JPS6145325A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the prints arranged in the order of pages by storing once the print information, then reading out this information adversely for each page within a single document in a print process. CONSTITUTION:The print information transferred from a host computer connected to a communication circuit 1 is checked by a controller 3. The data on the number of print copies, the number of pages and the print information on each page are stored once in a memory 2. Then the data are read out of the memory 2 adversely for each page within a single document. These data are printed by a cut paper printer main body 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a printing device, and particularly to a printing device that is provided with a control system suitable for printing a document consisting of multiple pages.

[Background of the invention]

Traditionally, continuous paper has often been used as printing paper for printing devices connected to computers, but recently,
Word processors and the like are increasingly using cut paper as printing paper to print document information consisting of multiple pages.

Printing devices that print on cut paper include wire dot printers and laser beam printers.

These printers print with the printed side facing up, and the newly printed results overlap the previously printed results.
- When printing a document consisting of multiple pages, the pages were printed in reverse order, and after printing, it was necessary to rearrange the pages so that they were in the correct order.

As a device for sorting such cut sheets, the sorter described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-7621 is generally known for use in copying machines, but since the structure of the device is mechanical, the device There is still room for further improvement, as the overall size will be large and maintenance and repair will be necessary.

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus that can arrange the prints of a document consisting of several pages in the order of the pages without using a mechanical sorter.

[Summary of the Invention] The configuration of the printing apparatus according to the present invention includes a means for communicating with a host computer, a storage means for storing and reading print information, a print means for printing the print information on cut paper, and the above-mentioned. A communication means, a storage means, and a control means for controlling the printing means, and the storage means stores the print information transmitted through the communication means page by page in accordance with the transmission order, and the storage means The device is configured to control reading and printing of each page from the means in the reverse order of the storage order.

To add more information, the following points are in order.

The present invention stores the print information transmitted from the host computer once in the device, and then reads it out page by page within the document. The purpose is to obtain more space for aligned prints.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Embodiments of a printing apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the respective figures.

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a printing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the format of communication data, and FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the operating procedure. It is a flowchart figure.

In FIG. 1, numeral 1 denotes a communication circuit relating to communication means with the host computer, and receives communication data including print information from the host computer.

FIG. 2 shows an example of communication data including the print information.

In FIG. 2, the communication data includes a start code 21, the number of print copies 22, the number of constituent pages 23, and a document information A1 end code 26.

Further, the document information A includes print information spanning multiple pages from data 24-1 relating to the print information of the first page to data 24-M relating to the print information of the M-th page, and print information of each page. It is composed of a page break code 25 and υ indicating the break between pages.

2 is a storage device related to a storage means for temporarily storing and reading print information, and specifically, it is a floppy disk, a hard disk, or a storage device used as a work area of the system. This is a RAM.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a cut paper printer main body, which is a printing means for printing print information on cut paper, and prints characters, figures, and images on cut paper according to the given print information, and discharges the printed paper onto the paper tray 5.

The cut sheets to be discharged are stacked on the paper tray 5 in order so that the printed side faces upward and the newly discharged cut sheets are on top of the previously discharged cut sheets.

Reference numeral 3 denotes a control device related to a control means that controls the operation of these devices, and is composed of a CPU, a program memory, a work memory, and an interface, and according to the program stored in the internal program memory, the above-mentioned communication circuit 1 ．． Storage device 2. It is configured to control the operation of the cut paper printer main body 4, and P and Q are counters.

Thus, the control device 3 controls the mPU to store the print information transmitted through the communication circuit 1 in the storage device 2 page by page in accordance with the transmission order, and also causes the storage device 2 to store the print information page by page. It is also configured to control printing by reading in the reverse order, and P in the figure is a counter for the number of copies to be printed, and Q is a counter for page placement.

Next, the operation of each part shown in FIG. 1 described above will be explained based on the flowchart shown in FIG. 3.

First, the print information shown in FIG. 2 (step 101) transferred from the host computer connected to the communication circuit 1 is checked by the control device 3, and the number of print copies 22, the number of constituent pages 23, and each page are checked. The print information data 24-1 to 24-M for each is temporarily stored in the storage device 2 (step 102).

Here, the number M of constituent pages is assumed to be included in the print information, but if it is not included as information, it can be easily obtained by counting the number of page break codes 25.

Thereafter, a counter P for the number of print copies and a counter Q for page placement in the control device 3 are initialized to the number of print copies N and the number of constituent pages M, respectively (step 10
3, and 104).

As data N and M for initializing the counters P and Q, data included in the received print information may be used, or data temporarily stored in the storage device 2 may be used.

Next, the control device 3 reads the print information of the page indicated by the value of the page number counter Q from the storage device 2, converts it into a format that can be operated by the cut paper printer main body 4, and at the same time controls the cut paper printer main body 4. Then, the Qth page is printed (step 105).

Next, the value of the page number counter Q is decreased by 1 (step 106), and if the result is not 0, the process is returned to step 105, and if the result is O, the process is controlled to proceed to the next step 108 (step 107). ).

By steps 104, 105, 106°1-07, the value of the page number counter Q changes from M→(M-1)→(M
-2) → Mountain... 3 → 2 → 1, so the print result is printed in reverse from the Mth page, which is the final page, to the first page.

As a result of this control, one copy of the document is obtained in the paper tray 5 in which the pages are arranged in order from the first page.

After this control step of obtaining one copy of the document, the value of the print copies counter P is decremented by 1 (step 10B),
If the result is not O, return to step 104, and the result is 0.
If so, the process ends (step 109).

That is, by executing the processes of steps 108 and 109, the control step of obtaining one copy of the document is repeated N times, so that N copies of the document with page alignment can be obtained.

In addition, in FIG. 3, if the operations of counter P and counter Q are switched and the control is performed as shown in FIG. 4, which is a modification of the flowchart in FIG. You can also get printed results with page alignment.

Furthermore, in each of the above embodiments, the number of copies to be printed N was explained as being sent as data from the host computer side, but when printing multiple copies of the same document, the same document information is repeatedly sent from the host computer for the number of copies. In the case of a system in which the number of print copies N is sent in FIG. 2, the information in step 102 (■) in FIG. 3, and steps 103, 108, and 109 are unnecessary.

Naturally, in FIG. 1, each communication circuit,
Storage, control equipment, cut paper printer itself, etc.
They may be integrated, or conversely, they may all be separated.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, there is no need for a mechanical device such as a sorter to obtain printed items with page alignment, so the device can be downsized, and furthermore, 1. Since the page alignment is realized through software, there is no need for maintenance or repair of the device, so it can be said to be a practically excellent invention.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a printing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the format of communication data, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart diagram for explaining its operating procedure. , FIG. 4 is a modification of the flowchart of FIG. 3.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A means for communicating with a host computer, a storage means for storing and reading out print information, a printing means for printing the print information on cut paper, and the above-mentioned communication means;
a storage means and a control means for controlling the printing means, the storage means stores the print information transmitted through the communication means page by page in accordance with the transmission order, and the storage means 1. A printing device characterized in that the printing device is configured to read and print each page in an order opposite to the order in which they are stored. 2. A printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing apparatus is configured to carry out readout printing control page by page in the reverse order of storage order, and to repeat this control for the required number of copies. 3. A printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the readout and print control is repeated for each page by the required number of copies in the reverse order of the storage order.