JPH08106368A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a printer which can give the information to show a user when his file printing job under execution is completed. CONSTITUTION: A computer 20 contains a command generation means 21 which generates the commands including a command to display the end of printing at the side of a printer 30, a status decoder means 28 which decodes the status sent from the printer 30, and a bidiretional communication means 27 which performs the communication between the computer 20 and the printer 30. Furthermore the printer 30 includes a command decoder means 33 which decodes the command sent from the computer 20, a printer language decoder means 32, a printer language type/contents-based execution time table 31, a time integrating counter 44 which calculates the print execution time, a present time input means 43, a print end time holding means 40, and a status generation means 36 which sends the printer status to the computer 20.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer which utilizes bidirectional communication between a computer and a printer and which can provide a user with information on when a file is printed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the structure of a conventional printer. In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a computer, which is a command generator 2, a memory 3, a printer driver 4, and a CP.
A U5, an input means 6 such as a keyboard, a display means 7, a bidirectional communication means 8 and a status decoding means 9 are provided. The printer 11 also includes a reception buffer 12 and a bidirectional communication means 1.
3, status generating means 14, image memory 15, printer engine 16, image developing means 17, printer language decoding means 18, command decoding means 19, and the like. 10 is a cable.

Next, the operation will be described. When printing is performed by the user, the file name to be printed is input from the input means 6 of the computer 1. At this time, the CPU 5 receives a print command (command or the like) from the input means 6. The CPU 5 sends a print command to the printer driver 4 to print the specified file. The printer driver 4 reads the designated file data from the memory 3. Next, the printer driver 4 converts the input data into a printer language readable by the printer 11. The printer driver 4 sends the data created through the bidirectional communication means 8 to the printer 11. The printer 11 receives the data by the bidirectional communication means 13 and takes the data into the reception buffer 12. Next, the command decoding means 19 fetches the data from the reception buffer 12 and checks whether the data is a command or image data.

If the data is a command, the printer 1
Reference numeral 1 retrieves a status corresponding to the content of the command (printer error inquiry, etc.) from the status generation means 14 and sends it to the computer 1. If the data is data relating to an image, the command decoding means 19 sends the data to the printer language decoding means 18. Printer language decoding means 1
At 8, the data is decoded and the data is sent to the image developing means 17. The image developing means 17 writes a bit image according to the type of data in the image memory (page memory) 15. This sequence is continued until one page of data is completed. When the data of one page is completed, the data is transferred from the image memory 15 to the printer engine 16 and printing is performed.

In parallel with this sequence, the printer 11 is made ready to receive data from the computer 1 side. At this time, if the user wants to confirm the status of the printer 11, he / she uses the input means of the computer 1 to make an input (printer monitor activation, etc.) in order to know the status of the printer 11. In response to the input from the input means 6, the CPU 5 sends a command for knowing the status of the printer 11 from the command generation means 2 to the printer 11 side through the bidirectional communication means 8. The printer 11 receives this data from the bidirectional communication means 13 in the reception buffer 12. Next, the command decoding means 19 uses the reception buffer 1
Receive data from 2. The command decoding means 19 detects that the data is a command for knowing the status of the printer 11. The command decoding means 19 transmits the status information of the printer 11 from the status generation means 14 to the computer 1 side through the bidirectional communication means 13. On the computer 1 side, the data transmitted from the printer 11 side is decoded by the status decoding means 9 to know the state of the printer 11. The CPU 5 displays the status information of the printer 11 on the display means 7 of the computer 1.
The user can know the status of the printer 11 (printing etc.) by these operations.

[0006]

However, in the conventional printer 11, although the user can know the current status of the printer 11, there is a problem in that the user cannot know when the file being printed was printed out. It was

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printer which can provide the user with information on when the printing of a file by the user is completed.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a command generation means for confirming the operation and status of the printer on the computer side, an input means, a display means, a printer driver, and the contents of the status from the printer. A status decoding means for decoding the printer and a bidirectional communication means for bidirectional communication with the printer, and a command decoding means for decoding the command on the printer side and a printer language decoding means for decoding the printer language And a status generating means for generating the status of the printer and a bidirectional communication means.

[0009]

With the above-described structure of the present invention, the user can know when the printed file is printed by the printer.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printer of the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are flowcharts of the operation of the printer. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 20 denotes a computer, a command generating means 21, a memory 2
2, printer driver 23, CPU 24, input means 2
5, a display means 26, a bidirectional communication means 27, and a status decoding means 28 are provided. 30 is a printer,
Printer language type / content execution time table 31, printer language decoding means 32, command decoding means 33, reception buffer 34, two-way communication means 35, status generation means 36, image expansion means 37, image memory 38, counter time conversion. A table 39, a print end time holding means 40, a printer engine 41, a display means 42, a current time acquisition means 43, a time integration counter 44, a printer language processing time investigation means 45, and a printer display determination memory 46 are provided. 29 is a cable of the bidirectional communication means 27, 35.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIGS. First, the user uses the input unit 25 of the computer 20 to input a print command for a file to be printed out (step 1). The CPU 24 receives the print command from the input means 25 and issues a print command for the file designated by the user to the printer driver 23 (step 2). The printer driver 23 stores the file specified by the user in the memory 2
2 and converts it into a printer language usable by the printer 30 (step 3).

The printer driver 23 uses the bidirectional communication means 27 to transfer the data converted into the printer language to the printer 3
Send to 0 (step 4). The reception buffer 34 of the printer 30 receives the data from the computer 20 by the bidirectional communication means 35 (step 5). Command decoding means 33
Receives data from the reception buffer 34 (step 6). Next, it is checked whether the data is a command (step 7). If the data is a command, the contents of the status corresponding to the contents of the command are sent to the computer 2 using the status generating means 36 and the bidirectional communication means 35.
0 (step 8). If the data is not a command in step 7, the data is sent to the printer language decoding means 32 (step 9). The printer language decoding means 32 detects information such as the type of data (step 1).
0). The data information is sent to the image developing means 37 (step 11).

The image developing means 37 creates image bitmap data according to the type of data and creates the image memory 3
8 (step 12). Next, receive buffer 3
It is checked whether the reading of the file data in 4 is completed (step 13). If the file data has not ended, the process returns to step 6. If it has ended, the process proceeds to step 14. The printer 30 transfers data from the image memory 38 to the printer engine 41 and prints (step 14).

Next, the printer checks whether the printing operation is completed (step 15). If printing is not completed, it is checked whether the printer 30 has an error (step 16). If the printer 30 has an error, the printing operation is stopped (step 17). If the printer 30 is not in error, it is checked whether there is a command from the computer 20 (step 18). If there is a command, the contents of the status corresponding to the contents of the command are sent to the computer 20 using the status generating means 36 and the bidirectional communication means 35 and the process proceeds to step 15 (step 19). If there is no command, go to step 15. Step 15
If the printing is completed with, the printing operation is completed.

The second embodiment of the present invention will be described below. 4 to 9 are flowcharts of the operation of the printer according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The configuration of the printer is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG. First, the user uses the input unit 25 of the computer 20 to input a print command for a file to be printed out (step 1). CPU 24
Receives a print command from the input means 25 and issues a print command for a file designated by the user to the printer driver 23 (step 2). The printer driver 23 takes out the file designated by the user from the memory 22 and converts it into a printer language usable by the printer 30 (step 3).

The printer driver 23 uses the bidirectional communication means 27 to transfer the data converted into the printer language to the printer 3
Send to 0 (step 4). The reception buffer 34 of the printer 30 receives the data from the computer 20 by the bidirectional communication means 35 (step 5). Command decoding means 33
Receives data from the reception buffer 34 (step 6). Next, it is checked whether the data is a command (step 7). If the data is a command, go to step 30 of FIG. Here, it is checked whether the content of the command is the print end time display (step 30). If the command does not indicate the print end time, the status generating means 36 displays the content of the status corresponding to the content of the command.
To the computer 20 using the two-way communication means 35, and the process returns to step 6 (step 32). When the command is the print end time display, the printer 30 sets a display present flag in the printer display determination memory 46 (step 31).

If the data is not a command in step 7, it is checked whether the data is the head data of the file (step 8 in FIG. 5). If it is the head data, the time integration counter 44 and the print end time holding means 40 have a counter corresponding to the file sent from the computer 20 and a time saving area, and the contents are cleared (step 9). If the data is not the top data in step 8, the process proceeds to step 10. The printer 30 sends the data to the printer language decoding means 32 and detects information such as the type of data (steps 10 and 11).

The data information is sent to the printer language processing time checking means 45 and the image developing means 37 (step 12).
The printer language processing time checking means 45 retrieves the processing time corresponding to the sent data from the printer language type / content execution time table 31 (step 13). The time taken from the printer language type / content execution time table 31 is added to the time integration counter 44 (step 1
4). The image expanding means 37 creates image bitmap data according to the type of data and writes it in the image memory 38 (step 15). It is checked whether the file data in the reception buffer 34 is completed (step 16).
If the file data has not ended, go to step 6. If the file data has ended, the print end time holding means 40 receives the counter value from the time integration counter 44 (step 17).

The print end time holding means 40 changes the counter value to time by the counter time conversion table 39 and determines the execution time (step 18). The print end time holding means 40 receives the time information from the current time acquisition means 43 (step 19). The print end time holding means 40 adds the time information and the execution time to determine the print end time (step 20). Next, it is checked whether the flag in the printer display judgment memory 46 is set (step 2).
1). If the flag is set, the printer 30 takes out the print end time from the print end time holding means 40 and displays it on the display means 42 of the printer (step 2).
2). If the flag is not set, step 23
Proceed to. In step 23, it is checked whether printing is completed (step 23). If printing is not completed,
It is checked whether the printer 30 has an error (step 24). If an error has occurred, the printer 30 stops the printing operation, erases the print end time from the display means 42, and ends (steps 25 and 26). If no error has occurred, it is checked whether a command is sent from the computer (step 33).

If no command has been sent, go to step 23. If the command is sent, it is checked whether the command is the print end time display (step 3).
4). When the command is the print end time display, the printer 30 sets a display present flag in the printer display determination memory 46 (step 35). Next, the printer 30 displays the print end time on the display means 42 (step 3
6) Go to step 23. If the command is not the print end time display, the contents of the status corresponding to the contents of the command are sent to the computer 20 using the status generating means 36 and the bidirectional communication means 35 (step 37), and the process proceeds to step 23. When printing is completed in step 23, the contents of the time integration counter 44 and the print end time holding means 40 are cleared (step 27). Printer 3
It is checked whether the flag 0 of the printer display determination memory 46 is set (step 28). If the flag is set, the printer 30 erases the print end time from the display means 42 (step 29). If the flag is not set, the operation ends.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the print output time of a file can be known, the user does not need to check the print output many times, and the print result can be obtained immediately after the print output. it can.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the operation of the printer according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the operation of the printer according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the operation of the printer according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the operation of the printer according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the operation of the printer according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the operation of the printer according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the operation of the printer according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of the operation of the printer according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 20 Computer 21 Command Generation Means 22 Memory 23 Printer Driver 24 CPU 25 Input Means 26 Display Means 27 Bidirectional Communication Means 28 Status Decoding Means 29 Cable 30 Printer 31 Printer Language Type / Content Execution Time Table 32 Printer Language Decoding Means 33 Command Decoding Means 34 Reception buffer 35 Two-way communication means 36 Status generation means 37 Image expansion means 38 Image memory 39 Counter time conversion table 40 Printing end time holding means 41 Printer engine 42 Display means 43 Current time acquisition means 44 Time integration counter 45 Printer Language processing time survey means 46 Printer display judgment memory

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. Bidirectional communication between a printer and a command generating means for confirming the operation and status of the printer on the computer side, an input means, a display means, a printer driver, a status decoding means for decoding the contents of the status from the printer, and the printer. And a bidirectional communication with a command deciphering means for deciphering the command on the printer side, a printer language deciphering means for deciphering the printer language, and a status generating means for generating the status of the printer. And a printer. 2. A command generating means on the computer side is provided with a command for displaying the print end time of the printer on the printer side, and a command decoding means for decoding the command on the printer side and a printer for detecting the print time. A language processing time investigation means and a printer language type / content execution time table storing processing time according to the type of printer language, a time integration counter, a current time acquisition means, and a print end time holding means for storing a print end time 2. The printer according to claim 1, further comprising a display unit for displaying the print end time.