JP3010633B2 - Printing equipment - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus such as a laser printer, and more particularly, to control of a printing order in continuous page printing.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a printing apparatus such as a laser printer, to continuously print a plurality of pages, print data for a plurality of pages is stored in a memory area, and the control side of the printing apparatus sequentially prints data from the memory area sequentially. And print control is performed by extracting print data in page units.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the print control with the above-described configuration, even if there is another printed material to be printed earlier during continuous page printing, printing of a series of currently printed materials is performed. The user has to perform an operation such as printing after waiting for completion of printing, or a user interrupting the printing and inputting print data of an object to be printed first to the printing apparatus and printing. Therefore,
For example, while printing a huge number of pages, if there is a page that you want to give priority to printing, temporarily interrupt the printing, enter the page you want to give priority to, print it, and change this priority page from the original page. It requires a cumbersome operation of deleting and then printing from the page following the interrupted page.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and is intended to provide a printing apparatus that continuously prints a plurality of pages without requiring a troublesome operation and a simple determination in a printing operation program of the apparatus. To provide a highly operable printing apparatus capable of freely changing the priority of page printing and printing out, or interrupting a new print page and printing out at low cost with a simple configuration including only steps. With the goal.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention relates to a method of converting print data transmitted from a higher-level apparatus and input to the printing apparatus into page data for a plurality of pages as print data in page units. In a printing apparatus having a memory for storing and printing means for sequentially outputting the print data stored in the memory while selecting a page and printing the page on a sheet, the print data transmitted from the higher-level device is received. A plurality of interfaces, a first determination unit that determines that print data has been input from a higher-level device regardless of whether or not a print start command has been instructed; When it is determined that the print data has been input, it is further determined which one of the plurality of interfaces has been input. When the second determination unit determines that the received print data has been input through a specific interface, the second determination unit determines the print order in page units for the print data. A privilege attribute assigning unit for storing the print data in the memory after giving a signal relating to the privilege attribute to be changed, and a print start command is instructed, and during the page selection process, Third determining means for determining whether or not the page data to which the signal relating to the privilege attribute is provided exists in the memory; and the page data to which the signal relating to the privilege attribute is provided by the third determining means. When it is determined that the print data exists, the print data is output to the print unit by giving priority to the print data of the page unit having the privilege attribute.

[Operation] According to this configuration, the control unit determines that the signal relating to the privilege attribute for each page exists in the determination step even during continuous printing of a plurality of pages by the determination unit. The output order of page printing is changed, the page having the corresponding priority is processed for interruption, and the printing unit prints the page before other pages.
In particular, according to the present invention, a plurality of interfaces are provided, and a signal relating to a privilege attribute for changing a print order in page units is added to the print data in accordance with which interface the print data is input from a higher-level device. For example, if there are a fax line interface and a printer interface, by adding a privilege attribute to the print data from the fax line interface, a large amount of data input from the printer interface In the case where a fax is received during printing of a fax document, an operation of interrupting printing of the fax document and thereafter restarting the printing of the interrupted printer document can be easily performed.

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration of a double-sided recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In this embodiment, a laser printer is used.
A laser / scanner unit 2, an image recording process device 3, a fixing device 4, and the like are provided. The process device 3 includes a photosensitive drum 5, a main charger 6, a developing unit 7, a transfer charger (transfer unit) 8,
It is composed of a separator 9 and the like. The laser / scanner section 2 converts a light image of a laser beam for recording data such as characters and graphics into a photosensitive drum 5 through a reflection mirror 10.
, A latent image is formed on the photosensitive drum 5, the latent image is developed by a developing device 7, and further transferred to a sheet by a transfer charger 8.

As for the paper transport system, two paper cassettes 12a and 12b containing one side paper 11 of the main body 1 are mounted.
The paper 11 is conveyed to the transfer unit by the class paper rollers 13a, 13b and the registration roller 14, and after being transferred and separated, is conveyed to the fixing device 4 via the conveyance guide unit 15. Further, transport path switching levers 16 and 17 are disposed downstream of the fixing device 4, and the transport path is controlled by the transport path switching lever 16 to the face down tray 18 provided on the upper surface of the main body 1 and the other of the main body 1. The mode is switched to either the face-up tray 19 or the reversing tray 20 provided on the side. On the other hand, the transport path switching lever 17 switches between the face-up sheet discharge tray 19 and the reversing tray 20 on the latter side.

Further, a reversing roller 21, a reversing conveyance path 22, a skew feeding roller 23, and a reversing paper tray 24 are provided as a device for reversing and conveying the paper on the reversing tray 20. A re-feed roller 25 for re-feeding paper is provided upstream of the roller 14. Further, a discharge roller 27 is provided on the transport path 26 facing the face down tray 18.

In FIG. 1, a solid arrow indicates a paper transport route during the previous printing in the duplex printing mode, and a broken arrow indicates a paper transport route during the inverted printing.

FIG. 2 shows a block configuration of a printing control device for controlling a printing mechanism (engine) mainly including the laser / scanner unit 2.

The control device controls the entire printing apparatus, and receives a CPU 50 to which print data (hereinafter referred to as page data) in page units is input from the host computer 40 or the like. 51a, an interface 51b for inputting page data having a privilege attribute, a RAM 52 for storing a plurality of pages of page data to be printed, and a video RAM 53 for expanding the page data as image data.
A ROM 54 storing an operation program of the apparatus, a character generator, and the like; a mode setting key 55 for setting a privileged print mode for preferentially printing a specific page (page data having a privilege attribute); The laser / scanner unit 2 and the printing mechanism unit 56 including the image recording process device 3 are included.

Further, the RAM 52 has a reception buffer 52a for temporarily storing data sent from the host computer 40.
A page memory 52b for storing the data stored in the reception buffer 52a as page data together with position data indicating a recording position on the sheet surface, and is set when there is data to be printed in the page memory 52b. The work memory 52c stores a page print flag and the like that are reset when there is no data to be performed.

Next, the printing operation of the control device when the privileged printing mode is set by the mode setting key 55 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. At this time, it is assumed that the page data includes data to which the privilege attribute is added.

When printing the data of the host computer 40, first, clear the page memory 52b and the working memory 53c of the RAM 52, store the number of pages in the page number register of the working memory, and set an initial setting such as setting a page print flag. (# 1). When page data is input from the host computer 40 to the CPU (YES in # 2), the CPU 50 checks whether or not the page data is input from the interface 51a (# 3). If it is determined that the input is from the interface 51a, page data having no privilege attribute is created (# 4) and stored in the page memory 52b of the RAM 52 (# 5). On the other hand, if it is determined that the input is not an input from the interface 51a, the input is regarded as an input from the interface 51b, and page data having a privilege attribute at the head of the data is created (# 6) and stored in the page memory 52b of the RAM 52. (# 5).

After the page data is stored in the RAM 52 in the above step # 5, it is determined whether or not a print start command is instructed, that is, whether or not the data stored in the page memory 52b includes a paper discharge command for starting printing. Find out (#
7). And if the print start command is not instructed,
Returning to # 2, the same processing is repeated thereafter.

On the other hand, if the print start command is instructed, it is checked whether or not page data having the privilege attribute exists in the page memory 52b in the RAM 52 (# 8). If it is determined that the page data having the privilege attribute exists in the RAM 52, the page data having the privilege attribute which is input first is selected (# 9). If it is determined that there is no page data having the privilege attribute, the page data input first is selected (# 12).

Next, the page data selected in # 9 or # 12 is printed by the printing mechanism 56 (# 10), and the selected page data is deleted from the page memory 52b (# 1).
1). At this time, when one page of data is printed,
The value of the page number register is decremented.

Thereafter, whether or not the page print flag is set, that is, whether or not data to be printed remains in the page memory 52b (whether or not the value of the page number register is 0)
Is determined (# 13). If the page print flag is set, the process returns to step # 2.

Also, all data to be printed is
If there is page data that has been sent to the printing apparatus and has not yet been printed in the page memory 52b, the determination result in # 14 is YES, and the processing proceeds through # 7,
Shift to # 8. On the other hand, if the determination result of # 14 is NO,
All of the data to be printed has not yet been sent from the host computer 40 to the printing device, and is in a state of waiting for data input.

Further, if it is determined in # 13 that the page print flag has not been set, it means that there is no longer any data to be printed in the page memory 52b, and the printing operation ends.

In this way, no matter how many pages are waiting to be printed in the RAM 52, the pages specified specially can be printed with priority, and if the privileged print mode is not set, the page order (input Printing).

In the above embodiment, first, data of one page or more is stored in the page memory, the stored data of one page is printed, and then, data of the next page is stored. Even during printing, the page data is sequentially stored in the page memory by interrupt processing. If there is data to be printed on one or more pages in the page memory, printing is continuously performed without interrupting the printing operation. Needless to say, it may be continued.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, in a printing apparatus that performs continuous page printing after storing print data in a memory, even when the printing operation is started, when there is a page to be urgently printed, By assigning a priority to the print data and inputting the print data to the apparatus, the order of the print pages can be changed when the determination unit determines that there is a page to which the privilege attribute is assigned. This eliminates the need for the user to interrupt the printing operation during continuous printing, select the print data to be prioritized, and start the interrupted printing again after printing the same data as in the related art. Properties can be greatly improved. In addition, the above processing can be performed only by including a determination step in the printing operation program of the apparatus, so that it can be realized at a low cost with a simple configuration. Also, a privilege attribute signal for changing the printing order is given to the print data according to the interface from which the print data is input. For example, if there is a fax line interface and a printer interface, By assigning a privilege attribute to the print data from the interface, the fax document can be easily printed over the printer document.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram of the printing apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of page selection. 50: CPU (detection means, control means), 51ab: Interface, 52: RAM, 53: Video RAM, 55: Mode setting key, 56: Printing mechanism.

Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Usami Moto 9-35 Hottadori, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture Inside Brother Industries, Ltd. (72) Inventor Kiyoshi Takahashi 9-35, Hotitadori, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture Brother (56) References JP-A-58-29043 (JP, A) JP-A-62-38930 (JP, A) JP-A-61-196326 (JP, A) JP-A-60-54040 (JP, A) , A) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 3/12

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A memory for storing page data for a plurality of pages as print data in units of pages for print data transmitted from a higher-level apparatus and input to the printing apparatus, and selects the print data stored in the memory for a page. Printing means for sequentially outputting and printing on paper in page units while providing a plurality of interfaces for receiving print data transmitted from a higher-level device, and determining whether a print start command is instructed. Regardless, a first determination unit that determines that print data has been input from a higher-level device, and when the first determination unit determines that print data has been input from a higher-level device, A second determining means for determining which of the plurality of interfaces has been input, and receiving by the second determining means. If it is determined that the print data is input via a specific interface, a signal relating to a privilege attribute for changing a print order in page units is given to the print data, and the print data is Privilege attribute assigning means to be stored in the memory, and page data to which a signal relating to the privilege attribute has been assigned is present in the memory when a print start instruction is instructed and during the page selection process. A third determining unit for determining whether or not there is page data to which a signal relating to a privilege attribute is present, wherein the third determining unit determines whether there is page data to which a signal relating to the privilege attribute is present. And a control unit for giving priority to the printing unit and outputting the printing unit to the printing unit.