JPH0459273A - Printer control method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a printer control method, in particular, printing on a continuous paper slip with perforations, cutting the printed continuous paper slip along the perforations, and printing on a continuous paper slip with perforations. The present invention relates to a printer control method applied to a printer system that issues various types of slips.

[Conventional technology]

Recent printers are configured to receive multiple lines of print data sent from a host device at once. Therefore, it has become difficult for the printer control device to completely manage the status of the printer and the number of printed lines.

Against this background, in a printer system that prints on continuous paper slips with perforations, cuts the printed continuous paper slips along the perforations, and issues various slips by doing so, it is difficult to print pages on continuous paper slips. If the paper runs out midway, a situation occurs in which it is not possible to determine how far printing has been performed.

Therefore, when such a situation occurs, the slip is invalidated and the data printed on the previous slip is reprinted when the next paper is set. This prevents missing slips due to printing failure. It is prevented.

Incidentally, as related to the above-mentioned prior art, there are inventions disclosed in JP-A-1-156088 and JP-A-1-271277.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the above-mentioned conventional technology, the printer detects the lack of paper during the printing process depending on the page size of the continuous slip, the method of specifying a line break, and the distance between the printing section of the connected printer and the paper non-detection switch. A phenomenon occurs in which the positions of the two are different. Therefore, when the paper is detected to be out of paper during the printing process, a situation may arise in which all the print data has already been printed on the slip. In this case, in the conventional technology, after setting the next paper in the printer, the data printed on the previous slip is controlled to be reprinted.
There was a problem in that duplicate slips were issued.

The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the prior art described above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printer control method that can effectively prevent double issuance of slips.

[Means to solve the problem]

A host computer that edits printed messages for various types of slips and sends the edited printed messages to the printer control device, and a general-purpose printer that receives the printed messages from the host computer and converts the received printed messages into print data. It is applied to a printer system consisting of a printer control device that outputs data, and a general-purpose printer that receives print data from the printer control device and prints various types of slips on perforated continuous paper slips. , when the general-purpose printer is detected to be out of paper during printing and the general-purpose printer stops printing, the printer control device activates the general-purpose printer to a printable state and determines that the document being printed is an invalid document. The present invention is characterized in that print data indicating that the form is invalid is sent to the general-purpose printer, and thereby the general-purpose printer prints on the form that is in the middle of printing a message that the form is invalid based on the print data.

[Effect]

According to the present invention, even if a general-purpose printer becomes unable to print because continuous paper is detected to be out of paper after printing up to the last line of a slip, the general-purpose printer is restarted and the slip is printed. It becomes possible to perform invalid printing.

Further, even if the last line of the normal slip is printed, there is normally enough printing area for about one line, and problems with the printing area will not occur.

〔Example〕

The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a system for issuing various slips to which the present invention is applied, and is composed of a host computer 1, a printer control device 2, and a Centro printer 3. The system shown in FIG. When issuing various slips, the host computer 1 edits a printed message suitable for the slip and outputs it to the printer control device 2. The printer control device 2 receives the print message of the issued slip from the host computer 1, converts it into print data for the Centro printer 3, transmits it to the printer, and also manages the status of the Centro printer 3. The Centro printer 3 is a printer that prints on continuous paper with perforations. Here, the printer control device 2 includes a CPU 21 and a host computer 2.
2 and the program ROM 2.
3, a RAM 24, and an interface control section 25 for connecting to the Centro printer 3.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a program stored in the program ROM 23 in the printer control device 2 shown in FIG. 1, and the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 will be explained according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 2, in step 201, the printer control device 2
It is determined whether or not printed messages for the slips have been received from the host computer 1, and the process waits until the printed messages are received. If it is determined in step 201 that a printed message has been received, it is determined in step 202 whether the received printed message is a printed message indicating that the slip is invalid. If the printed message is determined to be invalid, step 20
In step 3, the received print message invalidating the slip is stored as variable data in the RAM 24 in the printer control device 2, and then the process returns to step 201, where it is again in a state of waiting for a print message. If it is determined in step 202 that the printed message is not invalid, the CPU 21 converts it into print data for the Centro printer 3 in step 204. After converting all the data of the printed message, step 205
At this point, print data is transmitted line by line to the Centro printer 3 via the Centro interface control unit 25. Next, in step 206, it is determined whether or not no paper is detected. If no paper is detected (paper is present), in step 207, it is determined whether or not the transmission of print data is finished. However, if it is determined that the printing has not been completed, the process returns to step 205 to continue sending the print data. Further, if it is determined in step 207 that the transmission of print data has been completed, step 20
1 and enters the print message standby state again.

If it is determined in step 206 that no paper is detected, it is determined in step 208 whether or not an invalid print message is stored in the RAM 24 . R
If it is determined that the variable data is stored in the AM 24, the variable data is converted into print data in step 209. If it is determined that the data is not stored in the RAM 24, in step 212, the print data is converted into a print data in a predetermined fixed format. Next, in step 210, the Centro printer 3 is started up, and in step 211, print data is transmitted to the Centro printer 3.

Here, the Centro printer 3 is equipped with an override function that allows it to be started up from a host device, and in step 210, the printer control device 2 starts up the Centro printer 3 using the above-mentioned override function.

As is clear from the above description, according to the above embodiment,
Next, a message indicating that the slip is invalid is printed using various steps. That is, the Centro printer 3 has a reception buffer spanning multiple lines, and normally prints out the received print data in order.

In this state, when the Centro printer 3 detects that there is no paper and the printer printing device 2 recognizes that there is no paper, the Centro printer 3 stops printing the next line when the current printing line is finished, and prints becomes impossible. In this state, when receiving a control code to start up the printer from the printer control device 2, which is a host device, the Centro printer 3 becomes ready to print again, and then prints one line of data (data for displaying invalid slips). After receiving and printing this, the printer becomes unable to print again.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship between the print area PR of the issued slip, the print head H of the printer, and the position SP of the sensor that detects the absence of paper. As shown in the figure, when no paper is detected, a message indicating that the slip is invalid is printed.

Further, according to this embodiment, the message indicating the invalid slip is stored in the RAM2.
4N, it is possible to easily change the printed information that invalidates the slip.

Further, in addition to displaying on the paper that the slip is invalid, it may also be configured to print print data that prompts the operator to discard the invalid slip.

Further, the printer may be configured to drive and display an invalidated slip stamp provided on the printer.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, it is possible to print an invalid document regardless of the size of the continuous paper slip or the type of printer device connected to it, so it is possible to print a message indicating that the slip is invalid regardless of the size of the continuous paper slip or the type of printer device connected.
It becomes possible to effectively prevent duplicate issuance.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a system for issuing various slips to which the printer control method of the present invention is applied;
The figure shows a program R in the printer control device 2 shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the program stored in the OM. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the relationship between the printing area of the issued slip, the print head of the printer, and the position of the sensor that detects the lack of paper.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A host computer that edits printed messages for various types of slips and sends the edited printed messages to a printer control device, and a host computer that receives the printed messages from the host computer and prints the received printed messages. In a printer system consisting of a printer control device that converts data into data and outputs it to a general-purpose printer, and a general-purpose printer that receives print data from the printer control device and prints various forms on perforated continuous form forms. , If the general-purpose printer detects no paper during printing and the general-purpose printer becomes unable to print, the printer control device activates the general-purpose printer to a printable state and determines that the document being printed is an invalid document. A printer control method characterized in that print data indicating a certain status is sent to a general-purpose printer, and the general-purpose printer prints a message indicating that the document is invalid based on the print data on a document in the middle of printing.