JPH05238114A - Page printer equipped with gathering function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To omit labor for rearranging pages later by a method wherein in the case where a plurality of copies are printed with a small sized page printer which is likely to be uncapable of being equipped with a sorter function, occupied time of a printer output of a host computer is decreased and a printed result is made to be delivered onto a stacker by being arranged a copy by a copy in the order of the page. CONSTITUTION:By storing once a printing data of a whole page being an object for an output of a plurality of copies in a hard disk 3 from a reception buffer 2 with a control part 4, resending of the printing data from a computer is gone. Besides, a printed result is a copy by a copy discharged in the order of the page to a stacker 9.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of realizing a collating function of a page printer which is a peripheral output device of a computer, and more particularly to a single output stacker which does not have a sorter mechanism for output in a small printer. The present invention relates to a method of realizing a collating function when there is only one.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional page printer, when printing a plurality of copies, control is performed so that all the print data of several copies is repeatedly output from the computer to the printer or the same page is continuously output to the printer. I was instructing with a code.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional method, it takes time to output all the print data from the computer to the printer, and the computer cannot be used during that time.

Although the printer continuously outputs the same page by the number of copies, there is a problem that it takes time to rearrange the output results one by one.

An object of the present invention is to provide a page printer with a collating function that solves the above problems.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a page printer with a collating function according to the present invention is provided with a reception buffer for receiving print data from an external input and a content of the print data in the reception buffer. Auxiliary storage device that can store all pages, and multiple copies print data start code and multiple copies print data end code are detected from the reception buffer to detect multiple copies print data start and multiple copies print in the auxiliary storage device. A control unit for issuing an instruction to store print data during the end of the data and, after detecting the end of the print data of a plurality of copies, repeatedly outputting the print data for the required number of copies from the auxiliary storage device and printing. Is.

[0007]

[Function] While carrying out a normal printing operation for expanding a bit image from the reception buffer to the page buffer, an auxiliary storage device such as a hard disk, which can directly store the print data of all the pages constituting a part, is provided. After the printing of all pages corresponding to is completed, the print data stored in the auxiliary storage device is read and the remaining number of copies is printed.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a computer, 2 is a reception buffer, 3 is a hard disk, 4 is a control unit, and 5 is a character pattern generation unit.

Further, 6 is a page memory, 7 is a video signal conversion unit, 8 is a video printer unit, and 9 is a stacker.

Print data of a character to be printed is sent from the computer 1 to the reception buffer 2, and further converted into a bit image by the character pattern generator 5 and expanded in the page memory 6.

The contents of the page memory 6 are converted into a video signal by the video signal converter 7 and sent to the video printer 8. The print result of the video printer unit 8 is output to the stacker 9.

Since the stackers 9 are overlapped in the order printed by the face-down stacker, there is no need to rearrange them in page order later.

Next, a case of printing a plurality of copies will be described. When the control unit 4 detects the control code for starting the plural-number print data in the reception buffer 2, it passes the received print data to the character pattern generating unit 5 until the control code for ending the plural-number print data is detected. The data is stored in the hard disk 3 in parallel.

Further, at this time, the control unit 4 reads and stores the number of print copies designated by the parameter portion of the control code for starting the print data of a plurality of copies.

When the control section 4 detects the control code indicating that the printing of a plurality of copies has been completed, the control section 4 gives an instruction to the reception buffer 2 to prohibit the reception of print data from the computer 1.

The print data received after the control code for finishing the printing of a plurality of copies is left in the reception buffer 2, and thereafter, the print data for printing a plurality of copies is read out from the hard disk 3, and the character pattern generator 5 is read. Send to
Print the second copy.

Until the designated number of copies have been printed, the print data is repeatedly read from the hard disk 3 and sent to the character pattern generator 5 for printing.

By the above processing procedure, the stacker 9
The print results are output, with each part arranged in page order.

[0020]

As described above, the page printer with collating function of the present invention has an advantage that it is not necessary to rearrange the print results. Furthermore, there is an advantage that the time occupied by the printer output of the connected upper computer can be shortened.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Computer 2 Reception Buffer 3 Hard Disk 4 Control Section 5 Character Pattern Generation Section 6 Page Memory 7 Video Signal Conversion Section 8 Video Printer Section 9 Stacker

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A receiving buffer for receiving print data from an external input, an auxiliary storage device capable of storing the contents of the print data of the receiving buffer for all pages, and starting a plurality of sets of print data from the receiving buffer. And an instruction to store the print data between the start of the multi-copy print data and the end of the multi-copy print data in the auxiliary storage device by detecting the code of the end of the multi-copy print data and detecting the end of the multi-copy print data. Is a page printer with a collating function, which has a control unit that repeatedly takes out print data for a required number of copies from the auxiliary storage device and issues an instruction to print.