JPH02236715A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve operability by detecting a signal relating to a privileged attribute which changes print sequence while processing page selection, and outputting print data of page unit having the privileged attribute preferentially than other data when it is judged that the signal is received. CONSTITUTION:When page data is inputted from a host computer 40, a CPU 50 checks whether or not the data is inputted from an interface 51a, and when it is judged that it is not input from the interface 51a, the page data on the forefront of which the privileged attribute is attached is generated, and it is stored in a page memory 52b. When the signal relating to the privileged attribute for page unit is detected even while plural pages are being printed successively, the output sequence of page print is changed, and an interruption processing is applied on a page having a corresponding priority, and the page is printed preferentially. Thereby, it is possible to freely change the priority of the page print without requiring a complicated operation, or to print-output a new point page by applying the interruption, which improves the operability.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a printing device such as a laser printer, and in particular,
Concerning control of print order when printing consecutive pages. [Prior Art] Conventionally, in a printing device such as a laser printer, in order to continuously print multiple pages, print data for multiple pages is stored in a memory area, and the control side of the printing device sequentially prints data sequentially from the memory area. The printer controlled printing by extracting print data page by page. [Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the print control with the above configuration, even if there is another printed matter that is not printed earlier during continuous page printing, the printing of the series of items currently being printed cannot be executed. Either the user must wait until the process is completed before printing, or the user must interrupt printing and input the print data of the item to the printing device first and then print. Therefore, for example, if you are printing a huge number of pages and there is a page that you want to print with priority, you can temporarily stop printing, input and print the page that you do not want to prioritize, and then change the prioritized page to the original page. , and then printing from the page following the page where you left off, which was a cumbersome operation. The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and is a printing device that continuously prints multiple pages.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a highly operable printing device that can freely change the page printing priority and print output without requiring any troublesome operations, or that can interrupt and print a new page. do. [Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a memory for storing a plurality of pages of print data to be printed on paper, and a memory for selecting pages of the print data stored in this memory. In a printing device that is equipped with a printing device that sequentially outputs and prints pages on a sheet of paper, a detection device that detects a signal related to a privilege attribute that changes the printing order on a page basis during page selection processing; It is equipped with a control means that, when it is determined that a signal has been received, outputs print data for each page having that privileged attribute to the printing means, giving priority to other print data. [Function] According to this configuration, even during continuous printing of a plurality of pages, when a signal related to the privilege attribute for each page is detected, the control means changes the output order of page printing,
Interrupt processing is performed on the page with the corresponding priority, and that page is printed first by the printing means. [Embodiment] Figure 1 shows the overall configuration of a double-sided recording device according to an embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment is a laser printer, in which a laser/scanner unit 2, an image recording process device W3, a fixing device 4, etc. are provided in the main body 1, and the process device 3 includes a photosensitive drum 5,
It consists of a main charger 6, a developer 7, a transfer charger (transfer section) 8, a separator 9, etc. The laser/scanner unit 2 irradiates the photosensitive drum 5 with an optical image of recorded data such as characters and graphics using a laser beam through the reflecting mirror 10, thereby forming a latent image on the photosensitive drum 5.
This latent image is developed by a developing device 7, and further transferred onto paper by a transfer charger 8. Regarding the paper transport system,
A paper feed cassette 12 containing paper 11 on one side of the main body 1
Two paper feed rollers 13a, 12b are installed, and paper feed rollers 13a,
13b Registration rollers 14 transport the printing plate 11 to the transfer section, and after transfer and separation, the sheet 11 is transported to the fixing device 4 via the transport guide section 15. Further, conveyance path switching levers 16 and 17 are disposed downstream of the fixing device 4, and the conveyance path is set between the face-down tray 18 side provided on the top surface of the main body 1 and the other side of the main body 1. Face-up tray 19 and inverted tray 20ffl provided on the side!
It can be switched to either I. On the other hand, the conveyance path switching lever 1
7, the tray can be switched to either the face-up paper discharge tray 19 or the reversing tray 20 on the latter side. Furthermore, as a device for reversing and conveying the paper on the reversing tray 20, a reversing roller 21, a reversing conveyance path 22, an oblique feed roller 23,
and an inverted paper tray 24 are provided, and a paper refeed roller 25 for refeeding the paper on the inverted paper tray 24 to the upstream side of the registration roller 14 is further provided. Further, a paper ejection roller 27 is provided on the conveyance path 26 toward the face-down tray 18. In FIG. 1, solid line arrows indicate the conveyance route of paper during previous printing in duplex printing mode, and dashed line arrows indicate the conveyance route of paper during printing after reversal. FIG. 2 shows a block configuration of a printing control device that controls a printing mechanism section (engine) mainly consisting of the laser/scanner section 2. This control device controls the entire printing device, and includes a CPU 50 that receives page-by-page print data (hereinafter referred to as page data) from a host computer 40, etc. an interface 51a for inputting page data that does not have a privileged attribute, an interface 5lb for inputting page data that does not have a privileged attribute, and a RAM 52 for storing a plurality of pages of page data to be printed and recorded.
, a video RAM 53 in which page data is developed as image data, a ROM 54 in which device operation programs, character generators, etc. are stored, and a ROM 54 for printing specific pages (page data with privileged attributes) with priority. Mode settings for setting privileged printing mode −
The printing mechanism section 56 includes the Ir-55, the laser/scanner section 2, the image recording process device 3, and the like.

The RAM 52 also includes a reception buffer 5 that temporarily stores data sent from the host computer 40.
2a, a page memory 52b that stores the data stored in the reception buffer 52a as page data together with position data indicating the recording position on the paper surface, and is set when there is data to be printed in the page memory 52b;
It also includes a working memory 52c that stores a page print flag that is reset when there is no data to be printed. Next, the printing operation of the control device when the privileged printing mode is set using the mode setting key 55 will be explained based on the flowchart of FIG. At this time, it is assumed that the page data includes data that has been given a privileged attribute. When printing data from the host computer 40, first the page memory 52b of the RAM 52 and the working memory 5
3c is cleared, the page number is stored in the page number register of the working memory, and initial settings such as setting the page print flag are performed (#1).

Then, the page data is sent from the host computer 40 to C.
When the data is input to the PU (YBS in #2), the CPU 50 checks whether the data is input from the interface 51a (#3). If it is determined that the input is from the interface 51a, it creates page data without privileged attributes (#4) and stores it in the page memory 52b of the RAM 52 (#5). On the other hand, if it is determined that the input is not from the interface 51a, the interface 5lb
It is assumed that the input is from the page data, and page data having the characteristic m attribute at the beginning 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 #5 above, it is determined whether a print start command is specified, that is, whether a paper ejection command for starting printing exists in the data stored in the page memory 52b. Find out (#
7). Then, if no print start command is given,
Returning to #2, the same process is repeated. On the other hand, if a print start command is given, it is checked whether page memory 52b in RAM 52 contains page data with a privileged attribute (#8). If it is determined that page data with a privileged attribute exists in the RAM 52, the one inputted first among the page data with a privileged attribute is selected (#9). Also, if it is determined that there is no page data with privileged attributes, select the page data that was input first (#12).
．． Next, the page data selected in #9 or #12 above is printed in the printing R structure section 56 (#10), and the selected page data is deleted from the page memory 52b (
#11). At this time, when one page of data is printed, the value in the page number register is decremented. After that, check whether the page print flag is set, that is, whether there is data to be printed remaining in the page memory 52b (whether the value of the page number register is 0 or not).
is determined (#13).

And if the page print flag is set, #2
Return to. Also, all the data to be printed is sent to the host computer 40.
If there is page data that has been sent to the printing device from
The determination result in step 4 is YES, and the process moves to #8 via #7. On the other hand, the determination result of #14 is NO.
In this case, all of the data to be printed has not yet been sent from the host computer 40 to the printing device, and the printer is waiting for data input. Further, if it is determined in #13 that the page print flag is not set, it means that there is no more 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, it is possible to give priority to printing a single pan page by special designation, and if the privileged print mode is not set, the page order Printing is executed in (input order).

Incidentally, in the above embodiment, first, one or more pages of data is stored in the page memory, then the stored data for one page is printed, and then the data for the next page is stored. Even during printing, page data is sequentially stored in the page memory by interrupt processing, and if there is data to be printed for one or more pages in the page memory, printing can be performed continuously without interrupting the printing operation. Needless to say, you can continue. Furthermore, in the embodiment described above, two interfaces are provided so that the CPU of the printing device processes the page data inputted from one of the interfaces with a privileged attribute. The host computer assigns a privileged attribute to the desired page data and transfers the same data to the printing device, and the CPU of the printing device checks whether the sent data has a privileged attribute or not. It may also be possible to perform the printing process based on the judgment. [Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, in a printing device that prints consecutive pages after storing print data in a memory, even after the printing operation has started, when there is a page that needs to be printed urgently, By giving priority to print data in advance, you can change the order of printed pages. Therefore, unlike in the past, the user does not have to perform the troublesome operations of interrupting the printing operation during continuous printing, selecting the print data to give priority, and restarting the interrupted printing after printing the same data. It can greatly improve performance.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration 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 the operation procedure for page selection. 50=-CPU (detection means, control means), 51ab...
・Interface, 52...RAM, 53...Video RAM, 55...Mode setting key, 56...Printing mechanism section. Applicant Brother Industries, Ltd. Agent
Patent Attorney Yasuo Itaya 1st Figure 2ffl

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) Printing that includes a memory that stores multiple pages of print data to be printed on paper, and a printing means that sequentially outputs the print data stored in this memory while selecting pages and prints the print data on paper page by page. The apparatus includes a detection means for detecting a signal related to a privileged attribute that changes the printing order for each page during the page selection process, and a detection means for detecting a signal related to a privileged attribute that changes the printing order for each page, and a detecting means for detecting a signal related to a privileged attribute that changes the printing order for each page, and when it is determined that the signal is received, a signal for each page having that privileged attribute is detected. A printing device characterized by comprising a control means for outputting print data to a printing means with priority over other print data.