JPH03161780A - Printing control system for toner end state - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow the best possible utilization of a toner and to prevent the printing with a poor toner pickup by providing a means for discriminating the toner consumption by the kinds of the data to be printed and determining whether the printing can be continued or not from this toner consumption. CONSTITUTION:This system has the means 20 for discriminating the kinds of the data to be printed in a toner end state, the means 20 for discriminating the toner consumption by the kinds of the data to be printed and the means 3 for determining whether the printing can be continued or not by the kinds of the data to be printed from the toner consumption. The kinds of the data as to whether the data to be printed next is character printing or graphics printing are identified when a control section detects the toner end state. The printing is stopped when discrimination is made that the toner consumption to affect the printing quality exceeds a specified value in the case of the graphics printing. The effective utilization of the toner and the efficient printing are enabled in this case and a user is able to determine whether the printing can be continued or not.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Industrial Technical Field) The present invention provides a printing control method in a toner end state for a printer that displays a toner end state and requests toner replenishment when the remaining amount of toner falls below a certain level. Regarding.

(Prior Art) In conventional printers, when the remaining amount of toner falls below a certain amount, a toner end message is displayed on the display section of the operation panel. That is, the control section (microcomputer: CPU) makes a determination based on the input from the toner end sensor, and lights up a light emitting diode (LED) on the display section to call attention to the situation.

In this case, the printer has two methods: one that stops the printing operation when the lamp is turned on, and one that continues the printing operation for a small amount of time. Since printers using the latter continuous method continue printing, there is no problem with print quality for character printing, which consumes relatively little toner, but for graphics printing, which consumes a large amount of toner. Phenomena such as uneven toner "adhesion" and toner not being satisfactorily applied to solid areas occurred, and there were problems with print quality when printing after displaying the toner end status.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) This method of printing after displaying the toner end status in a printer with a continuous printing operation as described above is actually capable of printing a small amount; Quality problems arose, and the extra effort required to replenish toner and print the same data again.

(Objective of the Invention) The present invention solves the problem of printers that can continue printing after displaying the toner end state, enables effective use of toner and efficient printing, and allows the user to stop printing. The purpose is to be able to decide whether to continue or not. (Structure and operation) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a printer that displays a toner end state and requests toner replenishment when the remaining amount of toner becomes less than a certain amount. means for identifying the type of data to be printed, means for determining the amount of toner consumption according to the type of data to be printed, and means for determining whether to continue printing based on the amount of toner consumption according to the type of data to be printed. It is characterized by In the present invention, when the control unit detects the toner end state, it identifies the type of data to be printed next, whether it is character printing or graphics printing, and in the case of graphics printing, it affects the printing quality. When it is determined that the toner consumption exceeds a certain value, printing is stopped. In addition, in the case of the above-mentioned graphics printing, after recognizing the toner end display, it can be determined by a switch whether or not to continue printing, and if the density is not very high, printing can be continued. (Embodiment) Figure 1 shows an example configuration of a printer in which the present invention is implemented. In the figure, 1 is a host system that sends data (print data, print control data) and control codes to the controller (
Image processing equipment! ! )2. This controller 2 converts the print data from the host system 1 into video data and outputs it to the printer engine (image forming device) 4 according to the control mode set at that time and the control code from the host system 1. The microcomputer (C P
U) 20 processes data (print data, print control data) from the host system 1 according to the program stored in the ROM 21, and also processes the type of print data (character printing or graphics printing) after the toner end status is displayed, which will be described later. and determines toner consumption based on print data type. The RAM 22 is a work memory used by the CPU 2G to convert print data into video data, and serves as an input buffer for managing and temporarily storing print data from the host system in page units. In other words, this input buffer (RAM) converts the stored print data into an actual print pattern and is used as a bitmap memory for storing video data. The video control unit 23 performs timing processing of video signals and serves as a video interface between the controller 2 and the printer engine 4. The engine interface 24 is an interface for control signals from the controller 2 to the printer engine 4 and status signals from the printer engine 4 to the controller 2. In addition, a host interface 25 with the host system 1 and a panel interface 2 with the operation panel 3
6. It has a data control section 27, an address control section 28, and a bus 29 that connects the respective sections 20 to 28.

The operation panel 3, as shown in FIG. 6 as an example of its front view, has a display section 30 that shows the status of the printer, a switch section 31 that changes the mode, font, etc. of the printer. Further, the printer engine 4 creates an electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor according to the video signal and control signal from the controller 2. ＠Image is generated, and transfer paper is fed from the paper feed section, and the image is transferred and fixed to form an image on the transfer paper. Briefly explaining these operations, data sent from the host system 1 through the host interface 25 is converted into print data and print control data (SP, CR, LF, HT, VT) by the CPU 2'0 of the controller 2.
, . . . ) and others, and the print data and print control data are stored in the RAM 22 (input buffer). This stored data is sequentially converted into video data by the CPU 20 and stored in a pit map memory in the RAM. When the print command from the host system 1 or the received data exceeds one page, the controller 2 issues a print start command to the printer engine 4 through the engine interface 24. Through this series of steps, print data from the host system 1 is printed by the printer engine. Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained using the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, an example table for counting the number of bits on which toner is applied in FIG. 4, and the ratio of toner consumption in the effective area of image data shown in FIG. The following describes the desired explanatory diagram and an example of the front view of the operation panel 3 shown in FIG. Now, the controller 2 (CPU 20) must be detecting the toner end state through the engine interface 24, and the light emitting diode (LED301...see Figure 6) indicating the toner end on the operation panel 3 should be lit. Since the toner is not in the toner end state (No. S in Fig. 2), the printer engine 4 performs normal printing processing (Fig. 2 82). if. When the LED 301 lights up, the control code transferred from the host system 1 is sent to the controller 2 (C
PU20) (Fig. 2, 83). At this point, it is determined whether or not it is graphics printing (Fig. 2 84),
In the case of character printing instead of graphics printing (second
Figure S. No.). Next, it is determined whether the font to be used is a normal font (meaning a font other than a special font such as a bold font or a font with a large number of points) (SS in FIG. 2).

Here, in order to determine whether the font is a normal font, the print data and print control data transferred from the host system 1 are stored once in the input buffer provided in the RAM 22 in the controller 2, and then the actual It is expanded into image data and transferred to the page puffer in RAM. During this time, the controller 2 checks the printing position, font type, etc. of the first data of the image character by character. Furthermore, when a command to change the font is received midway through, data corresponding to that font is read from a table containing font information (pitch, point, weight, etc.).

This series of processing is always executed regardless of the amount of toner remaining, so if you use this and the font is not a normal font from the beginning (SS No) or if you receive a command to change the font midway, If you set a flag to indicate that this has been detected, and check the flag only when the toner end indicator lights up, you can check whether the normal font is used or a relatively large amount of toner is consumed even when printing characters. It is possible to distinguish between fonts other than normal fonts. As a result, if it is a normal font (see Figure 2 S
, YES), character printing continues as is (S. in Figure 2). In addition, even if it is character printing, if it is not a normal font (No in Ss in Fig. 2) or in the case of graphics printing (YES in S in Fig. 2), RA
The image data in M is read and the number of bits on which toner is applied is counted (87 in Fig. 2). This number of bits (for example, each bit is "1")
This is because counting the number of bits (“1’) can be used as a guideline for how much toner is consumed. Please do this so that it is completed before the end of the process. The means for counting the number of bits covered by the toner is R
A table as shown in Figure 4 is created as part of the OM21 processing program. In other words, page break from O (
This is a relative address formation table with an offset up to FF 255), and each address has its value 2.
The number of “1”s when evolved is stored. for example,
Assume that the first value of the character data (including fonts other than normal fonts) is the value AA. First, load the first address that exists in this table,
Read the contents of the address of offset value AA from there.
In this case, since the offset value is AA, convert it into a binary code. 10101010(2), and “
This means that the number of ``1'' = 4 is stored. This process is performed for all the valid areas S (Fig. 5) of the image data, and by adding them up, the total number of u1'' can be found. This is just an example, and "1" may be counted in other ways. Next, we will explain how to count the number of toner dots using Figure 5. The figure shows an example of graphics data,
Assume that the effective area S of the image data (the part where the image data is actually developed on the page bus sofa) is rectangular as shown in the figure. If each square in the diagram is one dot, the area painted in black is the data on which the toner will be applied. By counting the number of squares using the means shown in Fig. 4 above, the total number of 01" portions in the effective area of the image data can be determined. However, counting the number of "1"s does not mean that the data is 164 data, that is, when it is in the input buffer.

Divide the above counted value of "1l" by the number of dots occupying the effective area S of the image data. For example, the ratio X of the toner σ effective data to the image data effective area can be found. The larger this ratio is, the greater the amount of toner consumed, which may affect print quality after the toner end is displayed. Therefore, in this embodiment, a certain ratio X is set in advance, and it is determined whether or not this ratio X is exceeded (S. in FIG. 2). If the ratio exceeds X (YES in S8). Stop printing (Fig. 2 S,
). On the other hand, if the ratio does not exceed X (NO in Csa), it is determined whether graphics printing is required (S■ in Figure 2).
．． If YES, graphics printing will be performed (Fig. 2 81
), if No, the character is printed (S8).
Then perform the next data processing. Since it is arbitrarily determined by the above-mentioned ratio or the will of the user, O <
The range is x < 1. For example, after toner end is displayed, printing is possible at a ratio of up to 30% (0.3) for the first 10 sheets, and 20% (0.3) for the next 10 sheets.
By enabling printing up to 2) and setting the ratio X in stages using the number of prints as a parameter, printing can be performed using toner effectively.

Next, after the toner end is displayed, the user has to decide whether or not to continue printing and the associated printing, in the case of non-normal font character data and in the case of graphics data printing. The control means will be explained using the flowchart in Figure 3. Steps (S,) except for each step (S,)', (S.)' in the figure
d) to (S.) and (S,) to (Sd,) are the same as in Fig. 2, so their explanation will be omitted. As shown in the figure, for example, in the case of graphics printing (YES in Fig. 3 S), a light emitting diode (LED red) 301 is used to determine whether or not to print on the operation panel 3 of the printer.
(See Figure 6) lights up (Figure 3, s, '). This L
E The user makes a judgment by looking at the lighting of D301 (see Figure 3 S).
．． ') The printing operation by the CPU 20 is controlled by operating the printing stop switch 311 or the printing continuation switch 312 of the switch section 3l. During this time, print operations will be temporarily stopped. If character printing is not a normal font (
Printing can be controlled in the same way for No. S in Figure 3. Even after the user recognizes the toner end display, if the graphics printing is not very dense,
Printing can be continued after determining that the print quality will not be significantly affected. In this embodiment, the purpose of printing control after displaying the toner end status is to use toner effectively, so the number of bits covered by dots is counted and whether or not to print is determined based on that amount. It was intended to control the In addition, as a simple embodiment of the present invention, when the controller in the printer receives a command to transfer print data from the host system after the toner is used up, printing may be stopped at that point. (Effects of the Invention) As explained above, in the present invention, after the toner end state is displayed, the controller side identifies the print data that consumes a large amount of toner, and the ratio of the data on which toner is applied to the effective area of the image data is determined in advance. The ratio can be set arbitrarily, and printing can be continued or stopped depending on whether or not this ratio is exceeded. Therefore, printing with poor toner adhesion can be prevented, and paper can be saved.

In addition, since the above ratio can be changed according to the user's will, even after toner end is displayed, the user can decide whether to continue or stop printing, making it easier to print data that requires a large amount of toner. In this case, it is sufficient to stop printing in advance and replenish toner, and if it is determined that printing can be continued, printing can be performed by operating a predetermined switch, so toner can be used as effectively as possible.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a configuration example diagram of a printer in which the present invention is implemented;
FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an embodiment according to the present invention,
Figure 4 is a diagram showing an example of a table for counting the number of bits on which toner is applied, Figure 5 is an explanatory diagram for determining the ratio of toner consumption in the effective area of image data, and Figure 6 is a front view showing an example of the operation panel. It is a diagram. l... host system, 2... controller,
3...Operation panel, 4...Printer engine, 2
0...Microcomputer (CPU), 21...
ROM, 22... RAM, 23... Video control unit, 24... Engine interface, 25...
...Host interface, 26... Panel interface, 27... Data control section, 28... Address control section, 29... Bus, 30... Display section, 3
l... Switch section, 301... Light emitting diode (
LED). 311...Printing stop switch,
312... Printing continuation switch.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] In a printer that displays a toner end state and requests toner replenishment when the remaining amount of toner becomes less than a certain amount, means for identifying the type of data to be printed in the toner end state. , printing in a toner-end state, comprising: means for determining the amount of toner consumption according to the type of data to be printed; and means for determining whether to continue printing based on the amount of toner consumption, depending on the type of data to be printed. control method.