KR20070077949A - Apparatus and method for controlling timeout value between host and image forming apparatus and image forming apparatus using the method - Google Patents

Abstract

A device and a method for controlling a timeout value between a host and an image forming device, and the image forming device using the same are provided to effectively print various large documents without timeout by controlling the timeout value between the host and the image forming device. A data size obtainer(221) obtains an original data size of the document to be printed. A timeout command generator(222) generates a command for increasing the timeout value, which is set to allow the image forming device to wait to receive data or a control command from a host driver without canceling a printing job, if the original data size is bigger than a reference data size. A timeout command transmitter(223) transmits the command to the image forming device. A controller enables the image forming device to wait/complete the printing job without canceling the printing job by changing the timeout value based on the timeout value increasing command received from the host. A printing part prints the printing data received from the host by receiving a printing command from the controller.

Description

Apparatus and method for controlling timeout value between host and image forming apparatus and image forming apparatus using the method}

1 is a flowchart illustrating a timeout method between a general image forming apparatus and a host.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a host computer including a timeout control device between the host and the image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a timeout control method between a host and an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

4 illustrates an embodiment of a method of forming an image using a timeout control method between a host and an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus using a timeout control method and apparatus according to the present invention.

<Brief description of the major symbols in the drawings>

200: host computer 210: application

220: timeout control device 221: data size acquisition unit

222: timeout command generator 223: timeout command transmitter

230: input and output port 500: image forming apparatus

510: communication interface unit 520: control unit

530: storage unit 540: printing unit

The present invention relates to the control of an image forming operation performed in an image forming apparatus connected to a host, and more particularly, to a timeout control apparatus and method between a host and an image forming apparatus for controlling a timeout value of the image forming apparatus. An image forming apparatus using the same.

1 is a flowchart illustrating a timeout method between a general image forming apparatus and a host. First, the image forming apparatus receives print data (step 100). The document to be printed may include an image such as a picture or a picture, as well as text composed of letters, numbers, and symbols. The image forming apparatus processes the received print data (step 110) and waits for the next print data (step 120). It is determined whether the waiting time for the print data is greater than the timeout value (step 130). The timeout value means that the host computer transmits the print data to the image forming apparatus. If the image forming apparatus cannot receive data because the connection is lost, the value is set in advance to wait until the image forming apparatus receives data from the host without canceling the print job. When the image forming apparatus waits for the print data from the host computer, if the waiting time is longer than the timeout value, the image forming apparatus determines that a problem has occurred in the print job and cancels the print job (step 140). If the waiting time for the print data is smaller than the timeout value, the process returns to step 120 to wait for the print data. In the conventional timeout function, once a user sets a timeout value, the timeout value is not changed until the user changes the value.

However, in the case of controlling the timeout as described above, when using a graphic document or an application that requires a large amount of time for data processing, the image forming apparatus may perform data for a specific time or more even while the driver of the host computer is processing data. If you don't receive it, it may cause a timeout and therefore the printing is canceled. To prevent this, if you artificially extend the timeout value, the image forming apparatus waits for the extended timeout value even after a problem occurs during printing. There is a problem causing out.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in an effort to provide a timeout control apparatus and method between a host and an image forming apparatus capable of effectively printing various large documents without timeout, and an image forming apparatus using the same.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a timeout control method between a host and an image forming apparatus includes: (a) obtaining a size of original data by reading original data to be printed when a print command of the image forming apparatus is started; ; And (b) generating a command for changing a setting related to a print job when the original data size is larger than a preset reference data size and transmitting the command to the image forming apparatus.

In the step (b), if the original data size is larger than the preset reference data size, the step of increasing the timeout value, which is a time set to wait without canceling a print job until the host driver transmits data or a control command, is executed. It is preferable to generate and transmit to the image forming apparatus.

Preferably, the reference data size in step (b) has a different value depending on the print mode or the print media.

The timeout control device between the host and the image forming apparatus according to the present invention for achieving the technical problem is a data size acquisition unit for obtaining the original data size of the document to be printed; A timeout command generation unit for generating a command for increasing a timeout value that is a time set to wait without canceling a print job until a host driver transmits data or a control command when the original data size is larger than a reference data size; And a timeout command transmitter for transmitting the command to the image forming apparatus.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus including a control unit configured to receive a command to increase a timeout value from a host, change a timeout value, and wait to complete a print job without canceling the print job; And a printing unit which receives a printing command from the control unit and prints using the printing data received from the host.

Hereinafter, an apparatus and method for controlling timeout between a host and an image forming apparatus and an image forming apparatus using the same will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the following description of the present invention, if it is determined that the detailed description of the related well-known technology or configuration may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted. Terms to be described later are terms defined in consideration of functions in the present invention, and may be changed according to intention or custom of a user or an operator. Therefore, the definition should be made based on the contents throughout the specification.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a host computer including a timeout control device between the host and the image forming apparatus according to the present invention. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a timeout control method between a host and an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. Hereinafter, the timeout control device shown in FIG. 2 will be described in detail with the timeout control method shown in FIG. 3. The host computer shown in FIG. 2 includes an application 210, a timeout control device 220, and an input / output port 230. The timeout control device 220 includes a data size acquisition unit 221, a timeout command generation unit 222, and a timeout command transmission unit 223.

The application 210 generates original data of a document or image to be printed as an application program. The original data is an image or a document, and the document may include not only text composed of letters, numbers, symbols, etc., but also an image such as a picture or a picture. The original data generated by the application 210 has many differences in data size for each application and document. In general, original data of text has a small data size, but original data generated in an application such as Photoshop or Illustrator has a large data size.

The data size obtaining unit 221 reads the original data generated by the application 210 (step 300) and obtains the size of the original data (step 310). The data size acquisition unit 221 obtains the sum of the data while reading the data and obtains the size of the original data. When the amount of the original data is large, the processing time of the original data takes much time, so the original data size is used as a basic information to predict this. Obtain If the size of the original data is large, it takes a lot of processing time and timeout occurs even in normal operation, causing inconvenience to the user. In particular, the operating system uses a virtual memory technique using a hard disk when a large amount of data is used. In the case of the memory management using the hard disk, it takes more time to read and write the hard disk.

The timeout command generation unit 222 determines whether the original data size is larger than the preset reference data size using the original data size obtained by the data size obtaining unit 221 (step 320). If it is smaller than the data size, a command for changing the timeout value is not generated (step 330). If the original data size is larger than the preset reference data size, a command for increasing the timeout value is generated (step 340). The reference data size means a reference value compared with the original data size in order to determine whether the timeout command generation unit 222 generates a command for changing the timeout value of the image forming apparatus. That is, when it is determined that the original data size is larger than the preset reference data size, the reference value for determining that the time required for processing the original data by the image forming apparatus driver of the host computer will be large, thereby generating a command for changing the timeout value. This corresponds to a specific data size. The reference data size has different values depending on the print mode or the print media. The print mode means a mode according to the resolution of a printed material such as 600 dpi (dot per inch) and 1200 dpi. For example, when printing at 1200 dpi, printing at a higher resolution than printing at 600 dpi, the original data size is larger and the processing time of the original data is longer in the driver of the image forming apparatus of the host computer. Therefore, since the size of the original data varies depending on the resolution, a different reference data size is set for each resolution in consideration of this. In addition, since print media is related to printing paper, when printing paper is selected from high-quality paper such as glossy paper in the image forming apparatus driver, it requires higher resolution than printing paper is selected as printing media. Original data size is larger than the original data size when the general paper is selected as the printing paper. Therefore, since the original data size is different depending on the print media, a different reference data size is set for each print media in consideration of this.

The timeout command transmitter 223 transmits a command to increase the timeout value generated by the timeout command generator 222 to the image forming apparatus (step 350). The command is transmitted to the image forming apparatus through the input / output port 230. OUT1 shown in FIG. 3 is a control signal for increasing the timeout value output from the input / output port 230. This completes the timeout control method between the host and the image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

4 illustrates an embodiment of a method of forming an image using a timeout control method between a host and an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. Hereinafter, a method of forming an image using the timeout control method between the host and the image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 5.

First, when a user starts printing a document or an image completed by an application of the host computer, the image forming apparatus driver of the host computer generates a print start command and transmits it to the image forming apparatus (step 400). The print start command includes the overall settings of the print job. The print start command includes commands for the print job name or the type of emulation as well as the print start. The image forming apparatus receives the command and starts to prepare a print job.

The image forming apparatus driver generates a page start command and transmits it to the image forming apparatus (step 405). The image forming apparatus receives the page start command and recognizes that the page to be printed has started.

The image forming apparatus driver reads the original data from the application to obtain the size of the original data (step 410). Read the original data from the application and add the read data to get the size of the original data.

It is determined whether the size of the original data is larger than the preset reference data size (step 415). If the original data size is larger than the preset reference data size, a command for increasing the timeout value is generated and transmitted to the image forming apparatus (step 420). . Since the original data may be a small document or a large document, the time required for processing the original data in the image forming apparatus varies depending on the size of the document. Therefore, when the original data size is larger than the reference data size, it is determined that the waiting time is long until the data is transmitted from the host computer to the image forming apparatus, thereby generating a command to increase the timeout value.

If the size of the original data is not larger than the preset reference data size, it is determined whether the data read from the driver of the image forming apparatus is the last of the original data (step 425). As a result, if it is not the end of the original data, go back to step 410 to read the data until the end of the original data.

If the end of the original data, the driver of the image forming apparatus renders the original data, generates raster bitmap data, and converts the binary data into binary data through half-toning (step 430). In rendering, it is common for a mono printer driver to generate 8-bit bitmap data and for a color printer driver to generate 24-bit RGB (Red, Green, Blue) bitmap data. In addition, the color printer driver includes a color matching process of converting RGB data to match the color space of the printer. The rendered bitmap data is converted into binary data through half-toning. Recently, not only binary but also multi-level values are converted.

After half-toning, the print data is finally converted into a format that can be interpreted by the printer and sent to the image forming apparatus (step 435).

After transmitting the print data to the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus generates an end-of-page command and transmits it to the image forming apparatus (step 440). When the image forming apparatus receives the end-of-page command, the image forming apparatus prints a page corresponding to the print data using the print data.

If it is not the last page of the document, the process returns to step 405. If it is the last page of the document, the document end command is generated and transmitted to the image forming apparatus (step 450). The image forming apparatus receives a document end command to end a print job and remains in a waiting state until a next print start command is received. This completes the method of forming an image using the timeout control method between the host and the image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention. Hereinafter, the operation of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 5. The image forming apparatus 500 includes a communication interface unit 510, a control unit 520, a storage unit 530, and a printing unit 540. IN1 is a control signal for increasing the timeout value transmitted from the host to the image forming apparatus.

The communication interface unit 510 may be connected to a host device such as a personal computer to perform data communication with each other.

The control unit 520 receives a command for increasing the timeout value from the host and changes the timeout value to control the waiting of the print job without completing the print job. The control unit 520 receives the IN1 signal received by the communication interface unit 510, increases the timeout value of the image growth value 500, and waits until the next command is received from the host without canceling the print job. Control not to cancel the job. The storage unit 530 is a storage medium that stores a program for driving the image forming apparatus 500 and print data transmitted from a host. The print unit 540 performs a print job on the print data transmitted from the host under the control of the controller 520. This completes the operation of the image forming apparatus using the timeout control apparatus and method according to the present invention.

Meanwhile, the above-described embodiments of the present invention can be written as a program that can be executed in a computer, and can be implemented in a general-purpose digital computer that operates the program using a computer-readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium includes, for example, magnetic storage media such as ROM, floppy disk, hard disk, etc., optical reading media such as CD-ROM, DVD, etc., and storage media such as carrier wave such as transmission over the Internet. .

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings, this is merely exemplary, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention will be defined by the technical spirit of the appended claims.

As described above, the timeout control apparatus and method between the host and the image forming apparatus according to the present invention and the image forming apparatus using the same can effectively print a large-capacity document without timeout.

Claims (5)

(a) reading the original data to be printed and obtaining the size of the original data when a print command of the image forming apparatus is started; And (b) generating a command for changing a setting related to a print job when the original data size is larger than a preset reference data size, and transmitting the command to the image forming apparatus. How to control timeout. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) If the original data size is larger than the preset reference data size, generate a command to increase the timeout value, which is a time set to wait without canceling the print job until the host driver transmits the data or control command to the image forming apparatus. And a timeout control method between the host and the image forming apparatus. The process of claim 1 or 2, wherein in step (b) And the reference data size has a different value according to a print mode or a print media. A data size obtaining unit for obtaining an original data size of a document to be printed; A timeout command generation unit for generating a command for increasing a timeout value that is a time set to wait without canceling a print job until a host driver transmits data or a control command when the original data size is larger than a reference data size; And And a timeout command transmitter for transmitting the command to the image forming apparatus. A control unit configured to receive a command to increase the timeout value from the host, change the timeout value, and control the wait to complete the print job without canceling the print job; And And a printing unit receiving a printing command from the control unit and printing using the print data received from the host.

Images