KR19980041613A - How to Display Printing Progress - Google Patents

Abstract

end. The technical field to which the invention described in the claims belongs

The present invention relates to a method of displaying a printing progress status of a printer for printing an image according to data applied from a host.

I. The technical problem to be solved by the invention

Allows the host to check the printer's printing progress.

All. Summary of Solution of the Invention

While processing the data received from the host, the printer reduces the data amount count value corresponding to the amount of data to be processed, measures the progress of the processing time, and when the progress notification command from the host receives the data amount count value and the processing. Send the time measurement to the host. The host sends a progress notification command requesting the printing progress notification to the printer at a predetermined time, receives the data amount count value and processing time measurement value from the printer, and displays the remaining data amount and elapsed time on the monitor.

la. Important uses of the invention

Used to check the printing progress of the printer.

Description

How to Display Printing Progress

The present invention relates to a printer, and more particularly, to a method of displaying a printing progress state of a printer for printing an image according to data applied from a host.

In general, a printer prints an image according to data transmitted from a host such as a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC) on a recording medium and outputs the image. At this time, the printer informs the user by displaying data reception or progress status through a light emitting diode or a liquid crystal display provided on an operating panel (OPE).

Among the above methods, a method using a light emitting diode is to simply notify the data reception state by repeatedly blinking the light emitting diode. As a result, the user may not know the actual printing progress, causing a doubt that the user is bored or there is an error in operation, thereby causing a malfunction of the operation panel of the printer. In addition, the method using the liquid crystal display device also has a inconvenience in that when the printer is installed outside the user's field of vision, the user must go directly to the printer and check the progress. In addition, when a single printer is shared by several people, there is a problem that it is difficult to check the progress because the data currently being printed cannot be identified.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a printing progress display method for checking the printing progress of the printer in the host.

1 is a system block diagram to which the present invention is applied;

2 is a flow chart in accordance with the present invention.

The present invention for achieving the above object is to reduce the data amount count value corresponding to the amount of data to be processed while the printer image data received from the host, to measure the progress of the processing time, and to notify the progress from the host. When the command is received, it sends the data amount count and processing time measurement to the host. The host sends a progress notification command requesting the printing progress notification to the printer at a predetermined time, receives the data amount count value and processing time measurement value from the printer, and displays the remaining data amount and elapsed time on the monitor.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Many specific details are set forth in the following description and in the accompanying drawings to provide a more general understanding of the invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. And a detailed description of known functions and configurations that may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention will be omitted.

First, the configuration and operation of a printer useful for understanding the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1, which shows a general system block diagram to which the present invention is applied. The printer 102 connected to the PC 100 as a host as described above includes a host interface 104, a controller 106, a memory 108, an operation panel 110, an engine interface 112, and a print engine 114. ). The host interface 104 uses an interface that provides bidirectional communication between the PC 100 and the printer. Therefore, the host interface 104 interfaces signals input from the PC 100 to the printer 102, for example, various commands and data, and signals output to the PC 100, for example, the state of the printer 102. Interface the signal. The controller 106 communicates with the PC 100 through the host interface 104 and controls the print engine 114 according to various commands input from the PC 100 and the operation panel 110 to control various functions including printing. Do this. The memory 108 stores the execution program and initial data of the controller 106, and temporarily stores various data according to the operation of the controller 106. The engine interface 112 is connected between the controller 106 and the print engine 114 to interface the input / output signals of the controller 106. The operation panel 110 includes a plurality of keys for inputting various commands and a display device for displaying information according to the operation of the printer 102. The print engine 114 includes various mechanisms for conveying and printing paper and performs printing under the control of the controller 106.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart of the operation of the controller 106 for displaying the printing progress status according to the present invention in the printer as described above, and the data corresponding to the data amount processed while image processing the data received from the PC 100 is shown. In addition to reducing the value of the quantity count and measuring the progress of the processing time, the data quantity count value and the processing time measurement value are transmitted to the PC 100 when the progress notification command is received from the PC 100 and is provided to the PC 100. It shows the process to display on the monitor. The program according to FIG. 2 is stored in the memory 108 to be executed by the controller 106.

An operation example of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the block diagram of FIG. 1 and the flowchart of FIG. 2.

First, when there is data to be printed in response to a user's print key input, the PC 100 transmits the data processed by the print driver to the printer 102. The printer 102 then stores the data received from the PC 100 via the host interface 104 in the memory 108 during the normal standby mode.

In this state, the controller 106 of the printer 102 checks whether there is data received from the PC 100 in the memory 108 at step 200. If there is no reception data, the operation continues in the standby mode. If there is reception data, the controller 106 checks whether the reception data is the progress status notification command in step 202. In this case, if the received data is data to be printed, the controller 106 performs step 204.

In step 204, the controller 106 counts the amount of data received and starts measuring the processing time. In this case, the controller 106 displays the progress state as in the normal case through the display device provided in the operation panel 110. Next, the controller 106 decreases the data amount count value corresponding to the data amount to be processed while image processing the received data until the data amount count value becomes 0 in steps 206 to 210, and reduces the processing time. The progress is measured and stored in the memory 108. The data amount count value indicates the amount of data remaining for image processing in the printer 102, and the processing time indicates the elapsed time from the start of every page. Therefore, as the image processing progresses, the data amount count value continues to decrease and the processing time continues to increase.

When the data amount count value becomes 0 by the continuous image processing as described above, the image processing is completed. Therefore, the controller 106 ends the processing time measurement in step 212, and the image processing is performed in step 214. A common printing operation is performed in which data is sent to the print engine 114 through the engine interface 112 for printing. After the printing is completed, the controller 106 clears the data amount count value and the processing time measurement value in step 216, and then proceeds to step 200.

In the meantime, the PC 100 transmits a progress status notification command requesting a printing progress status notification to the printer 102 at predetermined time intervals according to the present invention. Then, in response to receiving the progress notification command from the PC 100 in step 202, the controller 106 transmits the data amount count value and processing time measurement value through the host interface 104 in step 218. 100). The PC 100 receives the data amount count value and the processing time measurement value from the printer 102 and informs the user by displaying the remaining data amount and the elapsed time on the monitor.

Therefore, the user can easily check the actual printing progress of the printer to print their data through the monitor of the PC 100 without moving directly to the printer.

As described above, the present invention can check the printing progress state of the printer in the host, thereby making it convenient to use and preventing malfunctions caused by a user's operation panel misoperation.

Claims (3)

In the printing progress display method of the printer capable of bidirectional communication with the host, The printer counting the amount of data received from the host and starting a measurement of processing time; Reducing the data amount count value corresponding to the data amount to be processed while the printer image-processes the received data, and measuring the progress of the processing time; Printing, by the printer, an image according to the image processed data after the image processing is completed; Transmitting, by the host, a progress notification command requesting a printing progress notification to the printer at a predetermined time; Sending, by the printer, the data amount count value and processing time measurement value to the host in response to receiving a progress notification command from the host; And displaying, by the host, the data amount count value and the processing time measurement value from the printer and displaying the measured value on the monitor. The method of claim 1, wherein the printing process further comprises a step of terminating the processing time measurement after the image processing is completed. The method of claim 2, wherein the printing process further comprises a step of clearing a data amount count value and a processing time measurement value after the printing is completed.