JPH10291347A - Printer and printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To configure a system capable of sorting printed matters easily and inexpensively by providing means for housing paper feed cassettes for a printing means in different arrangement, storing the cassette being used for feeding paper at the time of previous printing, and selecting a different cassette, and a printing position control means. SOLUTION: A printer 1 stores a print data from an external unit 2 in a buffer 4 and a paper feed cassette section 6 feeds a sheet P to be printed with that data to a print section 5. A plurality of paper feed cassettes 10, 11 containing the sheets P are contained in such an arrangement as the sheets P of same size are shifted stepwise to the left and right with respect to the traveling direction of the sheet. A control section 8 initially selects the cassette 10 and feeds a sheet from the cassette 11 if a cassette different from that stored in a memory 7 is stored otherwise feeds the sheet from the cassette 10 and a print control section 13 controls the print position depending the arrangement of the sheet P contained in a cassette selected at a cassette selecting section 12.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method, and more particularly, to a local area network (LA).
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method for receiving print data such as control codes and character codes input from a plurality of external devices such as personal computers through N) and performing a printing operation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, a printing apparatus connected through a network and shared by a plurality of users receives print data sent from the users through an external device such as a personal computer and performs printing. FIG.
FIG. 6 is a side view schematically showing a general printing apparatus, and FIG. 6 shows a state of printed matter stacked on a paper discharge tray by printing paper by the printing apparatus shown in FIG. 5, and FIG. 6A is a side view of the printed matter. , (B) is a front view of the printed matter, and (C) is a plan view of the printed matter.

As shown in FIG. 5, a printing apparatus 20 includes a printing unit 21 for printing on a sheet P based on print data transmitted from an external device, and a paper feed cassette for supplying the sheet P to the printing unit 21. Unit 22 and discharged printed paper P
And a paper discharge tray 23 on which the sheet is placed. This printing device 20
As shown in FIG. 6, when the paper P is printed, the printed matter B is composed of the (n + 1) th job on the nth job, and the (n + 2) th job on the nth job.
3. Stack on top.

[0004] However, all the printed materials B are stored in the discharge tray 23.
In the same way, the user takes time to find his own printed matter B, and the sorting of the printed matter B for each user must be performed manually, which is very inconvenient.

For this reason, printing apparatuses for automatically sorting printed materials for each user have been conventionally proposed.
For example, JP-A-7-302181 and JP-A-8-55-1
No. 9067.

A conventional printing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-302181 is a printing apparatus that has a large number of paper discharge trays and prints print data supplied from the outside. A registration function for registering with a user ID and an identification function for identifying the user from the user ID when a registered user ID is sent before and after the print data when receiving print data. In addition, a paper receiving tray peculiar to the user is allocated to the user identified by the identification function, and the printed material is discharged to the paper receiving tray.

A conventional printing apparatus (printing apparatus) disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8-59067 has a printer section for performing printing on paper, a sorting shelf for storing the printed paper, and a printing shelf for storing the printed paper. A comparison circuit for comparing the printed matter with the sorting shelves, including shelf indicating means for indicating shelves to be stored, a display section for displaying the sorting shelves for each user, the presence / absence of paper on the sorting shelves, and the paper storage limit , A buffer for temporarily storing print contents for each user, and a transmission circuit for notifying the personal computer of each user of information including the sorting shelf, the print name, the number of prints, and the state of the printer. And a plurality of personal computers connected to a local area network.

[0008]

A conventional printing apparatus is provided with a special sorting device for automatically sorting printed materials for each user, and discharges the printed products to a different discharge tray for each print job. .

However, the conventional printing apparatus disclosed in JP-A-7-302181 needs a function of registering and identifying a user ID, and the conventional printing apparatus disclosed in JP-A-8-59067 does not. In addition, there is a problem that the printing system is complicated, for example, a function of notifying an information to a personal computer for each user is required.

In addition, since the sorting apparatus is usually expensive, there is a problem that the cost for constructing a printing system increases.

Furthermore, when the same user executes printing a plurality of times, all printed materials are stacked up, and there is a problem that sorting takes time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus and a printing method which can easily sort printed materials and can construct an inexpensive printing system. And

[0013]

A printing apparatus according to the present invention receives printing data from an external device and stores printing means for printing on paper and paper to be supplied to the printing means in different arrangements. Storage means for storing a plurality of paper cassettes, paper cassettes fed at the time of previous printing, and cassette selecting means for selecting and feeding a paper cassette different from the paper cassette stored in the storage means And print control means for controlling the print position in accordance with the arrangement of the sheets stored in the paper feed cassette selected by the cassette selection means.

In the plurality of paper cassettes according to the present invention, for example, paper sheets of the same size are stored in the right and left steps in the paper traveling direction.

The printing apparatus according to the present invention also includes a printing means for receiving print data from an external device and printing on paper, and supplying paper to the printing means so that the paper of the same size is left and right with respect to the paper traveling direction. A first sheet cassette and a second sheet cassette stored in a staggered arrangement, a storage unit for storing the sheet cassette fed in the previous printing, and a first sheet cassette in the storage unit. If remembered,
When the sheet is fed from the second sheet cassette and the second sheet cassette is stored in the storage unit, the sheet is fed from the first sheet cassette. A cassette selecting means for feeding paper from the first paper cassette, and print control means for controlling a printing position in accordance with an arrangement of sheets stored in the paper cassette selected by the cassette selecting means. It is a feature.

The printing apparatus of the present invention is shared by a plurality of external devices through a local area network.

According to the printing method of the present invention, there are provided (1) a step of storing sheets to be supplied to a printing unit in a plurality of sheet cassettes in different arrangements, and (2) a step of receiving print data from an external device. (3) a step of checking the paper cassette fed in the previous printing; (4) a step of selecting paper feeding from a paper cassette different from the paper cassette fed in the previous printing; 5) a step of performing printing by controlling a printing position according to the arrangement of the sheets stored in the selected sheet feeding cassette.

The printing method of the present invention is also characterized in that the printing method is shared by a plurality of external devices through a local area network.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 schematically shows a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, (A) is a side view of the printing apparatus, and (B) () Is a front view thereof, and (C) is a plan view thereof.

As shown in FIG. 1, a printing apparatus 1 of the present invention
Are personal computers, office computers,
It is connected to a plurality of external devices 2 such as a word processor and a portable terminal device through a local area network (LAN) 3 and is shared by users of the external devices 2.

The printing apparatus 1 of the present invention receives a print data transmitted from the external apparatus 2 and temporarily stores the print data in the buffer 4.
And a printing unit 5 for printing on the paper P based on the received print data, a paper feed cassette unit 6 for supplying the paper P to the printing unit 5, and a paper feed cassette fed for the previous printing. And a control unit 8 for controlling the printing operation of the printing unit 5, and a paper discharge tray 9 on which the discharged printed paper P is placed.

The paper feed cassette unit 6 is composed of a plurality of paper feed cassettes for storing papers P to be supplied to the printing unit 5 in different arrangements. As shown in FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C,
The paper feed cassette unit 6 according to the embodiment of the present invention has a first paper feed cassette 10 and a second paper feed cassette 11, and the paper P of the same size runs in each paper feed cassette 10, 11. It is housed in an arrangement that is shifted to the left and right with respect to the direction.

The control unit 8 includes a cassette selection unit 12 for feeding paper from a paper cassette different from the paper cassette stored in the memory 7, and a paper sheet stored in the paper cassette selected by the cassette selection unit 12. A print control unit 13 that controls a print position in accordance with the arrangement of P.

When the first paper cassette 10 is stored in the memory 7, the cassette selection unit 12 feeds paper from the second paper cassette 11, and the second paper cassette 11 is stored in the memory 7. The first paper cassette 10
In the case of the initial use which is not stored in the memory 7, it is selected that the sheet is fed from the first sheet cassette 10.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the printing apparatus 1 of the present invention.

First, the printing apparatus 1 receives print data including a control code and a character code (step S1).

Next, the memory 7 storing the paper cassette used in the previous printing is checked to determine whether the paper cassette used in the previous printing is the first paper cassette 10 or the second paper cassette 11. (Step S2).

Next, the cassette selection unit 12 changes the paper cassette used for the previous printing to the first paper cassette 10.
If this is the case, the second paper cassette 11
Is selected (step S3), and if the used paper cassette was the second paper cassette 11 in the previous printing, the first paper cassette 10 is selected in the current printing (step S4). In the case of initial use where there is no information on the previously used paper feed cassette in the memory 7, the first paper feed cassette 10 is selected (step S5).

Next, the selected sheet cassette is stored in the memory 7 (step S6).

Next, the paper P is fed from the selected paper feed cassette (step S7), and the print position is controlled by the print control unit 13 in accordance with the arrangement of the paper P stored in the paper feed cassette. The printing operation is performed by the unit 5 (step S8).

FIGS. 4A and 4B show the state of printed matter printed on the paper P by the printing apparatus 1 of the present invention and stacked on the paper discharge tray 9, wherein FIG. 4A is a side view of the printed matter, and FIG. FIG. 2C is a plan view thereof. As shown in FIG.
When printing is performed by the printing apparatus 1 of the present invention, the printed materials B are discharged onto the paper discharge tray 9 for each print job, so that the stacked printed materials B can be easily sorted.

Further, there is no need to additionally provide a special device such as a sorting device, and an inexpensive printing system can be constructed.

Further, even when the same user executes printing a plurality of times, the printed matter B can be sorted.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various changes can be made within the technical scope described in the claims.

For example, the paper cassette unit 6 may be provided with three or more paper cassettes. Further, the printing apparatus 1 of the present invention can be applied not only to a printer apparatus but also to a copying machine or the like.

[0036]

According to the present invention, the following excellent effects can be obtained. (1) When printing is performed according to the present invention, the printed matter is discharged onto the discharge tray for each print job, so that the stacked printed matter can be easily sorted. (2) It is not necessary to additionally provide a special device such as a sorting device, and an inexpensive printing system can be constructed. (3) Even when the same user executes printing a plurality of times, the printed matter can be sorted.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 schematically shows a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein (A) is a side view of the printing apparatus, (B) is a front view thereof,
(C) is a plan view thereof.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the printing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIGS. 4A and 4B show the state of printed matter stacked on a paper discharge tray by printing paper by the printing apparatus of the present invention, and FIG.
Is a side view of the printed matter, (B) is a front view, and (C) is a plan view.

FIG. 5 is a side view schematically showing a general printing apparatus.

6 prints a sheet by the printing apparatus shown in FIG. 5,
Indicates the status of the printed matter stacked on the output tray,
(A) is a side view of the printed matter, (B) is a front view, and (C) is a plan view.

[Explanation of symbols]

 P: Paper B: Printed matter 1: Printing device 2: External device 3: Local area network (LAN) 4: Buffer 5: Printing unit 6: Paper cassette unit 7: Memory 8: Control unit 9: Eject tray 10: No. 1 paper cassette 11: second paper cassette 12: cassette selection unit 13: print control unit

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A printing means for receiving print data from an external device and printing on paper, a plurality of paper cassettes for storing paper to be supplied to the printing means in mutually different arrangements, Storage means for storing the fed paper cassettes; cassette selection means for selecting and feeding a paper cassette different from the paper cassette stored in the storage means; A printing control means for controlling a printing position in accordance with the arrangement of the paper stored in the paper cassette. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of paper feed cassettes store sheets of the same size in a staggered left and right direction with respect to the paper traveling direction. 3. A printing means for receiving print data from an external device and printing on paper, and supplying paper to the printing means, and arranging paper of the same size at right and left steps in the paper running direction. A first paper cassette and a second paper cassette which are stored in the storage unit, a storage unit for storing the paper cassettes fed at the time of the previous printing, and a case where the first paper cassette is stored in the storage unit. Makes the paper supply from the second paper supply cassette and stores the second paper in the storage means.
Cassette selection means for feeding paper from the first paper cassette when the paper cassette is stored, and feeding paper from the first paper cassette for initial use not stored in the storage means; A printing control means for controlling a printing position in accordance with an arrangement of sheets stored in a sheet feeding cassette selected by the cassette selecting means. 4. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing apparatus is shared by a plurality of external devices through a local area network. 5. A step of storing sheets to be supplied to a printing unit in a plurality of sheet cassettes in different arrangements from each other;
(2) receiving print data from an external device;
(3) a step of checking the sheet cassette fed in the previous printing; (4) a step of selecting paper feeding from a sheet cassette different from the sheet cassette fed in the previous printing; A) performing printing by controlling the printing position in accordance with the arrangement of the paper stored in the selected paper feed cassette. 6. The printing method according to claim 5, wherein the printing is performed in a shared manner by a plurality of external devices through a local area network.