JPH0640092A - Printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to reuse inputting printing information coming from an external device easily and efficiently without instruction from the external device also after it is printed out once by a printing device wherein plural items of printing information developed into dots are left in an image memory also after the printing so as to select them later. CONSTITUTION:Printing information sent from a host computer 10 is developed in an image RAM 16 and left in the RAM 16 after it is printed out. The printing information left in the RAM 16 is transmitted to an operator by a display shown at an area 7. In the present example of the display, 'memory 1', 'memory 2', 'memory 3' are displayed as an ID of each printing information. When the sent information has a file name, the display is continued like 'planning paper 1', 'planning paper 2', 'schedule list' successively. Each printing information is to be left also after completion of the printing as far as the RAM 16 has room. The underline at the 'memory 1' indicates that the information is selected.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus which develops various image data in an image memory and prints it out.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, a laser beam printer (LB
P), a printer engine such as an ink jet printer is used to develop character information and graphic information sent from a word processor, host computer, etc. into dot data, and a page printer that prints out by the printer engine rapidly It is popular.

[0003]

By the way, for example, when a page printer prints a plurality of copies of a document created by a word processor, it is rare to print the required number of copies of the document created by the word processor from the beginning. . That is, normally, in order to avoid wasteful printing, only one copy is printed out for confirmation, and if the condition is good, it is often printed again so that the required number of copies is reached.

However, in the page printer as described above, it takes time to develop character information and the like into dot data, and in particular, it takes a lot of time to develop a page including ruled lines and graphic information. is there.

Therefore, first, print out only one copy,
When confirming that the condition is good, and then performing dot development again so that the required number of copies is reached and printing out again, the same dot development must be performed twice in succession, and it takes time to print out. Such a drawback occurs.

Further, the printing operation as described above is performed according to a command from the word processor side. Therefore, it takes time and effort to instruct the output of the test print from the word processor side, check the test print from the page printer side, and then re-instruct the regular print output from the word processor side.

In addition to the test print, when it is necessary to add another printout after the printout, the word processor must be operated to execute the printout again. For example, if the word processor is used for other tasks,
Additional printouts could not be done immediately.

Some of the above page printers have a memory capable of storing character information or the like sent from a word processor in code form for one page or one document. The contents of this memory are new. The character information, etc., is updated every time it is sent from the word processor, and the character information etc. held in the past could not be reused.

The present invention provides a printing apparatus capable of easily and efficiently reusing print information input from an external device even after it has been printed out, without any instruction from the external device. The purpose is to

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a printing device for converting supplied print information into dot data and performing a printing operation based on the dot data, and means for storing dot data for a plurality of pages. , And has means for designating any one of the stored dot data of a plurality of pages.

[0011]

1 is a block diagram showing the construction of a page printer according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

The page printer is controlled by the host computer 10. The page printer is connected to the host computer 10 by a general-purpose computer interface such as a so-called Centronics interface RS-232C, and character information and image information to be printed and Inputs and outputs the status information of the page printer. The communication circuit 15 is a circuit for performing this communication.

A CPU 11 is a microcomputer for controlling the page printer as a whole, and includes a communication circuit 15, an operation unit 1 and a laser beam printer (LBP) 18.
And the process of dot-expanding the page image information to the image RAM 16. The program executed by the CPU 11 is stored in the ROM 12 and is used for work RA.
It is activated and executed at the same time when the power is turned on using M13.

The image RAM 16 is a memory for expanding and storing page image information to be transferred to the LBP 18, and can store images of a plurality of pages.

Then, the character code, graphic information, etc. sent from the host computer 10 are temporarily stored in the CPU 1.
After being converted into dot data by 1 and expanded in the RAM 16, the LBP is passed through the video interface circuit 17.
18 is output page by page.

The video interface circuit 17 sends the dot data to the LBP 18 to instruct the printer to operate.
This is a circuit for exchanging status information.

The LBP 18 is instructed by the CPU 11 to
A series of operations such as paper feeding and image formation are performed.

The operation unit 1 is an operation panel composed of a display and an input key group, and exchanges display data and key input data with the CPU 11 via the operation unit interface 14.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a configuration example of the operation section 1. It should be noted that only the configuration relating to the functions of the present invention is shown here.

The display device 2 is of a liquid crystal dot matrix, for example, and can display characters and figures. Further, the operation unit 1 is provided with a clear key 3, an up key 4, a down key 5, a print key 6, etc. as input keys.

The print information sent from the host computer 10 is left in the RAM 16 even after being expanded in the image RAM 16 and printed out. And this RA
The print information remaining in M16 is transmitted to the operator by the display as shown in the area 7 of FIG. In this display example, “Memory 1”, “Memory 2”, and “Memory 3” are displayed as the ID of each print information. The display is performed as "Kakusho 1", "Kikaku 2", and "Yotei leopard". As long as the RAM 16 has sufficient space, each print information is retained even after the printout is completed.

Further, in FIG. 2, the item "memory 1" is underlined, which means that the print information is selected. When the print key 6 is pressed in this state. When the print information is printed out and the clear key 3 is pressed, the print information is R
It will be erased from AM16.

In this way, the up key 4 and the down key 5 are used to select the print information to be output or the print information to be erased.

For example, when it is desired to output the print information of the memory 3 in the state shown in the figure, the down key 5 is pressed twice, the underline is moved to the display portion of "memory 3", and then the print key 6 is pressed.

On the other hand, when it is desired to erase the print information, the underline is similarly moved and then the clear key 3 is pressed.

The area 8 of the display 2 is an area for displaying the device status of the page printer. For example, a paper jam or a device failure is displayed.

Next, FIG. 3 shows the CPU 1 in this embodiment.
3 is a flowchart showing the operation of No. 1.

First, when the power is turned on, the I / O, each interface circuit, etc. are initialized (S1).

By inputting print information online from the host computer 10, the image RAM 16
It is determined whether or not image expansion to (1) is necessary (online output determination) (S2).

Here, when online output is not required, the state of the operation unit 1 is checked, and it is determined whether there is a print instruction of the print information previously output online (offline output determination) (S3). .

If the output is not offline,
It is determined whether or not the clear key 3 of the operation unit 1 is input (S10).

In S2, the host computer 10
If there is an online output instruction from the image RAM1,
6 or the memory content of the RAM 13 is checked to see if the image RAM 16 has a developed image. If the image RAM 16 has room, a new ID is registered as it is. If there is no room, the old image information is erased and then a new ID is registered (S).
5).

Next, the print information actually sent is expanded on the image RAM 16 (S6). After this expansion, the LBP 18 is activated to print out the expanded contents of the image RAM 16 (S7).

After this output, it is judged whether or not the print information remaining on the image RAM 16 is left (check of confidential information) (S8). If the information is information that should not be left, the data is erased immediately after printing (S9). The confidential information is sent from the host computer 10 together with the print information. By doing so, it is possible to prevent the secret document or the like from being output later by using the function of the present invention.

Further, when the offline output is instructed from the operation unit 1 in S3, the designated print information is output from the image RAM 16 and printed out by the LBP 18 (S4).

Similarly, when the clear key 3 is input from the operation unit 1 in S10, the designated print information is erased (S11).

In the configuration example of the operation unit 1 described above, the up key 4 and the down key 5 are used to select print information to be erased or printed out. However, since the capacity of the image RAM 16 is small, for example, here If there is only one page of print information that can be stored in, a unique print key or clear key is provided for each print information that can be stored, and the print information is automatically selected by selecting these keys. You may make it possible to erase and print out. Further, in this case, if a display element such as an LED is used to display whether or not the print information is valid corresponding to each key, an LCD display or the like having a large screen as shown in FIG. 2 is provided. There is no need, and the operation unit 1 can be constructed at low cost.

In the first embodiment, the case where a plurality of copies of the same image are printed out is not described.
In the configuration of the operation unit 1, for example, the number of times the print key 6 is pressed may be output.
When a plurality of copies can be printed out in this way, it is effective to provide a stop key for stopping the printing operation on the way.

In addition, in order to instruct printing of a plurality of copies,
The number of sheets may be designated by using a ten-key pad (not shown).

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the following description, configurations and operations common to those of the first embodiment will be described with the same reference numerals and step numbers.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a page printer according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

The page printer 19 is controlled by the host computer 10. The page printer 19 is connected to the host computer 10 by a general-purpose computer interface such as a so-called Centronics interface RS-232C, and character information and image information to be printed. For P
The print information including DL and the status information of the page printer are input and output. The communication circuit 15 is a circuit for performing this communication.

The CPU 11 is a microcomputer for controlling the page printer 19 as a whole, and includes a communication circuit 15, an operation unit 1, and a laser beam printer (LBP).
The control of 18 and the processing of dot-expanding the page image information to the image RAM 16 are performed. The program executed by the CPU 11 is stored in the ROM 12, and is started and executed simultaneously with power-on using the work RAM 13.

The image RAM 16 is a memory for expanding and storing page image information to be transferred to the LBP 18, and can store an image of dot data representing a plurality of pages or a plurality of documents.

The print information including character information, graphic information, etc. sent from the host computer 10 as PDL is once converted into dot data by the CPU 11 and expanded in the RAM 16 and then via the video interface circuit 17. And output to the LBP 18 page by page.

The video interface circuit 17 sends the above dot data to the LBP 18 to instruct the operation of the printer,
This is a circuit for exchanging status information.

The LBP 18 is instructed by the CPU 11 to
A series of operations such as paper feeding and image formation are performed, and an image is recorded on the recording material based on the dot data given from the RAM 16 via the video interface circuit 17.

The operation unit 1 is an operation panel composed of a display and an input key group, and exchanges display data and key input data with the CPU 11 via the operation unit interface 14.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a configuration example of the operation section 1. It should be noted that only the configuration relating to the functions of the present invention is shown here.

The display device 2 is of a liquid crystal dot matrix, for example, and can display characters and figures. Further, the operation unit 1 is provided with a clear key 3, an up key 4, a down key 5, a print key 6, an overwrite key 9 and the like as input keys.

The RAM 16 is used even after the printout is completed.
Leave it inside. Then, the dot data remaining in the RAM 16 is transmitted to the operator by the display as shown in the area 7 of FIG. In this display example, "Memory 1", "Memory 2", and "Memory 3" are displayed as the ID of each print information, and when the sent information includes a file name or the like. Continuously displays such as "Kikakusho 1", "Kikakusho 2", "Yotai leopard". As long as the RAM 16 has enough space, each dot data is retained even after the printout is completed. The ID of the print information may be arbitrarily input from the operation unit. Further, this ID information is stored in the management table of the RAM 13 together with the memory address and the like.

Further, in FIG. 5, an underline is displayed in the "Memory 1" section, which means that the dot data is selected. When the print key 6 is pressed in this state. Indicates that the dot data is LB
It is given to P18 and printed out, and clear key 3
When is pressed, the dot data is erased from the RAM 16.

When the overwrite key 9 is pressed, the dot data is overwritten with the dot data obtained by expanding the print information next input from the host computer 10.

In this way, the up key 4 and the down key 5 are used to select the dot data to be output, the dot data to be erased or the dot data to be overwritten.

For example, to print out the dot data in the memory 3 in the state shown in the figure, press the down key 5 twice,
It is sufficient to press the print key 6 after the underline is moved to the display portion of "memory 3".

On the other hand, when it is desired to erase the dot data that cannot be reused, the underline is moved to the display position indicating the memory to be erased and the clear key 3 is pressed. This prevents the RAM 16 from being occupied by unnecessary data.

The area 8 of the display 2 is a page printer 19
This is an area for displaying the device status of. For example, an operation state such as online printing or offline printing, a paper jam, or a device failure is displayed.

Next, FIG. 6 shows the CPU 1 in this embodiment.
3 is a flowchart showing the operation of No. 1.

First, when the power is turned on, I / O, interface circuits, etc. are initialized (S1).

Then, it is determined whether or not an online print request is issued from the host computer 10, that is, whether or not it is necessary to convert the print information input online from the host computer 10 and expand it in the image RAM 16 (online output determination). (S2).

Here, when the online output is not requested, it is determined according to the operation state of the operation unit 1 whether or not there is a print instruction for the dot data previously output online and stored in the RAM 16. (Offline output determination) is performed (S3).

If the output is not offline,
It is determined whether or not the clear key 3 of the operation unit 1 is input (S4).

In S2, the host computer 10
If the online output is instructed from, it is determined whether or not the overwrite key 9 of the operation unit 1 is input (S1).
2). If the overwrite key 9 is not input, the memory contents of the image RAM 16 are checked and the image RAM 1
Check whether there is a developed image in 6. Then, if there is a room to store new dot data in the image RAM 16, a new ID is registered as it is. If there is no room, the old dot data is erased and then a new ID is registered. (S5). If there is no room, the display 2 may be displayed to prompt the operator to erase the dot data with the clear key 3.

Next, the print information actually sent from the host computer 10 is subjected to dot development on the image RAM 16 (S6). After this expansion, the LBP 18 is activated to print out the expanded contents of the image RAM 16 (S7).

After this output, it is judged whether or not the dot data remaining in the image RAM 16 should be left (check of confidential information) (S8). Here, in the case of information that should not be kept from the viewpoint of confidentiality, the data is erased immediately after printing (S
9). Data indicating that the dot data is confidential information is sent from the host computer 10 together with the print information. By doing so, it is possible to prevent the secret document or the like from being output later.

On the other hand, when the overwrite key 9 of the operation unit 1 is input and an overwrite operation is instructed, the print information sent from the host computer 10 is dot-developed,
The dot data is recorded by being overlaid on the dot data in the RAM 16 designated by the overwrite key 9 (S1).
3). As a result, it is possible to obtain dot data in which new dot data is combined with any one of the dot data previously stored in the RAM 16.

After this overwriting, the LBP 18 is activated to print out the expanded contents of the RAM 16 (S
7).

When the print key 6 of the operation unit 1 is input in S3 and offline output is instructed, the designated dot data is output from the image RAM 16 and printed out by the LBP 18 (S4). ).

Similarly, when the clear key 3 is input from the operation unit 1 in S10, the designated print information is erased (S11). This makes unnecessary information R
It is possible to prevent waste that continues to be held in the AM 16.

In the configuration example of the operation section 1 described above, the up key 4 and the down key 5 are used to select the dot data to be erased or printed out. RA is provided by providing a print key, a clear key, and an overwrite key, and selectively operating these keys.
The dot data in M16 may be selected to be erased or printed out. Further, in this case, if the dot data corresponding to each key is displayed by using a display element such as an LED, an LCD display device having a large screen as shown in FIG. 5 is provided. There is no need, and the operation unit 1 can be constructed at low cost.

Further, in the above embodiment, in the configuration of the operation section 1, for example, the number of copies corresponding to the number of times the print key 6 is repeatedly pressed may be output. When a plurality of copies can be printed out in this way, it is effective to provide a stop key for stopping the printing operation on the way.

Further, in order to instruct printing of a plurality of copies,
The number of sheets may be instructed by using a numeric input mechanism such as a numeric keypad.

Further, in the above embodiments, the page printer made of LBP is used, but an ink jet printer, a thermal printer or the like may be used.

[0074]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By printing multiple dot-decoded print information in the image memory even after printing out, and making it possible to select any of these later, for example, after printing out a document to be tested and confirming it, officially A process of printing out or a process of printing out after increasing the number of copies can be efficiently performed by one dot expansion, and a quick printing operation can be obtained.

Further, since the image memory can hold dot data for a plurality of pages or a plurality of documents,
Dot data representing some documents that have been printed out in the past is retained on the printing device side without being erased, and the past data is printed again based on the retained arbitrary dot data in the past. Dot data can be reused.

Further, the reuse of the dot data held in the image memory can be executed by using the operation unit of the printing apparatus without the need of an instruction from an external device such as a host computer, so that it can be held in the printing apparatus. It is possible to easily reuse the existing dot data.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an operation unit in the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation in the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing an operation unit in the second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation in the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Operation part, 2 ... Indicator, 3 ... Clear key, 4 ... Up key, 5 ... Down key, 6 ... Print key, 9 ... Overwrite key, 10 ... Host computer, 11 ... CPU, 12 ... ROM, 13 ... RAM, 14 ... Operation unit interface, 15 ... Communication circuit, 16 ... Image RAM, 17 ... Video interface circuit, 18 ... LBP, 19 ... Page printer.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A storage device for storing a plurality of pages of dot data in a printing apparatus which inputs predetermined print information, converts it into dot data, and performs a printing operation based on the dot data.
And a selection unit for selecting any one of the dot data for a plurality of pages stored in the storage unit. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing operation is performed based on the dot data selected by the selection unit. 3. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the dot data selected by the selection unit is erased. 4. The printing device according to claim 1, wherein the dot data selected by the selection unit is overwritten with other dot data.