JPH0930079A - Printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To start warm-up at a proper timing and reduce power consumption by providing a warm-up start instruction means which decides a timing for releasing a stand-by state and sends a release instruction to a stand-by state setting means. SOLUTION: A page buffer 24 stores temporarily a bit map data to be supplied by a job control section 22 during printing by an image recording section 25. During non-print processing after a power source is turned on, a stand-by state setting section 26 sets the image recording section 25 to a stand-by state and releases the stand-by state in response to a raising command to be supplied by a client 1. By releasing the stand-by state, warm-up of the image recording section 25 is automatically started. A heater temperature rises to, for example, about 200 deg.C so as to be in a printable state. The stand-by state means a state that a temperature of a heater for fixing a toner in the image recording section 25 is kept power-thrifty with a comparatively low temperature of 100 deg.C or lower during the time when printing is not performed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that forms an image by an electrophotographic method based on print data supplied from a host device such as a personal computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, printers having an image recording section employing an electrophotographic system have been widely used. In this type of printer, it is necessary to perform so-called warm-up in the data reception waiting state from the reception of data to the start of printing. In this warm-up, the polygon mirror for laser light irradiation is rotated at a constant speed, and the toner fixing heater is raised to a predetermined temperature (for example, 200 ° C.). In particular, since it takes a relatively long time to start up the heater temperature, the time required for warm-up (hereinafter referred to as warm-up time) cannot be ignored as a print waiting time by an operator who uses the printer. In order to avoid such a waiting time, it is sufficient to keep the heater at the above predetermined temperature so that the printer can print at any time. However, keeping such a state wastes power consumption and motor life. It is not preferable because it shortens the life.

Conventionally, as an attempt to solve such a problem, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-234257 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-234257.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 344639 discloses a technique of predicting a print start time from a progress status of development into image data and a transfer rate of data input from the outside, and performing start-up control so as to start warm-up of the printer in advance. Has been done.

[0004]

By the way, a printer whose warm-up time is much longer than the image development time,
In the dumb printer, which is becoming widespread in recent years, a method of expanding the character code into a bitmap image on the client side (a device that issues a processing request such as a personal computer) and then supplying the bitmap data to the printer is called a dumb printer. If you do not start the printer warm-up before supplying data to the printer, you will not be able to start printing. However, in each of the conventional techniques described in the above publications, the printer starts predicting the print start time after receiving the data, and therefore the waiting time is substantially shortened in the above cases. There was a problem that I could not do it.

The present invention has been made under such a background, and even in a printer or a dam printer having a long warm-up time, the warm-up can be started at an appropriate timing, the power consumption is small, and the printing is started. It is an object to provide a printing device having a short waiting time.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 1 responds to a print start instruction by
Data conversion means for converting document data given together with the instruction into bitmap data and outputting the data, image forming means for forming an image on a predetermined print medium by electrophotography based on the bitmap data, and the image forming means. A standby state setting means for setting the standby state and releasing the standby state in response to a release instruction;
A predicting unit that predicts a conversion time of the document data by the data converting unit, a conversion time predicted by the predicting unit, and a transition to a printable state after the image forming unit is released from a standby state. It is characterized by comprising warm-up start instructing means for determining the release timing of the standby state on the basis of the difference from the required time until the release, and for issuing a release instruction to the standby state setting means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer including a printer that outputs an image in response to a print request and a host device that issues a print request to the printer, wherein the printer is the host device. An image forming unit that forms an image on a predetermined print medium by an electrophotographic method based on the supplied bitmap data, and a standby state that sets the image forming unit in a standby state and releases the standby state in response to a release instruction. A data conversion unit that converts the document data given together with the instruction to start printing into bitmap data according to a print start instruction;
Prediction means for predicting the conversion time of the document data by the data conversion means in response to the print start instruction, and conversion time predicted by the prediction means and printing after the image forming means is released from the standby state It is characterized by further comprising warm-up start instructing means for determining a release timing of the standby state based on a difference from a time required to shift to the state and for issuing a release instruction to the standby state setting means.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the invention, the data transfer time from the data conversion means to the image forming means is predicted based on the data transfer capacity and the data amount. The warm-up start instructing means includes the estimated total time of the conversion time and the data transfer time and the time when the image forming means is released from the standby state to the printable state. The release timing of the standby state is determined based on the difference from the required time, and a release instruction is issued to the standby state setting means.

(Operation) According to the invention described in claim 1, the conversion time from the document data to the bitmap data is predicted in advance in response to the print start instruction, and the predicted conversion time and the image forming means are in the standby state. Based on the difference from the time required to shift to the printable state after being released, the appropriate release timing of the standby state of the image forming unit is determined,
The waiting state of the image forming unit is released at the release timing without waiting for the end of the conversion by the data converting unit.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, also in a so-called dumb printer, an appropriate release timing is supplied before the bitmap data is supplied to the printer side without waiting for the conversion end by the data conversion means in the host device. The standby state of the image forming unit can be released with.

According to the third aspect of the invention, in addition to the operation of the first or second aspect of the invention, the data transfer time from the data converting means to the image forming means is also predicted,
The standby state of the image forming unit can be released at an appropriate release timing taking this into consideration.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. A: Configuration of Embodiments FIGS. 1 and 2 are block diagrams showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a client (that is, a higher-level device such as a personal computer) 1 that issues a print request to a printer 2. 2 is shown, and FIG. 2 shows the structure of the printer 2.

In FIG. 1, a client 1 includes a platform 11 and an operating system (hereinafter referred to as O
S) 12, a printer driver 13, and an application program (hereinafter referred to as AP) 14. The platform 11 includes hardware such as a CPU, a memory, a hard disk, a timer, and an interface (not shown) that are components of a personal computer or the like.

The OS 12 is basic software for efficiently operating the above hardware parts. Also,
The AP 14 is, for example, software such as a word processor or a database, and generates document data to be printed based on the input operation of the operator. Further, the printer driver 13 is software for converting the document data generated by the AP 14 into bitmap data that can be printed as an image by the printer 2 connected to the client 1 and supplying the bitmap data to the printer 2. CP mentioned above
The U controls each part of the hardware based on the software 12 to 14 and performs a process for issuing a print request to the printer 2, and also controls the start-up of the printer 2 based on time prediction using a timer. The details of this operation will be described later.

In FIG. 2, the printer 2 is a dumb printer that outputs a hard copy based on the bit map data supplied from the client 1, and comprises the following parts. That is, reference numeral 21 is an interface inserted to connect the client 1 and the printer 2, and is based on, for example, Centronics, RS232C, Ethernet, or the like.

Reference numeral 22 is a job management unit, and 23 is a print data storage unit for storing bitmap data. The job management unit 22 writes the bitmap data received via the interface 21 in the print data storage unit 23 in units of jobs, reads the bitmap data stored in the print data storage unit 23 in the order in which they should be processed, and reads the bitmap data. Write to page buffer 24. In addition,
The print data storage unit 23 is composed of a semiconductor memory, a hard disk, or the like.

The page buffer 24 is a memory for temporarily storing the bitmap data supplied by the job management unit 22 during the printing process by the image recording unit 25. The page buffer 24 normally stores bitmap data in page units, but various methods such as storing a plurality of pages or storing less than one page as a unit can be adopted depending on the processing speed request. The image recording unit 25 forms an image on a recording sheet (not shown) by, for example, a laser xerography system.

Further, reference numeral 26 is a standby state setting section. The standby state setting unit 26 sets the image recording unit 25 in the standby state while the printing process is not performed after the power is turned on, and cancels the standby state according to the start-up command supplied from the client 1. Here, in the standby state, the temperature of the heater (not shown) for toner fixing in the image recording unit 25 is relatively low (for example, 100 ° C.) while the printing process is not performed.
It is a state corresponding to power saving, such as keeping the following).
When the standby state is released, the image recording unit 25 automatically
Warming up is started, the heater temperature is raised to about 200 ° C., and printing is possible.

B: Operation of Embodiment Hereinafter, the operation of the embodiment having the above configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the client 1, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the printer 2.

(1) Overall Operation In FIG. 3, the client 1 executes the AP 14 as a pre-process before issuing a print request to the printer 2 and generates document data based on the input operation of the operator (step). S11). When the generation of this document data is completed, the client 1 waits for input until the operator gives a print start instruction (step S12).

When there is a print start instruction, the client 1
Converts the document data into bitmap data that can be processed by the printer 2 (step S13). On the other hand, in parallel with the process of step S13, the print data creation time Pt, the print data transfer time Tt, the drawing time Rt to the page buffer 24, and the warm-up time Wt are predicted by the method described below (step S15). The time obtained by the equation (1) is set in the timer (step S1
6). Pt + Tt + Rt-Wt ............ (1)

As a result, the timer starts counting down from the set time, and when the count value reaches "0" (step S17), it sends a start-up command for starting warm-up of the printer 2. (Step S18). However, when the result of the above equation (1) becomes a negative value, the set time of the timer is set to "0". In this case, the startup command is immediately sent to the printer 2. Then, the above-described print data creation processing (step S
When 13) is completed, the bitmap data is sent to the printer 2 (step S14).

On the other hand, in FIG. 4, the printer 2 is in a standby state until the startup command is supplied from the client 1 after the power is turned on (step S21). Then, when the startup command is supplied from the client 1, the standby state is released and the warm-up is started (step S22). This warm up is complete,
When the bitmap data is supplied from the client 1 (step S23), the data is received (step S24), and the printing process is performed (step S25).

(2) Time Prediction Next, the time prediction in step S15 will be described. First, the main factors that determine the print data creation time Pt are the type of AP14 such as a word processor, spreadsheet, database, etc., the number of characters of document data, the number of pages, the complexity of images such as tables and figures, the model of the printer 2. , The performance of the CPU (in this case, the CPU performance of the client 1). Therefore, in order to predict the print data creation time Pt, first, the conditions of these elements are specified, and the table (stored in the memory) holding the relationship between each condition and the print data creation time is referred to. The print data creation time Pt is calculated. Note that the values in this table do not have to be fixed,
It is also possible to change the value by learning and make more accurate prediction. Further, although the above conditions are specified by analyzing the document data, the other conditions are given in advance as known values.

Next, the main factors that determine the print data transfer time Tt are the amount of data and the transfer speed.
The condition of is specified by analyzing the document data, and the condition of is given as a known value. If these conditions are determined, the print data transfer time Tt can be predicted by a predetermined calculation.

Next, the drawing time R to the page buffer 24
The main factors that determine t are the amount of data and the CPU performance of the printer 2. Also in this case, the condition of is specified by the analysis of the document data, while the condition of is given as a known value. Then, the drawing time Rt is predicted based on these conditions.

Further, the main factors that determine the warm-up time Wt are the model of the printer 2 and the current temperature of the heater. The current temperature of the heater can be detected by providing a temperature sensor in or near the heater itself and inquiring the temperature detection value from the client 1 to the printer 2. Then, the warm-up time Wt can be predicted from the heater temperature and the model of the printer 2 which is a known condition.

C: Modification Example The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and the following modifications can be made. (1) The present invention is also applied to a printing apparatus of a type in which document data is converted into bitmap data on the printer 2 side instead of converting document data into bitmap data on the client 1 side as in the case of the dumb printer described above. It is possible. In this case, the printer driver 13 converts the document data generated by the AP 14 into print data such as PDL (Page Description Language) data that can be interpreted by the printer 2 connected to the client 1 and converts this into print data.
To send to. On the other hand, the printer 2 includes, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, an image expansion unit 27 that converts the print data supplied by the job management unit 22 into bitmap data,
A font storage unit 28 that stores font data for the image expansion unit 27 to convert the character code into bitmap data is provided. As a result, the print data supplied from the client 1 on the printer 2 side can be converted into bitmap data.

In this case as well, it is possible to perform time prediction in the same manner as in the above embodiment, but the following points differ from the above embodiment. That is, the print data creation time Pt
For, regarding the CPU performance of the printer 2, the conversion time from print data to bitmap data is predicted. However, if the print data is PDL data, the language used is included in the prediction conditions. As for the print data transfer time Tt, the transfer time for transferring the print data instead of the bitmap data is predicted.

(2) Further, as the set time of the timer,
Not limited to the time obtained by the above equation (1), when the predictable time is limited to a fixed time, for example, the time obtained by either of the following equations (2) and (3) is It may be set. Pt-Wt ……………… (2) Pt + Tt-Wt ………… (3)

(3) The warm-up time Wt is
Instead of being the target of prediction as in the above embodiment, it may be stored in the memory as a known fixed value in advance.

(4) Further, the above-described time prediction may be performed by either the client 1 or the printer 2 regardless of whether the printer 2 is a dumb printer or not. That is, if it is configured such that various kinds of information necessary for time prediction such as data amount can be transmitted and received through communication, the time can be predicted on the printer 2 side in the case of a dumb printer, and the dumb printer can also perform time prediction. When the printer is not a printer, it is possible to predict the time on the client 1 side.

(5) Further, the operation of the printer driver 13 does not always send all data to the printer 2 after generating all the data, and the data is sequentially sent to the printer 2 every time a predetermined unit of data is generated. May be sent. In this case, the amount of data to be the target of time prediction (for example, the number of pages) may be predicted in correspondence with the unit of data transmission.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, since warm-up can be started at an appropriate timing even in a printer or a dumb printer having a long warm-up time, power consumption can be suppressed and printing can be started. The waiting time can be shortened.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printer according to the same embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of the client.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation of the printer.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printer according to a modified example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 client 2 printer 11 platform 12 OS 13 printer driver 14 AP 21 interface 22 job management unit 23 print data storage unit 24 page buffer 25 image recording unit 26 standby state setting unit 27 image expansion unit 28 font storage unit

Front page continued (72) Inventor Yoshihiko Nemoto, 2274 Hongo, Ebina City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor, Masami Kurata, 2274 Hongo, Ebina City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A data conversion means for converting document data given together with a print start instruction into bitmap data and outputting the bitmap data, and forming an image on a predetermined print medium by an electrophotographic method based on the bitmap data. Image forming means, a standby state setting means for setting the image forming means to a standby state, and releasing the standby state in response to a release instruction, and a document conversion process for the document data by the data converting means in response to the print start instruction. Prediction means for predicting the conversion time, and the waiting time based on the difference between the conversion time predicted by the prediction means and the time required for the image forming means to shift from the standby state to the printable state. Warming-up start instructing means for determining a release timing of the state and for issuing an instruction to release the standby state setting means. That the printing device. 2. A printing device comprising a printer that outputs an image in response to a print request and a host device that issues a print request to the printer, wherein the printer is based on bitmap data supplied from the host device. An image forming unit that forms an image on a predetermined print medium by an electrophotographic method; and a standby state setting unit that sets the image forming unit in a standby state and releases the standby state in response to a release instruction, The upper device, in response to a print start instruction, converts the document data given together with the instruction into bitmap data and outputs the data, and a conversion time of the document data by the data conversion means according to the print start instruction. Prediction means for predicting, conversion time predicted by the prediction means, and a printable state after the image forming means is released from the standby state. Based on the difference between the time required to shift to, a printing apparatus wherein the determining the release timing of the standby state, characterized by comprising a warm-up start instruction means for issuing a release command to the standby state setting means. 3. A second predicting unit for predicting a data transfer time from the data converting unit to the image forming unit based on a data transfer capacity and a data amount, wherein the warm-up start instructing unit is the predicted unit. Based on the difference between the total time of conversion time and data transfer time and the time required for the image forming means to shift to the printable state after the standby state is released, the standby state release timing is determined, The printing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a cancellation instruction is issued to the standby state setting means.