JPH08108599A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To interrupt printing when the results of printing failed to satisfy a user by stopping the use of input data as printing data in order to make the printing data unusable in the course of printing. CONSTITUTION: When printing is effected according to a printing data, a user ascertains the results of printing after the printing of the first sheet. If the results are different from the printing desired by the user, an on-line button 31 on a control panel 30 is pushed. By this operation, data sending from a host computer is stopped temporarily. Next, the user pushes a data neglect button 34 on the control panel. Then, a data interpretation means is initialized to be ready for the next data input. A kind of process is implemented in which data are not used as the printing data in taking data from a text memory until the job end data of a printer control language indicating the end of a series of data is input.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer device for printing according to data input from a host computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, data input from a host computer is in accordance with a printer control language unique to the data interpreting means, and the data includes a character code and a paper discharge instruction.

The printer device has a data interpreting means, and the data interpreting means interprets the input data and prints the meaning of the data.

Further, a control panel composed of various buttons and a display panel is provided on the upper surface of the printer device, which allows online control of data input and various settings such as the number of copies. .

Regarding the data interpreting means, there are many publicly known ones in which this technique has already been put into practical use, and therefore detailed description thereof will be omitted.

[0006]

However, the data sent from the host computer may not be printed as desired due to a selection error of the data interpretation means.

At this time, there is a problem that a large amount of erroneously printed paper is produced, which is very annoying to the user and is uneconomical.

On the other hand, most of the conventional printer devices can be put into the offline state and the data input can be stopped by pressing the online button on the control panel. In many cases, the printer has a reception buffer for data and more data than the data being developed by the data interpreting means has already been taken into the printer device, and as a result, useless printing is often not stopped even when the printer is offline. There was a problem.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and when the printed result is unpleasant for the user, the printing can be immediately stopped so that the subsequent printing is not performed. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer device capable of doing so.

[0010]

In order to achieve this object, a printer device according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises a data interpreting means for interpreting data according to data of a printer control language and various settings of the printer device. In a printer device having a control panel for enabling printing according to the data transmitted from the host computer, the printer device is operably provided on the control panel to make the print data in a non-use state during printing. And a data ignoring unit that prevents the data input by the data interpreting unit from being used as print data based on the operation of the data ignoring operating unit.

Further, when the data ignoring means does not use the data as print data, the printer device according to the second aspect is peculiar to the printer control language as a delimiter for ending the data ignoring state. Job end data detection means for checking whether or not job end data has been input may be provided.

Further, the printer device of claim 3 may be provided with an initialization means for initializing the current state of the data interpretation means when the data ignoring operation body is operated.

According to the printer device of claim 4,
The data ignoring unit may be configured to maintain the input data not to be used as print data only while the data ignoring operation body is operated.

Further, in the printer device according to the fifth aspect, a series of data to be input after the data ignoring means prevents the data from being used as print data based on the operation of the data ignoring operation body is eliminated. A data end detecting means may be provided for detecting the fact that the data disregard state is ended.

[0015]

According to the printer device of the first aspect of the present invention having the above-mentioned configuration, as shown in FIG. 1, when printing is performed in accordance with the data sent from the host computer, the data interpreting means selects an error or the like. If the printing desired by the user is not performed, the data ignoring operation body on the control panel is operated. Based on the operation of the data ignoring operation body, the data ignoring means prevents the data input to the data interpreting means from being used as print data.

According to the printer device of claim 2,
When the data ignoring unit does not use the data as print data, the job end data detecting unit receives job end data specific to the printer control language as a delimiter for ending the data ignoring state. Check whether or not. The data remains unusable as print data until the job end data is input. If the job end data is input, the data can be used as print data. Therefore, it is possible to automatically return from the print stopped state to the normal print state.

According to the printer device of claim 3,
When the data disregard operation body is operated, the initial state of the initialization means and the present data interpretation means is initialized. Therefore, the data at this time will not be erroneously printed, and the printing can be reliably stopped.

According to the printer device of claim 4,
Since the data ignoring means maintains the input data not to be used as the print data only while the data ignoring operation body is operated, the user can arbitrarily decide the non-printing state, and the usability is improved. It can be a good printer device.

Further, according to the printer device of the fifth aspect, the data end detecting means inputs after the data ignoring means does not use the data as print data based on the operation of the data ignoring operation body. Detecting that a series of data is no longer input, the data ignoring state is ended. Therefore, it is possible to automatically return from the print stopped state to the normal print state.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is embodied in a laser printer will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the control circuit of the laser printer of this embodiment. The microcomputer unit 20, which is the main body of this control circuit, includes a CPU 3, a program ROM 4, a dot data memory 5, and a working memory 6.
And a text memory 7 and the like.

The CPU 3 and the like are connected by a bus 10, and the input unit 1 and the printing unit 2 are also connected to the bus 10. The input unit 1 inputs necessary data to the microcomputer unit 20, and the printing unit 2 converts the dot data stored in the dot data memory 5 based on a command from the microcomputer unit 20 and prints the dot data. This is a part performed by an electrophotographic method.

The program ROM 4 stores a program of data interpreting means for creating dot data. The dot data memory 5 is for storing dot data generated from input data. The working memory 6 is for temporarily storing data required when the CPU 3 executes a program. The text memory 7 is for storing data such as a character code and a character size input from the input unit 1.

FIG. 3 is a view showing the control panel 30 installed on the upper side surface of the laser printer of this embodiment. The control panel 30 includes an online button 31 that enables online / offline control, a menu button 32 that performs an instruction operation to display various menu contents, a setting button 33 that sets the menu, and an input unit. The data ignoring button 34 that informs the data interpreting means by setting a data ignoring flag so that the data inputted from 1 will not be used as print data by the data interpreting means, the display panel 35 for displaying a menu and the like, and the text memory 7 Data lamp 36 indicating whether or not there is data
And is constituted by. The data ignore button 34
Are components of the data ignoring operation body of the present invention.

A method for creating print data according to data input from the host computer will be described below with reference to FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 4, first, if it is in the online state in step S1, the printing data sent from the host computer is input from the input unit 1 in step S2 and stored in the text memory 7 in step S3. To do. The operations of steps S1 to S3 are designed to operate independently of the data interpreting means.

Further, as shown in FIG. 7, when the data ignoring button 34 on the control panel 30 is pushed offline in step P1, the data ignoring flag is set in step P2 and the data interpreting means is executed in step P3. To initialize. The processing step of step P3 functions as the initialization means of the present invention. After that, in step P4, the online state is set, and the data is taken in again from the input unit 1. The above-mentioned pressing of the button on the control panel 30 is performed in the CPU 3 by an interrupt process, and the process of setting the data disregard flag is performed during the interrupt.

As shown in FIG. 5, as the operation of the CPU 3, if it is confirmed in step T1 that the data is stored in the text memory 7, step T1 is executed.
In 2, the data interpretation means inputs the data stored in the text memory 7. Next, in step T3, it is determined whether or not the data ignore flag, which is set by pressing the data ignore button 34 on the control panel 30, is set, and if the data ignore flag is not set. In this case, command analysis is performed in step T4, and operation is performed according to the input data in step T5. Specifically, when the character code is sent, a bit map of the character of the character code is created and stored in the dot data memory 5.

After setting the dot data, the dot data stored in the dot data memory 5 is used by the printing unit 2 for printing.

In step T3, if it is confirmed that the data disregard flag is set, step T6
Then, the data is not used as print data as the data interpreting means program. That step T6
The processing step of (1) functions as the data ignoring means of the present invention.

Then, in step T7, it is checked whether the input data is the job end data in the printer control language, and if it is the job end data, step T7.
At 8, the data disregard flag is cleared. Here, when the data disregard flag is cleared, the subsequent data will be used for normal printing. The processing step of step T7 functions as the job end data detecting means of the present invention.

Also. As shown in FIG. 6, when it is confirmed that the data is stored in the text memory 7 in step R1, the data lamp 36 is blinked in step R2. This operation is performed in the CPU 3 by the processing within the timer interrupt.

The following is a description of the process performed when the printed result is not what the user desires, which is the gist of the present invention.

When printing is performed according to the above procedure according to the printing data sent from the host computer,
After printing the first sheet, the user confirms the printing result, and when the printing is different from the printing desired by the user, the online button 31 on the control panel 30 is pressed. This temporarily stops the data sent from the host computer. In this case, the data interpreting means is already in the text memory 7.
The data stored in is sequentially interpreted and printing continues.

Next, the user presses the ignore data button 34 on the control panel 30. As a result, the interface in the offline state is changed to the online state, and the data sent from the host computer is sequentially stored again in the text memory 7. At this time, data remains in the dot data memory 5 and the data lamp 36 is lit, but by pressing the ignore data button,
The data interpreting means is initialized and prepared for the next data input. Then, when the job end data in the printer control language indicating the end of the series of data is input, the data is not used as the print data when the data is fetched from the text memory 7. When the job end data is sent from the host computer, the data interpreting means again interprets the data fetched from the text memory 7 as usual.

In the present embodiment, the period during which the input data is not used as the print data is set until the job end data indicating the data end specific to the printer control language is input. It may be limited while the user keeps pressing the ignore button. In this case, the period in which the data is not used as print data can be arbitrarily determined based on the user's free will. In addition, after the data ignore button is pressed, it may be configured to have a data end detection unit that ends the data ignore state by detecting that a series of continuously input data is no longer input. Good.

In the present embodiment, the control panel is composed of four buttons, the display panel and the data lamp. However, what kind of data is provided if the data ignoring operation body, which is the gist of the present invention, exists? The structure does not matter.

Further, the present invention can be applied to printers other than laser printers for printing graphics.

Besides, the present invention can be implemented in various modified and improved forms based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art.

[0040]

As is apparent from the above description,
According to the printer device of the present invention, when the result printed during printing is unpleasant for the user, if the data ignoring operation member is operated, the printing can be interrupted immediately, and wasteful printing after that can be ensured. You can stop at.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing the content of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control circuit of the printer apparatus which is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a control panel of the printer device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a data input method of a program stored in a program ROM of a control circuit.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the contents of a data conversion program of the programs stored in the program ROM of the control circuit.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the content of one process in a timer interrupt of the programs stored in the program ROM of the control circuit.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the contents of processing when a data ignore button is pressed among the programs stored in the program ROM of the control circuit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 3 CPU 4 Program ROM 7 Text memory 30 Control panel 34 Data ignore button

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A data interpreting means for interpreting data according to printer control language data, and a control panel for enabling various settings of a printer device, and printing according to data transmitted from a host computer. In a printer device, a data ignoring operation body that is operably provided on the control panel and is operated to make print data in an unused state during printing, and the data ignoring operation body based on an operation of the data ignoring operation body. A printer apparatus comprising: a data ignoring unit that prevents the data input by the interpreting unit from being used as print data. 2. When the data ignoring unit does not use the data as print data, whether or not job end data specific to the printer control language is input as a delimiter for ending the data ignoring state. 2. The printer device according to claim 1, further comprising a job end data detection unit for checking whether or not the printer end data is detected. 3. The printer device according to claim 1, further comprising an initialization unit that initializes a current state of the data interpretation unit when the data ignoring operation body is operated. 4. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the data ignoring unit maintains the input data not to be used as print data only while the data ignoring operation body is operated. apparatus. 5. The data ignoring is performed by detecting that a series of data input after the data ignoring means prevents the data from being used as print data based on the operation of the data ignoring operation body is detected. The printer apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a data end detection unit for ending the state.