JPS63109060A - Multicolor printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To continue an operation without stopping printing, by providing a means for storing color codes corresponding to colors in which printing is to be performed, a means for printing information in the colors corresponding to the color codes, means for detecting a color in which printing can no longer be performed, and a means for changing over the color for the color thus detected to the color code for other color in which printing can be performed. CONSTITUTION:When printing is not finished in a normal condition, a printing part 11 sends information on the fault to a printing-controlling part 9. The printing- controlling part 9 sets the fault information into an I/O buffer 1, and reports the generation of the fault to a host device. The host device reports color changeover information constituted of a color code for a color in which printing can no longer be performed and a color code for a color to be used as a substitute, to a printer. The color changeover information is sent to a color code changeover part 3 through the I/O buffer 1. Based on the color changeover information, the color code changeover part 3 changes over the color code in a color changeover table corresponding to the color in which printing can no longer be performed to a color code for a substitutive color. Consequently, the operation can be continued based on the same printing information (including color designation) without stopping printing.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a multicolor printing device, and particularly to a multicolor printing device suitable for continuing business without stopping printing when a failure occurs regarding a specific color. Regarding.

(Prior Art) Conventional printing apparatuses stop printing when a failure occurs in the optical system without toner, as described in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 60-48658. Color printers and other multicolor printing devices have come into use, but even in these cases, if a problem occurs in the printing system for a specific color, printing will stop even if other colors are functioning properly. was.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In a multi-color printing device, if a print stop cause occurs for only one color or a few colors, but no print stop cause occurs for other colors, the color related to the failure cannot be printed. , printing in other colors is possible. However, in the prior art, printing is uniformly stopped even in such cases, which poses problems in terms of operating rate and reliability.

An object of the present invention is to provide a multicolor printing device that solves the above-mentioned conventional problems.

[Means for solving problems]

The present invention provides a means for storing a color code corresponding to a color to be printed, a means for printing print information in the color of the color code, a means for detecting a color that cannot be printed, and a means for detecting a color that has become unprintable. means for converting a color code corresponding to the selected color into a printable color code of another color.

[For production]

In a multicolor printing device, it is necessary to specify a color for each print data. Although the user specifies the color described above, it may not necessarily be the specified color. For example, the table frame may be blue or green. In such a case, even if the toner used for blue printing runs out, printing is possible as long as there is green toner, and there is no need to stop printing.

In the above example, the user of a multicolor printing device specifies that the printing information for the table frame should be blue, but if it becomes impossible to print blue, the user should specify that it should be printed in green. When a color printing device cannot print a certain color, it reports that color to a higher-level device. If an alternative color is specified, the host device instructs the multicolor printing device to print in that color.

For example, if it becomes impossible to print blue, the host device instructs the multicolor printing device to print in green. In the multicolor printing device, if blue data is specified thereafter, the data is converted to green and printed.

By doing so, the multicolor printing apparatus can continue to operate without stopping printing even if printing of a specific color becomes impossible.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of one embodiment of the invention.

Print information instructed by the host device is stored in the human output buffer 1. The print information analysis section 2 analyzes the print information in the input/output buffer 1, and in the case of character information, finds the storage address of the corresponding character pattern from the character pattern memory 5 and stores it in the print information buffer 4. Further, if the print information is a format, the address of the corresponding format memory 6 is obtained and stored in the print information buffer 4. Furthermore, if the print information is a figure or an image, the address of the corresponding figure/image buffer memory 7 is obtained and stored in the print information buffer 4. Further, one-color code information is also stored in the print information buffer 4 by the print information analysis section 2.

With the above, the print information for one page or multiple pages is
The color code information is stored in the print information buffer 4 together with the color code information.

The print information in the print information buffer 4 is read out under the control of the print control section 9 and passed to the dot development processing section 8 . The dot expansion processing section 8 accesses the character pattern memory 5, format memory 6, and figure/image buffer memory 7 based on the passed print information, converts the print information into dots corresponding to each color, and stores the print image data in the dot memory 10. create. The print image data in the dot memory 10 is sent to the printing section 11 at any time under the control of the printing control section 9.
printed on paper. This is the print result.

The printing unit 11 reports to the print control unit 9. When printing is completed normally, the print control unit 9 stores the print information buffer 4.
The next print information is read from , and the same process is repeated thereafter.

The processing when the above printing is normally completed is the same as the conventional process, so further explanation will be omitted.

If printing does not end normally, the printing unit 11 notifies the printing control unit 9 of failure information (for example, no blue toner, etc.). In this case, the print control unit 9 stores the fault information in the fault trace memory 12 for future maintenance, sets the fault information in the crowd buffer 1, and notifies the host device of the fault. Report 6 For example, if the print information is to print the text in black and the format in blue, and the problem is that the blue (i.e. format) toner has run out, the print control unit 9 Information indicating that blue printing is no longer possible is set in 1 as a sense byte, and is reported to the host device.

When the host device reports that a failure has occurred due to a specific color system, if the user specifies in advance that the color can be replaced with another color, the host device will automatically update the color that has become unprintable. Color conversion information consisting of a code and an alternative color code is notified to the printing device. This color conversion information is sent to the color code conversion unit 3 via the crowd buffer 1.The color code conversion unit 3 has a color conversion table that shows the relationship between colors and color codes, and it Based on the conversion information, the color code corresponding to the color that has become unprintable in the color conversion table is converted to an alternative color code. Further, the color code converter 3 rewrites the color code information of the unprinted page in the print information buffer 4 that has already been created according to the color conversion table.

As a result, if the user has specified in advance that a form should be printed in green when blue printing is not possible, subsequent forms will be printed in green.

FIG. 2 shows a specific example of a color conversion table held by the color code conversion section 3, in which there are up to 256 types of one color. Here, the color code for blue is "OOOOOOOLl 1
”, and the color code for green is “00000101”.If the format is to be printed in blue, and if printing in green is specified when blue printing is not possible, then when there is a failure in the blue color system, The host device uses 'OO'0 as color conversion information.
OOO1100000101" is sent to the printing device. The first 8 bits of this color conversion information represent the color code that is no longer printable (ie, blue), and the latter 8 bits represent the replacement color code (ie, green).

The color code conversion unit 3 transfers this color conversion information to the human output buffer 1.
When the receiver is retrieved through the first 8 bits, the fourth row of the color conversion table (i.e., the position indicating blue) is accessed, and
In addition to rewriting the content to the latter 8 bits (that is, green), the print information analysis section 2 is notified that the device is in the color conversion mode. Further, the color code converting unit 3 converts “000000” in the unprinted page in the print information buffer 4.
The color code of "11" is also rewritten to "00000101".

After that, when the print information sent from the host device is stored in the input/output buffer 1, the print information analysis unit 2 analyzes the print information and stores it in the print information buffer 4, but the color code information It is passed to the code conversion unit 3. In the color code converter 3,
The corresponding position in the color code table is accessed using the passed color code information, and the color code is read out and stored in the print information buffer 4. For example, if the passed color code information is "o
o.

00011” (blue), it is 4 in the 5-color number table.
Access the column and check the “00000” registered there.
101" color code (green) is read out and stored in the print information buffer 4. FIG. 3 shows a flowchart in this case.

As described above, according to this embodiment, even if a failure occurs in the blue printing system that prints the form, it switches to the green printing system approved by the user and continues printing, so there is no interruption in business operations. Can be operated efficiently. Of course, if the user does not approve of changing the color that cannot be printed, the multicolor printing device will be stopped as usual.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, printing stoppage F-
, Even if a factor occurs, as long as there is no failure in the printing system for one alternative color, printing can be continued with the same printing information (including color specification) without stopping printing, improving printing operations. Being able to measure this has the effect of increasing the reliability of multicolor printing equipment.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a detailed diagram of a color conversion table, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining operations in color conversion mode. 1... Input/output buffer, 2... Print information analysis section,
3... Color code converter, 4... Print information buffer,
8... Dot development processing section, 9... Print control section, 1
0...Dot memory, 11...Printing section. Prisoner 1, Figure 2, Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) Means for storing a color code corresponding to a color to be printed, means for printing print information in the color of the color code, means for detecting a color that has become unprintable, and means for detecting a color that has become unprintable. A multicolor printing device comprising means for converting a color code corresponding to a color into a printable color code of another color.