JPH09109488A - Electrophotographic printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To dispense with the operation to sort out per copy by executing a printing operation in the offset stacking mode for discharging sheets staggeredly for each of copies of a printed document when setting a collation mode for printing each copy in the order of running pages as a mode for printing the same document in plural copies. SOLUTION: This printer device 4 consists of an engine control part 2 for analyzing, editing and controlling the printing of data to be sent from a printer driver part 1 and a printer engine part 3 for executing the printing process based on the data to be sent from the engine control part 2. When setting the number of copies for printing, these parts set the number of copies to be printed and decide whether or not collation printing should be performed, and decide whether or not offset stacking should be performed in the case the collation printing is performed. When the offset stacking is designated, it is controlled that each of the pages is printed in the order of running pages for a plural number of copies of the same document, and at the same time, the sheets of each of copies of a printed document are discharged staggeredly.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrophotographic printing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A collation function is used when printing a plurality of copies of a document page by page, but when the print data and print control data designating the collation printing are received from the host computer, the engine control unit The received data is analyzed and edited to generate video data. As an example, when printing two copies of a document consisting of three pages and specifying the collation function, the engine control unit edits three pages of video data on the memory.
In order to print the first copy, video data is sequentially transmitted from the first page to the third page to the printer engine section. Next, in order to print the second copy, the video data is repeatedly transmitted from the first page to the third page in order to the printer engine section. Further, when the offset stacking mode is set in the printer device having the offset stacking function, when the print document is discharged to the discharge tray, the discharge position of the print document may be shifted, for example, left and right for each print job. Is possible.

[0003]

Conventionally, when collation printing is designated, even if the offset stacking mode is set, printing two copies of a document consisting of three pages is judged as one job. Because it was
Both copies of the document were stacked at the same discharge position.
Therefore, after the printing, the sorting work must be performed again while checking the number of pages, and the work efficiency was poor.

An object of the present invention is to provide an electrophotographic printing apparatus which is excellent in workability and does not require sorting work for a plurality of printed documents.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an engine control unit for processing print data and control data sent from a host computer, and a printer engine unit for printing based on the data sent from the engine control unit. In an electrophotographic printing apparatus having a collation mode for printing one copy in page order as a mode for printing a plurality of copies of the same document, when the collation mode is set, the print document is set to 1 This is achieved by making it possible to specify the offset stacking mode in which the sheets are shifted and ejected.

[0006]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is a printer driver unit that enables the printer device 4 to set printing conditions on the host computer. The printer device 4 is based on an engine control unit 2 that analyzes, edits and prints print data and control data transmitted from the printer driver unit 1, and video data and print control data transmitted from the engine control unit 2. It is composed of a printer engine unit 3 that executes a printing process. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a setting screen when the number of print copies is set by the printer driver unit 1. When setting print settings for multiple copies, select the number of copies and whether or not to perform collation printing.
Next, when performing collation printing, whether or not to perform offset stacking is selected. When the setting of each item is completed, "OK" is selected to complete the setting. The printer driver unit 1 generates print control data and print data according to the set print conditions.

FIG. 3 shows the structure of print control data generated by the printer driver unit 1 in the print setting for a plurality of copies. The print control data and the print data are converted into a page description language and transmitted to the engine control unit 2 as one file. As shown in Figure 3, %% Setcopies: n, %% S
When etCollation: on, %% SetOffsetSatcking: on specify collation printing and offset stacking in the print setting of a plurality of copies, they are described in the header section as print control data. The engine controller 2 analyzes the transmitted print data and print control data.

FIG. 4 shows a flow chart of a process in which the engine control unit 2 analyzes print control data designating printing of a plurality of copies. First, it is determined whether the number of print copies is 2 or more. When the number of print copies is 1, 1 is set in the internal register. If it is 2 or more, the value is set in the internal register and it is determined whether collation printing is designated. When collation printing is designated, 1 is set in the internal register, and when it is not designated, 0 is set. When collation printing is specified, it is determined whether offset stacking is specified. If offset stacking is specified, 1 is set in the internal register, and if it is not specified, 0 is set and the process returns. The print control information is stored in the management table on the internal memory.

FIG. 5 schematically shows a management table that the engine control unit 2 has for managing the print control information. Next, the engine control unit 2 operates the printer engine unit 3
Edit the video data and print control data.
When editing the print control data, reference is made to the data set in the management table for managing the print control information. Normally, the print control data includes information such as a paper size, a paper feed tray, and a paper discharge tray. However, when offset stacking is designated when collation printing is designated, the offset stacking information is also added. Next, the engine control unit 2 transmits the edited print control data and video data to the printer engine unit 3 as many times as the number of copies designated. This allows the offset stacking to be specified for each copy. The printer engine unit 3 executes the printing operation according to the print control data and the video data transmitted from the printer control unit.

[0010]

According to the present invention, the engine control section for processing the print data and the control data transmitted from the host computer and the printer engine section for performing the printing operation based on the data transmitted from the engine control section are provided. Then
In an electrophotographic printing apparatus having a collation mode that prints one copy page by page as a mode for printing a plurality of copies of the same document, when the collation mode is set, the print documents are shifted one copy at a time. Since the offset stacking mode for discharging the sheets can be designated, it is not necessary to sort the printed documents by the number of copies, and it is possible to provide an electrophotographic printing apparatus having excellent workability.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a setting screen of a printer driver unit.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of print control data generated by a printer driver unit.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a management table of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Printer driver section, 2 ... Engine control section, 3 ... Printer engine section

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Internal reference number for FI Technical location H04N 1/00 H04N 1/00 C (72) Inventor Kei Iwasa 1060 Takeda, Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Hitachi, Ltd. Machine Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Shinichi Kishi 1060 Takeda, Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Hitachi Koki Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Toshihide Inaba 1060 Takeda, Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Hitachi Koki Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An engine control unit for processing print data and control data transmitted from a host computer, and a printer engine unit for performing printing operation based on the data transmitted from the engine control unit. In an electrophotographic printing apparatus having a collation mode for printing one copy in page order as a mode for printing the number of copies, when the collation mode is set, the print document is offset by one copy and discharged. An electrophotographic printing device characterized in that a stacking mode can be designated.