each frame 16 are stored in the LSI card 14 based on the number of notches counted by the negative verification. For example, distance data is used as the position data of the frame, and is stored as the distance E between the splice tape 15 and the leading notch 17, and the distances L1, L2, . . . between each notch. In addition, the code|symbol 41 in a figure is a notch sensor, 46 is a barcode reader, and 4
7 is a splice sensor, and its arrangement in the film carrier 20 is shown. Each of these sensors and readers will be explained in detail below.

As shown in FIG. 2, a film carrier 2
A well-known light source section 21 is disposed below 0. The light source section 21 includes a light source 22, a filter drive section 23, and a mixing box 24. The filter drive unit 23 includes cyan, magenta, and yellow color filters 25 to 27, and by inserting these color filters into the printing optical path 28, the intensity of the three color components of the printing light is adjusted. The mixing box 24 uniformizes the quality-adjusted printing light to illuminate the frame to be printed on the film carrier 20.

Above the film carrier 20, a printing lens 31 and a shutter 32 are arranged between the color paper 30 and the film carrier 20.
and a paper mask 34 are arranged. The printing lens 31 transfers the image of the frame to be printed onto the color paper 30.
The image is formed on the photosensitive emulsion surface. The shutter 32 is driven by a shutter drive section 33 and opens for a predetermined period of time to print and expose the image of the frame to be printed onto the color paper 30.

The film feeding section 35 includes a dancer roller 36.
The film 10 is pulled out from the take-up reel 11 by adjusting the tension of the film 10 almost constant.
Send to film carrier 20. The film carrier 20 is provided with a pair of film feed rollers 37 and 38. The film feed roller pair 37, 38 is rotated by a motor 39 via a driver 39a. film carrier 2
At the print position 0, a carrier mask 40 that suppresses the film 10 during printing and a notch sensor 41 are arranged. The notch sensor 41 detects a notch 17 recorded on a frame of the film 10 to be printed. This notch detection signal is sent to the controller 45.

A bar code reader 46 and a splice sensor 47 are arranged on the film inlet side of the film carrier 20. The barcode reader 46 reads the film 1
The frame number barcode recorded on one side edge of 0 is read, and the DX barcode recorded on the other side edge is read and sent to the controller 45. Splice sensor 47 detects splice tape 15 on film 10 . This splice tape detection signal also
It is sent to the controller 45. Printed film 1
After being fed frame by frame by a pair of feed rollers 37 and 38, the film 0 is wound onto a take-up reel 49 by a film feeding section 48.

A frame number printing device 50 is arranged on the film exit side of the paper mask 34. The frame number printing device 50 prints the film 1 having the printed image based on the frame number signal sent from the controller 45.
A frame number of 0 is printed on the back side of the color paper 30. The frame number printer 50 can also print exposure correction data, order numbers, etc. in addition to frame numbers.

The controller 45 is composed of a well-known microcomputer, and in addition to sequentially controlling each part based on a program stored in a built-in ROM,
Detects out-of-synchronization of position data of frames to be printed, and prints frame numbers when out-of-synchronization. The controller 45 includes a keyboard 52 for inputting various commands, and a display 5 for displaying these commands and various data.
3 is connected.

FIG. 1 shows a processing procedure for detecting a shift in position data of a frame to be printed. Further, FIG. 4 shows a functional block diagram of the controller 45. The operation of this embodiment will be explained below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 4. First, the film 10 to be printed is placed on the take-up shaft 12, and the LS
Set the I card 14 into the LSI card reader 13. After passing the film leader attached to the leading end of the film through the transfer path of the film carrier 20, it is attached to the take-up reel 49. Thereafter, when the auto print mode is set and printing is started, the controller 45 sets the frame to be printed at the print position based on the notch detection signal from the notch sensor 41. This positioning is performed by feeding the film 10 by a fixed amount after detecting the notch. After the frame to be printed is set, the exposure amount is corrected based on the exposure correction data for each frame from the LSI card 14, and then the frame to be printed is printed and exposed. After the printing exposure, the paper 30 and film 10 are fed frame by frame, and the next print is performed in the same manner. During this frame feeding, frame numbers and the like are printed by the printer 50.

During this automatic printing, the controller 4
5 detects the film feed amount when the film 10 is fed frame by frame, and the film feed amount and the LSI card 14 are
Compare the frame position data from . The film feed amount is determined, for example, by counting the pulses of the pulse motor 39. As shown in FIG. 4, the data shift determiner 60 determines that the data is out of synchronization when the film feed amount and frame position data no longer match, and automatically switches from the auto print mode to the manual print mode. At the same time, the out-of-sync signal is sent to the alarm 61.
, frame number identification calculation section 62, negative channel identification section 63
and sends it to the selector 65. The alarm 61 issues a warning based on this synchronization shift signal.

The controller 45 operates the barcode reader 46 during auto-printing, reads the frame number barcode and DX barcode of the film 10 being printed, and reads the read data as it is. The data is stored in a predetermined area of the memory 64. At the time of synchronization deviation, the frame number identification calculation unit 62 reads the reading data of the frame number barcode read during auto-printing from the memory 64, performs calculation processing to identify the frame number at the print position based on this, and selector 65
and sends it to the display 53. The selector 65 switches the frame number data based on the synchronization error signal, and uses the frame number data in the frame position data from the LSI card 14 in the auto print mode and the frame number from the frame number specifying calculation unit 62 when the data is out of synchronization. The data is output to the printer 50. And when printing manually,
Back printing is automatically performed based on the frame number data specified by this frame number barcode. In this way, the frame number is not specified during auto-printing, but only when a synchronization error occurs, so there is no need to perform time-consuming calculations to specify the frame number each time. Efficient calculation processing can be performed. The method of specifying the frame number based on the frame number barcode is described in detail in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 305336-1983 and 102539-1999.

Further, the negative channel specifying section 63 uses the lookup table memory to obtain the negative channel, which is the film type information at the printing position, from the DX code data read during autoprinting,
This negative channel is displayed on the display 53 according to the operation of
to be displayed.

In manual printing, an operator observes the frame to be printed and inputs exposure correction data as necessary based on the observation results. Manual printing is performed for one order, for example. Thereafter, after performing an operation to match the frame position data of the LSI card 14 with that of the new order, the mode is switched to auto print mode, and auto print is performed thereafter.

In the above embodiment, the film feed amount is determined by the motor 3 that rotates the film feed roller pair 37, 38.
Although this is indirectly detected by counting 9 drive pulses, the actual feed amount may also be detected directly.

[0022]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention,
During auto printing, read the frame number barcode recorded on the side edge of the photo film, and if a synchronization error occurs in the frame position data, the frame number will be added to the printed photo based on the frame number specified based on the frame number barcode. Since numbers are printed, frame numbers can be printed automatically even during manual printing when a synchronization error occurs.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when an autoprinter embodying the present invention is out of synchronization.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an autoprinter.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a film used in an autoprinter, an example of its frame position data, and the arrangement of each sensor on a film carrier.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of a controller of the auto printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Film 14 LSI card 30 Color paper 41 Notch sensor 46 Barcode reader 47 Splice sensor 50 Printer

Claims (1)

[Claims] [Claim 1] Using a photographic film with a frame number barcode recorded on the side edge, the frame to be printed recorded on the film is compared with the position data of the frame to be printed that is input in a negative verification process etc. before printing. In an auto printer that automatically prints on photosensitive material based on the correction data of each frame and also prints the frame number on the printed photo based on the frame number data, when setting the frame to be printed at the print position on the film carrier. When advancing the film, the film advance amount and the frame number barcode are detected, and the frame position data and the actual film advance amount are compared to determine if there is a data synchronization error. In addition to switching from print mode to manual print mode, it identifies the actual frame number set at the print position on the film carrier from the detected frame number barcode, and prints the frame number on the back of the printed photo based on this frame number data. A frame number printing method for an auto printer, which is characterized by: