KR20050054395A - Method for controlling print of image formation device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a printing control method of an image forming apparatus for controlling a file to be printed in an image forming apparatus in units of pages. In the method of displaying data in units of pages in an image forming apparatus, data is transferred to the image forming apparatus. Receiving; Determining whether a display option is set for currently received data; If the display option for the data is set to display in units of pages, storing the received data in units of pages in a memory; And transmitting the data stored in the page unit to the display unit in the unit of page and displaying the data to be printed in the unit of page, so that the user can manage the printing process for each page so that the data can be stored, deleted, and printed for each page. Allows you to choose.

Description

Method for controlling print of image forming device {Method for controlling print of image formation device}

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to a printing control method of an image forming apparatus for controlling a file to be printed in a unit of a page.

In the present invention, a printer is described as an example among the image forming apparatuses.

In general, printers are the most common means of identifying and storing the results of computer processing and outputting them in document form for delivery to others.

In recent years, as printers are rapidly increasing in demand with office automation devices such as scanners and fax machines, each office automation device is being developed with high performance to expand its own functions.

In addition, by developing each of the office automation equipment that was used independently as a whole, to reduce the economic burden and installation space for the user, a product that performs a complex document output function is being produced and sold.

Such a conventional image forming apparatus is provided with a panel unit (OPE: Operation Panel) for displaying information about the situation being printed and the print data.

1 is a diagram illustrating a panel unit OPE of an image forming apparatus according to the related art.

Referring to FIG. 1, the panel unit displays an error position display unit 1 for displaying an occurrence position with respect to an error occurring in the image forming apparatus, a display unit 2 indicating a file name currently being printed, or status information of the current image forming apparatus. , An enter key 3 for selecting and performing an arbitrary operation, a cancel key 4 for canceling an arbitrary operation, and a direction key 5 for selecting an arbitrary menu.

However, since the image forming apparatus configured as described above is controlled by file by presenting information on the print data as a file name when receiving print data, receiving a fax document, or receiving data through a network, the image forming apparatus can be printed. Problems such as paper waste occur, such as printing pages that do not need to be printed.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides a print control method of an image forming apparatus that displays print data in units of pages and performs various operations such as printing, storing, and deleting in units of pages. The purpose is.

A printing control method of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention for achieving the above object includes a method of displaying data in page units in an image forming apparatus, the method comprising: receiving data into the image forming apparatus; Determining whether a display option is set for currently received data; If the display option for the data is set to display in units of pages, storing the received data in units of pages in a memory; And transmitting the data stored in the page unit to the display unit in the page unit.

The setting of the display option may include selecting and setting an added item to transmit print data in units of pages when transmitting data from a user computer, or setting display options on the image forming apparatus operation panel. It is characterized by selecting and setting.

When the print data transmitted to the display unit is bitmap data, the method may further include converting the current data into binary data when printing the currently displayed data.

The transmitting of the data to the display unit may include converting the print data into bitmap data and transmitting the bitmap data.

Also, the user's selection of saving the currently displayed page, deleting the currently displayed page, skipping the currently displayed page, printing the currently displayed page, or scanning the currently displayed page. The method may further include performing a corresponding operation according to the operation.

 Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art may easily implement the present invention.

2 is a view showing a panel unit OPE of an image forming apparatus for implementing the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the panel unit 100 of the image forming apparatus may include an error position display unit 101 displaying an occurrence position of an error occurring in the image forming apparatus, a file name currently being printed, or a state of the current image forming apparatus. A display unit 102 for displaying information, an enter key 103 for selecting and performing a random operation, a cancel key 104 for canceling a random operation, a direction key 105 for selecting a random menu, and a menu Numeric keys 106 allow selection and input of a destination telephone number and the like, and a page unit adjustment key 107 for selecting how to process data appearing in units of pages on the display unit 102.

The page unit adjustment key 107 may be a storage key used to select an operation for storing a currently displayed page in a storage unit, a delete key used to select an operation for deleting a currently displayed page, and a currently displayed page. The skip key is used to perform a selection operation for the next page without a selection operation.

3 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

Referring to FIG. 3, the configuration of the image forming apparatus includes a panel unit 100 including a display unit 102 and a control unit 109 for controlling the panel unit, and a main control unit for controlling overall operations of the image forming apparatus ( 111) an image forming apparatus main board 110 comprising a ROM 112 storing a system program for operating the image forming apparatus and a RAM 113 storing received data; and a mechanism related to printing. A printing unit 121 performing an operation, a storage unit 122 storing data, a scanning unit 123 performing a mechanism related to scanning, an interface unit 124 providing an interface between a computer and an image forming apparatus, The fax processing unit 125 performs mechanism operations related to facsimile data transmission and reception, and the network processing unit 126 performs processing procedures related to network communication.

Hereinafter, a process relating to the page-by-page printing control of the present invention having the above configuration will be described.

First, all of the print data received from the computer or received through the network processing unit 126 transmitted from the computer is stored in the memory (RAM) 113 of the main board 110 of the image forming apparatus. In this case, the stored data is transmitted to the panel unit 100 to be displayed on the display unit in units of pages when one page amount is provided.

At this time, the display is classified into two types according to whether the received print data is binary data or bitmap data.

When the printer driver (not shown) formats the print data into bitmap data suitable for display and sends the print data, the image forming apparatus directly sends the print data to the display unit 102 for display.

When printing the page currently displayed by the user's operation command, this data must be converted into binary data. This process is performed in an image processor (not shown).

If the print data is formatted as binary data and received by the image forming apparatus, first, the print data may be stored in the memory (RAM) 113 and sent directly to the display unit 102 for display. have.

When the page displayed by the user's operation command needs to be printed, the data is transmitted to the printing unit 121 as it is and the printing process is performed. In this way, the data on which the actual printing process is performed should be provided in binary data format, and the displayed data will be provided in either bitmap or binary data format.

That is, the data other than these two formats should be transformed into one of bitmap or binary format during display, and transformed into binary format during printing.

In this way, the print data is displayed on the display unit 102 in units of pages to perform a corresponding operation according to a user's operation command.

When the user uses the storage key 107, the page is stored in the storage unit 122 which is a separate storage device. If the user uses the delete key 107, this page is deleted. When the user uses the skip key 107, the next page is displayed.

If no key input occurs for a certain time, the displayed page is printed.

Next, cases of receiving data that can be received and stored by e-mail will be described.

First, the e-mail is received by the image forming apparatus and stored in the storage unit 122 which is a separate storage device. In this case, the received e-mail may be stored and displayed directly on the display unit 102. By displaying the e-mail when it is received, the user can perform operations such as checking, storing, and deleting contents of the received e-mail.

The e-mail received and stored in the storage 122 is displayed by a user's viewing command or key input.

In this case, the selected e-mail is transmitted to the RAM 113 and then transmitted to the display unit 102 of the panel unit 100 to be displayed. Hereinafter, the process displayed in units of pages is the same as the printing process.

Next, the printing process related to fax transmission and reception will be described.

First, the document to be faxed is scanned by the scan unit 123, transmitted to the RAM 113, and then transformed into a corresponding data format and transmitted to the display unit 102.

In this case, when the user wants to fax the displayed data, the user executes a fax transmission command. Accordingly, the scanned data is faxed through the fax processing unit 125.

In this case, the displayed and transmitted data may be stored according to a user's input of the storage key 107. This data is moved from the RAM 113 to the storage unit 122 and stored.

In the case of fax reception, the received data is stored in the RAM 113 and then transmitted to the panel unit 100 for display.

In this case, according to a key input input by the user, the data may be transmitted and stored in the storage unit 122 in units of pages, may be transmitted and printed in the printing unit 121 in units of pages, and deleted in units of pages.

The above process will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for controlling print data in units of pages in the image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

Referring to FIGS. 2, 3, and 4, the printing process of the image forming apparatus in which the control is performed on a page basis is as follows.

First, when print data is received by the image forming apparatus (S10), the image forming apparatus determines whether the display option is set to page unit control to determine whether the currently received data is set to be controlled in units of pages. Determine (S11).

If it is determined in S11 that the display option is not set to page-by-page control, the print data currently received is stored in the memory (RAM) 113 of the image forming apparatus (S16), and then printing is performed (S17).

If it is determined in S11 that the display option is set to page-by-page control, the print data currently received is stored in the memory (RAM) 113 in units of pages (S12), and then the data stored in units of pages is stored in the panel unit ( 100) (S13).

The control unit 109 of the panel unit 100 transmits data to the display unit 102 (S14), so that the user can view the contents of the current page.

When the user who checks the content of the current page takes a selection operation on how to process the page, the user performs a function corresponding to the selected operation (S15). For example, if the storage key 107 is pressed, the data corresponding to the current page is stored in the storage unit. If the delete key 107 is pressed, the data corresponding to the current page is deleted, and if the skip key 107 is pressed, the next Display the page.

Hereinafter, a process of scanning a document to be faxed in units of pages will be described with reference to FIGS. 2, 3, and 5.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a method of controlling scan data in units of pages in the image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

First, after scanning a document sent by fax (S20), the display option of the currently scanned document is determined (S21).

If it is determined in S21 that the display option is not set to page-by-page control, after storing the currently scanned data in the memory (RAM) 113 of the image forming apparatus (S26), whether all documents to be faxed have been scanned are scanned. Determine (S27).

If it is determined that all documents to be faxed have been scanned, the document is faxed to the corresponding transmission number (S28).

If it is determined in S21 that the display option is set to page unit control, the currently scanned data is stored in the memory (RAM) 113 in units of pages (S22), and then the data stored in units of pages is stored in the panel unit 100. (S23).

The control unit 109 of the panel unit 100 transmits data to the display unit 102 (S24), so that the user can view the contents of the current page.

When the user who checks the content of the current page takes a selection operation on how to process the page, the user performs a function corresponding to the selected operation (S25). For example, if the storage key 107 is pressed, the data corresponding to the current page is stored in the storage unit, if the delete key 107 is pressed, the data corresponding to the current page is deleted, and if the skip key 107 is pressed, the next Display the page.

When the selection of the page to be sent through the above process is completed, the fax is transmitted to the corresponding transmission number.

Although described in detail with respect to preferred embodiments of the present invention, those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains, the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention defined in the appended claims It will be appreciated that various modifications or changes can be made. Therefore, changes in the future embodiments of the present invention will not be able to escape the technology of the present invention.

As described above, since the image forming apparatus according to the present invention displays data to be printed in units of pages, the user can manage a printing process for each page, so that the user can select storage, deletion, and printing for each page.

In addition, in the case of a network image forming apparatus, print management is impossible for each individual user when the print data is condensed on one apparatus. In this case, the apparatus displays the printing status in detail through the display unit. It has the effect of being able to cope flexibly.

1 is a view showing a panel OPE of an image forming apparatus according to the prior art;

2 is a view showing a panel OPE of an image forming apparatus for implementing the present invention;

3 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied;

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for controlling print data in units of pages in the image forming apparatus according to the present invention;

5 is a flowchart illustrating a method of controlling scan data in units of pages in the image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

100: panel unit 101: error position display unit

102: display unit 103: enter key

104: cancel key 105: direction keys

106: Numeric Keys 107: Page Unit Adjustment Keys

109 control unit 110 image forming apparatus main board

111: main controller 112: ROM

113: RAM 121: printing unit

122: storage unit 123: scanning unit

124: interface unit 125: fax processing unit

126: network processing unit

Claims (5)

In the image forming apparatus to display data in units of pages, Receiving data into the image forming apparatus; Determining whether a display option is set for currently received data; If the display option for the data is set to display in units of pages, storing the received data in units of pages in a memory; And And transmitting the data stored in the page unit to the display unit in the unit of page. The method of claim 1, wherein the setting of the display option comprises: When the data is transmitted from the user's computer, the selected item is selected and set so that the print data can be transmitted in units of pages, or by selecting and setting the display option setting button formed on the operation panel unit of the image forming apparatus. Print control method of an image forming apparatus. The method of claim 1, wherein when the print data sent to the display unit is bitmap data, And a step of converting the current data into binary data when printing the currently displayed data. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting of the data to the display unit comprises: And converting the print data into bitmap data and transmitting the converted print data. 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: storing the currently displayed page, deleting the currently displayed page, skipping the currently displayed page, printing the currently displayed page, scanning the currently displayed page And performing a corresponding operation according to a user's selection operation.