JPH05134827A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To report the lack of housed paper sheets in comparison with the number of paper sheets required for printing and to prevent printing beforehand from being interrupted by the lack of housed paper sheets. CONSTITUTION:A printing condition setting part 11 sets printing conditions such as printing pages and the number of copies or the like, and the start of printing is instructed and set. Afterwards, a remaining paper sheet detection part 12 counts the number of paper sheets 17 in a paper sheet housing part 16. A paper sheet excess/lack deciding part 13 compares the current number of counted paper sheets 17 with the number of paper sheets required for the set printing conditions and decides the excess/lack of paper sheets. When the detected number of paper sheets 17 is more than the set number of paper sheets, a 'printing start enable' state is decided and when the detected number is less than the set number, a 'printing start disable' state is decided. In the case of the 'printing start enable' state, a printing part 15 executes printing onto the paper sheets 17. In the case of the 'printing start disable' state, a reporting part 14 displays a message on a screen so as to show the paper sheets 17 housed in the paper sheet housing part 16 are lacked.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing device used for a Japanese word processor, a personal computer or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a printing apparatus used for this kind of word processor, personal computer, etc., a created document, a drawing, or a document stored in a floppy disk or the like, is output as a hard copy. This printing apparatus stores a large number of hard copy sheets and prints on the stored sheets.

[0003]

By the way, in the conventional printing apparatus, when the number of sheets required for printing is smaller than the number of stored sheets, there is a drawback that the printing is interrupted due to running out of sheets during printing. .

The present invention solves such a conventional problem, and is capable of notifying the shortage of the number of stored sheets with respect to the number of sheets required for printing, and is capable of preventing the interruption of printing due to the shortage of the stored sheets. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing device.

[0005]

In order to achieve this object, the printing apparatus of the present invention comprises a print number setting means for setting the number of print sheets when printing supplied document creation information or stored information, and a document. Designated by the printing unit that supplies the creation information or the storage information to print on the paper, the sheet number counting unit that counts the number of printing sheets stored before printing in the printing unit, and the printing number setting unit It is provided with notifying means for comparing the number of printed sheets with the number of sheets counted by the sheet number counting means, and notifying when the counted number of sheets is insufficient.

[0006]

Therefore, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention, the specified number of printed sheets is compared with the counted number of stored sheets to notify the shortage of the number of stored sheets with respect to the number of sheets required for printing. Therefore, it is possible to prevent printing interruption due to a shortage of paper.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of a printing apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the embodiment. In FIG. 1, this example is a document in which printing is started from a plurality of documents,
A printing condition setting unit 1 for setting printing conditions such as a drawing or a document stored in a file, selection of a drawing (hereinafter referred to as print information as necessary), a print page range, and the number of copies.
1 and a remaining sheet number detecting section 12 that is connected to the printing condition setting section 11 and counts the remaining number of sheets stored at the time of instructing to start printing. The remaining sheet number detecting unit 12 may use a known bill number counting device or the like.

Further, it is connected to the remaining sheet number detecting section 12,
A paper excess / deficiency determination unit 13 that compares the number of sheets required for printing the designated number of prints and the number of copies with the number of stored sheets counted by the remaining number of sheets detection unit 12, and determines the excess or deficiency.
A notification unit 14 that is connected to the paper excess / deficiency determination unit 13 and notifies that the number of sheets required for printing is insufficient, and a printing unit 15 that prints print information on the stored paper are provided. Further, a paper storage unit 16 configured integrally with the printing unit 15 is provided, and the paper 17 is stored therein.

Next, the operation of this configuration will be described. Here, it is assumed that the entire print information is a document of 10 pages, and the first 1 to 5 pages are printed with the number of copies being 5.

The printing condition setting unit 11 sets the first page to the fifth page in this 10-page document. Furthermore, 5 copies are set. In a Japanese word processor or the like, a predetermined condition is set in addition to the print condition. After setting the printing conditions, the start of printing is instructed and set.

After the printing start instruction and setting, first, the remaining sheet number detecting section 12 counts the number of sheets 17 stored in the sheet storing section 16. This counted current paper 17
The number of sheets is compared with the number of sheets required for the printing conditions set by the printing condition setting unit 11 and the paper excess / deficiency determination unit 13 compares and determines.

Here, specifically, the printing condition setting unit 11
The number of sheets required for the printing conditions set in is 25 sheets,
The 25 sheets are compared with the number of sheets 17 stored in the sheet storing section 16 which is counted and detected by the remaining sheet number detecting section 12.

If the number of stored sheets 17 counted and detected by the remaining sheet number detecting section 12 is 25 or more, "printing is ready"
To determine. If it is less than 24 sheets, it is determined that "printing cannot be started". Here, when the determination is “printing is possible”, the printing unit 15 prints on the paper 17.

On the other hand, when the judgment is "print start impossible", the notifying section 14 performs the processing. In the notification unit 14, the paper 1 stored in the paper storage unit 16 is provided to the printing operator.
A message indicating that 7 is insufficient, for example, "insufficient printing paper" is displayed on the display (not shown).

As described above, it is possible to easily determine whether the paper 17 required for printing is in excess or deficiency, prevent the paper from running out during printing, eliminate printing interruption, and perform efficient printing.

In particular, when the printing operator leaves the printing apparatus after instructing and setting the printing, it is possible to effectively prevent the interruption of printing for a long time due to paper shortage during printing.

[0018]

As is apparent from the above description, in the printing apparatus of the present invention, the designated number of printed sheets is compared with the counted number of stored sheets, and the sheets are stored with respect to the number of sheets required for printing. Since the shortage of the number of sheets is notified, it is possible to prevent the interruption of printing due to the shortage of sheets.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a printing apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Printing Condition Setting Section 12 Remaining Number of Sheets Detection Section 13 Paper Excess / Insufficiency Determination Section 14 Notification Section 15 Printing Section 16 Paper Storage Section 17 Paper

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A print number setting means for setting the number of prints when printing the supplied document creation information or storage information, and a printing section for printing on a sheet to which the document creation information or storage information is supplied. A sheet number counting unit for counting the number of printing sheets stored before printing in the printing unit, a printing number designated by the printing number setting unit, and a sheet number counted by the sheet number counting unit. Compare
A printing apparatus comprising: a notification unit that notifies when the counted number of sheets is insufficient.